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  Why terrorism has an Islamic stamp

Why terrorism has an Islamic stamp

| SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY
Published : Oct 1, 2013, 9:52 am IST
Updated : Oct 1, 2013, 9:52 am IST

A Muslim is not a terrorist. A terrorist is not a Muslim”.

A Muslim is not a terrorist. A terrorist is not a Muslim”. These brave words, uttered by Raj Khan, an elected councillor of the English town of Aylesbury, in the wake of the Nairobi carnage revive something that has uncomfortably haunted the world, at least since the macabre drama of 9/11. Why does terrorism appear to go hand in hand with Islam When a Singaporean-Chinese colleague popped the question, another colleague, an Indian Muslim, objected indignantly. Islam was, above all, the religion of peace, he declared. “Every sura in the holy Quran begins with the word ‘Bismillah’ which means ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful’. Only those who know nothing about our faith call us violent!” The Chinese are not an argumentative people. Face matters more to them than winning a point. So the first colleague kept quiet. Later, he returned to the charge. A group called Jemaah Islamiyah was suspected of planning to blow up Singapore’s Changi airport. Its reported aim was to establish a caliphate across Southeast Asia. The Singaporean-Chinese colleague mentioned the hideous nightclub bombing in Bali, the long-simmering Moro rebellion in the Philippines, extremists in Aceh in Sumatra and increasing rigidity in neighbouring Malaysia under the influence of the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia. “They are all Muslims, aren’t they ” he asked, and we were back to square one. Why is terrorism identified with Islam It wasn’t always so. The records suggest that Hindus in Biharsharif and even Kolkata didn’t yield to anyone in bloodthirsty conduct. Sikhs gave as good as they got in the same Partition riots. Going back in world history, Romans crucified Christians. The world’s longest-running civil war involved Irish Protestants and Catholics. In fact, Protestants were massacred throughout the Middle Ages — in England under “Bloody Mary”, during the St. Bartholomew’s Day butchery in France and under the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions. Muslims were victims of the Christian crusades long before Zionist aggression in what is now Israel. But thanks to suicide bombers, terrorist outrages and Al Qaeda and its related organisations, no non-Muslim today thinks of Muslims as victims. A major reason for this impression is the silence of Muslims who are not terrorists. Raj Khan made his comment when questioned about Samantha Lewthwaite, the Aylesbury girl and dropout from London’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies, who converted to Islam, threw in her lot with terrorists and is known as the “White Widow”. But he didn’t condemn the al-Shebab group’s siege of Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in which more than 70 people died, although it was the worst atrocity since jihadists bombed the American embassy there in 1998, killing more than 200 people. Nor have I seen any denunciations by high-ranking Muslim leaders of the bombing of the 130-year-old All Saints’ Church in Peshawar by a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan killing 85 innocent worshippers. Politicians in Christian countries, whether Britain’s David Cameron or Germany’s Angela Merkel, are afraid to condemn such attacks because they fear retaliatory raids at home. The Madrid train explosion and the London bombings demonstrated the terrible havoc jihadists can cause even in well disciplined and policed Western capitals. Even Francois Hollande of France dare not follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, who courageously banned the veil. Mindful of minority votes and ethnically mixed constituencies, many British politicians lean over backwards not to give offence. West Asian potentates like the two Abdullahs, kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, or the sheikhs and sultans of oil-rich Gulf states who are hand-in-glove with the United States in foreign policy are equally reticent. These absolute feudal monarchs know they are marking time. They hope to stretch out their lease of power a little longer by carefully avoiding incurring the hostility of those subjects who are most likely to oppose their stranglehold. It’s the greatest irony that through their inaction, the West’s closest allies and protégés in the Islamic ummah tacitly encourage terrorism. Terrorists know they have little to fear from the movers and shakers of the Muslim world. It would have been different if instead of only highlighting the Palestinian plight, the late Edward Said had also warned them to give up counter-productive suicide bombings. Why can’t Britain’s four Muslim peers, led by the voluble Pakistan-born Lord Nazir Ahmed, issue a statement condemning not just terrorism but Muslim terrorism in particular It would be different today if Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Najib Razak, came out strongly against the Jemaah Islamiyah. Or if Barack Obama were to roundly tell King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that the US would no longer prop up his throne if he didn’t denounce Islamic militarism. Punishing impoverished and war-torn Somalia alone will achieve little — the guilty men of the Westgate raid were recruited from the US, UK, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Dagestan, Syria and Kenya. Terrorism is now a truly global brand. It’s also clear that not only do terrorists have access to the most sophisticated weapons, their mastery of information technology enables them to spread their vicious message through the most effective forms of social media. At the same time, the upsurge in defence of Egypt’s deposed leader, Mohamed Morsi, confirmed that popular sentiment favours militants like the Muslim Brotherhood from whom it is but a short step to halfway groups like Hezbollah and, beyond them, to full-blown terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda and its affiliates. In the absence of such condemnation, Muslim terrorists feel entitled to believe that their own leaders don’t really, deep down in their hearts, disapprove of their bloody handiwork. Which is why, despite all the religious and historical evidence to the contrary, the non-Muslim world continues to see terrorism as an Islamic phenomenon.

The writer is a senior journalist, columnist and author