This article was originally published on December 27, 2015.
“Terrorism’s point isn’t to hijack the airliners, it’s to hijack the debate.”
I recommend that you check out the clip below (even if it is just the first few minutes) in which Mark Steyn, with considerable insight outlines the purpose of Islamic terrorism.
As Steyn states, terrorism “terrorises you into wanting to avoid certain subjects,” such as the critique of Islam.
“Terrorism succeeds when we assume the place of a ‘battered wife'”, says Steyn.
It is the condition of the battered wife “that we are taking when we let core western liberties be assaulted by people who have nothing but contempt for them.”
Steyn warns: “The [Islamic] veil is descending on us, and we are staggering around like a battered wife trying to persuade ourselves that the person slugging us in the kisser means well and is doing it only because they care about us.”
“Successful terrorism persuades the terrorised that in fact you’ve had an attack of conscience. That’s why after 9/11 across Europe and North America and Australia Muslim immigration accelerated… After 9/11, the obligation was on us, the battered wife, to demonstrate that we had learned our lesson by increasing Muslim immigration.”
Only one suffering from the battered wife condition would genuinely entertain the idea of building a mosque on the site where Islamic terrorists had murdered thousands of people.
Terrorism has made great inroads when political leaders and large swaths of the population apologise for the Islamic community and urge greater understanding in the wake of terrorist attacks.
Of course, that is exactly how battered wives commonly respond. They apologise for the perpertrator, make excuses for the perpetrator’s actions, and often blame themselves. This is exactly how many have responded to Islamic terror and violence.
Terrorism has almost achieved it’s end when terrorists can get the victim to do the terrorising for them. Only at such a point can a term such as “Islamophobia” can conceivably be coined and used to silence and discredit any criticism of Islam.
Most concerningly, terrorism has largely achieved its end when even our own defence and intelligence agencies have imbided this battered wife condition. The director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Duncan Lewis, showed just last week how deeply, and gravely entrenched the West’s battered wife mentality is when he telephone members of parliament calling them to tone down their criticism of Islam.
Those who blame the critics of Islam for terrorism, and the grass roots movements which have mobilised in response to it and are also speaking and acting out of this battered wife condition. Such a response only further embeds fear and terrorism into the psyche of its victim.
We will not success against terrorism if we remain in the place of the battered wife. We need to face the spectre of terrorism, to understand its psychological dimensions, and to confront its source. Then we will win the war against terror.