They are terrorists, not Muslims
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Maswood Alam Khan
Mumbai has proven to be a soft target for terrorists. It would be disgraceful on the part of India if their intelligence now fails to unearth the groups of terrorists and their mastermind who perpetrated this dreadful and heinous attack on the innocent people in Mumbai. The fundamentalists who fuelled this shameful act must be brought to book. If India now remains deaf, dumb, and keeps mum the country would look like turning her other cheek only to encourage the next round of attacks by another group of terrorists.
The attack has stalled games and seriously affected the city's commerce and tourism industry. Cricket matches have been shelved, tourists have cancelled their trips and expatriates have closed their shops and offices. Players, travellers, and businessmen have packed up their bag and baggage and already left the city. It would take a long time for the city to heal its wound and regain its traditional flavour. The very pride of India now stands injured. Capacity of Indian law enforcement agencies now is questioned.
Mumbai, which was known as a liberal city open to all and sundry, will have to close its wide open doors. Visitors will now have to stand in long queues and enter places one by one through arches equipped with metal detectors. This romantic city of Bollywood, a vibrant metropolis where locals and millions of visitors used to roam around with a laissez-faire style, is on its way to lose its character of hospitability and sensuality.
The whole region of Indo-Pak-Bangladesh subcontinent is now in a state of severe vulnerability and as such has to be on red alert to deter future terror attacks. Bag and body checks have to be introduced in all the soft targets in all the big cities. Porous and unguarded borders and seashores have to be sealed with barbed-wire fences. Armed guards have to stand vigil round the clock at all the strategic points, both civil and military.
Bangladesh may be a tiny country compared to India. But some of our achievements are huge in dimensions. One such feat is a commendable job our elite force RAB did in netting the whole ring of a terrorist group known as JMB. As a member state of SAARC Bangladesh government may volunteer to send to Mumbai a few squads of RAB personnel, who have had experience in dealing with JMB terrorists, to help Indian forces ferret out terrorists and their clandestine abettors from their hidden dens.
Terrorism is a pandemic disease. If unchecked, the disease is bound to spill over to the next door neighbours and then engulf the whole world. It is high time SAARC must form an elite force of its own with personnel recruited from its member states and deploy them exclusively with the onerous job of combating terrorism in this region as a united force.
The whole world would now be watching how Muslims react to this act of terrorism by some idiots bearing some Arabic names. If millions of Muslims take to streets when someone in Denmark insults their religion many more millions of Muslims should now come out of their houses and chant their full-throated slogans demanding exemplary punishments of those who in the name of their religion commit such cold-headed massacre of innocent civilians, an ignominious, monstrous and barbaric act Islam never allows or ever allowed. This attack in Mumbai should be deemed an attack on Islam!
Silence of Muslims at this hour of peril in India, I am afraid, may be construed as a nod of consent to terrorism. Inaction of Muslim-dominated countries in the face of further possible attacks by errant Muslims may be misunderstood as their approval of terrorism. Any whisper about portraying Islam as a religion of terrorism may explode a communal hostility. An unwise step by any Indian at this high voltage tension may spark an ominous backlash.
As this scribe was viewing the scenes of carnage in Mumbai on the 27th November night the only fear that was sending a chill down my spine was of reprisals. The scribe could imagine how TV viewers in India were clenching their teeth as elite Indian commandos were fighting room to room battles with militants to save people trapped and taken hostage inside two luxury hotels in Mumbai.
The questions that are gnawing minds of observers all over the world: In reprisal of what the terrorists had killed 195 and injured another 320 unarmed civilians? What fate will now befall the next innocent people in India? Will Muslims be the scapegoats?
A normal Muslim cannot enlist himself as a member of such a terrorist group that unleashed this attack in Mumbai. All these terrorists must be blindly fanatic who were injected with high doses of fanaticism the way a drug addict is doped up before being sent to an assassination mission.
