The case for a dispassionate study of terrorism

Hardly a day goes by without some fresh act of terrorism being reported in the Israeli media. The country is at war with people who proclaim the virtues of terrorism, yet to date there appear to be no satisfactory answers to the question, ‘what is the true nature of terror?’

Whenever a disease recurs in the community, it is the scientists who sift through the available evidence in search of its causation. It was only through painstaking and methodical study that the environmental preconditions for such diseases as bubonic plague, TB, cholera, smallpox, polio, yellow fever, malaria and many other diseases which reached epidemic proportions were brought to light, their causal agents and carriers identified and therapeutic measures instituted.

Terrorism is a contagious disease. Following the medical analogy, scientific studies of the terrorist’s mindset can provide answers to the epidemic currently eating its way into Israeli and other societies. Perhaps studies of this sort are already under way, conducted by social scientists searching for ways to stem the outbreak, but if so, their findings remain hidden from the wider public and there is no discernible evidence that anyone has even begun to formulate a remedy.

It would be good to know more about the upbringing and developing personality of the child who will later become a terrorist. For instance, are brutalising family experiences a ‘sine qua non’ for the young terrorist-to-be? And what about exposure to trauma? Is the proclivity for violence innate or are there crucial experiences which bring out such behaviour? To what extent does social isolation play a part? And conversely, what part is played by the support afforded by comradeship with like-minded individuals who justify their actions in accordance with certain religious or political beliefs?

In short, why does one person act on their beliefs while another merely shouts their support from the sidelines? And how do centuries-old myths about ‘the enemy’ feed into acts of terrorism? What part do political leaders play in fomenting terrorism? These are all questions which deserve answers.

With passions running high in the community, it is not easy to set aside feelings of revulsion and anger in order to focus on an objective study of the problem. This is especially true when forensic science collides with politics. The task of gaining insight into the terrorist mentality is rendered doubly difficult when when terrorists are either killed on the spot or held as criminals to be interrogated and punished. Those who escape vaunt their actions in inflammatory rhetoric, which provides scant insight into their true motivation.

This homily might well be a case of teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but I hope that it might also contribute to a wider understanding of a problem which continues to afflict many societies and which seems to be spreading. ‘To understand is not to condone’.