18-12-2008 gurumurthy.net : S. Gurumurthy
Some Indian seculars began celebrating the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh, and Lt Col Srikant Purohit as suspects in the Malegaon terror strike of September 30. It was not because the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) probe was moving ahead. But for a different reason — that is, the suspects happened to be Hindus. The secular megaphones began blaring “see the Hindu terrorists caught in the act”, as if Hindu terror, if that existed, was a discovery to celebrate, not a cause to worry. Read more about this perverse mindset.
In the past, when all terrorists, suspected or indicted, were found to be Muslim, these seculars were unable to admit or reject the all-Muslim character of the terror. “Terrorists belong to no religion”, they pontificated. “Don’t call it Islamic terror”, they pleaded. “Don’t hold all Muslims responsible for the jihadis work”, they counselled. Some even empathised with the terrorists.
They said the terrorists were misguided, disgruntled Muslims youths denied due opportunities. They commended Sachar Committee type compassion, not tough laws like POTA, to handle terror.
Result? The state began funding the families of terrorists. The more desperate among the seculars went so far as to say that, because of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and the Gujarat riots in 2002, the terrorists did have a cause to take to bombs, almost condoning, if not rationalising, their terror. And now, with the ATS suspecting some Hindus, these seculars are relieved that the all- Muslim enterprise of terror has some Hindu faces also. The prefix “Islam” firmly tagged to terror had for long desperately compelled the seculars to attempt to quick-fix the “Hindu” tag to terror, even before Malegaon. Now in Malegaon they see a chance to flag terror with the Hindu tag. But is it as simple as balancing Islamic terror by inventing a Hindu counterpart? Islam was prefixed to terror not in India. The global discourse on terror has, over the years, identified Islam with terror. It happened not — repeat not — because the terrorists were adherents of Islam. It is because the terrorists — whether al-Qaeda elsewhere or SIMI here – themselves claim they are ordained by the Islamic faith itself to kill kafirs, that is, non-Muslims.
Despite this claim by the terrorists, none of the Islamic theological schools — not a single one — challenged them nor did any of them declare that kafir did not mean non-Muslims. Had they done so, the terrorists’ claim would have been punctured and Islam could not have been prefixed to terror. But, it has been the other way round. Many Islamic schools seem to believe, like the jihadis do, that Hindus are kafir. Here is an instructive episode in secular India.
This happened way back in 1992. Dr Abdul Raza Bedar, an Islamic scholar, had said then that Muslims regarding Hindus as kafirs was affecting India’s integration. So, he pleaded, Hindus be dropped from the list of kafir. All hell broke loose. A massive hate campaign against Dr Bedar began, abused him as “Scoundrel”, “Rushdie Two”, “Filthy” — to quote only a few examples. Three noted Islamic schools issued fatwa saying Dr Bedar was a kafir. Seven Muslim MLAs brought the Bihar Assembly to a halt to demand that Dr Bedar be sacked as director of the Khudabaksh Library in Patna. Finally he was sacked for saying that Hindus were not kafirs! The seculars were impotent witnesses to this barbarism. The intervention of the prestigious Islamic school at Deoband to say that Dr Bedar was not wrong in declaring that Hindus were not kafirs in a bid to exonerate Dr Bedar could not save him. Drowned in the mass chorus, no one bothered about that prestigious voice.
The removal of Dr Bedar then, legitimises now, the views of the terrorists.
This was in 1992 when there was no Islamist terror in India. Now the terrorists openly cite their holy text and claim that they have a religious duty to kill the kafirs — read Hindus. Yet, no Islamic school including the Deoband seminary, challenges them. Globally, terror bears the prefix of Islam because the terrorists claim, without being challenged, that their faith commands them to kill the kafir to further Islam.
Now, come to the secular effort prefix “Hindu” to Malegaon terror. The suspects do not claim they have a duty by their faith to kill non-Hindus. No Hindu religious school or head will allow any Hindu to claim that he has a religious mandate to kill non-Hindus.
The LTTE, consisting of Hindus, also kills, but does not claim to be commanded by Hinduism to do so. Go further.
What is the stated motive of the Hindus suspected of terror in Malegaon? The accused planned counter-terror against Islamic terror, says the ATS. So for the Malegaon suspects, it was an anti-terror act. But it is wrong. One wrong, however provocative, does not justify another. Such counter-terror too is an act against humanity, and it should be punished by law.
But the discourse cannot end without noting how the irrational secular enthusiasm to add the prefix “Hindu” to Malegaon terror has hurt Brand India. The ATS stunned the nation by telling the court one day that a Malegaon accused, Lt Colonel Purohit, had stolen RDX from the army stores and supplied it for the blast on the Samjhauta Express, for which Indian intelligence had held Pakistan responsible! But within 48 hours the ATS had to withdraw the allegation because no RDX was found used in either Samjhauta or Malegaon.
In that 48 hours between the charge and the retraction, immense damage had been done. The high-voltage charge, unmatched by the less-noticed retraction, discredited the faith-neutral, patriotic Indian army. Also, most “leaks” about the Malegaon probe by the secular Maharashtra government to the media had little basis in fact and some seculars admitted that the media had begun fictionalising the case.
See how the secular media here has supplemented the hate India efforts abroad. India is “in a state of shock” that “its first Hindu terror cell may have carried out a series of deadly bombings initially blamed on militant Muslims” reported Pakistan Daily (November 23), on Malegaon. The paper said “A country that prides itself on purported religious and cultural toleration has been made to ask itself how this cell could operate for so long.” The Gulf Times (November 16) had earlier reported “the frightening radical Hindu plots” had “started to unravel”.
The BBC went one step further. When Islamist terror hit Mumbai on November 26, with the burning Oberoi and Taj hotels as the backdrop, the BBC kept referring, not to any Islamist terror attack, but to “the many Hindu terror attacks that had taken place in recent times”. This is not the end of the catalogue.
QED: The seculars’ anxiety to prefix “Hindu” to the Malegaon terror suspects has only ended in hurting Brand India.
It could not delete the prefix “Islam” to global terror.
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