All around the world, people have given different reasons for terrorism happening in different parts of the globe. Some call it a religious issue, some call it enemity and some just conveniently ignore it and go about their lives comfortably. The problem is nobody has taken out the time to sit and think about this global problem in depth. Terrorism happens because a set of people are given informal education, their brains are filled with knowledge that if they do not follow this particular path of action, their lives will not be successful and that they would be committing the greatest sin of all times.
Formal education –The impressionable minds of the youth can actually be molded whichever way a person wants and that is exactly what the terrorist organizations thrive on. They train them, teach them and turn them into fanatics who think not fulfilling their duty is the biggest sin. Formal education on the other hand will take this assumption away from them and tell them that there are better ways of having your voice heard.
Teaching children about other religions – In a place like school, children should be educated about every religion there is in the world. Once they know what every religion preaches, only then would they be able to accept and respect other people. The main problem is oblivion, when people don’t know about other religions they assume that their teachings are not right. People often forget that all religions push for the same things and prohibit wrong doing.
Reducing poverty and Increasing Employment – Education is one thing that can help us in increasing employability and reducing poverty, which has proved to be a major reason for people to choose a wrong life path. People who are often forced into terrorism because they are made to believe that it will solve all their family and monetary problems. Thus, if we pro-actively solve the monetary problems and increase the employability of all the people, there will be a lesser chance of people being misled.
Cross cultural bonding – When in an environment where people of different culture are united by the love for education, human beings make friends from across the border and with different religious views. Thus, education helps a person to realize that it is not a particular country or religion that is spreading terrorism, it is just a group of people who, as a matter of fact, do not belong to any religion or nationality.
Long lasting defense – With education a person learns to be defensive for longer. We usually see that once the terrorists penetrate through a country, they kill several people and then the country kills them and then they sit peacefully only to be attacked again in the future by a different set of people. Education will help in finishing this worry once and forever if it reaches all the corners of the world. Thus, we need mobilization of education and it should be a global initiative to educate people and eradicate terrorism.
Education, whether formal or informal, is the strongest way to change minds and doing exactly what the extremists do by brainwashing the youth, we can attack terrorism’s roots. We need smart, educated people to do it strategically and once we are there, it will be practically impossible to make the youth believe in anything apart from the fact that killing people is the biggest sin.
Terrorism is the most hard hitting enemy for the entire world and we all need to focus on this one objective of getting rid of it. With something as easily available as education, we all can fix our problems for the rest of our lives and the only thing that we need to do in order to achieve it is act together. The ball is in our court and now we need to decide what is more important to us – wiping out terrorism or our pompous egos. Fighting amongst ourselves and killing each other doesn’t bring any good to any of us but definitely strengthens the plot for the terrorists. We lay the foundation that they function on while we are busy playing the revenge game. Our fight against terrorism has brought us so close to becoming terrorists ourselves that we need to act it promptly. Give education a chance over guns and see how the world turns.
A pen is mightier than a sword! This quote answers the topic in just one line. Most of the times, the terrorists are educated too but they are not well mentored. Thus, to beat the terrorism with the help of the education, it is mandatory to mentor the students right. Once we are able to convince the young minds that terrorism is not the option, legal ways are, we have succeeded in our aim!