Czy powinniśmy słuchać terrorystów?

Recently the reports of terrorist acts, committed either by separatists or Muslim fundamentalists, have been getting more and more frequent. The sole definition of terrorism, as an act against human life or health (or its threat), conducted as a mean to terrorize and force an organized group of people (usually a nation) to fulfill the culprits’ demands, neither leads to its moral judgment nor is sufficient to find the way to prevent it. To answer those questions one has to consider such aspects as the reasons behind the attacks and the terrorists’ goals. The question about the moral interpretation of terrorism is a question whether we agree with the statement, that the end justifies the means, or not. Any apology of terrorism has to be based on utilitarian grounds. In case of the political terrorism, in some instances the terrorist act might be considered the lesser evil, while such justification does not apply to the religious terrorism. Simple calculation is not sufficient. What’s most detestable in terrorism is the fact, that it is blind, it affects both the guilty and innocent indiscriminately. Therefore the terrorist act itself should be deemed as evil and should be met with firm resistance, and the demands associated with it should be ignored or fulfilled in an indirect manner (if they are just), so that this action would not be tied to the act itself, as it may trigger another attack. It is also important to establish the limits of the counterterrorism, and to consider whether the renouncement of some rights and the impairment of some institutions is not an indirect goal of the terrorists. An unequivocal answer to the question “is terrorism solely evil?” is not possible, for it depends strongly on the point of view. The same applies to the methods of the fight against terrorism – a military act might lead to the escalation of the conflict, and at the same time ideological war might have questionable effectiveness. Important causes of the terrorism are poverty and the lack of proper education, a long-term fight against terrorism should be therefore based on their prevention.