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India hardly recovered from the
ghastly terror attack of 13th July, 2011 Mumbai that terrorism
struck in Norway. In Norway on 22nd July, Friday, around 3.20 PM
in the afternoon the high-rise, where Prime Minister’s office is
located in central Oslo, was targeted resulting in blowing out
windows and facades of close by buildings; just few hours later a
gunman putting the dress of a police officer opened fire on
youngsters at a summer camp of ruling Labor Party, in Uloya
Island. The twin acts of terror killed 93 innocent lives.
Even before the horror of the act
was registered, the verdict about ‘who did it’ was out, and the
usual suspects in acts of terror were named, all around, by media
and experts. The ‘experts’, ideologically motivated commentators
and section of media revolved their discussion around Al Qaeda
chief Ayman-al Jawahitri, saying that he is the culprit of the
act. It was commented that the Al Qaeda, the dreaded Islamic
terrorists have done this. Incidentally Norway is also involved in
the war in Afghanistan.
As it turned out the culprit was a Norwegian, Anders Behrig
Breivik, a 32 year old Christian farmer who has been part of right
wing ideology, a neo Nazi racist, opposed to multiculturalism,
Islam; Muslims and immigration of Muslims, seething with anti
Muslim sentiments. His blogs are reflective of his ideology
whereby in the name of tradition he opposes the development of
European Union and Multiculturalism. Also he profiles Muslims as
being supporters of Al Qaeda and so of terrorism. It seemed
through this act he was opposing the liberal policies related to
immigration of the Norwegian Prime Minister.
Despite this being true, the common perceptions have been
manufactured to hate Muslims and Islam by projecting them as the
terrorists. Whenever the word terrorist is said the image of a
bearded Muslim flashes up. This is mainly due to the machinations
of US-CIA through the media. Same way in India, the Muslims are
projected as terrorists and the perception here is that all
terrorists are Muslims. Some commentators go further to say that
while Muslims are terrorists due to religion’s preaching’s, those
from other religions have political goals. All this is a total
distortion of facts. Going to the depth of reality will unearth
the role of US in creating the whole ‘Jihadi terror’ phenomenon,
and it is US again which has played the worst role in doctoring
the mass consciousness against Islam and Muslim.
The tragedy of this bomb attack reminds us of various phenomena in
the society. To begin with the first and major suspicion for any
attack on terror in India and at global level is put on the so
called Jihadi groups, thereby on the Muslims. By now some of the
verses of Koran have been taken out of context and misinterpreted
to create Islamophobia. One recalls that the promotion of right
wing Al Qaeda-Taliban was promoted by United States in its goal to
throw away Russian armies from Afghanistan, which was occupied by
them on the request from the local Communist Government. US
planned to turn Russia’s Afghan occupation in to its Vietnam, as
US had to bite the dust when it had attacked Vietnam.
Since US armies were totally demoralized due to the humiliating
defeat in Vietnam, US- CIA planned to set up Madrassas in Pakistan
in collusion with ISI. In these madrassas the radical version of
Islam was taught to the young Muslim boys. The verses of Koran
exhorting the Muslims to kill the infidels attacking them were
taken out of context to indoctrinate the young Muslim boys. As a
matter of fact these verses were meant for the war situation to
protect the Muslims as a last resort. When seen in isolation it
seems as if the advice to followers is to kill recklessly, when
seen in the context, it is clear that these verses were said
during the war and it was a defensive struggle for new converts to
Islam.
A special syllabus was developed in Washington to be used in these
Madrassas. These Madrassas produced the Al Qaeda breed. Osama,
again a US creation was brought in as leader of Al Qaeda and was
provided with 8000 million dollars and 7000 tons of armaments. The
indoctrination of Al Qaeda-Taliban recruits was aimed to make them
join anti Russian forces to defeat Russian army.
It is after 9/11 2001 that US media popularized the term ‘Islamic
terrorism’, it was a deliberate propaganda to demonize Islam and
Muslims to prepare the ground to attack Afghanistan and then Iraq.
In India the likes of Osama, Swami Dayanand Pandey; Assemanand and
Company, were bred and brought up in the organizations with the
goal of Hindu Rashtra and these terror suspects were determined to
show their ‘bravery’ by following the dictum of ‘Bomb for Bomb’.
