re: #447 Fozzie Bear

Of course they (terrorists) make their own decisions, and bear responsibility for them.

However, making Muslim Americans feel alienated and unwelcome is exactly the mechanism by which some of them will be radicalized. As I said, actions have real effects, and some of those effects are on the behavior of other people. This naturally includes radicalization, and the terrorist acts which result from that alienation.

I’m sorry, but I can’t agree that alienation and radicalization inevitably leads to terrorism. To me, that takes away too much of the personal responsibility from it. There are plenty of persecuted religious groups who never turn to terrorism, despite persecution.

I do think that it might, for example, lead to Muslim Americans being less willing to inform on any suspect or dangerous individuals in their midst, out of less trust for Americans in general. That could, eventually, lead to deaths— but that’s a very attenuated chain of responsibility.