Story highlights
- Sally Kohn: It's futile to respond to terrorist violence with more violence in a way that creates more terrorists
- If we really want to fight terrorism, we must re-examine our own actions
Sally Kohn is an activist, columnist and television commentator. Follow her on Twitter: @sallykohn. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN)In spring 2013, a then 22-year-old man named Farea al-Muslimi testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about an American drone strike on his small village in Yemen. Muslimi, the beneficiary of a U.S. State Department scholarship that allowed him to learn English and study abroad in California, considers himself one of America's greatest champions in the region.
Yet the attack "terrified thousands of simple, poor farmers" and, as Muslimi put it, "tore at my heart." He said the attack made his "passion and mission in support of America almost impossible" and did more to empower anti-American terrorists than weaken them.
Many Americans who think their own hatred of radical Islamists is a logical consequence of the violence that Islamists commit fail to grasp that Islamists may hate the United States for the violent acts of our nation. This is a failure of reciprocal compassion — not that we should have compassion for terrorist leaders, but for those ordinary villagers Muslimi describes.
Sally Kohn
Just as those of us in the United States and Europe feel terrorized by the attacks in Paris, and provoked to respond with violent retribution, so, too, do villagers in Yemen and Afghanistan and Syria and Iraq feel terrorized by American airstrikes and provoked to respond as well.
If we think it's irrational, immoral or plainly reckless for ordinary Arab citizens to respond to violence with violence, then we should stop doing so ourselves.
Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
A Belgian soldier stands guard around a security perimeter as a reported police intervention takes place around the Grand Place central square in Brussels on Sunday, November 22. Multiple raids took place throughout Brussels, according to the Belgium Federal prosecutor, and 16 people were arrested. Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in Paris terror attacks, was not among them.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Belgian police officers and soldiers secure an area as a reported police intervention takes place around the Grand Place central square in Brussels on November 22.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Belgian national Ahmad Dahmani, center, suspected to be involved in the November 13 Paris attacks, was arrested late Friday, November 20, in southern Antalya province, Turkey. Dahmani had been tracked by a police anti-terror unit after he arrived at the Antalya International Airport -- on a flight from Paris -- the day after the massacre.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Two Syrian nationals, Ahmet Tahir, left, and Muhammed Verd, were arrested by Turkish security forces in southern Antalya province, Turkey, on November 20. They were captured, allegedly with a fake Syrian passport for Belgian national Ahmad Dahmani, suspected of location scouting for the Paris attackers.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Police searched the home of Hasna Ait Boulahcen's mother in Aulnay-sous-Bois, France, on Thursday, November 19. Ait Boulahcen, 26, was killed during Wednesday's raid on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, official sources in France told CNN. She did not blow herself up as was previously thought.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
A body is removed from an apartment that was raided by police in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, France, on Wednesday, November 18. French special forces were looking for those behind the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris. The hourslong ordeal ended with at least two suspects dead and eight detained.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Authorities zeroed in on the Saint-Denis building after picking up phone conversations that a relative of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the attacks' purported ringleader, might be there. The Paris prosecutor's office later announced that Abaaoud's bullet-riddled body was found after the raid.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve visits Saint-Denis during the raid on November 18.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
A Renault Clio with Belgian license plates is towed by the police in Paris on Tuesday, November 17. The car is believed to have been rented by Salah Abdeslam. Authorities are looking for Abdeslam, a Belgium-born French national who is one of three brothers suspected in the terror attacks.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Special forces stand guard on a roof in Molenbeek, a suburb of Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, November 16.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Armed police guard a street in Brussels on November 16.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Salah Abdeslam's brother Mohammed speaks to the media at his house in Molenbeek on November 16. Mohamed Abdeslam was released by police after being detained over the weekend.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Special forces sit on a roof in Molenbeek as they prepare to enter a house on November 16.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
Armed police guard a street in Molenbeek on November 16.
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Photos: The search for Paris terror suspects
A man is detained by a police officer after a raid in the Mirail district of Toulouse, France, on November 16. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said there were 150 police raids overnight in the country.
