West Must Review Strategy Vis-à-vis Islamic World For Sustainable Peace
Picking a clue from Bush Administration’s e-mail to Us citizens that there is an apprehension of terrorists’ attack on strategic interests in India on 15th of August, one can see PCR vans in the capital city of Delhi moving in the streets flashing blue and red lights and hear their sirens aloud.
These sirens are sounds of warning, to quote the recent term coined by President Bush, from ‘the Islamic Fascists’ to disrupt democratic societies.
British Home Secretary John Reid says that the scale of this terror plot was bigger than 9/11 attacks in the US and this plot had global dimensions. Majority of the twenty four persons arrested in the UK in this connection have Pakistani origin. At least seven persons have been picked up from Karachi and Lahore. One is reminded of the fact that this plot leads to the conspiracy, when Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Ramzi Yousuf of Pakistan were arrested to blow up 10 American airliners midair with liquid explosives, way back in 1995. This plan was unearthed by the Philippines authorities.
With this incident Pakistan’s Terror Schools are once again in the limelight. The Indian Experts who know Pakistan, in and out, are not surprised. Their comment since 9/ 11s been that ever since Pakistan has joined President Bush’s war against terrorism, President Pervez Mushraf has been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. How can the world opinion forget that the majority of the suspects in 7/7 attacks on the London Underground were of the Pakistani origin. The attack on New York’s World Trade Centre in 1993, the killings in the front of CIA’s headquarter in Langley and the plot to poison water supply in America has had its roots in Pakistan.
In fact the leads from all of the recent terrorists’ attacks in the different parts of the world have been pointing towards Pakistan. Iraqi authorities have arrested Let Operatives for recent blasts. Turkey found involvement of Pakistani elements in Istanbul explosions. India suspected Let’s involvement in Mumbai’s recent trauma. Pakistan, though, has been constantly denying its hand in any of these incidents but the satellite imageries of the terrorists training camps being run in the areas like Murid ke in Pakistan produced recently in a US Court are more than an eye-opener. The Madrasas in Pakistan constantly prepare a whole new generation of Jihadis to achieve its objectives in India and Afghanistan as well.
The western media and for that matter UK’s all leading dailies who highlighted 8/10 plot in frightening headlines in bold letters, very conveniently forgot the Kanishka Bombing which was executed almost with the same scheme not very long ago, although by a different terrorist group. That was a conspiracy hatched by Khalistani separatists and the targets were innocent Indian passengers who boarded ill-fated Air India Fight from Toronto to New Delhi. Now when the heat has turned towards the UK and the US, the world media seems to have woken up.These Khalistani groups also enjoy the support from the infamous ISI of the Pakistani Army.
The exposed plot of 8/10 has threw up, once again, certain questions for discussion. Is Bush’s war against terror yielding any results? Or Is it fair to term this affair to be a handiwork of ‘Islamic Terrorism’? To say that Osama Bin Laden and his organization called Al Qaida is behind all this is a very easy because certain evidences, beyond doubt, point towards him and his outfit. But is it that easy thesis?
One should not sit pretty on the one side of the corner. There are grey areas on the other side also. They are also calling for attention. One, the deeds of Al Qaida and Osama Bin Laden have put the whole Islamic community in to a dizzy. The difference of opinion between the fundamentalists and the moderates in the Islamic world on Osama’s deeds is though discernible yet it is not without definite riders.
The label of Terrorist being pasted on whole of the community is aching them. It is hurting their prospectus of a good living and earning in the western world. The psyche of the general public is vertically different from the ruling dynasties, dictators and the democratic governments of the Islamic countries. They do not demonstrate it on the placards that why they do not support such terrorist activities. But they do display their anguish on what President Bush did in Iraq and Afghanistan and now what the US is doing in Israel- Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon. But the Capital Hill in Washington and 10 Downing Street in London are watching something else probably.
The Jihadi mind-set being nurtured in the countries like Pakistan fructifies on an ideology. Its not Osama as a person but it is Jihad as a principle which is flourishing. Osama has become only a symbol as Iraq’s erstwhile President Saddam Hussein had become an icon of America’s resistance during the Gulf War. In Pakistan if General Mushraff is being seen to be standing by the US, it is the fundamentalist elements which are looking the other way. That the General is trying very hard to strike a balance is a favourite argument in the diplomatic circles. They may also refer to his political compulsion keeping in view the forthcoming elections in 2007 but General’s beans are already split on the ground.
Pakistani Terrorist Factories teach the lessons of Jihad in a different way. They blindfold terrorist’s minds. Rumors of different kind are deliberately given air and they tighten the jihadi knots still further. One glaring example from India may be handy to prove this point. The failure of Polio Vaccine programme in the Muslim Community of the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is attributed to the rumours that it is an ‘impotency’ drug created by the West to do away with the Muslims. The result of this silly blind is that out of the 100 new polio cases reported this year, 94 are from the Muslim families.
But the policy-makers and observers in the West are also required to get rid off their blindfolds. If terrorism is proliferating and finding newer and more sophisticated ways to widen its tantrums, then there is definitely something which is lacking in their strategy vis-à-vis the Islamic world. If President Ahmed-inejad of Iran says that hatred for the President Bush is increasing every day around the world, he needs to be noticed. Some do agree with him. Some may not. It is upto you to decide. The question is wide open for a full fledged fruitful world wide debate.
