How many people need to pay with their lives for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre ? What started as a hunt for the few people involved in that attack to bring them to justice has ignited into a fire that has spread and threatens to gradually engulf half the populations of the world. The US over reacted by invading Iraq in what will go down in history as one of the most misjudged attacks in the history of modern warfare, and now the world has been polarized into Islamic fundamentalism vs capitalism, threatening to bring down the very fabric of civilization. This is now no longer a hunt for Bin Laden, it has encompassed and exposed pressure points between religion, social structures, philosophies and between the haves and the have-nots. Proving that harmony and peace is such a fragile concept, one that needs constant nurturing.
And as Pakistan falls to fundamentalist forces, what we mistakenly call Talibanization ( it is really just fundamentalism) – everything points to that India is the next target. I am a complete liberal, and I stand up and say that we must protect ourselves. Any one indulging n terror activities that targets innocent civilians is a terrorist. Be they Muslims, Hindu’s Christians or Agnostics. The Bajrang Dal that desecrates and kills nuns and attacks churches are terrorists too.
The war in India is no longer on our borders. Why are we spending half our defence budget on the Siachin Glacier – when the real war now is inside India ? Inside Pakistan ?
we concentrate so much on negative anti this or anti that, think ,talk and act pro this and pro that. i am pro peace, pro humanity, pro life,pro non-violence. dont concentrate on whats wrong concentrate on how to make it right. things will fell into place its a law of universe what goes out comes back, let +ve go out and u will get +ve
I say : God made men, Men made boundaries
No need to post this as a comment, unless you feel the need to share this link with others.
you’ve probably seen this before, or other variants of similar theories that have been doing the rounds for awhile now, but I thought I would post this anyway.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1817848131611744924
Was it ever just about Bin Laden?
I do however agree with several of your thoughts. It is really just fundamentalism, and it doesn’t matter which religion the fundamentalists belong to. The Bajrang Dal and similar outfits’ attacks and atrocities on other peoples are acts of terrorism too.
The war in many parts of the world are not being fought on borders. And it is upto the citizens of the world to stay alert, as well as informed (or atleast as objectively informed as possible, given the state of our media) to counter this menace of armed aggression.
Why don’t you utter a single word against the Khomeinis, Taliban and Iran who have been constantly breeding hatred against “kafirs” in their madrasas? What would you have the kafirs do? You think this fundamentalist section of Islam are pacifist puppies who will live and let live? Expansionism has been injected into their faith a long time back. You do not understand the depth of the issue..fanatic Islam was birthed as a counter balance to fanatic Christian crusades..these guys have gone at it for ages. And then, few of them turned their attention eastward, and hence the mess in the Indian sub-continent.
And why don’t you ever talk about the massive conversion drives that are part of some of the Christian churches including the increasing quotas and such for Chrisitans in colleges like St. Stevens? Don’t you consider it an audacity on their part to aggravate the majority in such an open manner? Especially when the Hindus have already tolerated milleniums of oppression by invading fanatics? How about the killing of a huge VHP leader in Orissa..is that something to be dismissed? This fear of the minority religions to protect their beliefs in the middle of a sophisticated, delivering and time-tested spiritual ocean as Hinduism has led to this almost anti-Hindu sentiment.
The Bajrang Dal is a consequence, not the cause, and one of the primary reasons for this is the pseudo-secular mentality that has allowed this angst to be built among the Hindus..there is passivity when action is needed and activity when passivity is needed. What a confused lot!! If you do not want to take sides and be neutral, its fine..but if you got an opinion, do not consider yourself a liberal or whatever..you are involving yourself one way or the other.
another little word, on the link i sent…
you’ve got to make it past the first 30-40 minutes, past the religious bits, its only after that that it gets interesting and starts talking of 9/11 and the circumstances leading up to it. There’s also a whole lot about the economic imperialism we are experiencing today.
again, this is not a comment, and does not need to be on the site. Thanks.
