Islamic Wahhabists, radical Christians, white supremacists, and political demagogues are among the promoters of hatred and mass murder

Sigmund Freud defined hate “as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness.” People and institutions that preach hate in effect preach the destruction of those they dislike or disagree with. There would be hardly an environment that nurtures terrorism and terrorist acts if every nation on earth made it illegal to preach and promote hatred of any kind.

Much of the hatred in the world is born of religious, ethnic, cultural, or political intolerance. Those that preach hate should be punished for inciting crime and criminal activity, and for effectively being principals in such crimes.

Going after and exclusively punishing the terrorist themselves is akin to killing the messenger but leaving their message on the wall.

Governments take the idea of free speech and the right to peaceful assembly too loosely. Free speech does not include the right to promote hate and condemnation. Free speech and the right to free assembly does not mean a person or organization can wage campaigns of death and destruction to those that are opposed to their ideas or beliefs or those whose ideas and beliefs they disagree with.

Free speech and the right to peaceably assemble come with the responsibility to be respectful of others’ dignity, rights, and privileges.

Law enforcement can spend a lifetime spying on, tracking down, and pursuing terrorist elements and cells – but terrorist elements and cells will continue to spawn unless those that breed them are put away.

Who are the breeders of terrorism and terrorists?

They are the religious extremists, the Islamic Wahhabists and radical evangelical Christians (among them, leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church) that condemn people not of their faith or who do not heed their teachings. They are the ‘white’ supremacist ‘societies’ – including the Ku Klux Klan – that believe in the superiority of the ‘white race’ over the rest of humanity and that demand exclusivity and the ‘elimination’ of people not of their color. And they are the political demagogues who spew hateful discourse against those whose ethnicity, culture, and religious and/or political views they dislike and oppose.

The world needs to put an end to dogmatism, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric.