Nov 17, 2015 3 min read

The horrific attacks in Paris Friday night that killed more than 130 people and left scores more injured posed dangers for the United States.

Sure, there is the immediate risk that a similar terrorist attack could occur in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles or any densely populated point on the map. However, that risk has been present since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Indeed, that risk extends back to the foiled attempt to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993 or to any other terrorist attacks committed by individuals or groups not affiliated with al-Qaeda, ISIS or any other organization peddling violent jihad.

Perhaps the greater risk, both in the near term and in the long run, is that Americans succumb to panic and start listening to those who would sow division and intolerance among us.

In the hours since the carnage at a concert, restaurant and stadium in Paris, many of the same people who have been beating the drums for an “existential war” with Islam, or taking to rostrums championing a “clash of civilizations” have been at it again. Some have suggested we slam the door shut on refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the Middle East, or admit only those who are Christian (though how that determination would be made is unclear). Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, always good for an inflammatory remark, stated Monday that he would consider closing certain mosques in this country. Right-wing bomb thrower Ann Coulter suggested we should no longer allow any Muslims to immigrate to the United States.

These voices should be energetically ignored. There is nothing the adherents of Islamic extermism would like more than an “us versus them” conflict. If we start to demonize and marginalize those who practice Islam, or suggest they are somehow not fully part of our society, either here or in Europe, Asia or anywhere else they call home, we would be doing the recruiting work for ISIS.

Counterterrorism analyst Harleen Gambhir wrote in The Washington Post, “The Islamic State’s strategy is to polarize Western Society – to ‘destroy the grayzone,’ as it says in its publications. The group hopes frequent, devastating attacks in its name will provoke overreactions by European governments against innocent Muslims, thereby alienating and radicalizing Muslim communities throughout the continent. The atrocities in Paris are only the most recent instances of this accelerating campaign.”

It must be emphasized: There are 1.6 billion Muslims across the planet, about 23 percent of the world’s population. The overwhelming majority of them are peaceful and law-abiding, just like the majority of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Taoists, atheists or agnostics. Most estimates place the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria at 200,000. When it comes down to it, that’s an extraordinarily small number of Muslims.

And, as religion scholar Reza Aslan has pointed out, people bring their own predilections to their faiths. If they are violent, they will find justifications for that violence within their religious beliefs. Others could just as easily find spurs to be more caring and altruistic, or seek a more just world.

Want to help defeat terrorism? Tune out the fearmongering and acknowledge the nuances and complexities within all people, and within all religious faiths.