Fair Lawn Safety and Security Resource Center

Coordinated by:

The Jewish Committee for Safety and Security

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The Need for a Plan

The 9/11 hijackers did more than attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon - they attacked the American way of life.

They exploited our freedoms and liberties to turn them against us for their deadly objectives. They visited our country and lived in our neighborhoods; shopped in our stores; prayed in our mosques; attended our flight training schools; and flew in our planes, which then became their weapons of mass destruction.

What they could never have accomplished with armies or missiles they achieved with subversion, because our open society was not designed to protect us from attackers in our midst.

The Islamist terrorists that attacked us acted out of pure hate for America. They actually brought a hate crime to the scale of an act of war - and so the response of our President and Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush, has been to wage war in return : a war of pre-emption and regime change to destroy those governments and organizations that act out of their hate to destroy us.

Citizen Involvement

Our law enforcement, intelligence and military branches are the best in the world, but all experts admit not even their forces together, combined and improved, can stop all terrorists that would strike. We simply cannot post a police officer or soldier in every bank, store and school.

Therefore, citizen involvement is essential. Homeland security directives provide many guidelines for making our homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and houses of worship more safe and secure. It is the job of every neighborhood and every community to implement these measures. Our towns and cities will thus become more vigilant, and so the country as a whole will become more resistant to attacks from within.

Religious Communities, Leading the Way

Religious communities are the ideal vehicles for implementing these measures because their members maintain strong ties, have established communication channels, and provide mutual support. They also have a vested interest in the War on Terror because the Militant Islamists have made people of other faiths their targets: Jews, Christians, Hindus, Seiks, and moderate Moslems.

Uniting Against Terror

Our town must adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards bias incidents and crimes. Religious, racial and ethnic prejudice divide communities, and we need to band together for the benefit of the town.

We also need to create interfaith dialogue forums to resolve differences and promote cooperation.

We need to look out for one another, and religious, racial and ethnic bigotry will lead to the downfall of us all. We need to avoid the problem of a neighbor seeing a guy with a gas tank pouring gasoline on my synagogue but saying "Those Jews deserve it" and not reporting this guy to the authorities.

We also need to avoid a situation in which a Jew sees a suspicious stranger in a non-Jew's store, but walks away and says "This guy would never help me".

Steps to a Plan

To help each of its communities adopt a higher standard for safety and security, and to work together to make the town as a whole stronger in these areas, the town must create a Homeland Security Action Plan. This could be accomplished through the following activities.

1. The promotion of Homeland Security as a town priority.

2. Recruitment of leaders from the town's religious groups to take responsibility for the implementation of homeland security measure in their communities.

3. Formation of a task force that includes both town officials and the communal leaders, to coordinate implementation.

4. Establishment of a zero-tolerance policy towards bias incidents and crimes. Religious, racial and ethnic prejudice divide communities, and we need to band together for the benefit of the town.

5. Creation of interfaith dialogue forums to resolve differences and promote cooperation.