There
is a very sizable section of Muslims and a much smaller intellectually elitist section
of non-Muslims that actually seek to whitewash the phenomenon of Muslim
extremism altogether. While I am not at all supporting generalised anti-Muslim
bigotry, nor denying geopolitical complexities, to suggest that there no Muslim
foot-soldiers brainwashed to fight and die in the name of their faith or that
those teaching them the same always don't genuinely believe in these ideas is a
glaring fallacy in the face of the available evidence.
Also, big global powers
rise and fall, challenged by other powers, and to imagine that any government
of any country has divine powers to ordain everything on the planet or cannot
suffer from human error is silly.
The claim goes as regards Islamist terrorist attacks in India (not using the
term 'Islamic' for I am well aware of the different contextual interpretations
of verses from the Quran and Hadiths) that they are being orchestrated by the
Hindu right to malign Muslims, but why would the Hindu right kill their own
fellow Hindus just to prove a point and not target Muslims directly, as
elements in it often do?!
Jumping straight to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the claim is that the Congress
too was infiltrated by the Hindu right and carried out these heinous attacks,
but the generalised anti-Muslim resentment that those attacks had the potential
to generate would have potentially only helped the BJP in the upcoming general
elections in 2009, and the Congress would have also been faulted for being soft
on national security, as it indeed was, and it won the elections in 2009
despite the same is another matter altogether. The government of Pakistan acknowledged that
Kasab captured by our police was a Pakistani, his family was traced
down by Pakistani journalists and the role of Pakistani terrorists in
those attacks has been traced
by brave Pakistani investigators.
The fact that one of the 26/11 martyrs included Hemant Karkare, who had also
accused some Hindu rightists of terrorist attacks such as on a mosque in
Malegaon, does not, in any way, disprove this. An average Indian, even if
following the Malegaon investigations in the news, would not have been able to
recognise Karkare in person, let alone a terrorist from Pakistan! And Islamist
terrorists brainwashed to kill indiscriminately cannot be expected to have
nuanced distinctions between communal and non-communal Hindus. Moreover,
Karkare, as an anti-terror police officer, even if investigating terrorism by
elements in the saffron brigade, would go to fight and capture Islamist
terrorists as well, and an Islamist terrorist would not spare anyone trying to
kill, capture or obstruct him, even if a fellow Muslim (and many Muslim
security personnel in the West, India and elsewhere have died fighting Islamist
terrorists), forget a secular Hindu!
Yes, it is true that Kasab and his fellow terrorists were wearing saffron
bands, and as the investigations revealed,
that was a deliberate ploy to give it a saffron terror angle. Indeed, if
saffron terrorists with such sophisticated training were involved wanting to
blame it on Muslims, why would they, in fact, wear saffron bands?!
Finally, there is the claim that RVS Mani, an official of the Home Ministry of
India, had submitted on affidavit that 26/11 was orchestrated by the Indian
government, though he actually never said
so!
To know the truth about 26/11 from sources vehemently opposed to the Hindu
right, I would recommend those interested to read the book The Silent
Coup: A History of India's Deep State by respected investigative
journalist Josy Joseph, and also read this
column by retired Pakistani civil servant Irfan Husain.
I rest my case.
Also, while the Pulwama suicide bombing indeed came very close to the national
elections in 2019, the fact is that the suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar, whose
famnily in Kashmir has been traced,
released a video before carrying out the attack slurring Hindus, and dying
declarations are taken as evidence of one's genuine beliefs. Why would he give
up his life for the BJP?!
