If we carry out police crackdowns just because people are Muslim and ratchet up the torturing in response to ISIS attacks, the terrorists have won. I know it sounds dramatic, but it’s true. These religious nutballs want nothing more than for the West to pour gasoline on the fire and drive more recruits to their apocalyptic mission.
I’m all for getting the bad guys and using law enforcement, intelligence agencies and the military to fight violent extremists, but let’s not allow terror attacks to change who we are. Seal our borders and patrol neighborhoods based on religion? Score one for the terrorists if that happens.
The purpose of terrorism is to get the target nation or people to change their behavior because they are terrified. Don’t fall for it. Crowding the cafes of Paris after the terror attacks in November was one of the best responses to violent jihad, much more powerful than carpet bombing. Let’s all eat Belgian waffles, drink Chimay and eat moules-frites while we tell the terrorists to go to hell. (You can dive deeper into my cartoons and go behind-the-scenes here.)