Terrorism is criminal sin

What should we call terrorists, some of whom claim to be motivated by their religion? Can one be an Islamic terrorist? What about a Christian terrorist? Does what we call terrorists matter?

There are no words to express my contempt for anyone who kills in the name of God. I say again that Almighty God, the transcendent spirit/breath existent S/He who was before the beginning and who will be after the end does not need human help to take back the breath from any living thing. African wisdom teaches that even the most evil among us enjoys immunity from a human will to kill because God has seen fit to keep them alive.

Since Islam means submission to God's will, submission requires this immunity. Since Christianity teaches the love of enemies, then it too prohibits the killing of other human beings. Terrorism is defined as the deliberate targeting of civilians for death and injury to achieve a political aim. The purpose is to cause people to become so afraid that they insist upon political changes according to the will of terrorists. Biblical wisdom teaches that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1L7) Thus, there can be no such thing as a terrorists acting in accordance to the will of God.

Terror is a response. Whether or not terrorism terrorizes us is our choice. Terrorism is a tactic. A terrorist is a criminal who ought to be apprehended through the apparatuses of law enforcement and ought to be prosecuted to the full extent of either national or international law. Terrorism is a criminal justice issue.

I cannot call these criminals thugs. The late Hip Hop artist Tupac Shakur turned the word "thug" into an acronym for The Hate You Gave. To call someone a thug holds a mirror to my own attitudes and behaviors. It makes me look at the various blatant and subtle ways that I act with fear and hatred of the Other.

I cannot call anyone who targets innocents a gangster or an outlaw. For example, an outlaw is not necessarily wrong. It is for good reason that we romanticize some outlaws, especially when the laws they break are made by the rich for the benefit of the rich. We cheer Robin Hood and his band of merry men living in the forest, outside of the reach of society. We approve of the legend of one who steels from the rich to give to the poor. This, for us, is justice, an equitable distribution of wealth. The legends of Jesse James, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde and others fascinate us. The fictional crime family of the Corleones of the Godfather movies lived according to a certain moral code. Blowing up innocent people who were simply watching a soccer match is beyond even a gangster morality.

I cannot call these people beasts because such would be an insult to the predators of the animal world that kill for food and serve a necessary function. I cannot call them monsters because Frankenstein was a creation of human hubris and was himself a victim. The various vampires, zombies and creatures from another planet that populate our imagination force us to face our fears and to recognize the monster that sleeps inside ourselves.

Terrorists are people who have been deceived. Jesus taught of those who are deceived by the devil: "You belong to your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."

The idea of killing innocents, the idea of killing at all because God wills it is pure deception. It is apostasy, idolatry, and hypocrisy in deadly combination. It demonstrates a lack of faith in the living God who is the only one who ought to decide who lives and dies. It replaces the living God with ideas and judgments of human creation. Terrorist who kill in the name of God wrap themselves in righteousness, but underneath they are living breathing wickedness.

It matters what we call terrorists. The most important correction we can make regarding terrorists is to deny them the name of God. It is important to say that religion is about making just connections. Sin is separation. It destroys right relationships. Terrorism is sin.

In the book "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'aida" published by the Rand Corporation, Seth G. Jones and Martin C. Libicki report on how 648 terrorist groups that existed between 1968 and 2006 ended. They report that nationalist and religious terrorist groups last the longest. Faith gives religious terrorists staying power. They gain support from ordinary people based on their use of a religious vocabulary. However, such groups never achieve their aims because their goal is too large. They want to establish empire.

According to the Rand study, when we identify such groups in religious terms and then declare war on them, we give them the status of religious heroes. Thus, we ought to label them "criminal" and not as holy warriors. This means that we ought to abandon the slogan of "war on terror" and understand that we are engaged in counterinsurgency. This is the tactic that the Obama administration has adopted. This administration complies with the study's recommendations when it makes terrorism a matter of criminal law. The study shows that law enforcement is more successful at ending terrorist groups than is the military.

The report says: "Winning the media war to label terrorists as criminals is especially important and virtually impossible to do in the face of a strategy based on military force."

Biblical wisdom teaches: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. " (2 Corinthians 10:4) We can only establish justice and peace on the earth through just and peaceful means. Terrorism can never build the kind of world that is a praise to the glory of God. There is no such thing as a religious terrorist. They are sick twisted criminals whom we nonetheless have an obligation to love.

By Valerie Elverton Dixon  |  July 13, 2010; 5:48 PM ET Save & Share:                 
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