A doped up assassin at the moment of pressing the trigger of a gun is completely shut out from all his human feelings as his brains are kept numb under the drug influence, his sense of judgment entirely blacked out. Such an assassin should not be judged as a representative of a particular group, community, religion, or race. Rather s/he represents a vested group whose far-sighted motive is something ulterior, something mysterious or something unimaginable as we find in movie plots where the real culprit plays his innocuous role incognito all along the plot before being caught red-handed just before the end of the story.
Whenever there is an attack anywhere in the world there is a propensity for some countries to blame Muslims within ten minutes of the attack. It is assumed that the terrorists came from Pakistan, though there is no raison d'être on the part of the democratically elected government of Pakistan, unless there is a concrete evidence, to sponsor this most abominable act of direct terrorism.
If Pakistan were behind this shameful act their intelligence must have presaged beforehand what could be the outcome when a captured assailant on interrogation would disclose to Indian authorities. Can Pakistan authorities afford to be such a bunch of fools, knowing fully well that such an attack by the assailants would provoke a backlash against Muslim inhabitants in India?
But a big mastermind like a huge organisation -- as big as a state --must have provided trainings, logistics, and weapons to these terrorists who seem to be trained in military style precisions. These terrorists killed three celebrated police officers including the head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism squad. They are professional killers! But, who is the mastermind?
In this age of DNA analysis when no criminal can escape the omnipotent searchlight of the defenders of law and sovereignty, we are confident a power like India will soon be able to declare, with smoking gun evidence in hand, who, the mastermind, actually was behind this terror campaign. If the mastermind is found to be from within India efforts should be made to find out the root causes. It is right to hate the terrorists and it is also wise to try to eliminate the reasons that may lure the young fools to indulge in such suicidal campaigns.
The blame game may heighten tension in the border areas between India and Pakistan and in the neighbourhoods where Hindu and Muslim communities are cohabiting. But it would be a terrible mistake if any quarter takes anger on Muslims. It would be unwise to be quick to pass a judgment at this stage. Most Muslims, everyone should believe, are peaceful people, no matter they live in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or elsewhere. Those who killed innocent people in Mumbai are terrorists, not Muslims! Terrorism and Islam are antonymous, not synonymous!
(The writer is a banker. He may be reached at maswood@hotmail.com)
Mumbai has proven to be a soft target for terrorists. It would be disgraceful on the part of India if their intelligence now fails to unearth the groups of terrorists and their mastermind who perpetrated this dreadful and heinous attack on the innocent people in Mumbai. The fundamentalists who fuelled this shameful act must be brought to book. If India now remains deaf, dumb, and keeps mum the country would look like turning her other cheek only to encourage the next round of attacks by another group of terrorists.
The attack has stalled games and seriously affected the city's commerce and tourism industry. Cricket matches have been shelved, tourists have cancelled their trips and expatriates have closed their shops and offices. Players, travellers, and businessmen have packed up their bag and baggage and already left the city. It would take a long time for the city to heal its wound and regain its traditional flavour. The very pride of India now stands injured. Capacity of Indian law enforcement agencies now is questioned.
Mumbai, which was known as a liberal city open to all and sundry, will have to close its wide open doors. Visitors will now have to stand in long queues and enter places one by one through arches equipped with metal detectors. This romantic city of Bollywood, a vibrant metropolis where locals and millions of visitors used to roam around with a laissez-faire style, is on its way to lose its character of hospitability and sensuality.
The whole region of Indo-Pak-Bangladesh subcontinent is now in a state of severe vulnerability and as such has to be on red alert to deter future terror attacks. Bag and body checks have to be introduced in all the soft targets in all the big cities. Porous and unguarded borders and seashores have to be sealed with barbed-wire fences. Armed guards have to stand vigil round the clock at all the strategic points, both civil and military.
Bangladesh may be a tiny country compared to India. But some of our achievements are huge in dimensions. One such feat is a commendable job our elite force RAB did in netting the whole ring of a terrorist group known as JMB. As a member state of SAARC Bangladesh government may volunteer to send to Mumbai a few squads of RAB personnel, who have had experience in dealing with JMB terrorists, to help Indian forces ferret out terrorists and their clandestine abettors from their hidden dens.
