Onceagain, all eyes in the world are focused on the proposed Iraqi conflict and thediplomatic tug-of-war between America/Britain and France/Germany.’ Theglobal citizen may be riveted to watching the power play on the scale ofnation-states and global economies, but today I call your attention to thestories that don’t make the six o’clock news.
Ialong with every other writer and journalist have spent a lot of printed wordsdiscussing the ‘War on Terrorism’, but have almost completelyneglected the continuing and global reality of terrorism itself.
Thoughnecessary for brevity, this neglect has rather distressed me.’ I wouldhate for Americans to think that they were the only targets of terrorism, orthat September 11 was an isolated incident without historical precedent.’ In the hubbub surrounding Iraq, the rest of the Middle East, namely Palestineand Israel have been forgotten. And news sources have found it hardly worthmentioning that a terrorist attack on Monday in a Philippine airport thatkilled 19 and injured over 100 more.
Terrorismis a daily reality for people around the globe, not just for the Americanhousewife told to stock up on food and buy duct tape in case of an Anthraxattack.’ Existing in conditions like those in the West Bank or Ivory Coasthas become a prospect unimaginable to peaceably urban Westerners. Yet for themillions living in a state of perpetual insecurity, not knowing whether theywill see the end of day has become all but routine.
InIsrael and occupied Palestine, random abductions and executions for politicaldissidents take place alongside suicide bombings and minor riots.’ Violence is a daily occurrence and religious beliefs are as divisive as theeconomic disparities.
Thinkfor a moment’What if you are on the bus with a suicide bomber, or theIsraeli police storm your house during the night?’ There is no hiding froma culture so fractured by hostility and suspicion just victims left in thewake.
Butdon’t think for a moment that individual and organized attacks areperpetrated in the Middle East. Terrorism is a global pandemic: the IRA inIreland, Basque separatists in Spain, and Chechen rebels in Moscow.’ According to a web-database of International Terrorist Attacks there have been1427 incidents perpetrated around the globe since 1986. Political, religiousand economic ideologies have all been impetus for these attacks andhundreds-of-thousands of deaths have been caused, but internationally little isremembered and few have been mourned.
Andwhere is the discussion about government sponsored terrorism? I’m notjust talking about the Kurdish and Iraqi people persecuted by Saddam Hussein orthe Palestinians executed by the Israeli military?yes both sides do it.’ But what about the people of Zimbabwe slowly being starved to death by theirown president?’ What about the citizens of Columbia caught in thehostilities between the government and guerrilla armed forces? And let’snot forget the women sexually tortured in Turkish prisons or the protestersjailed by the Cuban military.’ The oppressed people of Tibet and thepolitical prisoners that have gone missing for years in China.’ Where isthe West’s moral responsibility for these people?
Terroristacts are not solely perpetrated by Muslims, nor is religious ideology the onlybasis for conflict.’ It is far too easy to blame another group, anothercountry, another religion, for all the evils in the world.’ It is far moredifficult to analyze our own country’s and our own religion’scontributions to the political instability that is currently rocking the globe.
