Don't fall for a terrorist's bait

What happened on Sept 11, 2001, when Al-Qaeda suicide terrorists crashed aircraft into New York's World Trade Centre, was tragic.

But the United States' response the following day created a new set of problems, says Professor Mark Juergensmeyer, an expert on religious violence.

That was the day the US described the attack as "an act of war".

"It bit the bait Osama bin Laden had laid for the US. I thought to myself, 'Why on earth are we promoting the ideology of Osama bin Laden?'.

"By going for the military solution, we validated bin Laden's view with our own rhetoric and actions," he says.

The US decision later to invade Afghanistan and Iraq gave more credibility to Osama's propaganda and he painted a picture of America as an enemy of Islam and a vile foe that tortured captured Muslim terrorists.

A better option would have been to fight the terrorists using non-military methods from civil jurisdictions.

The US should have used the police to hunt down the terrorists and brought the perpetrators before the courts, he believes.

"People like Osama bin Laden should not be given the credibility of a great statesman who can engage in a war against the US.

"Bin Laden should have been regarded as a petty little burglar and a vicious killer that he was. He should have been brought to justice in a court of his peers and shown to be the simple little egomaniac that he was," he says.

But when the US fought him on his terms, it entered into war with him, turning the imaginary war in Osama's mind into a real one.

"The key lesson is not to buy into the terrorists' language and not bring the battle to their level.

"Once you do that, you lose," says Prof Juergensmeyer.

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