 Forgive my bluntness, but I can't help but notice the odd western response to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy It's so abstract The rallies the symbolism the arm-in-arm marches The dramatic storyline between freedom of speech the pen versus religious fanaticism the gun Terrorists raid a magazine headquarters and shoot people and the first response is for millions of people To walk with signs to flood Twitter with clever hashtags Public leaders and the media are claiming that this is all to show solidarity But I ask to whom is everybody showing their solidarity To their neighbors who already agree with them and who already share the same culture All of this seems like a peculiar way to react to an act of terrorism If I were feeling cynical, I'd say that Charlie Hebdo is being used by some people as a social media opportunity Complete with Twitter hashtags and memes It's an excuse for people to take selfies and identify themselves with a cause to show people how civilized they are Now if that sounds harsh Take a look at some photos from the big rally in France. You'll find these at my website Steve-Patterson.com Political leaders locking arms and marching in solidarity Now what that means is photographers and organizers getting paid to stage a photo op for political gain Most people saw one photo in the media You've a line of notable European leaders all locking arms and it looks like there's a big crowd behind them It looks like the crowd of regular folks is participating in the rally, but Another picture was taken from a different angle and you can see what it actually looked like Politicians separated from their constituency Quartered off from the general public to create a pretty photo op No different than a president throwing out a pitch at a baseball game This image was deliberately crafted by a group of political staffers to make their bosses look good So I ask what have these rallies accomplished whose mind has been changed by public demonstrations Surely no radical Muslims painting a dramatic narrative of Western civilization versus barbarism Sounds romantic and it certainly whips up people's emotions But does it do any good? Does it affect anything outside of our own emotions? I Don't think so. I don't bring this up to be a curmudgeon I sincerely want to make a difference and I'm convinced that idly demonizing acts of terrorism and showing solidarity with each other is pointless a more effective response though It's considered heresy in the West is to see terrorists as Rational humans not as raving lunatics the terrorists like every other human Had reasons for their actions and they acted in accordance with their beliefs if we want to prevent such occurrences from happening again We must understand their reasoning and motivation rather than simply characterize them as evil with no more elaboration needed Now I'm not defending their actions, of course I'm simply recognizing that they have beliefs which should not be immediately thrown in the waste bin if Charlie Hebdo is a tragedy then where exactly did the terrorists go wrong in their thinking? Was it the religious fanaticism their particular interpretation of the Quran? Was it political extremism not grounded in rationality? Was it their cultural beliefs about violence? The best way to answer these questions is to listen to the terrorists themselves on many occasions radical Muslims have explained the rationale for their actions It turns out they aren't foaming at the mouth Savages for example take some audio footage from a grocery store in France where one terrorist took several hostages He explained quite clearly that his actions were because of the French military's behavior in the Middle East Frenchmen pay taxes to their government and their government kills innocent people in the Middle East Therefore this terrorist was going to exact revenge for the Frenchman's complacency a French radio station that called Into that market during the siege recorded what appears to be the terrorist trying to justify his actions to his hostages We're going to play this to you so you can better understand perhaps the mind of a militant fundamentalist and why he says He did what he did Here it is You Doesn't sound like the ramblings of some schizophrenic madman does it And until we recognize this we will never persuade any radical Muslim who's on the fence about joining the same cause as these men We must engage the ideas both religious and political if we want to dissuade future terrorists from being persuaded by bad ideas The battle is not between insane Jihadists and rational Westerners and it's not between pious Jihadists and evil Westerners the simplistic good versus evil or rational versus irrational narrative is wrong in both directions It's too easy to demonize one side or the other and that's how wars get started now I realize it might sound soft and weak, but if we sincerely want to persuade people to change we must begin by listening to each other's ideas and Maybe just maybe all angry Jihadists don't hate the West for our freedoms and Maybe just maybe the West is not engaged in some debauchery assault on Islam or Christianity The only way to find out is to muster up some basic level of respect for one another and Listen that would be a far more concrete and beneficial reaction to the Charlie Hebdo tragedy than creating symbolic art if you like the sound of these ideas if they resonate with you then make sure to subscribe and If you want to help create more content like this then check out patreon.com Slash Steve Patterson and you can help support the creation of a more rational world view to read this article or to learn About my books check out Steve dash Patterson.com