Introduction: Terrorism is a global phenomenon that calls for a global response. But first the ideology behind terrorism must be understood, observes N. S. Rajaram.
Pearl Harbour revisited
In its enormity the terrorist attack on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon has been compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
It is actually worse. The Pearl Harbour attack was by a military force on a military base. The World Trade Center attack was a typical act of cowardice favoured by terrorists-attack on a soft target filled with unarmed and unsuspecting civilians. This is what the Pakistani terrorists have been doing in Jammu and Kashmir for years, which the West including America has turned a blind eye to. The attack was in some ways similar to the bombing of the Bombay Stock Exchange in 1993, only greatly more destructive. The level of planning and organization that went into the WTC attack was also much greater. This shows that there exists a formidable Islamic terrorist network in the United States and beyond.
This brings up a basic point: Why have the Western countries, US in particular, failed to learn from the Indian experience? Even worse, why has the US continued to sponsor and promote countries like Pakistan with well established record of sponsoring terrorist outfits like the Taliban and sheltering criminals like Dawood Ibrahim? There was no lack of evidence. A few years ago the World Trade Center was bombed by an Islamic group; and a couple of CIA operatives were killed by Pakistanis. But none of this alerted the US to the possibility of major terrorist attacks on targets on American soil. Even after the Bombay Stock Exchange bombing, it did not strike American experts that what happened in Mumbai could also happen in New York.
All this suggests an insular state of mind that refuses to learn from the experience of open societies like India that have faced similar problems.
There is an implicit assumption that such things can happen in India, but never in the United States. Professor Daniel Pipes, a leading expert on Islamic terrorism recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal (September 12):
“The tactical blame (for the attack on WTC) falls on the U.S. Government, which has grievously faded in its topmost duty to protect American citizens from harm. Specialists on terrorism have been aware of this dereliction of duty; now the whole world knows it. Despite a steady beat of major, organized terrorist events over 18 years (since the car bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1983), Washington has not taken the in” seriously.”
Intellectual failure
In his article, Prof. Pipes highlights a failure to comprehend the ideological basis of fundamentalist terror: “Not understanding the hate-America mentality” of Islamic terrorists. “Buildings like the World Trade Center and the Pentagon loom very large as symbols of America's commercial and military presence “around the world.” There is a similar 'hate-Hindu' mindset, which makes Islamic terrorists target Hindu symbols like the Amarnath yatra.
The secular-humanist West has difficulty comprehending, this faith-based phenomenon. Indian intellectuals, with their great experience of Islam should be of help, but with ram exceptions they have failed to meet the challenge. Even worse, many have turned apologists by diverting attention to imaginary targets like “Hindu communalism”. This came to the fore immediately after the World Trade Centre attacks, when some in the media sensing that Pakistan would be a major suspect, indulged in sophistry. The day after the attacks, The Times of India in its front page editorial claimed that “so-called Islamic fundamentally might falsely be blamed and darkly hinted that South American narcotics smugglers might be responsible. Another editorial realised that Taliban was the culprit without mentioning that Taliban is a creation of Pakistan. In an interview of Shri L K Advani, Rajdeep Sardesai of Star TV expressed concern that there was danger of ‘generalization from Islamic terrorism, mewing that Muslims might be blamed for it. Perhaps non-Muslims should be blamed for Islamic terror. The situation is not much better in the West. In his first public statement after the terrorist attacks, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair gratuitously asserted that such attacks go against the teachings of Islam. This reflects a serious problem relating to poor understanding of Islam in the West. Much of the blame lies in Western academia. There is no shortage of departments of Oriental Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, South Asian Studies and so forth, but they are mainly filled with Islamic apologists. Until recent events brought it to the fore, any discussion of Jihad in the context of violence was taboo. As Walter Laquer, a leading American expert on terrorism observed: “They [Islamists] claim dust Islam is a highly moral religion, espousing love rather than hate, and is pluralist and democratic in inspiration. Because of this energetic defense, it has become almost taboo to discuss terrorism in the Islamic context.”
The problem is particularly acute in the various South Asia Studies departments in the United States. They are filled with Marxists and other anti-Hindus who have kept up a drumbeat of anti-Hindu rhetoric that has made a serious study of Islam all but impossible. Academics in these departments, some of them of Indian origin, are turning out worthless tracts, whose main theme is a relentless attack on Hinduism and its history, often grotesquely misrepresenting the truth. As a result, any policy maker or even serious student looking for information about the record of Islam in India has nowhere to go.
The situation is not much different in the Indian academia. Any scholar or even writer discussing Jihad in the context of Islamic terror is at once denounced as a 'communalist', the worst swearword there is in the Indian intellectual vocabulary. Rare is the academic or scholar who can -survive this kind of attack. What they have produced so far is comparable in value and relevance to D. N. Jha's recent book on beef eating. Thus, major source of knowledge in the world's battle against Islamic terror has been almost totally suppressed. It represents a monumental failure of vision and professionalism and a missed opportunity of historic proportions. These men and women will end up in the dustbin of history.
Terrorism as a belief system
The need of the hour is a clear understanding of the belief system or she ideology that underlies Islamic terror. This is available in India from two sources. First, the works of non-establishment scholars and publishers like Sita Ram Goel and Voice of India. Next, the works of Islamic authors themselves, especially those put out by the sponsors of terror. It must be said to the credit of the latter that they have made no secret of their goal of spreading their influence through terror. The seminal work The Quranic Concept of War by Brigadier S. K. Malik, sponsored by the late General Zia unequivocally states that Jihad, “the most glorious word in the vocabulary of Islam ... is a continuous and never-ending struggle waged on all fronts.”
But the doctrine goes further to encompass the whole world: “It was the cause of humanity in general and not just the Muslim community in particular.”
It is a universal doctrine, to be applied to the whole world.
What is extraordinary in all this is the central role assigned to terror. “The Quranic military strategy thus enjoins us to prepare ourselves for war to the utmost in order to strike terror into the heart of the enemy, known or hidden, while guarding ourselves from being terror-stricken by the enemy.” Even more, “Terror struck into the hearts of the enemy is not only a means, it is the end in itself. Once a condition of terror into the opponent's heart is obtained, hardly anything is left to be achieved... Terror is not a means of imposing decision upon the enemy; it is the decision we wish to impose upon him.” That is to say, the enemy is to live in a state of perpetual terror. This is needed to bring justice and freedom from oppression.
Pakistan has put this terror doctrine
into practice in its proxy war in Kashmir. This has now been extended to
the American soil. It is of paramount importance to recognize that Islamic
terrorists are acting under the firm belief that they can achieve their
goals through terror. This means terror is everything- strategy, tactics
and ideology using religion as cover. Unless the world recognizes this
basic truth, mere military strikes against a few targets will achieve little.
US in particular must shed its insularity and learn from the experience
of other societies.