Another Christmas season over, and another terrorist attack survived. The first decade of the new millennium ended with a bang... actually, popping sounds, smoke and a small fire. Welcome to 2010.
It is disturbing to hear people refer to the man who attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane Christmas Day as a “would-be terrorist”, and to his attack as “failed”.
If his goal was to blow up the plane, he did indeed fail. But if his goal was to disrupt the travel plans of untold thousands of people around the world during the busiest time of the year, garner headlines for al-Qaida, and scare the living daylights out of anyone intending to travel by air in the near future, he succeeded rather well.
Although it was a far cry from the attack on the World Trade Center, probably the key story of the past decade, it was a terrorist attack, nonetheless, designed to throw the general public, if not the plane, into a tailspin.
We have an attacker who fits the American image of an Islamic terrorist – young, adult male, dark skinned. Some of us are asking why a pale-skinned Anglo-Saxon grandmother should be subjected to the same demeaning airport security procedures as someone who “fits the profile”. If racial profiling remains politically incorrect, there will be a lot of people up in arms. If it is permitted, there will be screams of racism. Either way, America loses.
To add fuel to the fire, we have an attack that took place on one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar, by a Muslim. The rift between Christianity and Islam in North America just got wider – a few more Muslim kids getting beat up after school, fertile ground for those who preach hatred.
Had the intention been to rack up a high body count, the terrorist might well have been a fair-haired man with an English-sounding name, or even a woman. And the bomb would have brought down the plane. The result would have been planes grounded, chaos in the airports and heightened security – exactly what happened anyway.
What a lot of people fail to understand about terrorism is that its purpose is to terrify. There have been enough deadly attacks involving planes and Islamic terrorists that we have been conditioned like Pavlov’s dogs – press the right buttons, and get the expected behaviour.
Now there are calls for trying the terrorist in a military court – expected behaviour, giving one young malcontent a lot more credibility and power than he deserves. One has to wonder what would happen if, instead of elevating his case to a special military court, the authorities downgraded it and encouraged every individual whose travel plans got messed up to sue him.
While installing chemical-sniffing machinery in airports seems prudent, we cannot allow ourselves to be manipulated into curtailing our travel plans, or worse, expressing racist sentiments. If even one Muslim neighbour suffers because of our reaction to what happened on that plane at Christmas, it will be one more triumph for the bad guys.
Bravo to the passenger who noticed something weird going on, and decided to take down the guy with smoke coming out of his pants. That passenger deserves a medal. Bravo to the many individuals who refuse to see the attack as anything more than an attempt by a handful of hate-filled individuals to push our buttons. The monsters do not look nearly so scary once their masks are off. And bravo to the holiday travelers who shrugged their shoulders, stowed their carry-on luggage in the cargo area of the plane and went ahead with their plans.
There are those who would like nothing better than for us to hide in our basements, shaking with fear, and distrusting those of a different faith, race or culture. Let us welcome 2010 with renewed determination to take prudent precautions when warranted, take brave action when needed, and keep moving forward always, free of unwanted baggage like racism and panic. – P.K.