Anti-terrorism legislation indirectly evokes terrorism

Another contention of ours is that anti-terrorist laws are indirectly evoking further acts of terror. Anti-terrorist legislation, when it gives huge discretionary powers to enforcing agencies and when appropriate safeguards are not set, effectively incentivizes them to violate the human rights. This was illustrated in our previous point. The issue should be reconsidered from another angle when the targets of intelligence agencies are people who can be easily attributed to a certain group (a minority or a religious group). For instance, in the US, obviously, Muslim community is subject to more investigation by secret services because Al-Qaeda is of Muslim origin. What does this imply? Intelligence agencies, given broad powers by anti-terrorist legislation (unlimited detention, etc.), will effectively discriminate against a certain group of people. This has two undesirable implications. First, it is incompatible with every treaty of human rights that is usually recognized in our society. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights postulates that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law”. We do not think that in this debate we have to prove this truism. We think that any reasonable person would agree with the notion. Taking into account the wide discretionary powers anti-terrorism legislation gives for the state, it will eventually result in suppression and discrimination of minorities when they are considered a cause of terrorism. We see the fundamental principle of equality breached here. Second, it will have broader negative implications. The discrimination will send a message to these communities, and not a very positive one. The image that will be instilled in the minds of these people will be something among these lines: “They are the ones who discriminate us for no reasons; they are the ones who treat us inhumanely”. Once we separate the society into US and THEM, we cannot expect them to act so kindly towards us. Obviously we can expect some kind of retaliation from the people we treated poorly. So for instance, when Muslims are being tortured in Guantanamo, it sends quite a message to all Muslim community, and not a friendly one. It just gives another reason to hate the Western world. Empirical evidence supporting our case is extensive. Scholars find that the penitentiary system tends to punish most vulnerable social groups[[MONCLÚS MASÓ, Marta (2005) La gestión penal de la inmigración. [Tesis Doctoral] Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona.]]. Evidence from immigration policies portray the unpleasant picture: immigrants are usually discriminated, with longer detention rates and other discriminatory measures targeted at them[[Cristina Fernández, Alejandra Manavella and José María Ortuño. The effects of exceptional legislation on criminalization of immigrants and people suspected of terrorism.]]. Such separation does not necessarily have to be among citizens of different countries – we can see it arising from within States when they try to counter the internal terrorists. To wrap up, anti-terrorist legislation implicitly promotes discrimination of minorities. This discrimination separates the societies and the repressed ones seek to retaliate. Abolishing anti-terrorist legislation will be a step towards closing the gap between us and them; it will be a signal that everyone should be treated equally and fairly.