A 30 year struggle taught us resilience – We can help France cope with theirs

No matter what one says there are similarities in how one mentally copes with the threat of terrorism, that we in Sri Lanka managed to deal with for 30 years and Parisians and people of Europe have to learn to cope with until they get the all clear.

It is clear there is no way to extinguish this problem in days or months and it will take about 5 years to clear out IS forever, if the reaction is handled using the head and not the heart.

It is NO time for anti-Islam feelings that are being stoked by people for political opportunism, just in the way it was done in Sri Lanka, that exacerbated an anti Tamil feeling amongst some of our people. THAT IS THE WRONG WAY.

At present it is not for us to ask why the Islamic community in France is NOT parading in solidarity with the French, just like the Tamil community did not join with the Sinhala community to march against the LTTE.

It is PURE INTELLIGENCE to work out the radicalized individuals in a society and pick on them ONLY, and not Muslim ghettoes or Muslim prison population in France that is 70% of the convicted prison population. Don’t forget it is not the wealth you are born to or the opportunities you are NOT given that make you radicalized, it is the people who influence you, and sometimes the educated can be radicalized, when a warped mind comes in between destabilize a young mind that is impressionable.

The secret is in determining who is most prone to be radicalized, and neutralizing those people who are doing the radicalization. That is the single most effective way to prevent terrorism. The problem also is in cross border human movement to know how to spot a radicalized person when they come within your jurisdiction.

It is up to the media to reduce the noise level of this event, to only that of careful observation, of any untoward activity, and nurturing patriotism, by NOT picking up on the Muslim population as being against the French or unpatriotic.

Just as we have still failed to encompass all the Tamil people within Sri Lankan society, due to continuing divisive policies and action, the same is true of the Muslim population in France, not helped by the banning of the Hijab, though it must be understood that in order to assimilate, they must try and do away with visible differences that tend to put people into boxes as a natural human failure. Don’t forget in the great melting pot that is the USA, the point of integration is common interests!