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Mayhem and morality (definition of terrorism for the arabs who refuse to listen)
By Irfan Husain Over the last week or so, innocent civilians of different faiths have met violent deaths in separate parts of the world: Christians in Russia; Buddhists in Iraq; Hindus in Kashmir; and Jews in Israel. In each incident, the perpetrators have been Muslims. While it can be argued that in the same period, Muslims have been killed in Kashmir, Chechnya, Iraq and Palestine, there is a crucial difference. In the latter events, legally constituted and directed state power was responsible for the killings. In the former, the killers were terrorists, and their victims unconnected with security forces. It is true that the faith of the various groups behind the deaths of the non-Muslims is coincidental as they all have different agendas. The Chechens behind Beslan, the Palestinians who carried out the recent suicide bombing in Israel, the Kashmiris who continue to target Hindu civilians, and the Iraqis who are killing and kidnapping foreigners are all fighting different wars. Despite the attempts of the occupying powers to link them, the fact of the matter is that these militant movements have very little in common except their religion. By and large, they are motivated more by the spirit of nationalism than by faith. And except for a handful of pan-Islam zealots, these are all indigenous struggles. However, while these unequal contests demand unorthodox tactics, the fact is that increasingly, it is the innocent who suffer most. Being soft targets, they are killed or taken hostage almost at will by the guerrillas; and as they are perceived by the state as sheltering the resistance, they become acceptable collateral damage in the "war on terror". The fact that many of the most violent groups operating today are Muslim is not without significance in a world where the electronic media has no time for fine distinctions, and sound bites carry more weight than serious analyses. Thus, when global TV channels speak of "Islamic terrorists", western audiences do not differentiate between Chechen and Iraqi guerrillas. For them, the killers who deliberately target civilians are Muslims. Ergo, Muslims are bloodthirsty people who target the innocent. Posted by: Fawad 2004-09-13 |
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