Our Response to the Attack in Paris

I am not going to get into the long-term solution to Islamic-based terrorist attacks.  That is not the point of this post.  The point is to warn us from stepping into hate and radicalism ourselves as a result of such attacks. 

I intentionally waited to post comments about last night’s attack in Paris.  Some of the online commentary I have seen over the last 24 hours has been very concerning.  I have seen calls to kill all Muslims.  I have seen calls to round Muslims up and place them in internment camps.  I have seen calls from Christians for a new Crusade.  I am going to be blunt; these calls to harm Muslims are more than Islamophobic, it is insanity.  These calls are unchristian. 

I should point out that these calls are coming from people that are normally pretty rational, normally pretty “christian.”  This type of mob insanity happens, however, when we fail to control our fear.  A wise man once said,

“Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.”

Right now people are scared.  Do you know who else is scared?  Muslims.  Millions of non-violent Muslims right now fear retribution from both totalitarian acts of governments and vigilante “justice” from mobs of equally fearful people. 

Anger is an appropriate response to evil.  What happened in Paris was evil.  However, when we find our world crashing down we need to slow down, think, and keep our emotions in check, otherwise we will find ourselves making poor judgments. 

Hate breeds hate.  Radicalism breeds radicalism.  This also happens to be our enemy’s goal.  Their goal is for governments to respond with totalitarianism.  Their goal is for you and I to respond with pitchforks, torches, and a burning stake.  They want us to meet them on the field of hate and radicalism.  When we do that, they have already won.  The suffering continues.

I will work on another post that deals with the long-term solution, which entails a different foreign policy from the current one we have driven by fear.