Unnerving Radicalism

The title may not have to deal with the content. I have no idea what the content is going to be about. However, these two words have been on the tips of my thoughts for the last days. Some things we see here in the U.S by far have been so overwhelming; I feel the need to unnerve myself should be the first to be addressed. I am too occupied with food, places we are seeing, and of course the wonderful group of women that I even forgot what we are doing here.

We are here to work on strategies to unnerve radicalism …

While all that has been happening is worth a lot of reflection and discussion regarding the thoughts and means that have been addressed and discussed. A persistent thought never left my head since the first day . all these prevention procedures, precautions, that practically State apparatus that functions everything to control violent radicalism has certain points that seem strangely un-addressed to me, the first is the roots to all this. The second is the predictability of everything about those different targeted extremists\radicalist\terrorists and yet impossibility to catch them.

It is true that it seems infectious, and it is. However, couldn’t it also be like this virus and anti-virus issue?  It could be as well very true that the anonymity of the spread made it beyond control. There is no more any one given rule that can determine how to define the setup or de-setup of such structures, in either recruitment or organizations. It spread so widely to a level that it is far reaching and just next to you on your sofa.

The question that comes to my mind is, should we just forget about the roots of the problems and focus on how we will find a way to fight it? However, maybe the reason that it is so infectious and contagious is the fact that we are only looking into the symptoms.

I also know that my platonic plight in creating the Republic is not even on the screen of imagination, however, the continuous state of injustices, wars, poverty, oppression, and many other related elements serve as the seed of radicalism.

I wonder if this is a strict Palestinian sentiment .. at some point while hearing a briefing from someone from the State Department that included an impressive illustration of certain women who chose the path of Isis, X a mother, has a family…. one day she leaves her home .. surveillance cameras spotted her in the airport ….to Syria..

Moreover, the big question mark that puts the entire department and the State into an emergency position is: What made her do that?

I felt like standing up and telling him: My name is Nadia,  I am a mother of 4 . some years back to the 2nd intifada. I was driving my ‘spoilt’ daughter with my ‘spoilt rich’ brother in my ” luxurious ” car , to a “swimming class’ when I was encountered by a “flying checkpoint ” in the mid of the few kilometers far away swimming center for a few hours in relaxing Friday afternoon  with a few almost a handful of cars ahead of me, with a soldier eating crackers while we waiting endlessly for nothing but his stunt behavior . When I complained, he took my ID and decided to make me wait for more, and when I burst into anger, I found his gun pointed to my head. A moment when life becomes a new distance of nothing and worth of nothing. A moment I was so ready to leave with not a single hesitant thought, seeing my humanity stripped away from me by a worthless, arrogant soldier that was assigned to humiliate me. Even though the screams of my daughter and my brother broke my trancing instant, I understood fully at that instant what made people suicidal ( back then). It would have taken a woman like me, with all the luxury of the proposed life I had to be the next suicide attacker … How hard is that to be understood by anyone who perpetuates such environment of extremism that includes racism, oppression, segregation, inequality, injustice and on top of it all occupation and then expects people to behave kindly and calmly.

People need to be given reasons to live in order to hold on to life…. take this away from them by taking away their dignity, pride, honor, freedom  and add on that oppression ,suppression, injustice and racism , with restrictions that surround them from all directions and limit their resources to normal lives… the result is the secret recipe that we call radicalism .. that becomes easy to transform into a violent prescription .