Whenever there is a terror attack anywhere in the world, and even before the enormity of the tragedy can completely sink in, the ‘liberalati‘ of our society make a mad dash towards the finish line in order to claim the prize for being the first to disassociate the terrorist from it’s own religion. Sadly enough, it doesn’t end there. They offer various other arguments on similar lines in order to deflect the conversation from topics that should ideally be aimed at understanding the root cause of terrorism and potentially thwarting off the next terror attack.
For instance, economic backwardness and lack of opportunities is often given as one of the reasons for the rise of extremism among Muslims. The affluent background of the perpetrators of the Dhaka attack on July 1, 2016 proved this notion wrong, so did Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, the couple behind the San Bernardino attack on December 2, 2015. If this wasn’t enough, various news reports coming out of India and other countries point to a growing trend of radicalization among the well-to-do Muslims, many of whom have already joined the ISIS in Iraq. Needless to say, I’m alarmed, mostly because this cancer of terrorism is now flirting with the demographic that I regularly interact with.
If this large a community can be that easily radicalized, should’t we as a society come together and search for answers to questions like:
- What is causing this radicalization?
- Why hasn’t Islam evolved in its hundreds of years of existence in terms of the violent methods its followers frequently resort to, when other religions, which have had a violent past as well, are largely peaceful as of today?
- Should our madrasas be reformed/monitored, as pointed out by the intelligence agencies of various countries as these being breeding grounds for terror, or should the government be more stringent in censoring websites that promote hatred and in dealing people like Zakir Naik, who inspire people to commit acts of terror?
A discussion on these lines can only take place when we move beyond spouting noise like ‘terror has no religion’, ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ and ‘ISIS has nothing to do with Islam’, something that we resort to doing after every terror attack. Do we ever wonder as to what we achieve by indulging in such a discussion, or whether it actually solves any problem? Can someone’s addiction to drugs or alcohol be solved by siding with the addict and ignoring the dangers they pose to the society? People driving under the influence are taken off the road because they are a threat to not only themselves, but to everyone else around. That’s tangible action! Causes of addiction are analyzed and appropriate action, be it sending the addict to rehab or for counseling is taken, such that they can be treated. How does any of it sound insulting or demeaning to the person being helped, or to their family for that matter? It doesn’t, period!
Then why do we treat terrorism any differently, and use it as an opportunity to:
- see ourselves as a reincarnation of Gandhi himself, preaching love, respect and brotherhood by only talking positive, something that is conveniently forgotten when the perpetrator turns out to be a non-Muslim.
- keep our audience in good humor, in whose eyes we have to maintain a respectable standing by our selective egalitarianism and selective magnanimity. A quick thought here though: if we have to go to the extent of ignoring the spilled blood of innocents in order to safeguard our relationships, then isn’t it time to have a rethink on these relationships and deliberate on if they are really worth keeping? How long will an association based purely on appeasement survive anyway?
Therefore, in order to facilitate a meaningful discussion on Islamic terror, we must first address and silence the noise surrounding it. This will help in turning the political correctness on its head, and will leave us with just correctness to work with. Distributed over multiple essays, I will be critically analyzing each and every argument given by our modern day Gandhis and explain, among other things, as to how this attitude is leading to further alienation of the Muslims.
