Behind the hands that pull the trigger and brandish the sword, is a mind that interprets the world in terms of religious obligations of the faithful versus the infidel. This indoctrination has been going on for centuries
Three incidents last week — deadly explosions in Peshawar, Pakistan, a terrorist hold-up in Nairobi, Kenya, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call at the 16th National Integration Council meet in New Delhi to fight the menace of communalism —appear to be unrelated on the surface. But look deeper and there is a common thread running through them all.
The blood-soaked incidents in Nairobi and Peshawar and the scourge of communal riots, be they in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, are two sides of the same coin. Behind the hands that pull the trigger and brandish the sword, is a mind that interprets the world in terms of religious obligations of the the faithful versus the infidel. This indoctrination has been going on for centuries through sermons and education provided by religious seminaries. Those who perpetrate savagery against infidels and their places of worship claim religious sanction for their actions and have even won acclaim from the clergy.
In this context, Mr Singh’s call at the NIC meet is an exercise in futility. He is like a physician who deals only with the symptoms and ignores the underlying reasons for the disease. In fact, the Prime Minister’s case is even worse, as his Government and party are guilty of strengthening those very factors that sustain this ghoulish mind-set because of vote-bank politics.
This macabre thought-process entered the Indian sub-continent with Muhammad bin Qasim from Saudi Arabia ransacking the Hindu kingdom of Punjab and Sind in 712 AD. He wrote to the ‘kings of Hind’ to surrender and accept Islam. Indians were given two options — submit to Islam peacefully or deal with the consequences. This tradition has since continued unabated. The intensity, however, depends on the motivation and relative strength of the faithful and their intended victims at any given point of time.
The subsequent Muslim invaders and kings — from Muhammad Gazni to Aurangzeb — followed this template, without exception. Of course, some of them (like Akbar) did make occasional concessions to the Hindus, depending on the exigencies of the situation and the larger interests of the empire. However, the overall character of successive Muslim regimes continued to be defined by Islamic traditions and scriptures. The non-believers were kafirs and were treated as such.
No wonder, Bakhtiyar Khilji burnt to ashes universities of international standing — Nalanda and Vikramshila, for instance — when he invaded India in 1193. Mughal emperor Jehangir put Sikh Guru Arjun Dev, a man of peace, to death. Another Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, was killed on the orders of Aurangzeb because he refused to change his faith and stood by the Kashmiri Brahmins who were given the choice to convert to Islam or face death. The four young sons of Guru Govind Singh also fell victim to the same mindset. And, this is just an illustrative list.
This divisive mindset also formed the bedrock on which the Islamic state of Pakistan stands. Nearly all Muslims in Pakistan (like in the rest in the sub-continent) are either Hindus or Buddhists who converted to Islam and rejected their pre-Islamic past. They also consider the followers of their ‘original’ faith as kafirs. It’s this animosity and hate against kafirs that constitutes Pakistan’s DNA. The vicious paradigm responsible for Pakistan’s birth continues to be its lodestar and largely shapes its domestic and foreign policies.
The sordid events resulting in communal riots in the three countries of the sub-continent, in most cases, can be traced to this mindset. In Pakistan, a country created to safeguard Muslims, Hindus were the first to be driven out. Then the persecution list was extended to include Ahmadiyas, then Shias and now even moderate Sunnis who the extremists do no consider to be ‘good Muslims’. The Kashmir valley has also been cleansed of its Hindu population by the dominant Muslims.
The Nairobi attack was carried out by the Islamist group, Al Shabaab, that is linked to Al Qaeda. What Muslims themselves can expect from Al Shabaab’s rule is illustrated by what this organisation does in areas that it controls. There, it enforces an extremist version of Sharia’h law that includes barbaric punishments like amputation, beheading and stoning.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have drawn daggers because each believes that its version of Islam is the right one. Sunnis and Shias are killing each other through suicide bombers in Iraq, where both sects live in good numbers.
What should worry the international community that is facing terror threats from Islamists is the mindset that triggers such organised killings. The notorious Indian Mujahideen in this country is also part of the global Islamist terror network. The likes of Yasin Bhatkal and other IM operatives, recently cornered by our security organisations after a decade-long pursuit across many countries, from Bangladesh and Nepal to the UAE and Saudi Arabia to the UK, are driven by the same mentality.
So, what makes Islamists bomb schools, kill girls and condemn all other religionsIJ Also, how are these groups able to mobilise public support for their regressive measuresIJ
For instance, in Kerala, where Muslims now constitute 21 per cent of the population, Islamist groups have united to demand that the Government lower the minimum age of marriage for girls from their community from 18 to 16. Similarly, across India, the Muslim leadership is content with education for the faithful being limited to madarssas where there is nominal secular education, no mingling with young people from other religions, and the entry of modern ideas is stonewalled through a ban on television and radios.
If every idea of change in a modernising and globalising world is opposed in the name of religion, it is natural that the young become easy victims of extremist ideology that justifies violence in the garb of jihad. The fact that jihadis also target other sections of their own religion, and competitive extremism and militancy are the rule in such situations, should normally push for re-think on the mental make-up that it promotes.
The global campaign against terror needs to be fought on two fronts. Guns held by terrorists will have to be met with guns. Simultaneously, the world has to combat the venomous ideological mindset which motivates the faithful to kill and be killed.
(The accompanying visual is of weeping relatives of a victim of the Westgate Mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya on September 24. AP photo by Jerome Delay)
