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In light of today's new bombings in London, it is essential to note that we can't eradicate terrorism by arresting and killing only the terrorists themselves, because the society that produced them can always produce more of them. Instead, we must show such societies, that there are unacceptable consequences to them for doing so.
From AP: "Even in Britain, Moderate Muslims Don't Always Agree That Suicide Bombing Is Wrong."
Sure. Why should they agree it's wrong? There are no consequences to them for teaching their children to kill women and children. In England, imams publicly call out for war on England, and Muslim parents let their young children attend lectures from people who support terrorism and teach them to hate. The friends of the London killers are happy to show how they support such actions. And what are the consequences to them? Zero. Instead, the British government goes after only those who personally helped carry out the attacks.
In this they follow the example of Israel. In madrassas, in mosques, in what they see on Al Jazeera, in what they see all around them, Palestinian children are raised to hate and to kill. When one of them actually does kill, what are the consequences to the society of people that taught them to do so? Zero. Israel targets only those immediately involved in the terrorist killings of civilians. The larger society is free to celebrate, as in Palestine; or to openly admit they support terrorism, and to write articles about how "sassy" they are for doing so, as in London; and to go on supporting terrorism and producing more terrorist killers, as in both cases.
The Islamic citizen in both cases -- the shop-keeper, the coffee-house owner -- can laugh off the response of the attacked nation as a big joke. It doesn't touch him. He doesn't care if the terrorists get caught or killed -- that was their job.
But if there are consequences that affect the larger society that produces terrorists -- the shop-keepers, store-owners, the guys who run the restaurants near the mosques that teach people to kill, the friends who encouraged the killers -- if there are consequences to them personally, that will be another story. It won't be so funny anymore. Then they will have to rethink their support of the killing of women and children.
Terrorism cannot long continue in the face of severe blow-back to the societies that produce the terrorists.
What are appropriate consequences? It doesn't matter, as long as they are sufficiently devastating. In England, deportation of all the members of a Mosque at which an imam preached the killing of civilians, would be powerful in making the Islamic community understand, that they can no longer go on supporting the killing of civilians.
