First of all my heart and prayers go out to Paris and the people of France. It is horrible they have had to endure to such attacks in such a short time. The time for platitudes, however, is over.
I've never been a big one for wallowing in self-pity. After the initial shock of 9/11 had worn off, which I guess was a couple days, I was much more concerned about how to make sure it couldn't happen again, than to sit around and say 'Why us?'. I was basically aghast with all the weepy-eyed Enya sound-tracked coverage that persisted for days. I kept reminding people that the people of Great Britain were blitzkrieged for days on end and their response was to go down in tunnels during the attacks and after it cleared, go up and walk through rubble to go back to work if they could. If anything, the only helplessness I felt was that I couldn't get in and help form some sort of solution.
I was working for an architectural firm in Los Angeles at the time and our primary client was Los Angeles World Airport, so after about a month, I got my wish. We were to head the airport security effort which eventually dovetailed into the national effort. We began working for the nascent TSA and by the time it was over I had been part of a team that secured five major international airports from the ground up and crafted the new standards for airport security nationwide, which in turn influenced airport security worldwide.
The group that did this were not security 'experts'. There were no experts on what had happened to us. We were not tasked with 'making sure another 9/11 couldn't happen again'. That would have been an unachievable goal. We were tasked at making air travel as safe as we possibly could. That included a whole lot of proposals which never got implemented. These unimplemented proposals did lead to solutions that worked.
In that spirit I wish to offer some proposals for our current problem: unreasoning, uncompromising, killers with no conscience and the cock sureness that what they have done will get them into heaven.
One of the first things that needs to be attacked, WITH EDUCATION is that they WILL NOT get into Paradise for killing their fellow men and women. They ARE NOT doing the 'will' of Allah. That is the basis of ALL of their killing, their biggest recruiting tool and it is founded in error.
The following is taken from Juan Cole's excellent article, 'Top Ten Ways Islamic Law Forbids Terrorism.'
http://www.juancole.com/2013/04/islamic-forbids-terrorism.html
"1. Terrorism is above all murder. Murder is strictly forbidden in the Qur’an. Qur’an 6:151 says, “and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully.” (i.e. murder is forbidden but the death penalty imposed by the state for a crime is permitted). 5:53 says, “… whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.”
2. If the motive for terrorism is religious, it is impermissible in Islamic law. It is forbidden to attempt to impose Islam on other people. The Qur’an says, “There is no compulsion in religion. The right way has become distinct from error.” (-The Cow, 2:256). Note that this verse was revealed in Medina in 622 AD or after and was never abrogated by any other verse of the Quran. Islam’s holy book forbids coercing people into adopting any religion. They have to willingly choose it.
3. Islamic law forbids aggressive warfare. The Quran says, “But if the enemies incline towards peace, do you also incline towards peace. And trust in God! For He is the one who hears and knows all things.” (8:61) The Quran chapter “The Cow,” 2:190, says, “Fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! God loveth not aggressors.”
4. In the Islamic law of war, not just any civil engineer can declare or launch a war. It is the prerogative of the duly constituted leader of the Muslim community that engages in the war. Nowadays that would be the president or prime minister of the state, as advised by the mufti or national jurisconsult.
5. The killing of innocent non-combatants is forbidden. According to Sunni tradition, ‘Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, the first Caliph, gave these instructions to his armies: “I instruct you in ten matters: Do not kill women, children, the old, or the infirm; do not cut down fruit-bearing trees; do not destroy any town . . . ” (Malik’s Muwatta’, “Kitab al-Jihad.”)
6. Terrorism or hirabah is forbidden in Islamic law, which groups it with brigandage, highway robbery and extortion rackets– any illicit use of fear and coercion in public spaces for money or power. The principle of forbidding the spreading of terror in the land is based on the Qur’an (Surah al-Ma’ida 5:33–34). Prominent [pdf] Muslim legal scholar Sherman Jackson writes, “The Spanish Maliki jurist Ibn `Abd al-Barr (d. 464/ 1070)) defines the agent of hiraba as ‘Anyone who disturbs free passage in the streets and renders them unsafe to travel, striving to spread corruption in the land by taking money, killing people or violating what God has made it unlawful to violate is guilty of hirabah . . .”
7. Sneak attacks are forbidden. Muslim commanders must give the enemy fair warning that war is imminent. The Prophet Muhammad at one point gave 4 months notice.
8. The Prophet Muhammad counseled doing good to those who harm you and is said to have commanded, “Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil.” (Al-Tirmidhi)
9. The Qur’an demands of believers that they exercise justice toward people even where they have reason to be angry with them: “And do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness.”[5:8]
10. The Qur’an assures Christians and Jews of paradise if they believe and do good works, and commends Christians as the best friends of Muslims. I wrote elsewhere, “Dangerous falsehoods are being promulgated to the American public. The Quran does not preach violence against Christians.
Quran 5:69 says (Arberry): “Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabeaans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousness–their wage waits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.”"
Now, I must admit the tenor of my article has been changed by a simple internet search. I was going to enumerate ways the World could go after the terrorists, hopefully without losing it's humanity. It was going to be a rather detailed piece about possible tactics but I didn't expect to come upon a thought that so clearly strikes at the heart of what these wrong-minded and cruel people are using as justification for doing all their unconscionable acts of terror. So, I am going to write that article another day.
Will these tactics, Education and Truth, immediately bring an end to terrorism? No, they will not. Will they stop their recruiting? Not immediately but eventually. If the WORLD works together it will make these concepts clear:
When you engage in terrorism. You ARE NOT doing the 'will of Allah'.
When you kill innocent people, you WILL NOT be 'welcomed into Paradise'
It will take the World and the World of Islam to make this part of text books (not just ‘the Book’), common knowledge and get this message into the minds of would be recruits. It is only one tactic but it is a tactic more powerful than bullets, bombs or drone strikes.
And It is a message of Truth.