TERRORISM

TERRORISM


[This item was written on 26 July 2008. An addendum has been added at the end in view of the latest terrorist attack on India in November 2008.]

Terrorism, surprisingly, is a pretty controversial subject, its perception being coloured by the background of the person concerned. Hence I must state my relevant background in the very beginning. I am an Indian, Hindu by religion, a retired professor of medicine converted to law after retirement, currently a practising advocate. This article uses an algorithmic question-answer method.


1. WHAT IS TERRORISM?

It is not easy to define, but we may use here the definition given by Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism
which has the following to say:

“Terrorism is "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion." There is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. Most common definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants. Some definitions also include acts of unlawful violence and war.

Terrorism is also a form of unconventional warfare and psychological warfare. The word is politically and emotionally charged, and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. One 1988 study by the US Army found that over 100 definitions of the word "terrorism" have been used. A person who practices terrorism is a terrorist”.


2. WHO COMMITS TERRORISM?

It stands to logic that only such people would commit terrorism who belong to any one or more of the following categories:

a. Those to whom justice is denied and who are unable to get justice by other means;

b. Those to whom justice is not denied but who perceive it is denied;

c. Those who use terrorism as a vocation or profession for gain, often at the behest of other real and powerful players.

Without going into detailed analysis of the above, I believe it can be safely said that the main thinking or ideology fueling terrorism today is religion and oppression-deprivation, whether social, financial, political, or geographical in nature.


3. HOW SERIOUS IS THE PROBLEM?

The country most affected by terrorism is India. A chronological list of some terroristic bomb blasts in India during last 24 months [July 2006 to July 2008] is given below. It is to be noted that bomb blasts are only one of the several methods of terrorism.

July 26, 2008: A day after a series of explosions rocked the IT city of Bangalore, over seventeen blasts went off in Ahmadabad Saturday evening. Reports suggest that 26 people have been killed and 100 others injured. Lashkar and HuJI, two Muslim terrorist groups, have claimed responsibility for the attack.

July 25, 2008: Nine explosions in Bangalore create terror killing two people and injuring twelve.

May 13, 2008: Eight serial blasts rock Jaipur in a span of 12 minutes leaving 65 dead and over 150 injured.

January 2008: Terrorist attack on CRPF camp in Rampur kills eight.

October 2007: 2 killed in a blast inside Ajmer Sharif shrine during Ramadan, in Rajasthan.

August 2007: 30 dead, 60 hurt in Hyderabad 'terror' strike.

May 2007: A bomb at Mecca mosque in Hyderabad kills 11 people.

February 19, 2007: Two bombs explode aboard a train bound from India to Pakistan, burning to death at least 66 passengers, most of them Pakistanis.

September 2006: 30 dead and 100 hurt in twin blasts at a mosque in Malegaon.

July 2006: Seven bombs on Mumbai's trains kill over 200 and injure 700 others.


4. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRORISM?

A straightforward answer could be: the terrorist. But, is that really straightforward? It is like asking who is responsible for murder, and then pointing the finger at the murderer. Let us take an example from the medical field. If someone asks what are the real causes of deaths from lung cancer and tuberculosis, I would say that the real causes are not cigarette and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and that the real causes may lie in factors which make widespread use of cigarettes and prevalence of tubercle bacillus possible, along with those which facilitate the development and spread of the disease, including lack of access to preventive and therapeutic means. Using this paradigm, it becomes at once clear that the roots of terrorism may possibly lie in the behaviour of those countries that have illegally and immorally and unethically usurped and amassed power and, rather than halt or undo the process, continue to do so unabashedly.

This is not to say that the terrorists themselves are innocent. But, this does say that if we try to control the symptom and not treat the cause, the disease will never be cured.


5. SOME GENERALIZATIONS

Generalizations are not meant to be perfectly accurate. However, within limits, they serve the highly important purpose of helping focus on the broad picture. Otherwise, it is rather easy to be lost in petty, inconsequential arguments.

ONE—Though terrorism is no monopoly of any one religion, it is a fact that most terrorist attacks during last 50 years have been caused by Muslims. This can’t be a matter of chance. One must delve deep into the cause.

TWO—The power of muscle and money is presently centred around Western Europe and USA, Canada and Australia. All these have white Christian dominance. All have gained power by crushing, looting, subjugating and colonizing earlier well established people and civilizations.

THREE—Both Christianity and Islam, the two major world religions in the world, have their own definition of believers and non-believers, and both have it as their avowed aim to change all non-believers into believers by whatever means, which have been openly bloody in the past and are often so even at present.

FOUR—Energy is what drives economy and weapons and in the form of oil, a tradable commodity, is highly prized. Oil is concentrated mainly in the Muslim world and is used to the maximum extent by the Christian West. The West needs the Middle East oil cheap. How can they be forced to sell oil cheap? By not allowing the Muslim countries to develop and become strong. A strong seller would bargain hard.

