Of course, India is no stranger to terror. But terrorism used to have a pattern. Once a year, the terrorists would come out of their foxholes, strike a major city and disappear. Following on this, common people would breathe fire for two weeks and then return to the bread and butter issues of daily life. The media would devote the other fifty weeks of the year to explaining why the Muslims of India are the most gentle people in the whole world; the defenceless victims of Hindu fundamentalism. The secular polity would examine each action of the communal/Hindu brigade, seeking for the smallest breach of peace, the slightest evidence of lawbreaking from the RSS/VHP/Bajrang Dal in order that all the terrorism in the world could be labelled as a "reaction" to Hindu oppression. The lack of fact was often more than made up by creating a cauldron in which news; real, fake and imaginary, was blended with paranoia by their accomplices in a very willing English language media. As the secular crowd kept India in check, Jihadi elements infiltrated the Muslim populace at will, busily working on an autonomous machine that could roll out terror attacks like cars from an assembly line. Thanks to the efforts of the Left liberals and the Secular parties; the assembly line is in place now. The Indian Mujahiddeen gave a big high-five to liberals as its new terror machine was set in operation.
Now that the cat is among the pigeons, the Government is scurrying to hide its face. On the day the terrorists scored off their second success in Delhi in the space of two weeks, the Central Government cleared 7 new proposals to fight terrorism. It's too late now. "Do not wait to dig a well until your house is on fire"; so goes the Hindi proverb, loosely translated. And, worse still, is the fact that some of the Government's new measures are merely window dressing.
The English language media has been struggling to help the "secular forces" get back on their feet. The search for diversions has been intense and the Bajrang Dal has obliged dutifully. The UPA Government was more than delighted to issue a bold warning to BJP ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Karnataka to protect the life liberty and property of Christians. A dubious campaign was begun to deliberately conflate petty hate crimes of the Bajrang Dal type with terrorism, the ultimate purpose being to make the definition of terrorism so broad that the actual Islamic terrorists would never come under the scanner. Justice Nanavati's new report has given a new lease of life to the "secular" parties and their concubines in the media. After all, the Gujarat riots are an adrenaline rush for all liberals.
Civil rights, of course, are the pillars of any democracy. In fact, India faces the wrath of Jihadi forces precisely because Islam is the antithesis of civil rights. The purpose of civil rights legislation is protect the dignity of the individual and not to undercut law enforcement in general. In fact, should the human rights crowd become successful in further restricting the hand of the law in India, we the people will have to pay for it by ultimately having to go through a state of Internal Emergency. Already, India faces its worst internal security situation since independence; if things go worse from this point, law and order will have to be restored by imposing Emergency, at which point all civil rights will be dissolved, thus resulting in a net loss for the cause of personal liberty.
There is no one magic formula that can end terrorism. For one, terrorism is not restricted to India, but operates on a global scale. The Oracle advances the following "tree model" for terrorism:
a) The branches of the terror tree are the Jihadi elements who carry out the actual crimes.
b) The trunk of the terror tree is the structure of Islam itself and the attitude of Islam towards the outside world. Islam, like any other religion, is simply a lens, a certain worldview, which, in this case sees people simply in terms of believers and non believers.
c) The roots of the terror tree plunge deep into the oil wells of Saudi Arabia, from where the radical Wahabis run their campaign against the civilized world.
Therefore, terrorism has to be dealt with at all three levels. A good way to start would be to hand over exemplary punishments to Jihadi elements within our society. This is important not only because this is what they deserve, but also because Jihadi elements often see our democratic institutions as a sign of weakness. The liberal mob in the media is wrong; there is no way to win the hearts of terrorists (potential and active) by offering them more in way of civil rights.
Of course, the Hindu fanatics are wrong as well; there is no way either to outfanaticize the Muslim fanatics. Dealing with the Jihadi elements will require the State Governments to act on the long overdue plans for police reform, besides the Central Government creating a special agency to fight terrorism, if not a set of fast track courts equipped with special powers and specific laws. The Indian response has been, thus far, woefully inadequate, with the Central Government still unable to make up its mind on even a workable definition of terrorism.
Dealing with Part b) of the terrorist problem is even more complex. It will require a change in discourse from all sections of media and Government. Most of the liberal media spends its time on explaining how Muslims are affected by a myriad prejudices in India. The assumption is that, somehow, by giving special favours and loads of media sympathy, one can actually keep Muslims from turning to terrorism. Since all other communities in India and most other parts of the democratic world enjoy roughly the same rights as Muslims, it is difficult to see how appeasing the Muslims could possibly work to dissuade them from turning to fundamentalism. Instead, appeasement is counterproductive; it deepens resentment for Muslims' "protected status" and furthers the cause of separatists.
The right approach is to hold Muslims' feet to the fire. The cause and effect relationship between rampant Islamic terrorism and Islamphobia needs to be explained. Few communities in the world today face so much prejudice as the Muslims, but that is because no other community has had so many members involved in mass murder in the recent past. Virtually every single nation in which Muslims form the majority is a dictatorship that has draconian, openly discriminatory laws against women and homosexuals at the very least and public beheadings, stonings and regular massacres at the worst. Peaceful Muslims should understand that if most of the world needs to be ashamed of its prejudice, Muslims have a lot more to be ashamed of.
All religions are "belief systems" and not all belief systems could possibly be progressive, inclusive and liberal. The idea that "all religions are great" is a fallacy. Any belief system, by definition, defies logic and in doing so, brings great dangers upon us. In fact, the value of religion as a social institution should be questioned.
And finally, as with most afflictions of humanity, we should look to science and logic to redeem us. The horrors of Jihad are financed by the oil billionaires of Saudi Arabia and most of the Middle East. Given the dependence of our institutions on the supply of oil, terrorism is likely to be well financed for many, many decades to come. The Saudis know this and they are exploiting the situation to the fullest. The only solution is to show the savages what wonders can be worked by the ingenuity of civilization. Take, for instance, the example of Brazil, which now runs four fifths of its cars on ethanol extracted from corn. The way out is to follow this example and build a community of like minded nations that can take the world away from both blood and oil.
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