The Dangers of Verbal Terrorism
Ahmed Al-Rabei

We have laws that allow for the arrest, imprisonment and even execution of those who carry out acts of terror, however, there seems to be a different kind of terrorism that nobody discusses which finds its audience in the Arab street, Arab satellite channels, mosques and in the press – namely, verbal terrorism.

Heated dialogue between Lebanese politicians launched accusations of mass destruction: this one is an American Zionist, that one is a Syrian agent, and the other is accused of being implicated in the assassination of one leader or another. In Iraq, sectarian leaders accuse some of being disbelievers, ostracizing them from the creed, while making their accusations by committing crimes such as burning homes and places of worship without any evidence to support their claims. Such allegations sow the seed of hatred amongst the people of one nation.

In Egypt, representatives of the ruling party in parliament competed with their counterparts from the Muslim Brotherhood in what seemed to be a competition of insults at the expense of the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni who was accused of renouncing Islam, deviance, and of becoming excessively ‘westernized’, assisting the enemy with his plans etc. It is a harsh and brutal language regardless of whom it addresses, or of the nature of the issue at hand.

In Kuwaiti Parliament, two representatives exchanged insults about one another’s tribal affiliation in an attempt to undermine the value and dignity of elected representatives. Such words would be condemned if used on the streets let alone in the respected halls of parliament! There exist those who oversimplify and diminish the danger of verbal terrorism and the ideology behind it, forgetting that incitement, treacherous allegations, and accusations related to faith are the starting point of physical and moral terrorism and murder. What would stop a young man from killing someone that a religious leader has already deemed an infidel or somebody who has renounced his religion? What would stop an overzealous nationalist from killing somebody who national leaders have branded a traitor to the state and who is part of a wider American Zionist plot?

Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Ahmed Al-Rabei offers this insight. Words can and do have effect. Sometimes it’s a matter of rational argument; sometimes it’s a matter of reaching for an emotional reaction. Al-Rabei might have taken his thoughts a step further, though, in noting that a school system—curriculum, textbooks, teachers’ practice—that demonizes groups on the basis of their religion or ethnicity lessen the barriers between words and violence. Millions become dehumanized, as ‘apes and pigs’, making any offense against them not only not an offense, but almost a duty. It starts fires that are difficult to control because they become part of an emotional, not rational reaction. Here is to be found one of the roots of terrorism. And these fires are extremely hard to extinguish.