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Insanity as relief!

Jul 26,2016 - Last updated at Jul 26,2016

Exactly one week after the shocking coup attempt in Turkey, which would have seen the country engulfed in chaos had it succeeded, and after the atrocious terror attack in Nice, we found ourselves glued to our TV screens and multimedia outlets, yet again, to witness the latest atrocity unfolding before our eyes, as it was reported that a gunman opened fire on innocent shoppers going about their daily business in a busy shopping centre in Munich, killing many in cold blood and injuring many others.

I happened to be watching from my London hotel room on the night of July 22, and I remained engrossed in the news coverage, desperate to find out the latest developments on that breaking news story, in much the same way as I did the previous Friday night in Amman monitoring the Turkish coup. 

Other than the horror I felt at the senseless loss of innocent lives, the fear they must have felt as they were struck in cold blood in a place they expected to be safe, one of my other more subjective concerns, also shared by my many friends who called to exchange observations on the Munich atrocity that night, was the hope that the murderers would not be identified as Arabs or Muslims. 

The perception that terror is mostly linked to Muslims, or worse to the Islamic faith, is becoming overwhelmingly prevalent, with all recent terror attacks in many European countries, in addition to many other cities worldwide, being committed by Muslims. I simply hoped the pattern of “Muslim terror” would differ this time for a change.

It is quite cruel to — though temporarily — forget about the victims of the Munich attack and the horror that crime was causing shoppers on a peaceful summer night in the historic Bavarian capital, and only focus concern on protecting one’s own name from being marred, yet again, with such condemnable heinous terror.

But as I was watching scores of terrified families escaping the crime scene in the Munich shopping centre, I could not help but imagine the big questions that might be running through their minds: “what do Muslims want from us? We hosted them as immigrants, as refugees, opened our doors for them, and they are now killing us. Why should those Muslims destroy our peaceful lives when we are out with our children to enjoy life away from any violence? Why are Muslims who destroyed their own countries coming to destroy ours?”

At that moment I recalled the perpetrator of the German axe attack who struck innocent people on a train on July 18. He was a 17-year old Afghan Muslim boy who had arrived on his own to Germany as a refugee. 

He was taken in by a German family that offered him home as it would its own son. 

He was given a new life with the promise of a secure and a guaranteed bright future, probably much brighter than that would have awaited him at his original home. All that boy did to show “gratitude” was to arm himself with an axe and a knife, hide them as he boarded a local train, and attack innocent passengers next to him causing many serious injuries before he was killed by the police.  

How could that ever be explained and how could any amount of damage control mend the cultural divide such crimes have been causing?

It is also cruel to be relieved — many of us were, including the German authorities — when the German police announced on Saturday that the Munich killer was not a “terrorist”, was not linked to Daesh or any other “Jihadist” organisation. 

But he was still identified as a German Muslim of Iranian origin, the police said, who acted alone and was mentally disturbed.  

Of course, being mentally ill is no consolation and does not reduce the pain nor alleviate the panic within the stricken society, and as far as the victims and their families are concerned, whatever motivated the crime and whether the murderer was sagacious or insane makes no difference whatsoever.

Normally a judge in a court of law would consider reduced punishment for someone proven not to be in control of his/her actions due to mental disability. But people whose mental conditions constitute a potential danger in their social environment are often provided with the help and the treatment they may need and they can, if deemed necessary, be confined. 

The Munich murderer, from what we know so far, slipped through the net undetected; he knew exactly what he was planning to do; he obtained a weapon; he practised well enough to be able to shoot and kill nine people in a matter of seconds with a 9mm pistol — something only highly trained shooters can do; he lured his victims to come to the crime scene for a free burger using a fake Facebook account; and in the end he managed to escape arrest. 

Had he not decided to kill himself, he would probably have caused more carnage and death as he had about 300 rounds of ammunition in his possession.

There is no question that only very disturbed and deranged minds could so callously and so indiscriminately murder other innocent people in cold blood. 

Terrorism is madness. Even if the truck driver who senselessly ploughed through a celebrating crowd in Nice, killing 84 people and injuring many more a couple of weeks ago, was not declared or labelled as mentally ill, clearly he must also be mad. 

The many terrorist organisations operating all over the Middle East, slaughtering young boys, taking sex slaves for their own pleasure or for sale, burning captives alive, looting property, shooting prisoners, exploding their bodies in mosques and in crowded places anywhere, and aimlessly threatening peace, are all somehow mad — even if they are not labelled as so. 

These are not the actions of sound minds. Criminals are either labelled as mentally disturbed or terrorists, but the two should not be distinct. Even legitimate struggle for a recognised national cause should not allow itself to cross the borders of sanity by resorting to indiscriminate violence or suicidal behaviour. 

And yet this madness that we are witnessing is not without causes; causes that have either been ignored or even encouraged. 

In the case of the Munich gunman, it transpired that he had been bullied for many years by his peers and he claimed that this was his revenge. In no way should such a claim justify the brutal crime, although it could have aggravated an existing mental fragility. It has long been proven that bullying can and does cause long term and severe psychological damage.

Terrorism is also madness, but it also has its own causes. 

Not only has an objective diagnosis of such dangerous phenomena been lacking, but worse still, it has been avoided lest it point fingers in the wrong direction. Abnormal situations create abnormal behaviour.

While the voluntary movement of people across countries’ borders generates healthy cultural interaction and brings people closer to each other, forced migration on the other hand creates tension, suspicion, racism and fear, and produces misfits. 

That is just one outcome of the refugee crisis of Europe. There are many foreign hands behind the chaos in the Middle East. There are many foreign hands behind the crisis in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. 

There were and still are many hands behind the century-old Arab Israeli conflict, which is a primary source of perpetual trouble in the region and further afield. As such, not many are keen to trace the real root causes of the trouble.

As we, the human community, have destroyed our environment, we are also destroying our peace. 

 

The creeping danger is targeting all of us; just taking us in turns. It is the responsibility of all of us to investigate it and confront it. We should do that no matter where fingers point.

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