Abdul Hameed Toor, Visiting Scholar, Center for International Studies (CIS)

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Abdul Hameed Toor, Visiting Scholar, Center for International Studies (CIS)
(Courtesy of Abdul Hameed Toor. Used with permission.)

GUEST SPEAKER: So in the end, I would like to conclude it like this, that there is no military solution to the terrorism. However, with a well thought out, limited, and accurately executed action, could fulfill the short-term goals. A more comprehensive and a policy-oriented approach is essential to address this problem.

There is a need to understand why the public opinion in the Muslim countries is against United States. It's important to note that majority of the people, though they are not supportive of US policies, but they are not for the terrorism. So particularly in the Middle East, their policy-- largely people criticize this policy, but they are not supporting terrorists at large.

There are very few who support terrorism against US. And another thing I would like to point out is that it is certainly not the democracy and freedom most of the people over here thinks. That it's democracy and freedom, which they don't like about US. It's certainly other things they are worried about.

And this need to reach out to the public instead of just focusing on their rulers, which are not democratic setup. So there's a difference between the rulers in the Muslim word and the general public.