The American Crisis: Fighting with Fear in the War on Terror
January 4, 2011 No CommentsNoah Fram
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, terrorism is “the systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective.” By that definition, the world’s first terrorist may well have been Genghis Khan. Or maybe Oliver Cromwell. Both used essentially the same tactic: each would totally obliterate one town, as spectacularly and brutally as possible, so that all the nearby towns would voluntarily surrender to their armies. In each case, they created fear in the population which brought about a particular political objective — specifically, political dominance over that area. Today’s terrorism looks and acts quite differently; large nations never engage in it (openly, at least), and it is almost always associated with radical extremists of one stripe or another.
Largely because of the infamous September 11th attack on the World Trade Center, Americans tend to see terrorism as a tool used by radical Islam. From our perspective, it pretty much is: the Irish terrorists are attacking Britain, not us; African terrorists, such as those in Somalia, are concerned with local conflict, and only deal with Americans when we try to interfere (however justified we may be); and the terrorists in Chechnya don’t much care about the United States. But, possibly because of the amplifying effect of American politics, many Americans have taken their mistrust of radical Islam to a level bordering on xenophobia.
In a December 27th article, the Associated Press reported that a wide range of franchises, including McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, have started including halal options in their culinary selections. Halal is the Islamic version of kosher. Both are a set of rules governing how food can be prepared, in some cases going so far as to mandate standards of animal treatment (for meat products, at least). This seems to be lauded by AP, as it should be; the United States is a nation founded on cultural inclusiveness. And yet, these companies have come under fire for “aiding and abetting terrorists.” Kentucky Fried Chicken was the target of protests in the United Kingdom over offering halal menu options (demonstrators called the offending choices “terror chicken”). Best Buy was attacked for acknowledging an Islamic holiday. The list goes on and on.
The argument that a sizeable chunk of the population — both in the States and in Britain, it seems — is overreacting to attempts by companies to reach out to radically different cultures has already been advanced, and seems to have no impact. Cultural chauvinism is extremely difficult to expunge, so I will not even try. However, there is a point to be made, and it concerns Britannica’s definition of terrorism. All these people who despise Islam lean very heavily on the idea that Muslims are terrorists, since any other explanation inevitably devolves into simple bigotry. This implies that every person who censured McDonalds, KFC and Best Buy for their actions is afraid that the halal-certified food and holiday greetings are the vanguard of an Islamic invasion. They fear Islam. And much of the rest of the world is now pointing to that as an indication of American arrogance, ignorance, and vulnerability. Our reaction to terrorism — and I am not referring to our military reaction, just our social one — has weakened the United States’ position internationally. The mere fact that our President’s middle name can spark a major controversy is almost laughable. In other words, the terrorism of a relatively small group of radical Muslims has created a general climate of fear in the American population, which has achieved the particular political goal of weakening the United States’ power overseas. To me, that sounds like terrorism that succeeded.
And that means that those radical ideologues with their grainy videos and abortive underwear bombings and illicit RPG launchers…won.
Every time somebody refers to “freedom fries” or I see a news article about “terror chicken,” I wonder if these people ever thought about what they were saying. In essence, they are denying a vital piece of this country’s identity. It is the same piece that was ignored during the Second World War, when rampant fear of the Japanese led to their imprisonment in concentration camps, and the same piece that made the Know-Nothings such a force in the late nineteenth century. For all of our talk about the United States being a melting pot, we can be awfully close-minded and bigoted. And for decades (if not centuries), such intolerance has been tolerated, in the name of that same inclusiveness which the racists actively defy. Maybe we should be more intolerant of the islamophobes and the anti-Semites and the gay-bashers, if only because they, at this point, are what the world around us sees.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
That is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island, and at this country’s inception, truer words were never spoken. Massachusetts was founded by religious refugees from the Anglican British Isles. Georgia was originally a massive debtor’s prison. Our railroads were built by dirt-poor Irish and Chinese immigrants; the greatest steel magnate in America’s history, Andrew Carnegie, started out on the streets of New York. The meteoric rise of the United States was fueled by fearlessness, by always pushing, reaching for some ever-so-faint light at the end of the tunnel, riding roughshod over the people we chained to our mercurial locomotives and mechanical reapers but always hurtling onward. And now, this country wallows in fear, and so our pundits discuss how many years until China becomes the world’s greatest power while the rest of us lie helpless, lashing out at random to find some culprit besides ourselves.
The only goal these terrorists ever had was to bring us to their level. As in Borges’ “Ragnarok,” they aimed to dethrone the gods, and kill them if they could. And, like in Borges’ nightmare, they have made us rude and incoherent, pitiable and laughable, but mighty no more. By fighting their terrorism with our terror, we lost something essential about ourselves, and it is exactly what these extremists wanted us to sacrifice. We must fight, not with fear, but with Emma Lazarus’ creed, because that is what defines us as American. We must regain our dignity, at least, even if the power of old is forever beyond our grasp.
Featured, Online Exclusive