Tucson Tragedy Has Taught Us Many Lessons: Terror & Terrorists Can Be Found In All Places

by MPAC

During the past week, our country has stood together in mourning over the tragic shooting in Tucson, AZ. We have all heard the heart-wrenching stories of the victims whose lives were cut short as they sought to participate in their democracy and the heroic actions of those who brought the terror to an end by taking down the gunman. We also continue to pray for a member of Congress who fights to stay alive, and through her fight we are reminded that the act of public service is truly selfless.

As political pundits and commentators try to explain and compartmentalize the tragedy, a great inconsistency, has become blatantly apparent Saturday’s act of terror has not and is not being labeled an act of terror. Has the simple fact that the shooter was not Muslim or from a perceived Muslim ethnicity deterred us from determining that this crime is an act of terror?

As we continue to make sense of this horrific tragedy, we must remind ourselves that terror has no one ethnicity, race or religion. Terror, no matter the background of the perpetrator, seeks to shock our collective psyche and disrupt our lives by targeting innocent lives. We must recognize all acts as terror as a grave threat to our national security and democratic principles.

Terror, by definition is the use of violence by an individual or group in order to “make a point” or achieve a goal that is either political or ideological in nature. Watching political pundits maneuver around categorizing this act as terror hurts our nation’s security and prioritization of resources in the struggle against religious and political extremism. Saying that Jared Loughner was driven by mental instability is insufficient. The intentional shooting of a Congresswoman, and the murder of a federal judge and five other citizens who were engaging in a civic act cannot be categorized as anything else but an act of terror.

Many reports, including a recent Dutch study, demonstrate that three out of five lone wolf terrorists have some type of psychological personality disorder, yet their actions are not dismissed as a mere random act of violence. During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing following the Ft. Hood shootings by Nidal Hasan, a telling exchange took place between Sen. Joe Lieberman and Brian Jenkins, an expert on terrorism at the Rand Corporation:

Lieberman: “The existence of mental stress or instability does not mean that that act carried out is not a jihadist or terrorist act.”

Jenkins: “Absolutely, these are not mutually exclusive categories. In many cases, we have individuals who are terrorists, or who are attracted to these extremist ideologies, because of their own personal difficulties and discontent.”

This tragic incident has taught us that as we as a nation will continue to face many challenges, and that we must face them together without marginalizing one group.

Rep. Peter King should heed the words of the former House Homeland Security Committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, who stated that “the chairman of the committee now talks about the Muslim threat, but there is the threat of homegrown terrorists who could be members of some hate group, Klan associated, Aryan Nation associated, or just something they dream up.” Rep. King should expand the scope of his hearing to include the Tucson tragedy to ensure that we truly are seeking to solve the problem of violent extremism in our nation.

If we are truly going to try to find the source of the problem, we need to look at the problem from all sides and angles. But first, we must admit that the problem lies across many ethnicities, races, genders and religions.