Fighting the disease that is terrorism

I was struck a couple of weeks ago by a BBC report about epidemiologist Gary Slutkin’s theory that violence is a disease.

In his view, violence develops like a disease and spreads like a disease, and therefore it can be contained and treated like a disease.

The causes, the symptoms and the treatment are based on the same principle diseases are.

At present, terrorism — like a contagious disease — is  plaguing many parts of the world, destroying communities and even entire countries. Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and Syria are some examples.

But also like a disease, it spreads into other communities and countries, especially the more vulnerable ones.

The shameful kidnapping of over 200 Nigerian girls by Boko Haram is the latest example of how the disease is spreading from country to country and continent to continent, and how its victims are largely innocent people.

Terrorism is global. No country is immune from it, no race, no ethnicity and no religion.

Several countries, of course, are more successful at fighting terror, curbing, to some extent, its influence in certain places. Overall, however, it has escalated and is spreading fast.

Much needs to be done to try to eliminate this malady.

The first important step, I believe, is to criminalise it. It has to be said loud and clear, by all concerned, that terror is a crime and that anyone practising it under any justification is a criminal.

This is especially true with respect to terror spread in the name of religion, which nowadays seems to be the most dominant.

Some time ago, some “Islamist” terrorists claimed to be fighting American and European imperialism. They used certain injustices caused by foolish American and European actions to justify their terror.

At that point, they may have had some sympathisers, especially people who were directly hurt by or who were against Western imperialism.

Now these same terrorists are killing their own people and destroying their own countries. What is their justification now?

It is indeed important that a number of Arab and Muslim countries criminalised terrorist acts recently. One hopes that the rest will follow suit.

Equally importantly, Islamic scholars need to come out and speak loud and clear, perhaps through a fatwa, that any Arab or Muslim who resorts to terror under any pretext and in any region in the world is not a Muslim and that what he/she does is a great sin.

Some scholars have said so, but many have yet to express their objection.

They should criminalise both those who act and those, including pseudo or misguided religious scholars, who abet or instigate terror.

The same thing should be done by Christian and Jewish scholars and countries about their own terrorists and instigators of terror.

In the occupied Palestinian territories, for example, many acts of violence and terror are committed by Jewish terrorists (they call them extremists, but they are terrorists) against innocent  Palestinians.

Israel, which insists on calling itself a “Jewish” state, should speak out about Jewish terrorism in Palestinian territories and adopt specific and transparent measures to curb and eliminate it.

The entire international community should come up with strategies, mechanisms, resources and effort to fight terrorism the way we confront and fight any contagious disease.

The world still lacks a unified strategy or mechanism to deal with terror.

Now that Slutkin has come up with what looks like a most commonsensical and systematic method of dealing with violence and terror, one hopes that something more serious and effective can be done about it.

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