The cost is not just in corpses.
Two weeks ago, eight people were murdered in a terrorist attack in New York City. A “soldier of Islam” swerved a truck onto a crowded bicycle path, mowing down several people before jumping out and shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he waved fake guns at bystanders. There have been similar scenes throughout the West over the past few years: the Charlie Hebdo office; the Christmas market in Berlin; the Bastille Day celebration in Nice; La Rambla in Barcelona; Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, etc.
In the wake of each attack, our rulers implicitly endorse what Ilana Mercer calls a cruel “utilitarian calculus.” The lost lives of a few are well worth the supposed benefits of Islamic immigration: an influx of workers to keep down labor costs, an increasingly diverse population to “enrich” Western culture, and a collective back-pat for our humanitarian virtue. But if we’re to weigh the true cost, we must recognize that the harm of terrorism is much broader than lives lost. The real aim of terrorism is terror, so why limit one side of the calculus to a body count? While few people will fall into jihadists’ direct line of fire, terrorism touches every Western life in a meaningful way, and we should be realistic about the costs we are shouldering if we continue allowing Muslims to live among us.
The effects of social and mass media
In every terrorist attack, there are bystanders who remain physically unharmed, but who still suffer a psychological blow. In the age of social and mass media, we all become bystanders.
The process begins a heartbeat after an attack. ...
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