The Vicious Circle of Terrorism

Let me tell you who the new ISIS, the new terrorist organisations will be made up of, how new criminal networks will be organised, and how they will come together and become a scourge on people.

Let me say at the start what should be said at the end: Some of the members of the terrorist organisations of the new era may well be young people on whom bombs rained down, who crossed borders barefoot and hungry.

Of course, I am not saying they all will be; but these people will make up a significant part of them. I am certainly not using these words to blame or disparage them. On the contrary, I say this to look for an answer to the question of how we can open the way to helping and supporting the greatest victims.

What most of the most ruthless murderers, the cruellest killers and monsters in world history have in common is that they grew up in environments where lovelessness and violence had become ordinary.

Some suffered cruelty at the hands of their closest relatives, some from those around them. Others, without even having those, grew up with the seeds of anger that strangers planted in their hearts.

Today, in many parts of the world, innocent people are losing their loved ones in ways they do not deserve.

Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries sharing a similar fate… Think of the children struggling to survive in such places. Try to reach into the subconscious, stained with death and blood, of those who lost their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in the middle of war.

Those children will often be deprived of love and tenderness and, some of them, of parental care.

On the road they will be pushed and shoved, forced to walk fast, they will eat their food hurriedly and in silence. They will not make a sound even when they cry. They will cover on foot and in fear distances that many people would find tiresome even by plane. Some will give up their souls on the road, some will embrace the cold of death amid raging waves. The lucky ones may perhaps reach a safe place. How far this can be called “luck” is unknown. Because where they go, too, they will be pushed around, scorned and humiliated, driven to the bottom layer of society. The real danger, both for them and for the society they are in, will begin after that.

So who do you think will open their arms to these children?

Yes, those who, like them, have been made into “others”, or organisations and networks that will exploit them… In approaching them, they will use all their past sensitivities, weaknesses and pain. They will remind them of the bombs that rained down on them, of the families slaughtered before their eyes. What will remain in their memory are not the states that opened their arms to them, but the destruction caused by the weapons those states produced.

Thus a new vicious circle will begin. Those fragile young people, angry at those who killed their families, may, because of their ignorance and the exploitation of their wounds, take the lives of other innocent people. And this vindicates the real culprits and breeds more suffering.

Breaking the Cycle

Every child growing up today in the midst of war and migration could become tomorrow’s potential oppressor or tomorrow’s hope. Which direction they are swept in is also partly determined by our attitude.

Every child deprived of love, education and tenderness can turn into a weapon in the hands of radical ideologies. But the same child, if cared for, can also become a doctor, a teacher or an artist who heals society.

Today, caring for wronged children is not only a humanitarian duty; it is also the guarantee of social peace, security and the future. For every child is a mirror of society’s future.

Here we cannot ignore another truth either: the wrong policies of states are deepening this vicious circle. Continuing to sell weapons when it is plainly known that they will rain fire on innocent people is in fact watering the seeds of terrorism.

Playing with Fire for Political Gain

In the same way, the direct or indirect support some states give to extremist or radical groups for short-term political gain is leading to great disaster. An organisation supported today because “it serves our purposes” can tomorrow get out of control and harm both its own people and those who supported it.

History is full of examples: groups once called “strategic partners” have become the most dangerous structures threatening international security today. And the heavy price of these mistakes is once again paid by innocent peoples, especially children.

If we want to break the cycle, showing compassion to the victims is not enough; wrong policies, the arms trade and covert support given out of self-interest must also come to an end. Because violence, once fed, burns its own master too.

What will uproot terrorism is not bombs but more justice, education and compassion.

The choice is ours, all of ours.