Sir,
I dont approve of what banjrag dal does. But to call them terrorists would dilute the actual meaning of terrorism. When the train carrying Hindus in godhra was burnt down the Hindus didnt call it terrorism even though muslims were involved in it and it was also mass murder. Selective killing of people from a particular religion is rioting, not terrorism. Rioting is usually a temporary phase which fades away with the heat of the moment. If the Christian churches stop the mass conversions and anti hindu propaganda (I dont mean all churches do that) this rioting will stop. Ask any terrorist when will they stop terrorism and u ll probably get an answer when we have a total islamic world. Terrorism is not always islamic though. Terrorism actually started with political terrorism but this Islamic terrorism is the most dangerous bcos it has an impossible mission.
Yes the war is at home now. What used to seem like distant news for many Indians is an immediate possibility today. War which was in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan has reached our homes, into our spaces and has like any conflict – into our minds. The biggest damage a war does is it forces people who would normally be part of the ‘silent majority’ take sides. It fragments minds,forces people to see walls where they did not exist before. This is what alters fundamentally how we think about our world.
The Indian conundrum it that it really can’t take sides apart from voicing generic
condemnation of terrorist acts.Any step further means accepting of denying an ideology and India for all the civilzational maturity doesn’t want to be seen doing that.
The US created their version of polarised world, good (them) v/s evil (the rest).And like the world’s worst bully made choices for people whom it will never shoulder responisibility.
I shudder thinking of what a fragmented world our children will grow up to.
This is scary.
If you look at the way the country is increasingly balkanized, then THEY have ground support and allies everywhere. They capitalized because they’re us.
I guess more than ever the need to keep a will ready and keep the slate clean.
Well,there have always been problems within the country but the existing competition around the world distracts the main aims and objectives of their own country.Taking this as a world issue,Why only Muslims are targeted that includes innocent Human Beings of the same world? Everyone at the end of the day is an individual and looks for their own soul profits. Who are we to question the government? When the government is itself a part of terrorism.I strongly feel that its only ‘US’ who have to understand and take up the responsibility as a team to finish this internal war.No religious issues, no terrorism,no negotiations, the only thing that remains is ‘WE’.
Oh Shekarji,
Dont label Bajrang Dal as terrorists here, for you will run into the risk of irking some of the frequent vistors to your blog.I dont know if people already commented to this post of yours, but i am surely going to turn up after 4-5 days to see the comments section.. I wont be surprised if i find someone writing:
“Thats why i say Make Narendra Modi as the PM of this country.India’s only answer to fundamentalism……blah blah”
Hello Mr. Kapur
Hope you are well.
I felt like responding to this post as it’s very disturbing to witness and trying to fathom the state this world and our country seems to be headed in. Economically, politically, socially. And one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter or activist at the very least. But I wonder if we have leaders enlightened enough to comprehend and stop this from happening. Where is U.N? As you yourself explored this point in great detail in your film- people often seem to believe that they have the moral right to kill someone, wage a war at a sovereign nation or bomb their own country as we often see in India. And even if they don’t believe it themselves, they come up with enough excuses and less than convincing arguments and just shout them out loud and try to convince us that they actually believe in this moral right . But in today’s age its not about the moral right, it is deeply entrenched in the persisting and prevalent socio-economic, political conditions, and a serious lack of sincere leaders. Everyone is manipulating religion for their personal gains. It’s a spiral effect and it’s all a BIG GAME whether it’s FINANCE, POLITICS or INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. Political leaders often resort to the same means. So they are terrorists too. But then where does it stop, who stops it and how. Do we need an enlightened leadership that works hand in hand with a social mobilization that takes place at grassroots level? A regular hard working person irrespective of the religion just wants to go back to his little home and have a meagre dinner with family. In this time and age, will we humans rise above our
differences and just behave like human beings and treat each other and this planet with love and respect? Will we ever have peace? Or perhaps the question to be asked everywhere, is DO WE WANT PEACE? If so then HOW?
