According to a new poll by Reuters in March, two-thirds of Americans support torture to extract information from terrorists. The San Bernardino terrorist attack in December last year where 14 people lost their lives and the very recent Brussels massacre that claimed 32 lives triggered this escalation of supporting torture to the arrested terror claimants.
As the political temperature is rising in the US because of the presidential race, Donald Trump is using the anti-Islam card frequently inviting republicans to stand with this school of thought. He is injecting forcefully the idea of torturing suspects into his election campaign.
On the issue he said he would seek to roll back President Barak Obama’s ban on waterboarding- an interrogation technique that stimulates drowning that human rights group contend is illegal under the Geneva Conventions. Further, he claimed to bring back a hell of a lot worse”.
Human Rights organisations and his political opponents criticised his stance but still most of the Americans are aligned towards the idea of torturing suspects. A Vanderbilt University professor, Elizabeth Zechmeister said, “The public right now is coping with a host of negative emotions and fear, anger, general anxiety gives a certain credibility to these feelings.”
The ever growing extremism and terrorism have generated negative emotions worldwide among nations of advanced civilisations that is turning into polarisation, another form of extremism. The extremism will be replaced by racism and in this polarisation more bloodshed could be expected. Lack of opportunities, joblessness and inequality may cause frustration among expatriates, especially Muslim community who are already at the receiving end. In the European countries, this is common phenomena that people when deprived opportunities react to the society executing crimes that lead to extremism or terrorism.
After the Paris attacks, most of the think tanks of European countries endeavoured to find out the root cause of terrorism in the West and many times they came to the conclusion that lack of opportunities could be the reason of ever increasing terrorism in these countries.
There is a state of confusion prevailing in Western societies where the common man is unable to understand the realities because of the cultural, social and religious gap. In this situation inhumane doctrines preached by many like Trump fuel the increasing wave of targeting a certain community. If not it would be disastrous if more positive polls on this issue get strength making strong opinion against people of different skin colour, living peacefully in the Western countries who are not only contributing to the host countries economy but to their home countries like Pakistan. The way of thinking of a common man in European countries is quite different the way common people living in Asian or African countries. The truths of lives are more felt where people encounter day to day problems and issues. But people who have learned to live luxurious lives may or may not understand the bitterness of the cruelties of lives of people in third world countries.
The debate has begun to find out the real motives of extremism. During the last three decades, it has been observed that religiously motivated or brainwashed individuals are responsible for the peace destruction. Several types of articles and researches are available on this issue, but still there is room to understand more the reasons why the extremism is engulfing the world. In the globalisation and the age of fast communication, the plethora of ideologies is generating making opinions of the world’s commons. Freedom of expression getting more chance to share one’s view with others with the help of media and social networks. It is not necessary that every ideology could be fruitful to masses, sometimes what we see is not the reality and for hidden realities, we do not strive. In this scenario, where intelligentsia is working hard to counter extremism, this is also mandatory to fight such ideologies which may bring more chaotic worlds. The interfaith harmony is the need of the hour, this is not only the religious clerics who can contribute to this but it is the world’s think tank that makes opinions and paves the grounds for certain concepts to get grow, the concepts of tolerance, forbearance, equality, justice and brotherhood.
In today’s world, the more we get closer the more we hate others, this is the destiny of the mankind that they have to survive together, they have to learn to live peacefully and in harmony as tolerant societies. There is the need to promote the concept of ‘love thy neighbour’.
Every single accused is innocent until proved guilty, the forensic science has evolved new techniques to extract information from suspects.
However, speaking for human rights should not be a fashion only, otherwise, Trump’s theology will enwrap the world with polarisation and racism.