Combating Communalism and Terrorism

 Seminar on Combating Communalism and Terrorism.

Bangalore

A seminar was held in Bangalore to discuss the twin menace of communalism and terrorism afflicting India under the aegis of M. S. Krishnan Memorial Trust.

Views of the speakers are presented below:

Prof. Supriya Roy Choudhury,

Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore

Terror may be an outcome of specific policy, diplomacy. The United States tried to cultivate terrorism against Soviet Union by encouraging Islamic extremist groups which later became full-fledged practitioners of terrorism. Foisting of nation-state structure on basically tribal societies has also espoused terrorism. Time has come for thinking beyond nation-state. The project of nation-state has to be modified and deal with multicultural state. Suicide-bombing is a phenomenon which defies any punishment as suicide-bombers are ready to embrace death, which is the ultimate punishment for any act of terror. It is why terrorist has a cause for being heard. It cannot be met only militarily.

Praful Bidwai ,

Columnist

If one takes a hard look at the last 15 years, there seems to be a cogent strategy to demonise Islam and Muslims. Fact is that Israel is the most accomplished practitioner of sustained and indiscriminate terrorism against hapless Palestinians. But Judaic terrorism does not fit the transnational media’s bill for terrorism. Earlier to this, terrorism was applied to Basques in Spain, PLO, Irish Republican Army. Israeli prime minister Perez was a terrorist. Another Israeli prime minister Ishak Rabin is on record to have said there was no way Israel can be established without practicing terrorism. Most brutal form of terrorism has been practiced by the LTTE. But counter-terrorism experts of the US State Department have through manipulation associated terrorism with Islamic suicide bombers.

Academic studies have established that more than 60 per cent of the suicide bombers have rise from the ranks of secular groups. Only in less than 40 per cent cases, they were motivated by religion.

One atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima killed 30 times more number of people who died at the hand of terrorists. More than six lakh people have died in Iraq due to the US aggression and occupation. US record of lethality and brutality is many times worse than the terrorists’ actions.

Good amount of careful homework goes into the multinational media’s definition of terrorism. It defines terrorism in purely Islamophobic terms. The US State Department lists 36 organisation in its list of terrorists. Of these 29 groups are Islamic.

Why Islam is being demonized? Because two-thirds of the world’s oil lies in land where Muslims live. Had this been the case with Buddhists, perhaps the Buddhists would have been the ‘worst terrorists’ on the US list today.

Lingadevaru Halemane,

Linguist and Playwright

Terrorism is international anarchy while communalism is a national anarchy. Even the Leftist Government in West Bengal succumbed to the threat of Muslim fundamentalists with regard to Taslima Nasrin. Political parties have become wiser than the people in using caste and communal card. Even intellectuals have now started becoming fence-sitters. Communalism has somehow got reduced to binary division of Hindus versus Muslims. LTTE terrorism does not bother us as much as the Muslim terrorism in Kashmir. US aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan have hurt the sentiments of Muslims, hence the terrorism in Islamic countries.

Values have degenerated. Societies have become so decadent that we cannot stop assassination of a person of the caliber of Benazir Bhutto or demolition of Babri Masjid despite early and clear warning. The remedy lies in undertaking people’s initiative to create communal harmony and combat the twin menace of communalism and terrorism.

Please visit this page for more such blogs.