On November 13, 2015, over 120 people in Paris were killed in an attack that ISIS claimed full responsibility for. I honor all the lives lost and I wish strength upon everyone who is grieving and suffering. I believe that this event should be followed by understanding the underlying consequences and narrative of such acts of terror that seems to be forgotten.
ISIS, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, began as an ally of Al-Qaeda and “both were radical anti-Western militant groups devoted to establishing an independent Islamic state in the region.” ISIS disowned al-Qaeda in 2014 and today controls their territories through a bureaucratic hierarchy that closely resembles the governing structure of Western countries.
It is completely normal to fear ISIS and their acts of violence. But with the rise of extremism seems to also follow a rise of fear and ignorance, along with a collectively global inability to deal with the issue at hand.
Responding to ISIS and other Islamic terror groups often results in and simultaneously stems from Islamophobia. But many times we have a difficult time recognizing other non-Islamic terrorists groups and terrorists as representatives of the ideas that they keep in mind when they commit these crimes. What about Christian terrorists? Jewish terrorists? Buddhist terrorists?
In 2011, Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway to fulfill his “pro-Christian” agenda. In the little coverage he did get, labeling him a Christian terrorist caused severe outrage and controversy. Let us not forget Eric Rudolph who has committed various terrorist attacks, motivated by Christianity.
Buddhism is a religion that embodies peace and has had that reputation from its conception. In 2013, friction between Buddhism and Islam led to violence against mostly Muslims carried out by extremist Buddhist monks that killed hundreds of people. Although these acts of terror were done in a religious vein, Buddhism was not represented by these acts of violence.
The “price tag” attacks in Israel in 2013 by Jewish extremists were done “to destabilize the country and overthrow the Israeli government in order to establish a new regime to be based on Jewish law.” An Israeli official stated that callings these attacks acts of terror would “blur the lines” between Jewish extremists and serious organized terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas.
These acts of terrorism and extremism that are done for religion only account for a minority of terror attacks that happen worldwide. In 2013, more than 55% of terrorist attacks in Europe were motivated by ethno-nationalists or separatist groups. A report done by Charles Kurzman on terrorism cases involving Muslim-Americans reports that in 2014, 25 Muslim-Americans were associated with violent terrorism, six of which actually engaged in the violence, leading to seven deaths by terrorism in a year where over 14,000 Americans were murdered.
Terrorism is never justified no matter what context it was committed in, but it is time that we act responsibly to terrorism. We can no longer see Islamic terrorists as representatives for Islam. We cannot hold them to such a standard and then continue recognize other acts of terror as an anomaly. We keep Paris in our thoughts in these times of despair, we stand with them, but we haven’t responded this quickly to countries such as Iraq and Syria that are victims of such attacks and oppressive rule everyday. Very few people have shown equal solidarity for the lives lost in an attack in Beirut. Our interests should not just be focused on protecting Western nations that closely resembles our own. If we wanted to take a true stand against terrorism, then where have we been in war-torn countries suffering these attacks? Where was this anti-terrorism mindset through U.S.-backed terrorism? Let us recall Reagan’s support of the South African apartheid and terrorism in Central America, J.F.K’s campaign following the Bay of Pigs to bring terror to Cuba and Obama’s airstrikes in Syria. Many people understand these actions as protecting any threats to democracy but would not dare classify any of these events as acts of terror. We also cannot deny the terrorism of white supremacy that poses a different reality for people of color whom are plagued with constant danger and fear.
Every nation and person plagued by the endless forms that terrorism exists in are in my heart and thoughts, but America can no longer pick and choose the countries we want to protect if we want to be a nation that is interested in protecting every human life equally. This is a wake-up call for us all to understand what terrorism looks like and it certainly is not Islam. Our response to groups like ISIS in the wake of the Paris attacks says more about our political agenda than anything else. This is a perfect time for America to intervene and push for a more aggressive role in the Middle East. This could also be a reason for the European Union to push for a stricter immigrant policy even though Syrian refugees are trying to escape from living Paris everyday of their lives.
Muslims have taken it into their hands to publicly condemn these attacks all over social media, something I perceive as an attempt to make reparations for Islam that don’t need to be made by Muslims themselves. A religion of over 1.6 billion followers gets the reputation of violent for the actions of a small few. If you have read the Qu’ran or Hadith, you would understand it is not inherently violent and does not promote terrorism. The Bible is filled with contradictions that could be taken out of context to prove a point of how Judaism or Christianity is corrupt and evil. But ever since 9/11, Muslims have been the ones who have had their faith hijacked and warped and have had no other choice but to try their best to reclaim it in pseudo “religiously tolerant” society. Just because we are disconnected from a religion or theology as a whole does not mean we can be lazy and refuse to understand it in order to justify our hatred. We are very quick to recognize Islam as problematic but we are not having these same discussions regarding other institutions even though they do exist.