My boyfriend - a loving and caring soul - has been an army guy through and through for almost 5 years now, so naturally by training and personality, he is prone to choose a more violent approach. You know the kind; "an eye for an eye". Normally we have arguments about these kind of things because I strongly believe the words of Mahatma Gandhi "an eye for an eye, make the whole world go blind". But that morning I was just scared. At first I thought this fear originated from a more primal place where we yearn safety. But by the end of the day I realized this fear came from the fact that I did not feel like contradicting my boyfriend. I was scared of my own thoughts, because for once the only solution I could think of was the one my army-man provided.
After a few days of intensively reading up on the situation and following any news report, I came out of my revery. Thank the power of peace.
So here I am, with a peaceful solution like the one my younger, more carefree, self would have thrown into your face long ago. As I mentioned above I've done a lot of reading to make sure my facts are straight, so I'll add links in the bottom.
I consider this rescue plan for all of humanity to be two-fold.
First of all, put down your guns, and make all your fighter pilots return home safely. All this violence is only making it worse, to my opinion. I fully understand that the leaders of the western world are angry and feel pressured to take action swiftly and boldly. As I mentioned earlier, even I thought violence was the answer at some point. But then a took a moment and reflected on the whole picture. These hijackers of our freedom only want one thing: enlarge their group of followers. Naturally this is the last thing that we all want. However our foreign policy suggests otherwise. By causing more "collateral damage" with the recent bombings over villages where both IS fighters and innocent human beings lay low, we hand the Salafi preachers extra recruiting material. With every sign of hatred, racism or Islamophobia they win another innocent soul. As Nicolas Hénin states: "The
Islamic State longs to provoke retaliation. We should not fall into the trap." We should not give them that satisfaction. We should show these preachers of hatred that we do not stand for any kind violence. We should teach them a lesson in compassion, by loving all. We should lend a caring hand and ear to those who feel misunderstood, so that they do not fall into the wrong hands who are willing to listen and eventually brainwash them. We all need to hold hands in this fight against hatred.
I realize that this discourse sounds as if I am defending these lost souls. I am not! Any murder is a slap in the face of humanity. I too want these bad guys to be punished for there wrong doings. This does mean we have to get our facts straight and attack the right people in the right way.
Which brings me to my second advice (if you are willing): choose your ally well, and pick the right enemies. I feel like we are targeting the wrong people. We are fighting the symptoms without dealing with the illness. The whole of Europe is frantically for these jihadi's we see on their videos of terror. Say we catch all the jihadi's, what happens then? Don't you think the Salafi preachers won't find new followers. These jihadi's are disposable, replaceable to them. "street kids drunk on ideology and power" according to journalist Hénin, dangerous despite/because of their stupidity. Won't it be far more efficient if we took all the funds we are now putting into bombs and super sturdy and aggressive police forces, and used it for intelligence units who could help smoke out these deluded preachers and unethical Saudi and Qatari sponsors. They are the ones who keep enabling this violence, by either seducing youngsters into believing a fairytale or by financing all kinds of inhuman activities. They are our primary target, if you will.
As an end note I would like to suggest the follow to the world of tomorrow; smile to your neighbor, lend a hand to those you are in need and maybe most importantly, meditate to elevate the general consciousness.
Lots of love,
Tweenie
For those who are interested:
- http://www.demorgen.be/opinie/de-echte-vijanden-zijn-niet-de-jihadi-s-zelf-maar-de-salafistische-predikers-die-hen-hun-overtuiging-aanpraten-ba7c0441/
- http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/16/isis-bombs-hostage-syria-islamic-state-paris-attacks
