I had just walked out of Wimbledon train station on Friday evening, when I saw hordes of people and police officers standing outside Centre Court. The whole area had been cordoned off and all staff evacuated due to a bomb scare.

 

Indeed, there have been many cases of these recently, including the incident in January 2016 whereby in a single day two London schools were evacuated by police. In the last decade, the sense of fear regarding terrorism has clearly increased, although surprisingly actual terrorist attacks are infrequent and comparatively limited in scope. According to a 2012 report by a Government Watchdog, since May 2010, terrorist attacks in the UK and USA have killed only the same number of people as bee and wasp stings. So why are we afraid?

 

Perhaps such concern does not stem from extremism itself but the way in which our Government tackles it. On the rare occasion of a terrorist attack, the governments seem to react in exactly the way in which ISIS and other terrorist organisations want. They panic, mobilise the army and crack down on the civilian population, creating terrorists in the process.

 

In addition, the Police have shown their suspicion towards ethnic minorities including Muslims through disproportionately applying “stop and search” to them. According to a Guardian survey, the government scheme of 2014 set five standards that the police had to meet before they stopped and searched someone, in order to avoid discrimination, but inspections during 2016 showed that the majority of the 43 forces were not complying with these regulations. This discrimination has resulted in further resentment among the Muslim community and therefore an increase of terrorist attacks from extremist Islamic groups, such as ISIS.

 

Ironically the presence of the police force itself can also be menacing for members of the public and further evoke that sense of fear. I think it is time we trusted the world more and realised that, on balance, the people within it do far more good than evil.

 

Emily Drummond, Surbiton High School