HJD1, this sort of reminds me of a story about Sufi acolyte and his bride. The two were married and the brides father gave them a copy of the Koran and told them, if they ever had need, to open it and read. Well they fell on hard times and after difficulties in the extreme came to the wife?s father reluctantly and on the advise of the Teacher, for help. The father cursed and yelled at the two when they explained their problem reminding them of his admonishment to read the Koran if they were in trouble. He told them to get out and go do so. Abject and in shock they left and opened the book. Inside they found a sum of money, enough to alleviate their problems. The Teacher brought them back to the father and said to him. Know sir, that your son in law has no need to open the Koran because he knows it by heart, and your daughter has no need to open it because, although she cannot read, she lives every word.
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I'm reminded here of this story because, if you read into it, the hidden implications are that, in converse, one may read the Koran daily and completely miss its essence. It is always thus with those who know the law but not the spirit of the law. When we look into the subject of terrorism, sometimes we can discuss it in a seemingly cogent fashion and never realize the implications to our own selves. That prompts me to ask, now, just exactly what is terrorism and what does it intend to accomplish.
I see terrorism as the attempt to use fear with the intention to control or impel others. But why would anybody do this? One would think, perhaps first off, that you would have to ask them since they are the ones doing it, but I think they would be the last to know. I suspect that the terrorist uses terror because he is himself a victim of it. We all know that civilized societies like our own use psychological counseling to help terror victims re-orient to normal life. They are encouraged to talk their experiences our and allow themselves to feel their guilt, shame, rage and fears, to purge themselves, as it were, of the traumatic experience by re-acquainting themselves of its details from a fresh and free perspective. We recognize the damage that terrorism does to the psyche and that it can induce its own resultant psychosis like the Stockholm syndrome, nightmares, flashbacks etc.
But if there is nobody to help the victim of terrorism the victim has to live with his internalized fear. This means that the victim of fear is in a state of terror, but unaware that terror is what motivates him. The result is a rigidity, a lack of spontaneity and flexibility, a need to control to insure the environment contains no threat real of perceived. (These symptoms probably should be expanded on greatly to better flesh them out, but in the interest of brevity, I hope this gives a general idea.) Forced to abandon the self confidence that adheres to all being, the terrorist seeks the comfort of externals, the controlled micromanaged, orderly world of rules which he himself is only too glad to make up if none are readily at hand.
I think it safe to say that religion uses terror quite frequently as part of it's attracting and holding power. But clearly one doesn't need religion to practice terror. All that is needed is to be afraid. There is no greater terrorist than the rat who finds himself cornered.
Of course there is perhaps something almost as objectionable, the one who says there is no corner.