FIVE-- If the Muslim countries are united and democratic, they would be a strong force to reckon with. The only way to keep them weak is to divide them and keep them under puppet dictatorships, kingdoms and sheikhdoms, not allowing democracy to take root there. This weakening is helped by the natural bifurcation of the Muslims amongst Shias and Sunnis.

SIX—USA is a bankrupt economy now, sitting over massive debts, artificially buoyed by the myth of the power of the irresponsibly mass printed paper dollar, in the face of the declining ability of the government to pay the gold equivalent of dollar bills. [This has been proven by the “economic meltdown” that became obvious in USA after this article was written. Now it has spread to the whole of the world].


6. THE THESIS

I propose a thesis based upon the following points:

a. Terrorism in the world is by and large an attempt by certain groups, mainly Muslim fundamentalist groups following the Saudi Arabian type Wahabi Islam, to pressurize / attack others with the following aims in mind:

• To oppose Western culture and Christian religion, which tend to merge;

• To oppose all those aligned to the current Western symbol and leader of the West, namely the USA. [Among those aligned to the USA, the countries of Western Europe, particularly the UK, are most important. Canada and Australia, though sympathetic to the USA, have not been too actively anti-Islamic; hence they have been relatively spared the wrath of Islamic terrorism].

b. Saudi Arabia, the hot-bed of fundamentalist Wahabi Islam, has solid support of the USA because the former is the biggest reservoir of oil in the world. This support comes in exchange for a tacit understanding from the USA to let the kingdom continue to resist democracy. It is common sense that if people get power, they would guard their wealth more zealously than the kings and dictators, who siphon off their individual, ill gotten wealth to Swiss and other Western banks.

c. Saudi Arabia has been the fountain head of support to Islamic terrorists all over the world, whether against India or USA or UK. This fact is not unknown to the USA. The White House, in fact, nurtured and propped Osama bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian billionaire Sheikh, against USSR in Afghanistan. At the same time, Osama and his army were fully bankrolled by the CIA / USA. After the USSR-Afghanistan imbroglio, Osama turned his attention to Taliban through Al-Qaida and to India's Kashmir front through other associates. That was OK with the omniscient USA and its intelligence machinery, till the twin tower attack, when he turned from a hero to a hounded one. After all, he had the temerity to bite the hand that fed!

d. The loud cry of the USA regarding the so called ‘global war against terrorism’ is nothing but a manifestation of its anger against twin towers’ collapse. The USA could not care less if other countries collapse under the charge of Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. This would, in fact, suit the USA, because, as a result: Those countries would buy arms and ammunition from the USA, in dollars, and thereby help USA economy; It would give an excuse to the USA to bomb and weaken some other Islamic country, such as Iran. If necessary, another set of WMD, with another acronym, could always be invented.

e. The so called love for democracy and rule of law on the part of USA is meant mainly for itself, for its own people. It suits America’s immediate interests to let democracies in other countries be suppressed, if such suppression helps USA in exploiting them. It helps USA to grab Muslim oil if those countries are not allowed to develop democracy of their own brand. Iraq was the only example of democracy in the Muslim world, and it was suitably punished for having the audacity to challenge the might of the dollar by preferring to sell oil in Euros.

f. American bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq was as foolish as illegal. The present children in these countries will be the future jihadist terrorists against America, because they would never forget that their parents were killed by a foreign invader, orphaning them in the process.

g. I do not foresee Islamic terrorism subsiding. It can subside if the USA decreases its consumerism in general and oil consumerism in particular, and simply sits back and allows Muslim countries to develop as per their own preferred political system and does not support sheikhs and kings. It should allow the Muslim countries to sell oil for Euros instead of the US dollars. I don’t see that happening.


7. CONCLUSION

It is a grim scenario. USA won’t shed or curb its consumerism which is dependent on Muslim oil. Muslims will demand payment in Euros. USA will refuse such demand and attack them, inventing false reasons like the WMD. The Pope, supported by all white Western countries, will not alter the Christian aim of drilling the message of Jesus in the hearts of all non-believers, including Muslims. The Muslims will have no reason to suddenly start loving those who are viewed as opponents of pan-Islam. India will continue to be a target of Islamic terrorists for two reasons: its Hindu faith and its growing proximity to USA.

8. ADDENDUM—On 26 November 2008, a massive terrorist attack was unleashed in Mumbai, the finance and film capital of India, where terrorists struck at the most well -known hotels and a railway station, shooting hundreds at random. They had planned to blow up Hotel Taj, but that plan did not fructify. The terrorists were of Pakistani origin, as revealed by a terrorist caught alive. The seize of the hotel Taj lasted 60 hours. The scale of the attack has been likened to the 9/11 of USA. For details and pictures, see:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27971837/



8. REFERENCES:


"GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR: essay, winner" 

"USA AND GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN ISLAM" 


M C Gupta
26 July 2008