He sounds too westernized. The closed mind is just the flip side of the same coin that is the open mind. It just has different rules, but it is still the mind, nonetheless.
An open minded man can be persuaded with logic and reason, but a closed minded man can be persuaded with superstition and uncertainty.
You would tell an open minded man not to cross a minefield, because it had bombs concealed beneath it that can injure or kill him. And even if he did not know what a bomb is, he might accept the idea that such a thing might exist.
But a closed minded man you would tell not to cross a minefield, for within dwells an invisible monster that will reach up from the ground with a great noise and injure or kill him. It is magical and powerful, and his faith in whatever will not protect him.
Whether his mind is open or closed does not matter. What then matters is if he is wise or foolish. But how does this relate to terrorism? In much the same way.
The Dalai Lama cannot appeal to terrorists in the same way that he would appeal to a diplomat at a cocktail party. So instead he must use the superstition and fear of the terrorists against them, for the same ends.
As a silly example, what would terrorists think if he announced that through reincarnation, terrorists who harm innocents will be denied their Muslim heaven, but instead live lives as unhappy pigs? It is not unsound in Buddhist theology, and confronts their superstitious beliefs head on.
But not so silly, for it has been observed that fanatics of all stripes are often so precisely because they doubt their own faith. As such, they can easily become deeply afraid that some other beliefs might be “right”, which means that they are in jeopardy. They fear that other beliefs are stronger than their own.
So for the Dalai Lama to announce that his faith has power over the terrorist’s destiny would strike home. But this is just one example.
He could create Buddhist amulets, chants, and charms that interfere with what the terrorists seek to do. He could use “Buddhist magic” to make the sun hot, water wet, and make the terrorists hemorrhoids throb. The proof could be seen by the terrorists themselves, that the sun was indeed hot, etc.
Not to appeal to the terrorists sense of logical and reason, but to influence their behavior nonetheless.
And likewise he should not fear those terrorists who are educated, because “science does not dispel the fear of the gods.” While such men may be educated, it does not mean that they are wise.
That is a real fanciful story you have made up there. Can you give one example of the Dalai Lama doing any of that?