Mani
Sir,
Why are we spending half of our Defence Budgets on Siachen Glacier? Lets go back to 15th August 1947 or 14th for Pakistan? This is the day we decided a few things, a day full of compromises and uncalculated conditions, an intelligence failure, an error in judgement, we can write books on each perspective for generations to come.
The fact remains though we were successful in sending back the British Troops but we gladly accepted the railway tracks and the post offices build by them. Their heritage buildings are considered a priced treasure. And the tourist spots and names christened by them.
But we are only 60 years on our head. So much to do after whatever we all have done.
The strength of India UNITY IN DIVERSITY is challenging the whole World as always.
Pakistan may feel challenged by our growth story all these years and they still might believe Kashmir is India’s road to success?
Had they not joined hands with their neighbours they must be scared they might have become another Bangladesh.
we don’t know whats the story of Nepal and Srilanka?
Cricket alone cannot survive Politics.
If Russia can succumb to divide and peace rule we have succumbed to new states of Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal? Vidharbha Telangana list is endless.
Vinod Agarwal – Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely!!
Dear Mr. Kapur.
At times it feels like everything happening around(current affairs) other than natural calamities is stage set and there is a supreme director who is directing the scene with an elaborate script could be the CIA , or the warmongers, the defense research institutions , Investment banks etc funded by an organizations far deadlier than any terrorists outfit known to mankind but not GOD. Their motive being ultimate domination .
Like kevin spacey says in a movie “the greatest trick that the devil played was to make everyone believe that he never existed .
At times i think you and me are just pawns in this intricate chess game .
All due respect
Splashh
the formation of a strong political party that includes individuals from ALL communities and has a common goal ” ANTI VIOLENCE AND PEACEFUL CO EXISTENCE ” which includes people from all walks of life who feel strongly about keeping the structure of integration intact ?
frankly, in our day to day lives, how much importance do we give to caste and communities before bonding with people ? we have friends who are GOOD PEOPLE and we avoid the negative kinds…
if the good and strong portions of society integrates to form a huge body that protects this massacre of society from its very roots and foundation……..then the bad fellows will need to rein in !
the defination of castes itself needs to be eradicated from the larger picture……. if i say “i as a hindu am superior” then why would the muslim, sikh, christian etc be left behind….? instead if we limit our communal identities to family gatherings or religious rituals only ( consciously )……..and otherwise be ‘indians ‘……..we still stand a chance of survival………else, the doom will pull down ALL, coz at the end of the day india TRUELY BELONGS TO ALL !
Very little to add to Shekhar’s assessment and opinion except that I agree Osama is not the issue. In fact I would think that even if he is alive and free he has been neutralised a long time ago. What really needs to be addressed is the second question of where we are headed.
What amazes me is that this has become a debate about whether the killing of a spiritual leader justifies the actions of the Bajrang Dal or whether Iran and Khomeini etc should be held responsible or who is or is not a terrorist. I am not denying these are issues, but they are certainly not central to solving the problem which is one of law and order. Defining terrorism and terrorist can take a back seat to maintaining law and order. Unfortunately we are using semantics to deflect us from the real issues.
I agree with Pooja, nothing justifies a wrong. Two wrongs don’t make a right and that both acts need to be punished. Call it terrorism, fundamentalism, riot or whatever. Taking human life, attacking property, whether they be churches, or whatever are criminal activities. Let the courts decide whether it was justified. Let us at least accept the fact that wrong is wrong and taking the law into your own hands is wrong and illegal and must be dealt with firmly.
I think this is our basic problem, we can all, including this writer, talk the talk, and how we enjoy it. Walking the walk is another issue altogether best left to others.
What we have is a law and order problem. First lets solve that. Unless a State can positively be identified as one that will not hesitate to enforce and implement the law, without fear or favour, we are going to be fighting disorder and violence of any kind by merely writing a thousand blogs, giving speeches, defending ideologies, screaming POTA POTA or communal harmony – words, words, words. Menawhile inaction will embolden people to further violence.
