Unleashing the beast

One worries that the heavy-handed moment by moment coverage of the Manchester Arena attacks serves the yearning of the suicide bomber for posthumous notoriety. All free-to-air channels in Australia suspended normal programming for live feeds to its bloody aftermath. Terrorism’s tentacles in capturing public attention and inducing fear is magnified by TV stations and websites running endless loops of videos of panicked escapes, anguished parents and distraught children. Although the press has a mandate to inform, caution demands not replaying ad infinitum the murderous spectacle so craved by terrorists.

After every terrorist outrage there are acts of solidarity and candle-lit ceremonies, which after a succession of senseless atrocities risk becoming congealed rituals that hold no power to dissuade the next attack. However, the press does a great deed in issuing a clarion call for anger around the world tempered with grief for innocent lives lost. A note of caution though, anger unchannelled, anger not given shape by mechanisms for progress, can easily become unhinged to being hatefully sectarian and dangerously misanthropic. Community outrage could unleash the malignancy that hungers for retribution against Muslims who do not condone jihad.

The challenge we face is to rebuild the organisations of civil society and movements for social change that cannot only pierce the jihadi state of mind but also channel the grief and love and anger about terrorism into political hope and not anti-Muslim vengeance. JOSEPH TING