10 Things You Can Do to Prevent War

1. Educate yourself on the issues.

To stop terror and avoid war, we must first understand what causes it, and what approaches have, and haven't, been successful in the past. So far, America's "War On Terrorism" seems to be focused exclusively on the movement that has apparently spawned the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks: radical, violent fringe conservative Sunni Muslims, from an area that stretches geographically from Northwest Africa to Southeast Asia. It can only help if we learn more about the history, culture, religions and economies of those parts of the world; the West's historic and current religious, military, political and economic relationships with them and with Islam; and how those conditions, from colonialism through global economic changes and geopolitical rivalies, have contributed to poverty, desperation, hatred and, at times, religious fanaticism today. Part of how we've gotten here is the West's tendency to impose our own cultures, values and expectations on these regions without taking the time to understand where the people we're dealing with are coming from. People interested in stopping terror and avoiding war cannot afford to repeat that mistake.

2. Develop a closer, more respectful relationship to Muslims and the Islamic world.

As the world shrinks, this is actually something we should be doing with all cultures and religions, but for the purposes of our current War on Terrorism, it is particularly important that, much as Christianity and Judaism have learned to live in greater harmony after two millenia of tension, Western cultures and religions must find and develop our common interests with the Islamic world. Just as with any minority or "other," the more we each work with and understand people of the Islamic faith, the less they will seem strange and threatening and the more we will recognize each other as individuals and as human beings.

3. Communicate!

Don't be afraid to speak out, and to listen: talk with your neighbors, your friends, relatives, co-workers, classmates. Learn from the people you disagree with, but don't shy away from voicing your opinions in places where they're unpopular. Call in to radio and television talk shows. Write letters to the editor and opinion articles for your local community newspapers. Visit their editorial boards.

4. Take your case to the community.

Set up community forums, teach-ins and panels, to educate the public, to air out differing opinions and to force politicians to go on the record with their beliefs. Table at community events. Write and circulate flyers, with information on the issue, lobbying and contact information, publicizing events or putting out powerful graphic images. Circulate petitions that you can then use both to notify people of future events (and to recruit volunteers to help organize them!) and to lobby elected officials or other prominent community figures. Take out ads in your local newspapers. Make your advocacy visible, so people will think -- even if local media is hostile -- that your cause is popular and widespread. Set up and publicize your own web site or list-serve.

5. Raise money for the Third World.

Rather than collecting money for survivors' families or to rebuild the World Trade Center, send it where it's more desperately needed: to the countries whose crushing poverty helps spawn terrorism. A more economically just world will be one with less terror. Donate your own money, or organize events where your whole community can pitch in and help: benefits, readings, raffles, auctions, walk-a-thons and so forth. Consider working jointly with a local mosque or Third World community center.

6. Publicize and oppose racial profiling, the curbing of civil liberties and the backlash against immigrants.