How Terror Wins

A week ago a car was driven into a crowd here in Germany, and before the story was even processed politicians on the far right of the spectrum were using the event to condemn the advance of Islamic terrorism. Of course, pretty quickly it was determined that the attacker was not a terrorist, nor a Muslim. He was just a disturbed, suicidal German man.

But in one aspect, the politicians were right. Terrorism advances and terrorists win when they no longer even need to act to stir up fear, controversy, and hate. Their goal is not to kill as many people as possible. It is to cause cultures where human life is valued and the rule of law is the norm to abandon respect for others and rational discussion. Fear is their aim. And, from the cultural climate in Western countries, they have done a great job. We have even seen the President of the US condemn attacks that never even happened in recent months!

But before the fearmongers declare total victory, it is also encouraging to see the population at large not totally buying into the fear. Even though politicians who demagogue and promote fear are gaining, they are still seeing minorities. And the AFD politicians who jumped to conclusions were rightly condemned, even before their error was confirmed.