A measured response The principles of America have never been more necessary

A measured response
The principles of America have never been more necessary

Sept 15, 2001

In the few days that have passed since Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on our nation, Americans have experienced several emotions. Disbelief grew into shock and horror, and then into grief and anger. We must take care to ensure that anger doesn’t give way to hatred and irrational violence.

Those responses are exactly what terrorists seek to provoke. Those seeking to destroy the United States would like nothing better than to see Americans abandon our principles and react with unthinking violence. Swift and decisive action is necessary, and there’s no question that it can be anything but bloody, but blood alone cannot be our goal. We must demonstrate to all the world that not only does the United States respond with overwhelming force, it also responds with justice and truth.

It’s important to remember that the terrorists were representing the most radical version of Islamic militancy, not its mainstream. They, and others like them, have been preaching hate, telling citizens of their countries that Americans want to wipe Muslims from the face of the earth and will seize this opportunity to do so. That rhetoric has created more terrorists, potentially including the Palestinian children who were dancing on Tuesday, who believe what they’ve been told. Every "unfair" act by the United States provides opportunities for nurturing such misinformation, and many, many citizens of militant Islamic nations have no source of accurate information to balance those lies.

Americans are not without their own misperceptions. We could easily fall prey to the myth that all Muslims are terrorists or at least extremists in their anti-American sentiment. Islam has its moderates and even its liberals, in the same way that Christianity has its broad spectrum of believers. The Quran is eloquent in its reverence for life.

In addition, the faith is not limited to the problematic nations of the Middle East; the Organization of the Islamic Conference has 57 member nations and three observer states. Some of them are our allies, and citizens of some of those allied countries have been identified as being responsible for Tuesday’s violence. Assessing blame for this disaster will not be nearly so simple as identifying people who look like Arabs, who live in certain countries, or who believe differently than we do.

In the rush to do something — anything! — about terrorism, we will be tempted to lash out against people who bore no responsibility in Tuesday’s attacks, not because of any crime of theirs but because they had the misfortune of being born in the Middle East instead of in the United States of America. While we must acknowledge the impossibility of targeting retribution so exactly that no innocent lives will be lost, we must avoid the loss of innocent lives without any cost to those who are guilty, just to appease our aching need to take action.

If we create a climate in which Arab-Americans and adherents to the Muslim faith must live in fear in the United States of America, we have reverted to our racist past and the terrorists will have won a battle against American values. That cannot happen.

We indeed must act, but we must act as Americans. Rather than setting aside our values in the name of expediency, we must affirm them and we must continue to practice them. The United States of America is a nation of fairness, in which people are judged by their actions, not by religion, ethnicity or national origin. That is the American way, and we must defend it if we are to continue to be ruled by law rather than terror. We must not let suicidal extremists wrest it away from us.