Last week I had the opportunity to go to listen to former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, give a speech at my school. Ridge was the first the Secretary of Homeland Security after the department was formed in 2002. I generally don’t go to these kinds of events as they often conflict with my schedule or I just don’t have time to go. I have a minor in homeland security and hope to work as an intelligence analyst after graduation, so I made a point to attend this one, not to mention it was during my night class and my professor made us attend to get credit for class.

I hadn’t put much thought into the event beforehand and went into this event with an open mind and not much not knowledge about Tom Ridge, and as a result, went in with an open mind. This paid off as he was a Republican appointee and as a die-hard Democrat, I disagreed with many of his points. Going in with an open mind gave me the chance to listen to what he had to say without discounting him immediately. I really enjoyed the talk and he brought up many valid points about homeland security and learned got a chance to learn some new things. He said one thing that I fundamentally disagreed with which I hope to discuss in this article.

As a former Secretary of Homeland Security, he obviously spoke a lot about terrorism. He said that he believed that terrorism will be something we will have to deal with forever. He also said that it would be Islamic terrorism and that some part of Islam was misinterpreted by fundamentalists who seek to destroy or way of life. I strongly disagree with this statement.

This point of view is not an uncommon one. I’ve heard many people say it, even some of my professors. The other statement I’ve heard in conjunction with this one: “Not all terrorists are Muslims but all terrorists are Muslim.” This is simply not true, just of the top of my head I can think of a few non-Muslim terrorist organizations. The IRA in Ireland, the Basques in Spain, Neo-Nazis in Europe and the United States, not to mention Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the Oklahoma City Bombing. What this statement does is blame Islam for terrorism. Only Muslims are capable of terror. That means the simple solution is to remove Islam. Keep Muslims out of the United States, patrol Muslim neighborhoods and have a military presence in Muslim countries.

I have a different point of view. A misinterpretation of Islam is not the reason people strap bombs to themselves and decide kill innocent civilians. I also don’t believe Muslim’s hate our way of life. For some reason, there is a group of people in this world who don’t like us. There is a whole host of reasons to explain why a number of people in the Middle East dislike the West. But what makes them go beyond disliking us and turn to violence instead?

I think that the reason doesn’t lie within the darkest corners of Islam. As a religion, Islam is not violent. While it does have a bloody past, every major world religion has. Let’s not forget the Crusades, were millions of people died in the name of Christianity. There is no part of the Qur'an that tells people to blow up innocent civilians.

Instead I believe that people turn to terror because they are religious. No one religion is to blame here. Religion is the most powerful force in the world. Devout followers will literally do anything their religion tells them to. This type of devotion led to the Protestant Reformation, in protest of the practice of indulgences by the Catholic Church. People gave all they had to the church for the promise of eternal bliss in heaven.

While many people in the West practice their religion as they choose, many people in the Middle East are much more devout. When people are as devoted to their religion as many Muslims are, they can easily become radical and commit unspeakable acts.

If you don’t believe me, think about this. Give me one non-religious reason against abortion. Science tells us that life does not begin at conception, so an abortion before viability is not killing a person. Religion says that life begins at conception, so any abortion is murder. That’s why fundamental Christians blow up abortion clinics. A person’s strong devotion to religion is what makes them capable of terrorism. Islam is not to blame for terrorism, rather religion itself is what makes people commit unspeakable acts of violence.