Fear is not real

Zero-dark thirty is a movie that stages the search for al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, in which they have been searching for nearly 20 years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. This search led to the finding of his compound in Pakistan and the military attack that resulted in bin Laden’s death on May 2, 2011. Speaking of the long search, the title itself, Why Is It So Hard to Find a Suicide Bomber These Days, instantly reminded of that movie I watched this past summer due to the discussion of al Qaeda and terrorism. In this reading it was interesting to find out that “Islamist terrorist have called it a duty for Muslims to engage in armed jihad—against their own rulers, against the soviets, and later against the Americans” (Kurzman 61). The facts stated such as, “Out of more than 150,000 murders in the United States since 9/11—currently more than 14,000 each year—Islamist terrorist accounted for fewer than three dozen deaths by the end of 2010…this is surely due to the law-enforcement officers and community members who have worked undercover plots since 9/11” (Kurzman 62) were definitely noted and important things in my opinion. Also to figure out what is stopping people from attacks and why so few have joined al Qaedas jihad after 9/11 was something that furthered my understanding of Muslims . In the readings, Why the terrorism scare is a moral panic, and Overblown: How politicians and the terrorism industry inflate national security threats, and why we believe them, both have a connection when talking about terrorism. The main connection I found interesting was when talking about what people can do to lecture the unreasonableness of the terrorism scare. In Why the Terrorism Scare is a Moral Panic, it states, “They can seek realistic information and opinion from alternatives to the mass media…the internet provides links to a number of credible and reliable sources….they can use reason and skepticism” (Victor 13). In Overblown, it noted according to CBS news there will not likely at all be another terrorist attack in the United States in the next few months and it discusses how these percentages are overlooked and how Americans have developed an untruthful sense of anxiety about terrorism.