Book Quotes: Achieving Peace

From My Hope for Peace by Jehan Sadat (page 21-22):

In fact, fanaticism cannot be beaten by military means alone. To attack the roots of terrorism in the developing world, we must work to alleviate poverty and illiteracy, the hopelessness, frustration, and lack of opportunity that give militant fundamentalism its terrible allure. In Western Europe and the United States, we must work to reverse the feeling of disenfranchisement that many Muslim immigrants in developed countries experience. Fostering further isolation from the cultural and political mainstream is untenable.

Neither appeasement nor a police state can rid a nation-or the world-of terrorism. I know firsthand that issues of national security and personal liberty are often at odds. I do not believe that civil rights must be eclipsed by the struggle against terror, but long lines at airports, time, and inconvenience are relatively small prices to pay for increased safety. Nor do I rule out eavesdropping on suspected terrorists. Where and how to draw the line is not easy to determine. Political leaders wrestle with this trade-off between security and liberty all the time, just as my husband did thirty years ago.