How We Respond to Terror

by Editor · April 7, 2016

Recent events have heightened anti-Muslim sentiments in the West — giving the terrorists a victory they seek. Last month’s terror attack on the Belgian capital Brussels, attributed to the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), was an obvious assault on the Western way of life, intended to replace order and civil liberty with fear and the abrogation of freedom. This is one of the objectives in attacking Western targets.

A second effect of the terror attacks is to turn citizens in traditionally Christian countries against immigrants of Muslim background, regardless of whether these have sympathies with the aims of ISIS or al-Qaeda or any other self-proclaimed jihadist group.

The anti-Muslim hostility has found absurd expression in statements by US politicians that advocate the internment or surveillance of all Muslims in that country. In Europe far-right political parties profit in support from a fear of refugees from the Middle East — equating asylum seekers with the very same people from whom they are seeking refuge.

In many places, Muslims have been held collectively responsible for terror, being confronted with demands for “apologies”.

Of course, holding all people of a particular background collectively responsible for the actions of “people like them” is precisely the bigotry that drives disillusioned Muslims to these terrorists groups.

By reciprocating intolerance, the West actively aids the terrorists.

The media and social networks are culpable in feeding the sense of suspicion and prejudice by disseminating often false information.

ISIS must have been delighted at the false reports that the group had crucified an abducted Indian priest, Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, on Good Friday.

The “news” was unverified, but all denials notwithstanding, it will have deepened anti-Muslim attitudes and amplified fears about an already ruthless organisation.

Sensationalistic news which entrenches anti-Muslim attitudes is widely and quickly disseminated, yet events that challenge the narrative of a cultural-religious war are often ignored.

So it was with the remarkable news in December of nearly 70000 Indian Muslim clerics signing a fatwa (or decree) against ISIS and other terror groups, saying these are “not Islamic organisations”. This had been preceded by several other fatwas against terrorism issued by leading Muslim clerics.

Obviously, these fatwas won’t stop the terrorists, much as Pope Pius IX’s anti-Nazi encyclical Mit brennender Sorge did not stop Nazi atrocities.

Nevertheless, when terrorists kill scores of Christian at a children’s gathering in Pakistan, or murder Catholic nuns and their helpers in Yemen, or when we are led to believe that a priest has been crucified, our response must be to condemn terrorism, not to adopt knee-jerk anti-Muslim sentiments.

Like Pope Francis, we should understand why ordinary Muslims are offended when their religion is automatically equated with terrorism.

Indeed, we do well to remember that the primary targets of ISIS are not the West and Christians, but other Muslims.

It is incumbent on Churches, and on individual Christians, to build bridges of reciprocal solidarity with moderate and mainstream Islam.

This is already happening in many areas where Christians and Muslims live side by side. Sometimes this is demonstrated in dramatic ways.

For example, when extremists targeted Christian churches for attack in Egypt during the upheavals there a few years ago, in many places Muslims formed protective rings around churches—a concrete sign of solidarity.

The cooperation between the Catholic Emmanuel cathedral in Durban and the neighbouring Juma Masjid mosque is an inspiring example of a friendship that is pleasing to God — and displeasing to both the Islamic extremists and racist demagogues in the West.

Active and visible interfaith solidarity is the key to weakening ISIS and their ilk, and to tempering the division, fear and bigotry that their terrorism helps to breed in the West.

Visiting the Central African Republic last November, Pope Francis called for “an end to every act which, from whatever side, disfigures the face of God and whose ultimate aim is to defend particular interests by any and all means”. In January he told diplomats that it is essential to proclaim that “those who claim to believe in God must also be men and women of peace”.

This is the message that must guide our responses to all the horrific news and to the divisive reactions these produce.