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Police officers overlook Paris as they patrol in front of the Sacre Coeur Basilica on November 16.
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I'm not saying the scope and severity of the violence from the two sides are the same. And I'm not drawing a moral equivalency between the actions of one side versus the other. Instead, I think it's futile to respond to terrorist violence with more violence in a way that creates more terrorists.
You don't have to be a peacenik to realize this is a vicious cycle. Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn says the drone war is creating more terrorists than it's killing (and that the United States invasion of Iraq created ISIS in the first place). Previously, the National Intelligence Estimate confirmed the Iraq War created more terrorists than it killed. Just as we are provoked by their violence, they are provoked by ours.
Moreover, it's a dynamic that inherently favors ISIS. For starters, ISIS wants to be seen and treated as "a state" and France or the United States or any major nations declaring war against ISIS reinforces its claim to power and position. Second, by increasing the likelihood the West will turn away Syrian refugees (as for instance, half the United States governors have now vowed to do), these refugees may become increasingly resentful of the West for not helping them.
Terrorism in our world today is fueled by ideology. Terrorists believe the West is the enemy of Islam. The more the United States turns its back on the refugees and demonizes all Muslims because of the insanity of a radical few, the more we play into that ideology.
Even anti-Islam dissident Ayaan Hirsi Ali said, "You can't bomb bad ideas out of people's heads." And, in fact, the bombing may make the idea spread.
So what should we do? Saying we should not engage in a protracted bombing campaign that will kill innocent people and enrage others is not the same as saying we should just sit back and do nothing.
Photos: Increased security following Paris attacks
People go through a security checkpoint to attend a Mass in homage to victims of the Paris terror attacks at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Sunday, November 15. French President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency after the attacks in Paris on Friday, November 13, and said border security has been ramped up. The terrorist group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
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French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, center, speaks with police forces with French Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, left, and Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris on November 15 about security measures after the attacks.
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French police secure the perimeter after panic broke out among mourners who paid their respects at the attack sites at restaurant Le Petit Cambodge and the Carillon Hotel in Paris on November 15.
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Mounted police officers patrol in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on November 15.
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Security personnel inspect vehicles at the border between Belgium and France on Saturday, November 14.
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A police officer stands guard outside the Cafe Bonne Biere in the Rue de la Fontaine au Roi in Paris on November 14.
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A French police officer guards the French-Italian border on November 14 in Menton, France.
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Soldiers from the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment of Carcassonne arrive at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris as security reinforcements on November 14.
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Soldiers patrol the Eiffel Tower on November 14.
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Photos: Increased security following Paris attacks
French police check vehicles on the bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl, Germany, on November 14.
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Photos: Increased security following Paris attacks
Police vehicles are parked near the entrance to the Louvre in Paris on November 14. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the state of emergency in France could mean restrictions on people's movements. Airports in France remained open, and airlines were still flying there, though some airlines reported canceled flights.
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French police check vehicles on the so-called European bridge between Strasbourg and Kehl, Germany, on November 14.
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Police stand guard at a train station in Paris on November 14.
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We should act without replicating the violence and provocation of our enemy. We should make every effort to find those behind the Paris attacks, and all those connected with it, and not kill them outright just as ISIS would do to us but bring them to justice under the rule of law — a core American value that makes our nation just and democratic.
Our civil liberties and freedoms define us as a nation and make us proud. If we allow ourselves to be provoked by ISIS into violating our own principles, we're handing them a victory. Moreover, our best chance at ending Islamic terrorism is supporting progressive religious reform within Islam. We do precisely the opposite when we use isolated terrorist incidents to implicitly — or explicitly — demonize all Muslims.
Farea al-Muslimi says of the American bombing campaign in Yemen, "It was the worst feeling I ever had. I was devastated for days because I knew that the bombing in my village by the United States would empower militants."
It's a hard reality to face -- the fact that America's actions and foreign policy help create the anger and devastation that can lead to terrorism. But if we really want to fight terrorism, we must re-examine our own actions.
