Understanding Terrorism

For several decades, social scientists and historians in India have been trying to illustrate the true nature of radicalism and religious extremism that has manifested in attacks like 9/11 around the world. However, the far left of Indian politics along with the supporters and sympathizer who thrives on creating social and political anarchy has sought to undermine these efforts by casting these scholars as extremists themselves.

Now comes this remarkable op-ed piece from Daily Mail titled, "I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist" by Hassan Butt.

Here are some of the excerpts from Mr. Butt's article:

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And though many British extremists are angered by the deaths of fellow Muslim across the world, what drove me and many others to plot acts of extreme terror within Britain and abroad was a sense that we were fighting for the creation of a revolutionary worldwide Islamic state that would dispense Islamic justice
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the foundation of extremist reasoning rests upon a model of the world in which you are either a believer or an infidel.
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For centuries, the reasoning of Islamic jurists has set down rules of interaction between Dar ul-Islam (the Land of Islam) and Dar ul-Kufr (the Land of Unbelief) to cover almost every matter of trade, peace and war.

But what radicals and extremists do is to take this two steps further. Their first step has been to argue that, since there is no pure Islamic state, the whole world must be Dar ul-Kufr (The Land of Unbelief).

Step two: since Islam must declare war on unbelief, they have declared war upon the whole world.

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The entire article is available here.

This op-ed is very relevant for India. The basis for secularism in India is the Hindu philosophy which accepts diverse religious view points. However, radical Islam attacks the very basis of this secularism by dividing the world into believers and non-believers. This means that Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Jews and atheists have no place in the world idealized by 12% of Indian population.

The ability of radicals to promote this ideology under the garb or democracy and socialism means that democracy and secularism are themselves being used to undermine their fundamental tenets.

The anti-religious left sees no contradiction in joining hands with the religious extremists. The Manifesto of India will be based on true secularism - pure and unadulterated.