There is a section of Muslims and intellectually elitist non-Muslims that seeks 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 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 shoot at anyone trying to kill, capture or obstruct him, even if a fellow Muslim, 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.
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