Terrorism


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	UNITED NATIONS: On March 6th, Secretary General Kofi Annan told an audience of foreign policy experts that terrorism was not necessarily linked to poverty but rose from a broader mix of problems caused by bad government, opportunistic politicians and militant leaders who exploit grievances. “The poor, he said, have enough burdens without being considered likely terrorists simply because they are poor.” Speaking at the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Annan also said the world’s failure over a decade to act on warning signs in Afghanistan, battered by political, economic and natural disasters, resulted in the catastrophe of Sept. 11. “There is a clear, if complicated, trail from the absence of engagement with Afghanistan in the 1990’s to the creation of a terrorist haven there to the attacks on the World Trade Center,” he said…… “Where massive and systematic, political, economic and social inequalities are found, and where no legitimate means of addressing them exists,” Mr. Annan said, “an environment is created in which peaceful solutions all too often lose out against extreme and violent alternatives.” Source: NYTimes, 3.7.2002 ISLAMIC VIEWS: A February Gallop Poll of nine Islamic nations provides clear evidence that Muslim opinion is profoundly suspicious of US motives in the campaign against terrorism. 10,000 interviewees condemned the September 11th suicide attacks and thought them morally wrong. An even larger number thought the US military attacks in Afghanistan were unjustified. In Kuwait, the Gulf state for which the US went to war with Iraq in 1991, almost as many people thought that the September 11th attacks were justified as unjustified. Commenting on the Gallop Poll, the Financial Times (March 3rd, 2002) suggested that winning the war against terrorism means winning it in the minds and hearts of the Islamic world as well as in the West; it means even-handedness in the Middle East; and it means the correct treatment of detainees. Source: Financial Times, 3.3.2002 VINCENTIAN VIEWS: 1. Have you had any experience with terrorism in your region? 2. How has your life been affected because of your experience? 3. Are there resources within our Vincentian tradition that you found helpful in coping with the experience of terrorism? 4. Would you be able and willing to share any of your experience? \| YOUTH \| Young Catholic Leaders \| Recent Newsletters \| Terrorism \| \| Return Home \| About Us \| What's New \| Urgent Action \| Getting Involved \| Great Links \| Current Newsletter \| Articles \| Contact Us \|