Defining the issues of terrorism
By Mordechai Kafry

The world struggle against terrorism is suffering from insufficient clear thinking and a lack of relevant definitions:

1. The terrorists who now endanger humanity are people who practice and advocate killing innocent people under the guise of promoting their religion, but actually in order to aggrandize their own sense of importance and power by use of intimidation and fear. “I kill therefore I exist!” is their real motto. The decisive factor is not their asserted aims; it is their methods that make them unbearable. Such people are not “militants” but terrorists, outside of all humanity and all legitimacy.

2. War against whole states because they are sympathetic to terror or even export terror or weapons for it, causes more damage then useful effect and creates new realms for exercise of terror.

3. The most effective way to fight terrorists is to make them taste their own medicine – terrorize the terrorists! This can be done by:
A. the use of intelligence to find and identify the terrorists;
B. using police to arrest and isolate those who can be apprehended; deporting them only shifts their field of action.
C. setting up and using commando units to kill leaders and promoters of terror who can not be arrested.
People who advocate indiscriminate killing of innocent people have no legitimate claim to human mercy and legal processes.

4. Customary Law is not effective in dealing with terrorists because of their clandestine ways that leave almost no legal evidence. National and International Law should designate not only the practice, but also the advocacy, justification, and support of killing of innocent people as the means of religious, political, national and cultural struggle to be sufficient for establishing guilt.

5. While the means of the terrorists are criminal their motives are idealistic and that makes them particularly dangerous. The proper way to treat apprehended terrorists is not to lock them up in ordinary jails, because there they remain leaders to their community and have even directed additional terrorist acts outside. Special ‘reservations”, whether national or international, should be set up. They should be well guarded from outside but within the terrorists should be left alone to stew in their own juice. They should be totally isolated there from their community and the world until well after the period of terror shall disappear.

6. The proper issue in the Middle East is not merely establishing democracy, but the separation of religion from politics. We are dealing with countries devoid of democratic forces and traditions and with plenty of authoritarian ones. Popular understanding of freedom is the right to steal all movable public property. Democratic elections become a golden opportunity for the Islamic clergy to dominate the vote and establish the worst and most oppressive regime, especially to women – a theocracy. Politics require ability to change and adjust, compromise and tolerate, learning from more advanced countries and competing in the world. Religion is based on unchangeable principles and its rule over politics creates an ongoing social and political tragedy of political and economic incompetence in an unchangeable political regime – see Iran. Theocracy stops social progress and ever increases oppression and limitation of human rights. You can not fight and win a war on a religion – it is not only wrong but also always counter productive. But separating religion from politics and limiting it to the spiritual realm of worship is not only possible but absolutely necessary in order to move to improve matters. In southern Iraq Shiite clergy is already in power by democratic elections. It is biding its time for the Americans to leave before they will show where they are heading. And they are the majority of Iraq’s population.

(First published August 11th, 2005, here. All rights reserved to Mordechai Kafry)