Monday, November 10, 2008

Is the death penalty essential to fighting terrorism?

It can be easy to execute a terrorist. But the challenge is to execute terrorism itself that is spreading in different parts of the world.

Determined terrorists have no fear of death as they consider it as a means to further their perceived notion of jihad. Executing them doesn’t mean much to them as long as- according to their views- they would live in the heart of their supporters and their terrorist act(s) would secure them a place in Paradise.

However their execution is good for society as it will be cleansed of them. It’s better to bury them instead of living them alive as a living memorial of their acts. it is also a means to give relief to the friends and relatives of the victims.

Not executing terrorists means they will have a life imprisonment. This means it will be even more costly to society as they will have to be put in top security prisons and ironically enjoying more protection than ordinary criminals.

Even the repentance of the terrorists doesn’t mean much to society or to the relatives of their victims. Justice should be carried out. What matters is that terrorists should be given fair trial. In other words, terrorism shouldn’t be politicized just to give reason for repressive measures. Human rights should be respected for those who respect humanity and not for those who act in barbaric way.
The worst terrorist ideology is the one based on the hatred of people of other faiths and their systems of life. Perhaps there should be a prescription to kill the mentality fostering terrorism instead of killing just the terrorists that can be easily replaced by more zealous ones who see life as worthless without destroying as many innocent lives as possible.

Execution isn’t essentially a deterrent against further terrorist attacks. But at least it minimises the number of potential terrorists. Having a strong law to deal with terrorism is better than wasting time debating whether a general amnesty can make potential terrorists think twice and regain the mainstream instead of continuing to drift in unknown paths in the hope of being upgraded in this life and after death.

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