Terrorism: A Worldwide Crisis

Terrorism is a problem that began since man formed leaders and his own beliefs. It has become a worldwide problem nowadays and still exists even on this generation and will surely exist in more generations to come.
We have different opinions and view points for terrorism; but what is the real meaning of that vague word? I browsed the dictionary and asked Webster for the word terrorism and found this group of words:
“1. the use of terrorizing methods
2. the state of fear and submission so produced
3. terroristic methods of governing or of resisting a government”
From these definitions, we can conclude that everyone has capabilities to do terrorizing acts or commit terrorism. But lately, we can see that terrorism has always been associated with religion, or so the media have said. The definition of terrorism in the dictionary did not mention anything with differences in their religions. But why terrorism nowadays has been always about Islam versus Christians?
Events worldwide that are caused by terrorism have always been connected with the Islam like Osama Bin Laden and the group Al Qaeda. In the Philippines, we have MILF that truly resist government and want to lead Mindanao and claimed the place as their own. Some events that happened in the history were the 9/11 bombing and some hostage takings worldwide.
All problems have the same behavior, and terrorism has it too: A CAUSE.
Terrorism was born when people tend to have different beliefs and became more independent of what they think. One cause of terrorism is the different beliefs and/or religion.
Islam and Christian were the major religions in the world. Both have many similarities and equally many differences as well. If we look in the history many acts of terrorism happened between Christians and Muslims. Bombing, hijacking, suicide bombings and “holy wars” are examples of these incidents.
Another cause of terrorism would be the people that go against the government. Examples of these are the MILF, which are currently become active again for its recent activities. We can see that religion can be a factor again because majority (or all) of the people in the government are Christians and majority of the people resisting the administration in the Mindanao are Muslims.
Next in line are the people who resist change; again, influenced by their religious beliefs and cultures. Example of which is Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, where change is not welcomed by everybody.
Last in the list of causes is the greed of power. This is what most of has have. This is also a major cause of terrorism because people tend to sacrifice other’s life for their own sake. Example of this is Vladimir III’s reign in Walachia where he killed thousands of people by impaling them on stakes, which is, a gruesome act of terrorism.
Terrorism affects many innocent people and is the cause of countless deaths. The effects of it are also very considerable. It affects us socially, politically and economically.
Socially, fear among citizens develops which cause traumatic effects especially on children. People become less trusting and more paranoid in the environment around him.
Politically, it affects the country by having political breakdowns and more opposition arise. People tend to blame the government for all the bad things happening to the country and execute or organize rallies that affect the government and the country itself.
Economically, terrorism affects us too. Firms and business establishments tend to halt their operations due to fear and bankrupt as a result of terrorism. Example is bombing, which can end lives and businesses too. Another example is the fear it brought to tourists which affect us greatly economically. Recently, fewer tourists visit our country because of terrorism threats, which affect our national profit as a whole.
Although terrorism became a major problem to us, different solutions have been done to control it. Worldwide, security has been heightened to protect important people like leaders. United Kingdom’s also helped countries that have been terrorized by sending troops to help. Example of which is US, which gave American soldiers to protect Filipinos from MILF in Mindanao. The advantage of this can be seen from the decreasing crimes linked on terrorism while the American troops are positioned. Like any other solution, it also have a disadvantage; after the troops went back, crimes associated to terrorism began to rise again.
In our country, I read an article that MILF should not take ransom to its victims when they take hostages or kidnap people. I found this law funny. First, who would kidnap and put his life in danger without being insured of having some favorable benefits with it? Who would take an ordinary person and held it captive for no reason at all? This law, in other words, does not need to be implemented at all because it will not be followed anyway.
I have my own solutions of my own too. First, a non-violent approach: show your love and respect to other people even to your enemies. Talk to them as much as possible in a friendly way. But just like any other solutions, this seems impossible to solve the problem.
Another solution would be to set aside the differences. Even though we have different beliefs, we should respect all man as our family and friends. Do not let the differences in the religion be a wall that separates every man with different beliefs. This will not be effective at first, but a calm peaceful way will always be the answer.
Lastly, listen. Have an open mind at all times and consider others feeling. Be the one to understand.

“one can wake up a sleeping man but how do you wake up a man who is pretending to sleep".