EDITORIAL - The only way to fight Islamic terror

Each time there is an atrocity perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, it is always condemned by certain sectors of the global Muslim community. But just as the barbaric acts are getting more horrifying, so are the condemnations getting to be monotonous. Isn't there something that the global Muslim community can do against terrorists other than simply condemning each act of senseless violence after the fact?

The question is asked because the condemnations have become so automatic that one wonders whether they are made in all sincerity at all or simply as a means to ward off suspicions of tolerance, acquiesence or even complicity. Perhaps it is time the global Muslim community, if it is truly appalled, if it truly abhors all the senseless violence perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, to do more than just pay lip service in the form of verbal condemnation.

It is difficult to imagine Islamic terrorists moving around in such seeming secrecy without some people getting suspicious, people from within the global Muslim communities. There is no such thing as complete secrecy. What people pass off as secrecy is plainly a refusal to get involved. Looking the other way, for whatever reason, does not a secret make.

Islamic terrorists are able to move around not because they are masters of secrecy and disguise. They are simply able to blend. And they are able to blend because the global Muslim community allows them to. Maybe fear plays a major factor in this terrible complacency. Or maybe there is an inherent tendency to see things the same way from a very deep perspective lying dormant in their psyche.

The fight against terrorism, particularly Islamic terrorism, cannot be won by bombing terrorist lairs to smithereens. Each terrorist camp blown apart can easily be replaced by another. Each terrorist gunned down or captured will be replaced by another. Islamic terrorism will go on not because it is effective or even attractive. It can only go on because of self-perpetuation.

Self-perpetuation happens when its breeding places continue being undiscovered. And they continue being undiscovered not because they are well or cleverly hidden but because nobody points them out even if they are in plain view. Do not ever believe that global Muslim communities do not know the people that revolve in them or what their businesses are.

The battle against Islamic terrorism can be won. But it can be won only with the help and active participation of the global Muslim communities. These communities must not wait until the next terrorist act happens and then condemns it to high heavens. Not only would it not change anything, it is also almost always too late. Instead of condemnations after the fact, Muslims the world over must help smoke out suspects. Only they can do it.