Terrorism: A Disease With No Cure

The Loss of Lives in Recent Attacks by Muslim Extremists Shake the World

Liz Dromer (Staff Writer)

You have certainly heard of the events that took place in Ottawa on October 22nd, as well as the altercation in StJean-Sur-Richelieu that resulted in the death of two soldiers of the Canadian army, two days before. These inhuman attacks were conducted in the name of Allah, in the name of God, by Muslim extremists. People everywhere are shocked: Canada is supposed to be one of the most peaceful countries. In a week, two assaults against soldiers occurred in a country that has never directly been attacked by Islamists before. However Canada is evidently not the first or the last nation to suffer from this kind of offense. Two
weeks ago (a few days after the events in Ottawa), a man in New York attacked police officers with an axe. The man was a Muslim extremist, just like the two men who disrupted the peace in Ottawa and not far from here, in St-Jean-SurRichelieu. Obviously, there is some sort of pattern that links these attacks together; the religion that was practiced by the attackers prior to their violent displays. To say that this is disquieting is a euphemism. The word “terrorism”, by definition, means “the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal”, according to the MerriamWebster dictionary. As of now, the people who committed the atrocities mentioned above can definitely be labelled as terrorists, since they achieved the goal to instill fear in the hearts of the citizens of Canada but also all around the world. After the latest events, we were all reminded of this terrible threat.

Unfortunately, many attacks of this kind have taken place all around the world. Since September 2001, the menace of extremists is becoming more and more present in our everyday life. Should we be scared? What can we do against it? What is our government doing to protect us? The world as we know it has been changing drastically.

Then again, you might want to think of the repercussions the attacks have on Muslims that are in no way affiliated with this sort of ideology. Indeed, most people practicing Islam are not in agreement with the heinous acts, but still get associated with the extremists nonetheless. Their image is soiled, and, as we already witnessed, they are persecuted simply because of the fact that they are devotees of the same religion. Mosques are sacked, Muslim women who wear a hijab are discriminated…a wall of intolerance and hatred is being built from both sides.

Places we thought of as safe turn out to be dangerous. The question is not if there will be a next attack but when and where? And that is indeed a terrifying thing to think about.