(Newsday) William B. Helmreich- A truly effective counter-terror strategy needs to reflect the unique personality traits that separate the terrorists from the rest of us. Last year, I spent a good deal of time speaking with religious terrorists for a forthcoming film, called "Blood and Tears," about the Middle East conflict. The religious terrorist justifies cold-blooded murder because he lives in a world populated by infidels and traitors who must be eradicated. The main agenda is to set up a theocratic state where all who disagree are eliminated. As the recent spate of beheadings emphatically demonstrates, to the enemy we are not human. Religious terrorists live in another world, with an agenda that is purely theocratic and absolute, with not a scintilla of concern for the lives of nonbelievers. In such a situation negotiation is useless, for there is nothing to negotiate about. When it come to religiously-based terror, we must reluctantly recognize that there are only two real choices here - protect ourselves and eliminate the terrorists or turn the world over to them. The writer is a professor of sociology at CUNY Graduate Center and City College.
2004-07-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive