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We oppose all kinds of terrorism
Points to
Ponder
A seminar was
organised by the Indian Cultural Heritage Society at the India
International Centre in New Delhi on 13 October. its theme was ‘Indian
Muslims against terrorism’. Prominent speakers said that it is grossly
unfair to demand Indian Muslims to prove their loyalty every time there is
a problem. Former National Minorities Commission chairman Prof Tahir
Mahmood said emphatically that ‘I refuse to give anybody this right to
question my loyalty as an Indian Muslim.’ Outlook editor Vinod Mehta
said ‘why do we expect Indian Muslims to stand up always and be
counted.’ Former IG Police KPS Gill said that fear is the greatest
danger that may befall a society or individual. He also observed that the
country would have benefitted a lot had Urdu not been shabbily treated
after Partition. Actress and social activist Shabana Azmi thundered that
she refuses to give proof of her loyalty everytime there is a crisis. She
said that every problem starts with a just demand and later only it takes
an unacceptable face and therefore problems should be tackled at the very
start. Former chief justice of India Justice Ahmadi said that there will
be no justice in the world if basic problems are not addressed. ‘11
September was terrorism and what is happening in Afghanistan now is
terrorism too,’ Justice Ahmadi said. MG editor Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan
also spoke at the gathering. Following is his address:
'Terrorism' is a constant issue of discussion these days, especially since
the tragic events of Black Tuesday. Various parts of the world have been
witnessing this phenomenon for a number of decades now. But of late the
focus is on the so-called 'Islamic terrorism' and somehow some quarters
have assumed here and abroad that Islam as such has something to do with
terrorism, that Muslims cannot live in peace with other communities and
nations. We have not heard of 'Christian' terrorism, or 'Hindu' terrorism,
or 'Jewish terrorism' or 'Buddhist' terrorism.
In this brief presentation I will try to discuss two main issues: Islam's
basic approach to terrorism and an attempt to look at the phenomenon in
its totality in order to avoid repetition of tragic events like Black
Tuesday.
To start with, Islam as a religion is totally against terrorism meaning
senseless murder of innocent people. But the very terminology to date has
not been properly defined. I may cite here the following definition of
terrorism coined by UN expert AP Shmid that terrorism is "peacetime
equivalents of war crimes". He has further explained it as follows:
"Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action,
employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for
idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to
assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.
The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly
(targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic
targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators.
Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist
(organization), (imperiled) victims, and main targets are used to
manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of
terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on
whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought".
Now within this definition Islam never allows an individual or group or
state to take another person's life or destroy his/her property without
ample justification and that too only to the extent of the damage suffered
by the victim (sura al-Nahl, verse 126)
Muslims are allowed to fight back only if they are wronged (al_hajj:40).
Indeed murder is so much detested in the eyes of Allah that the murder of
one innocent person has been held as equal to the murder of the whole
humanity (Al-Maida: 32).
Mercy is the foremost quality praised by Islam and it is the first quality
of Allah. A Muslim repeats everyday dozens of times: Bismillahir Rahman
al-Raheem - 'in the name of Allah, most merciful, most compassionate.'
Allah says in the Qur'an that 'He has inscribed for Himself the rule of
mercy' (Al-An'am:12). The Prophet has been described by Allah as 'Mercy
unto the worlds' (Al-Anbiaya:107). So this religion cannot sanction the
murder of innocent people under any pretext.
Islamic societies all these fourteen centuries did not experience the
phenomenon of terrorism. The only example to my knowledge of terrorism may
be that of the Hashasheen, a word which has entered English language as
'assassins.' This was a fringe group of Muslims during the Crusades who
used to take hasheesh before attacking the Crusaders who were an
occupation force, the harbingers of colonialism which came about two
centuries later.
Modern Middle East did not know the phenomenon of terrorism until it was
introduced there by the British during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman
State, followed by the zionists who were carving out a homeland for
themselves with active British support. It started with groups like
Haganah, Palmach, Stern and Lehi terrorist groups and led to such inhuman
acts as blowing up King David Hotel in Jerusalem which housed the British
administration in Palestine, drowning a ship carrying Jewish immigrants,
murder of UN mediator Count Bernadotte, murder of the British resident
minister in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, attack on the American Centre in
Alexandria, downing a Syrian civilian airliner, bombing Jewish synagogues
in Baghdad to induce the prosperous Iraqi Jewry to migrate to Israel,
attacking USS Liberty in 1967, downing a Libyan civil airliner in 1973,
and so on… Palestinian terrorism came much later, from mid-sixties, when
the refugees lost all hope to go back to their stolen lands and homes.
The so-called Islamic terrorism emerged a few years later. Though it has
its seeds in the crushing defeat of Arabs by Israel in 1948 and 1967 with
active US and western support, it surfaced only after the US having used
the mujahideen suddenly abandoned them after the Russian withdrawal from
Afghanistan. This was further strengthened after the US decided to stay
put in the Arabian peninsula after the Second Gulf War of 1991 and the
crushing sanctions against Iraq ever since at the insistence of Israel and
the zionist lobby in the US. All this was reinforced by anger and hate
accumulating since the Crusades, the colonial onslaught, destruction of
the Ottoman Empire, non-fulfillment of the promises made to the Arabs
during the First World War and subjugation of Arab lands in its wake,
creation of Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, unreserved material
and political support to Israel ever since and ignoring Israeli war crimes
against the Palestinians and all its neighbours. All this has given rise
to what is staring us now as Islamic terrorism.
It is the accumulation of an unending chain of injustices that has angered
many people around the world against the sole superpower. This includes
such historic injustices as sustaining, aiding and abetting Israeli
terrorism and propping up dictatorial regimes around the world. Over the
past half a century the US has stepped on many wrong toes in Cuba,
Vietnam, Chile, Guatemala, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan to name a few. In 1989
it invaded a sovereign country, Panama, kidnapped its president (Manuel
Noriega) and still keeps him in a Miami jail. It helped Iraq destroy Iran.
It brought down an Iranian civil airliner in the Gulf in 1988. It has
blindly supported Israel kill, maim and devastate Palestinians after
making most of them refugees and occupying their land since 1948. It
protected Israel during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 which led to the
murder of tens of thousands of innocent people including such infamous
massacres in the annals of history as Sabra and Shatila under the
supervision of the war criminal who now rules Israel. Bush Senior helped
Israel out of the US treasury with $10 billion to build and expand illegal
settlements which are the biggest hurdle to any compromise even by the
most lenient Palestinian negotiators. US veto has always saved Israel from
world censure in the UN. Most recently the US was the sole country in the
world to stand by and walk out with its protege, from the Durban Racism
Conference.
This deep anger is enough to find new recruits all the time, here and
there, and no amount of crushing Ben Laden, Al-Qa'ida or Taliban can solve
this problem. A serious and honest attempt is to be made by the US in the
first place to understand these problems and solve them in order to
restore peace and justice all over the world. If this happens, humanity
will not have to witness another horror like Black Tuesday or Sabra and
Shatila or Mai Lai… If this lesson is not learnt and interned, the US
approach, as a British MP has said, will create a thousand Bin Ladens.
It is very important that the US and its hasty allies think over these
facts to discover why Uncle Sam is detested and perceived as ‘ugly’
around the world. No peace is possible in the world and there is no
certain way to stop the recurrence of the Black Tuesday again and again
unless the basic flaws in the US foreign policy are addressed and more
equitable and just world system is ushered, in which all have a stake.
Points to ponder
> No Indian Muslim support to
violence in J&K.
> Draconian action taken against SIMI
which is not involved in terrorism while no action taken against Bajrang
Dal and similar outfits which engage in violent activities and arms
training.
> Most terrorism cases in south America.
> IRA does not figure on the US list of
terrorist organisations.
> No action to date against the
perpetrators of Nellie or Hashimpura massacres.
> Resistance to foreign occupation is not
terrorism. Rather resistance is a basic right enshrined in international
law. q |
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