Editorial: Extreme Fear of Terrorism

This year, the brand of terrorism linked to the extremism of Islamic State (ISIS) dominated the world’s attention. As the deadly attack on county employees in San Bernardino, California, inserted this threat right in the center of U.S. society, a feeling of insecurity unlike anything seen since 9/11 has emerged.

The challenge for 2016 will be to channel the anxiety created by the possibility that the Muslim couple next door may be suicidal terrorists, all without starting a witch hunt against a religion and its believers. We hope that we will be able to do better that we did in 2015.

This year, the anti-Muslim sentiment – which never really went away after the Twin Towers’ attack but had been relegated to a few Islamophobes, – has reappeared. The assaults in Paris and later in San Bernardino revived the sense of insecurity. The Republican presidential primary, for its part, fueled the anti-Islam fire as candidates entered a shameful race to see who was tougher on Muslims.

The proposals uttered by the GOP candidates included temporarily forbidding the entrance to all Muslims into the country, accepting only Christian Syrians as refugees and banning even a single 5-year-old orphan refugee from entering, citing security reasons. The candidates resorted to fear-mongering as a political strategy to gain the support of an electorate willing to blame foreigners – whether immigrants or refugees – for all ills and insecurities.

The tone of the discussion signifies a victory for ISIS, as it seems to confirm its theory that the West wishes to fight a war not against terrorists, but against the Islam religion in general. Attacks on mosques and individuals confirm this presumption.

The reality is that, in this country, the chances to die at the hands of a U.S.-born, armed, white man are much higher than in a terrorist attack, whether organized by ISIS or perpetrated by an individual sympathizer. In both cases, these attacks are hard to prevent unless a police state is established.

Defending our respect of individual freedom is the right way to face terrorism attempting to interrupt our daily life. We need to be alert as a general precaution, but we must look at these threats through the lens of our democratic essence.