Boston marathon bombing: The importance of maintaining common sense

First and foremost, my prayers go out to the victims and their families in Boston. Just like we have a hard time in understanding psychologically unhealthy people, we cannot understand what kind of man can be at war with innocents. History has witnessed many sick people leading others to commit atrocities, but there is one thing for certain; whatever the perpetrator or perpetrators might profess as a religion, they are not believers. If someone is capable of killing innocent people without so much as blinking an eye, then they are murderers with no fear of God. That is indisputable. However whenever there is a bombing or a mass shooting in public places like the atrocity in Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Connecticut or the Aurora, Colorado massacre or 2011 Norway attacks and many more to list, the worlds' collective gaze shifts to "Muslims", and some begin to express hateful sentiments even before the perpetuators are announced. Just like it became a reflex in the Western world to associate any attacks on civilians with Muslims, Muslims also hurry up to denounce the violence and want to make it clear to the whole world that it is a violation of Islam in case the murderer happens to carry a Muslim identity. Since these are times when emotions are high and people want imminent justice, they sometimes seek targets to direct their anger. However inciting hatred, raising conflict and enmity, hatemongering, engaging in one-sided aggressive propaganda and creating a climate of hysteria or using the internet to incite a lynch mob are also crimes. As we have witnessed in the latest attack, while some act with common sense, some pour out words of hate targeting all Arabs and labeling all Muslims as potential murderers. For instance, a Fox News contributor -whether serious or with satire- can have the audacity to state that Muslims “...are evil…Let’s kill them all.” And I read a good many comments suggesting the extermination of Muslims, but even if their voices are the one that are highlighted, these are still the voice of minority; very extreme examples. Some act this way because of pain and fear; others lack dignity and or even humanity in their soul – they are simply psychopaths. While I say this, I also would like to strongly critize those who express happiness to see the horror in America just because they think the American government is wrong with its foreign policies. On the other hand, I watched an Egyptian "cleric" saying this attack was definitely a jihad of a mujaheeden and commenting that it was amateurish, so it could not be Al-Qaida. This chilling mindset is as horrifying to me as a devout Muslim as it is to any Westerner. The use of the concept of "jihad" for acts of aggression against innocent people is a great distortion of the true meaning of the term. Jihad -meaning to strive to show effort- is to tell people about Islam with knowledge, culture, love, affection and compassion; and to tell people the truth kindly, to treat them warmly, to respect their ideas, not to be ruthless toward them or shed blood, kill or hurt people or killing one's self. I am giving these two extreme examples because they do not represent the majority, and they have no right or place to manipulate the feelings or opinion of the public. Hatred and anger are likely to prevent people from thinking soundly and making just decisions. People can be inclined to injustice and cannot conduct themselves rationally when they let their anger guide their actions and words. So let us not accuse innocent people of acts they have never committed, or bear false witness against them. Let us keep some common sense, be balanced and don't give people the grounds to provoke, and even if they raise their voice, let us thwart this and don't let them misuse horrific atrocities to spread their poisonous and malicious propaganda. Sinem Tezyapar is a political analyst. https://twitter.com/SinemTezyapar. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.