Only Shared Prosperity Worldwide Will Ensure Victory For Humankind In The Fight Against Global Terrorism

''There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid."            - L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)

As terrorist attacks sweep across Western nations one can understand why right-wing political parties and populist far-right politicians are on the ascendancy in virtually all the Western democracies.

Alas, today, fear resulting from terrorist attacks, is spreading hate speech by emboldened racists in many Western societies - with tragic consequences. It has led to an increase in  racial attacks on minorities and people of different faiths in many of the Western democracies.

Tragically, that backlash against minorities is also creating a pool of radicalised young people amongst second and third generation immigrant demographics in the West - at precisely the very point in time in human history when all the citizens of the Western democracies  need to pull together to fight global terrorism.

Perhaps it is a good thing that right-wing politicians are on the ascendency in the West - in the sense that they are often more effective in pointing out the dangers of uncontrolled immigration to their societies: and how that impacts negatively on their citizens way of life.

It is also proper and fair that such politicians insist that all immigrant communities adapt to the way of life of the host societies in the West that they choose to leave their own countries to settle permanently in.

However, the painful truth is that for the West to end the cycle of violence that we are witnessing in the string of terrorist attacks by unhinged individuals  in nations like the U.S., France and Germany, their ruling elites need to move rapidly to end institutional racism.

Vulnerable youths from immigrant communities in the West who feel alienated from society are easy prey for the online recruiting agents of extremist groups and terrorist organisations.

All young people in the U.S., the UK, France and Germany - whatever their skin hue and religion - must have a level playing field in terms of access to good schools for example - to enable them equip themselves with the right skills to become responsible adults able to contribute their quota to society.

Perhaps the point needs to be made that racism in Western societies is counter-productive in an age of global terrorism by extremist groups - as it enables terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS) to recruit from a demographic that feels the harmful effects of social exclusion on grounds of skin hue and religion.

Yet, it is a fact that over the decades, millions of hardworking and ambituous people from all over the world, have helped to transform Western nations into prosperous societies.

That is something that ought to be celebrated and highlighted by mainstream media - and taught in school history lessons in tne West too.

To continue to make the descendants of those immigrants feel that they are second-class citizens in their country of birth is shortsighted and not very wise for societies determined to fight and defeat ruthless terrorist organisations with global footprints.

Racial prejudice in Western nations dispirits and alienates many young people amongst minority groups - and often makes them bitter individuals because their life-chances are unfairly limited by such prejudice.

That has created a preventable societal problem, which will doubtless continue to breed yet more mentally unstable home-grown terrorists in the nations of the West - as sure as day follows night.

Populist right-wing politicians such as Donald Trump, Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen ought to visit the countries where the descendants of immigrant communities of colour and different faiths originally hail from.

Perhaps visiting nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and nations in sub-Saharan Africa might  help the West's  provincial-minded populist right-wing  politicians like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders to moderate their extremist worldviews somewhat.

The West needs to collaborate with the ruling elites of the developing nations that most of the immigrant communities in their midst originate from, and work with them to make their societies more equitable and prosperous.

For example, they must work together to end the exploitation of poor nations by the ruthless tax-minimalising multinational companies from the West - that are literally sucking trillions of dollars out of the national economies of emerging nations across the globe.

Could those vast sums extracted so unjustly from the developing world where the multinational companies actually generate most of their massive profits not be used to transform their economies?

The ruling elites of the Western democracies ought to understand clearly that in the final analysis it is only shared prosperity worldwide that will enable humankind to win the fight against global terrorism.