The definition of terrorism according to the Oxford English Dictionary:
“The unofficial or unauthorised use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”
Terrorism, by definition, aims to frighten people, intimidate them and force them to acquiesce to the demands of their terroriser.
Flying passenger aircraft into the tallest buildings of Manhattan or exploding cocktail bars perched upon the white sand tourist-filled beaches of Kuta, rest, morbidly, in the annals of our unfortunate history of terrorism. We have become accustomed to hearing about Jihad and Allah and the Qur’an as easily as we hear about The Voice or the political repercussions of the carbon tax. We’ve seen Damian Lewis on his knees with his arms in the air as he prayed, Claire Danes went crazy-eyed, and we’ve watched…
We’ve heard that women in Saudi Arabia aren’t allowed to drive. We’ve heard that Abu Qatada can’t leave England for fear of torture in Jordan. We’ve heard that women in France cannot wear a face-covering veil. We’ve heard that Barack Obama may or may not be sympathising with the Syrians.
We’ve heard it all.
We’ve heard that Islamist revolutionaries want to teach us all a lesson. We’ve heard that evangelicals in the Southern States believe that Heath Ledger died because he glorified the life of a homosexual. We’ve seen the photos of the soldiers that have given their lives to keep us safe. We’ve seen the clerics that preach against a woman’s right to wear a bikini or terminate an unwanted pregnancy. We’ve seen that respected actors and DJs might be paedophiles. We assume that these same men, of all faiths, take advantage of numerous women, numerous times, in numerous ways, with, or without, the modesty of a face-covering veil.
We’ve watched Syrians on both sides decimate their own population. Or maybe we haven’t, depending on which news you watch. Some of us have paid attention, some of us haven’t. The Syrians haven’t yet taken to flying passenger aircraft into tall buildings, but maybe they will, in an effort to get their 15 minutes.
We’ve watched as women were beaten, or ostracised, or stoned, or raped, or insulted and assaulted in every which way and said to ourselves that it won’t happen where we live. But it did.
We watched as men who lived in suburban towns, with suburban jobs owned up to hiding away their female prisoners in their suburban prison cells, in their suburban dungeons under their suburban homes and we said to ourselves, this doesn’t happen in our WASP-y neighbourhoods… even though it did.
And we said to ourselves, this wouldn’t happen in my neighbourhood. Not on my watch. Not while Jesus, or Allah, or Abraham, or Rupert Murdoch, or Richard Branson is watching over me. Not while I am too busy marching in the streets to protest the right of two men to marry, not while I am voting to protect the right that my country affords me to free dental. Not while my government is paying me a salary while I search for employment and certainly not while I am watching Simon Cowell destroy another teenager’s dream in the interest of better ratings for ITV.
We said that we would not bow our heads to the demands of terrorists. We said that we would not cower in fear. Bush Frappuccino-ed our love for the hysterical with our need for the factual and said we would hunt them Dead or Alive! We sent our men and women off to foreign lands with guns and bibles. We had no reason to be frightened.
And then…on a day when no one was listening, and no one was watching: we did exactly what they wanted us too.
We decoupaged the front pages of every publication, in every country, everywhere, with the picture they wanted us to see. A man, wielding a knife, hands covered in blood, hurling forth words that were translated for the benefit of the uninitiated, the uncaring, the uneducated, words that defined a whole congregation of believers as terrorists. Words that will forever be used to decry the mal of a religion rather than help anyone to understand what they faithfully and democratically believe. Whether we eat bacon, we wear a veil, we eat beef, we believe in polygamy or we believe in reincarnation, we are afforded the democratic right to believe that our God is great.
Why give a couple of freaks their 15 minutes? Is this not the same as bowing to the terrorist demands of the post-Sandy Hook NRA?
Why give more airtime to the perpetrators than to the victim? A victim, whose family wished him to remain anonymous, but were forced to acquiesce to the demands of a media happy government.
Why does our sensationalist media continue to bow to the exact expectations of the afore-defined terrorists?
Why don’t we devote more time to talking about feeding people…or housing people…or letting people who love each other get married…or FFS talking about anything other than the singular tragic act of two singularly tragic fools.
Surely, the mass tragedy at a factory in Bangladesh should stop us in our H&M frenzied shopping delirium more readily than the photo of a man with a machete?
I pray to my own spiritual saviour that we will be more concerned by what is real and true for us all than what CNN tells us we should believe. I get down on my knees and I pray. I pray to all the gods…including Aries, God of war, under whose stars I was born.
I pray that we will focus on our neighbours, our families, our friends…I pray that we will stop reading our newspapers and turning on our televisions.
I pray that we will be brave enough to form our own opinions…without Rupert’s help.
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