Less suffering would lead to a safer world

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have rightly stirred the Western world. The response to this violence fails to address long-term resolution. The terrorists have had the hoped-for effect of promoting fear. In our emotional response to this tragic event, we further the agenda of the terrorists. By barring the door of immigration we ensure that the non-combatant refugees of Syria will be made to further suffer after losing everything in an effort to reach freedom and security for themselves and their families.

That safeguards are needed to prevent infiltration by terrorists rightly requires vigilance on the part of the receiving countries. Syrian refugees have come to this country for a number of years and none have been known terrorists. We do increase the likelihood of radicalization if we isolate, distrust, and prevent immigrants from full participation in society. Condemning them and their religion can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A resource is being overlooked with the press of this self-protective response. The ranks of terrorists from Western countries are being filled by alienated, disenfranchised youths. We seem to have little response to website indoctrination and radicalization by terror groups. What better way to counter their appeal than to give a voice to refugees regarding their plight? A true propaganda to appeal to right human values and a call to stand against senseless killing of the innocent would perhaps offer a countermeasure to this means of terrorist recruitment.

Also, to enlist the active support of refugees in the correct planning to re-establish a viable home land would offer some input to develop a coherent plan of intervention in that region. The refugees may be those who have no heart for warfare or those who perceive the overwhelming obstacles to stabilizing a region that involves fighting battles they are certain to lose. If they are in the latter category, they might choose to fight with unmatched resolve. At the very least, they could provide valuable intelligence that seems to be unreliable at present. How can we better access the situation than those who lived in Syria? We have a history of backing the wrong leaders in that region often because they appear to cooperate in slacking our thirst for their oil. Might we begin to also consider those citizens whose homes sit atop those resources? We have shown little regard for them to this point.

Finally, we would do well to stop religious bigotry. Emotionally polarized fundamentalist radicals know no certain country or religion. A hard look at our own society would suggest much work at applying our religious convictions correctly. Do we condemn our own mostly Christian society as being bloodthirsty when our radical terrorists bomb a public building in Oklahoma City, commit mass murder of children and college students, and kill worshipers in their church? We also have a shameful history of killing or attempting to take the lives of political and religious figures. A recent letter to the editor entitled “Bloodlust is its nature” perhaps ignores this country’s long history of armed conflict as well as our being the world’s biggest arms supplier.

It is difficult to demonstrate our religious superiority when we so selectively apply the tenets of our predominant religion. Imagine how you would perceive a country based on the media we export in movies and music that project violence, unstable relationships, and self-destructive lifestyles.

Is our religion holding up to the life of its Founder? A country that has epidemic obesity while much of the world is starving, a country whose economic interests ignore the environment and promote materialism without limit for the rich while others struggle to survived each day, a country whose appetite for substances causes its southern neighbors to structure much of their economy and society to meeting our self-destructive demands.

It clearly is not the faults of any world religion that humanity is suffering. It is the misapplication of those religions. Might not compassion for the victims of unholy wars be more in line with right human values espoused by the founders of religion than condemning those victims and their religions?

Doug Wells is a Hayden resident.