The association of Islam and Muslims with terrorism became firm in
poplar mind and Indian investigation agencies have been recklessly
arresting Muslim youth, even when the blasts have taken place in
front of Mosques and other places of Muslim congregation. Even
after 13/7 2011Mumbai attack, the similar theories have been put
out by the agencies and one hopes that these authorities will
start delinking their biases from professionalism.
As far as Europe-US are concerned we have seen in the past also
that there have been terrorists and terror groups which have
indulged in acts of terror. Irish Republican Army declared few
years ago that they will not indulge in acts of terror. Timothy
McWay bombed Oklahoma in 1995 killing nearly 165 people. The
current rise of intolerant, right wing ideology in Europe and
partly all over the World has a lot to do with the global changes,
post the rise of US as the sole superpower. US has been dictating
the world, for the sake of its economic interests, particularly
those related to control over oil resources. The attack in Norway
shows very interestingly as to how the economic problems, which
are plaguing the World, are being diverted to the issues related
to xenophobic, intolerant view of society. The Norwegian terrorist
is not an isolated person voicing these views. In Europe there are
various trends which promote hatred for Islam and Muslims and
oppose the immigration of Muslims.
Swedish daily Expo claims that Anders is a part of group called
Nordisk, which is a Neo Nazi group and focuses on political
terrorism. He has leaning towards Christian Fundamentalism. Since
at the moment Breivik’s fundamentalist ideas are focused against
Islam-Muslims, he finds himself close to the Hindutva
fundamentalism, no wonder as RSS led Hindutva fundamentalism is
currently targeting Muslims in particular. Breivik may be unaware
that these Hindu fundamentalists are also on the spree to kill and
intimidate the Christians in Adivasi areas. As such the Breivik’s
Manifesto seems to have derived lot of inspiration form the RSS
Combine. He appreciates the acts done by Hindutva groups of
targeting Islam and Muslims. Breivik has quoted from the Hindutva
ideologues criticism of Islam and Muslims. No wonder B.P.Singhal
of VHP, a RSS affiliate said the Breivik’s cause is correct but
method is wrong.
Terror trends are so parallel all over the World, here a person
inspired by Christian Fundamentalism is taking to terror, in
Afghanistan-Pakistan Al Qaeda type of groups are fed on the diet
of Islamic fundamentalism and the likes of Aseemanand and Pragya
Singh Thakur base themselves on Hindu Fundamentalism. The culture
of liberal values and ideology of struggle for dignity and rights
of people are being substituted by the fundamentalist ideas all
around. Fundamentalism generates Hate against ‘other’ religious
communities leading to heinous crimes, witnessed in different
parts of the World, particularly in South Asia and occasionally
the one like this in Europe.
There is a deeper unity in the ideologies of all fundamentalisms.
Globally there are two major factors promoting Fundamentalism in
the name of this or that religion. One, when a privileged section
of society feels threatened by the rise of assertion for equality
by the deprived classes, women included. Two, when a superpower
promotes it proactively to use the products of fundamentalist mind
set for its economic-political goals. These trends come up in the
wake of social changes where the weaker sections of society are
trying to come up and assert their rights. In such situations the
entrenched social groups resort to the politics in the language of
religion. This in turn co-opts and uses the marginalizing section
of people, those getting marginalized due to social processes, and
unleashes an identity politics which ensure the status quo. At
superficial level they target the people of other religions. At
the deeper level this fundamentalist related political ideologies
are opposed to the values of Democracy, Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity. They inherently believe in the birth based hierarchy
of caste-class and gender. This is where Breivik will appreciate
what Hindu Fundamentalists are doing in India. India must have
been mentioned by him because it is here that ideological
sophistry of Hindutva elements against Islam-Muslims is a so
aggressive and visible from last few decades.
The tragedy is, one fundamentalism feeds another. Promotion of Al
Qaeda and accompanying radical version of Islam is used as a
pretext by other fundamentalist tendencies to strengthen them. The
Norway tragedy should wake up the World to the reality of this
dastardly economic-political reason of terrorism. Religion should
be for moral values, terrorism is a political phenomenon. Like in
Norway the economic crisis is leading to the rise of intolerant
views. It is time we address the deeper political issues, we
should work for global democratic system, we should also aim for
global peace movement so that this aberration in the understanding
about terrorism is overcome, so that we can really engage with the
deeper issues related to the deprivations of society. This is what
will help us eradicate the phenomenon of terrorism.
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