Reflections on London terror attack

By Sajjad Malik
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, June 6, 2017
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Armed police officers patrol near London Bridge after the terror attack took place on Saturday night in London, Britain on June 4, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

The British people had hardly recovered from the shock of the Manchester pop concert terror attack than they faced another violent assault on their freedoms.

The militants involved used a van to hit innocent pedestrians on London Bridge followed by a stabbing spree in the nearby busy Borough Market area. Seven people were killed and dozens injured before police arrived to kill the three attackers.

It is all too familiar: Innocent people killed, mass panic, emergency services rushing to the site of attack and armed police on the streets. Terrorism has become part of our daily lives like road mishaps.

If 9/11 is taken as the starting point of terrorism in the 21st Century (though there were terrible attacks long before that), in the more than a decade-and-a-half since, hardly a week goes by without civilians becoming prey to these predators.

Even the official response is too familiar and quite often sickening. The local leaders declare that “enough is enough” and security is upped. The international community regurgitates empty condemnations; symbolic help in the probe and tracking down the perpetrators is offered; and then after a couple of days, life returns to comparative normality.

Even common people conveniently forget these gory incidents. The places where humanity bled are washed clean as if nothing happened.

However, amid the mundane familiarity and psychic forgetfulness, life for certain people is changed forever. I mean, of course, the victims -- those who lose loved ones in these moments of unjustified fury; those who suffer body scars, broken limbs and amputations; and those whose financial prospects are dimmed forever.

Often governments offer monetary compensations to relatives of dead and those injured in terror attacks. Often free treatment is given to them. However, has anyone ever paid for the deep unseen psychological wounds the victims carry for rest of their lives? Can any amount of money or medicine treat such scars?

There is no doubt that violence is part and parcel of human existence. Humans commit acts of bloodshed and feel proud of it. It is instinctive to some extent. But violence is mostly a product of particular culture, education and training.

We, through our actions and choices, create space for violent behavior and actions. At State level, the leaders do so by following polices that justify violence.

Terrorism is also a kind of violence that individuals, groups and countries use as policy, a tool and option to achieve a certain political purpose or force others to change a certain policy.

There are volumes of research about the origin of extremism and terrorism. It shows that terrorism is a conscious human activity. It is due to certain reasons that can seem ridiculous, fictional or outrageous for others. However, they serve certain elements and help them to justify their violent actions.

It means that individuals involved in extremism can be identified, isolated and punished if there is a political will and determination. There are places on Earth where terrorism was defeated and peace restored after decades of bloodshed.

In hindsight, the terrorist acts taking place in America, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and other places are directly linked to jihad phenomenon of the 1980s in Afghanistan. The entire civilized world helped to create the Frankenstein monster, left it to grow and allowed it come back to kill.

Why were the legions of terror left to themselves after withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan? Why was the opportunity to eliminate terrorism immediately after 9/11 squandered?

When the Middle East faced political upheaval in the form of the so-called Arab Spring, the mistakes of Afghanistan were repeated. There are reports that Britain turned a blind eye and even facilitated Muslim youth to travel to Libya to fight against the dictator, Qaddafi.

Despite mistakes of the past and policy blunders of present time, the evil of terrorism can be tackled. The world should agree on a one-point agenda to eradicate extremism and terrorism in whatever guise it appears.

If the world cannot work from the same page, at least each country can adopt policies to identify the sources of violent ideologies and act against them.

But with the current policies and actions, one can hardly see terrorism being eliminated anytime soon. Rather, it will increase and expand. More innocent lives will be lost. More irrational wars and conflicts may follow.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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