Another Side to Roots of Terrorism

Martin Ebert’s hypothesis (Physics Today, September 2003, page 16 ) that “the precedents of terrorism are … inequality, social suffering, intolerance, and lack of understanding” is not supported by the facts. People become terrorists not because of our intolerance, but because of their intolerance; not because of our lack of understanding, but because of their lack of understanding; not because of suffering inflicted on them, but because of their desire to inflict suffering on others.

There is another reason why I find Ebert’s remarks offensive. There exist perhaps a billion or more people throughout the world who truly are victims of terrible deprivation—and have not resorted to terrorism. Let’s not commit calumny on these long-suffering people by laying the responsibility for creating terrorists on anyone other than the terrorists themselves and the societies that birth them. We need to help others because it is the right thing to do—not because it will relieve us of the terrorists. It won’t.