Author: Arvind Virmani
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: November 24, 2001
Since September 11 many of us have
taken a close interest in the media debates on terrorism. One of the issues
that have repeatedly come up is the unfairness involved in calling terrorist
organisations such as 'Al Qaeda' as 'Islamic terrorists.' There is an unstated
implication that those who use this appellation are anti-Islam and are
using this unfortunate episode to tar all Muslims and Islam with the same
brush. Such an emotional response is understandable given that some crazy
people in the West (terrorists?) have responded by killing people wearing
turbans just because the currently most prominent terrorist wears one.
Responsible people of whatever religious
affiliation who have used the term 'Islamic terrorists' have been at pains
to state and reiterate that the war against terrorism is not a war against
Islam. Sufficient time has now passed for us to examine this issue dispassionately
so that future debate is based on logic and not on emotions.
The question is whether the IRA
are 'Christian terrorists,' the 'LM' 'Hindu terrorists' and AQ, JEM, HUM,
LET et al 'Islamic terrorists' as described by some. The answer to this
question lies in their objectives and ideology. The professed objective
of the IRA is to get rid of British rule in Northern Ireland. To my knowledge,
they have neither claimed that their objective is to establish a Christian
or Catholic rule in Northern Ireland nor have they used Christian or Catholic
theology to justify or support their terrorist actions. Therefore, the
IRA is better termed 'Irish terrorists' and not 'Christian terrorists'.
The objective of the LTTE is merely to establish a homeland for the Tamils
in Sri Lanka. Again their ideology may have elements of Tamil superiority,
but to my knowledge they have neither professed that there objective is
a Hindu state in Sri Lanka, nor have they used Hinduism in any form to
justify their actions to the outside world. They are therefore referred
to either as 'Sri Lankan Tamil Terrorists' or just 'Tamil terrorists, even
though the Tamil citizens of India, who do not agree with their ideology
or approach, may not like the second appellation. It also does not imply
that all Sri Lankan Tamils or all Irish are terrorists.
The professed ideology of all the
terrorist groups that have been referred to as 'Islamic terrorists' or
'Jehadis' is Islam. This by no stretch of imagination means that all Muslims
are terrorists. Though 'Jehad' in Islam means 'struggle,' these terrorist
groups have defined 'Jehad' as an armed 'struggle' between their version
of Islam and non-Muslim people and countries. Their rhetoric and justification
is all based on Islamic religious texts, even though the meaning and intent
of these texts may be quite different from what they profess it to be.
In recent history the only other
groups that can arguably be classed as religion based were the 'Sikh terrorists'
trained in or based in Pakistan. Sikhism and its greater glory was the
professed ideology of many groups, which terrorised the population of Punjab
even though they indiscriminately killed both Sikh and Hindu civilians.
Thus they are referred to as either 'Sikh terrorists' or 'Khalistani terrorists.'
By analogy, the use of the term 'Islamic terrorists,' or in the case of
Pakistan based anti-India terrorist groups 'Pakistani Jehadis' does not
appear to be inappropriate.
Islam has some unique features for
which it is rightly appreciated. All Muslims are equal in Islam. This positive
feature also means that terrorism based on a fundamentalist & blinkered
interpretation of Islam is by its very nature one of the most international
forms of terrorism since the demise of communism. Though, individual terrorist
groups may consist of one nationality (e.g. Philippines' Abu Sayef, Indonesian
ALF) their belief unites them as brothers in a common cause with Saudi
Arabians, Egyptians, Iraqis and Pakistanis with the same beliefs. Thus,
individuals indoctrinated with an ideology that glorifies (their version
of) 'Islam' and promotes hatred against the rest (Americans & their
Arab 'stooges', Jews/Israelis, Hindus/Indians, godless communists/Central
Asians/ Chinese) are as international as Al Qaeda even if their primary
objectives is the 'liberation' of a specific geographical area or country
from its rulers.
(These are personal views of the
author)
