Tony Blair Deepened the Distrust

The latest remark on terrorism by British PM Tony Blair is interesting to discuss in view of the result of the US Congressional midterm elections early this week. Even though this remark was a candid response to the report given by the MI5 that "about 1,600 suspects [of Islamic militant] in 200 terrorist conspiracies were under surveillance," but looking at who has given the remark, it is not something that should make us surprised. He said that the threat from British home-grown Islamic terrorism would last "a generation" and that Britian faced a long and deep struggle to combat the danger posed by terrorism.

It is true that in the post-Cold War world, terrorism is the most popular vocabulary in both domestic and international politics. It even got more popularity in the post-9/11 incident in the US. And ever since the the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the world has been under the threat of terrorism. Therefore, I agree that terrorism is a crime against humanity and maximum efforts should be done to eradicate this deadly menace.

However, there is something that bothers me quite alots ever since this vocabulary came into popularity. Because whenever there is a talk about terrorism, Islam is always being associated with it as if it is Islam that becomes the source of terrorism or that Islam is a religion that teaches terrorism.

I don't deny the fact that many acts of terror have been conducted by those persons who claim to be Muslims. They claimed that they acted on behalf of Muslims and Islam. For them, their act of terror is justifiable since Muslims have been suffering alots from injustices. Therefore, to fight these injusttices, they resort to terrorism.

For me, terrorism has no religion. It is neither Islam, Christianity, Jewish, Hinduism nor any other religion. Terrorism is an act by those mindless individuals who care nothing else than their personal gratification. Terrorism is a crime against humanity. There is no place for terrorism in this world. Thus, the current trend of associating terrorism and Islam is distasteful. Such remark by Tony Blair is unfortunate.

If we want to talk about terrorism, it should be general. There should not be any distinction between those acts of terror by individuals and those acts of terror by state/government. Both kinds of terror acts are condemnable and should be confronted with all cost. Terrorism has no religion. Singling out Islam as the only source of terrorism is just like putting Communism as the most frightenning threat to the world order during the Cold War era. It is a clear prejudice against a community.