Terrorism is a pandemic disease. If unchecked, the disease is bound to spill over to the next door neighbours and then engulf the whole world. It is high time SAARC must form an elite force of its own with personnel recruited from its member states and deploy them exclusively with the onerous job of combating terrorism in this region as a united force.
The whole world would now be watching how Muslims react to this act of terrorism by some idiots bearing some Arabic names. If millions of Muslims take to streets when someone in Denmark insults their religion many more millions of Muslims should now come out of their houses and chant their full-throated slogans demanding exemplary punishments of those who in the name of their religion commit such cold-headed massacre of innocent civilians, an ignominious, monstrous and barbaric act Islam never allows or ever allowed. This attack in Mumbai should be deemed an attack on Islam!
Silence of Muslims at this hour of peril in India, I am afraid, may be construed as a nod of consent to terrorism. Inaction of Muslim-dominated countries in the face of further possible attacks by errant Muslims may be misunderstood as their approval of terrorism. Any whisper about portraying Islam as a religion of terrorism may explode a communal hostility. An unwise step by any Indian at this high voltage tension may spark an ominous backlash.
As this scribe was viewing the scenes of carnage in Mumbai on the 27th November night the only fear that was sending a chill down my spine was of reprisals. The scribe could imagine how TV viewers in India were clenching their teeth as elite Indian commandos were fighting room to room battles with militants to save people trapped and taken hostage inside two luxury hotels in Mumbai.
The questions that are gnawing minds of observers all over the world: In reprisal of what the terrorists had killed 195 and injured another 320 unarmed civilians? What fate will now befall the next innocent people in India? Will Muslims be the scapegoats?
A normal Muslim cannot enlist himself as a member of such a terrorist group that unleashed this attack in Mumbai. All these terrorists must be blindly fanatic who were injected with high doses of fanaticism the way a drug addict is doped up before being sent to an assassination mission.
A doped up assassin at the moment of pressing the trigger of a gun is completely shut out from all his human feelings as his brains are kept numb under the drug influence, his sense of judgment entirely blacked out. Such an assassin should not be judged as a representative of a particular group, community, religion, or race. Rather s/he represents a vested group whose far-sighted motive is something ulterior, something mysterious or something unimaginable as we find in movie plots where the real culprit plays his innocuous role incognito all along the plot before being caught red-handed just before the end of the story.
Whenever there is an attack anywhere in the world there is a propensity for some countries to blame Muslims within ten minutes of the attack. It is assumed that the terrorists came from Pakistan, though there is no raison d'être on the part of the democratically elected government of Pakistan, unless there is a concrete evidence, to sponsor this most abominable act of direct terrorism.
If Pakistan were behind this shameful act their intelligence must have presaged beforehand what could be the outcome when a captured assailant on interrogation would disclose to Indian authorities. Can Pakistan authorities afford to be such a bunch of fools, knowing fully well that such an attack by the assailants would provoke a backlash against Muslim inhabitants in India?
But a big mastermind like a huge organisation -- as big as a state --must have provided trainings, logistics, and weapons to these terrorists who seem to be trained in military style precisions. These terrorists killed three celebrated police officers including the head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism squad. They are professional killers! But, who is the mastermind?
In this age of DNA analysis when no criminal can escape the omnipotent searchlight of the defenders of law and sovereignty, we are confident a power like India will soon be able to declare, with smoking gun evidence in hand, who, the mastermind, actually was behind this terror campaign. If the mastermind is found to be from within India efforts should be made to find out the root causes. It is right to hate the terrorists and it is also wise to try to eliminate the reasons that may lure the young fools to indulge in such suicidal campaigns.
The blame game may heighten tension in the border areas between India and Pakistan and in the neighbourhoods where Hindu and Muslim communities are cohabiting. But it would be a terrible mistake if any quarter takes anger on Muslims. It would be unwise to be quick to pass a judgment at this stage. Most Muslims, everyone should believe, are peaceful people, no matter they live in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, or elsewhere. Those who killed innocent people in Mumbai are terrorists, not Muslims! Terrorism and Islam are antonymous, not synonymous!
(The writer is a banker. He may be reached at maswood@hotmail.com)