Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman recently announced a policy of defense to keep our nation and citizens safe, both at home and abroad. He did so while reiterating the fact that the tenets and practice of Islam are synonymous with peace, but pointed out that it does not therefore follow that peace is synonymous with surrender.
These are ideas that are worth keeping in mind in today’s cultural and intellectual milieu. There is, after all, a world of difference between defensive and offensive actions. While the latter may validly be regarded as detrimental or antithetical to peace, as aggression invariably causes both physical and psychic damage, which must then be mended, the former is an ability and indeed, a duty that it would be folly to forget or forgo. It is, essentially, the difference between breaking into a neighbor’s house to attack his family, and taking action to prevent someone from invading and attacking yours.
I remember an American friend telling me about a women’s self-defense class she attended. In the class, the women were trained to protect themselves in scenarios such as walking alone at night and being confronted by a threatening stranger. They were taught to verbally and physically deflect the attack. My friend was struck by the fact that a number of women found it difficult to even use their voices to yell assertively at an assailant — let alone use physical force to deflect him. Culture had trained them to be “peaceful” and compliant, and they could not forget those lessons, even if their own safety was in jeopardy.
Those who would argue against money being spent on military defense programs run the risk of making us all, effectively, like those women, afraid to raise their voices, or inhibited from doing so. Lack of defense will not create a more peaceful world — in fact, it will do the very opposite, as a lack of defensive strength may effectively hand power over to those who least deserve it.
It is clear that the concept of defense is one that we all need to ponder, and scrupulously separate from offensive action or attack, which is a different proposition altogether. But meanwhile, we should not scrimp on the military budget any more than a person should fail to invest in a strong lock for his or her door. Defense, and the knowledge of defense, increases safety and, ultimately, peace.