The law or lack of it is not the real problem. Lack of spine in implementing even the simplest laws such as wearing helmets and fastening seat belts is our undoing.
Regards
Never feed a snake with milk as some day it may bite you…thats what pakis are getting now
@Brahmastra– You opinions are so juvenile. I would just like to tell you that there is no evidence that Christians had killed the ‘great VHP leader’ in Orissa. And for what Bajraj Dal is doing, why don’t you read this article published a few weeks ago in Outlook.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080915&fname=Bajrang+Dal+%28F%29&sid=1
I dont quite understand that if you are ready to accept Bajrag Dal as a consequence and not the cause, what makes it so difficult for you to have similar stance on other extremist groups of other religions? Double standards is it??
@ Deepshikha
Maybe you are the one being juvenile and ignorant about the history of India. Here is a small instance of one of multitude of attrocities by the Mughals (source: wikipedia):
In 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji[21]; this event is arguably seen by modern Brahiminist scholars as a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. Legend has that the only thing Khilji asked was if there was a copy of the Koran at Nalanda before he sacked it. The Persian historian Minhaz, in his chronicle the Tabaquat-I-Nasiri, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded,[22] and the burning of the library continued for several months and “smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills.”[23]. When the Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa (Chag Lo-tsa-ba, 1197 – 1264) visited the site in 1235, he found it damaged and looted, with a 90 year-old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, instructing a class of about seventy students, apparently with the support of a local Brahmin.[24][25].
Hindus did not go and pillage the middle east..in fact the entire middle east is supposed to have been a Vedic civilization. Bajrang Dal is nothing compared to the collective tolerance shown by Hindus. It is the pseudo-liberals and their pseudo-utopian fantasies of equality of religions that add to the mess. Hindutva is the only thing that can keep peace in India, and for that you need to sustain the Hindu culture of peace.
see we are all talking about negative, blame game no body talks about positive and solution. we all have contributed to what is happening around us. i could not read beyond two lines of any of the comments. its all pointing one fingur towards others and 4 towars self.
Shekhar, I do believe there is more tolerance for violence in Islam as compared to some other religions but what is really happening today in our world is the stoking of this violence to profit and concentrate power by the power elites of this planet. The violent streaks in Islam could have been quite easily handled by providing an equitable path to modernization to these societies (sabotaging Iran’s democracy in the 50s to place a stooge there is not that kind of step, or fighting proxy wars in Afghanistan and turning Pakistan into a arms market in the process is not the kind of step, or keeping the Middle East destabilized for decades for cheap oil is also not that kind of step.), by genuine expressions of understanding of the differences of nations and cultures, and by a just attitude of promoting the good of all humanity rather than the promotion of goodies for a few elites and corporations of this world.
But the old power structures of this planet thrive on fear rather than true understanding and they profit from disunity rather than unity. They just found a cause in a small minority of Islamic renegades to immensely profit from (read Iraq and oil), to fortify their base and power (read GOP in the US), and to plainly just feel powerful and superior about themselves (read Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and other racist GOP cheerleaders in the US).
US invasion of Iraq has not only brought about polarisation, it has also found takers for Osamas ideology in youth who are willing to kill innocents, in a bargain to book place in heaven. The whole concept that god is angry with some and permits jehadis to kill, in return they ll not only be forgiven but given a place in heaven to wage a jehad sounds so ignorant and childish!
That god allows killing some and rewards some for killing itself undermines the omniscience and omnipotence of Divine.
World is not going to be a safe place if we leave even a small corner of it uneducated!
respected sir,
there is a couplet written by a pre-eminent lyricist & erudite by the name of Janab Sudarshan Faakir he penned this poem a decade aback,this poem in the concurrent scenario (socio,politico&religious framework)carries a lot of plausibility.
Couplet goes like this-
“Aaj ke daur mein aey dost yeh manzar kyon hain,Zakhm har sar pe har ek haath mein patthar kyon hain, zindagi jeene ke qabil hi nahin ab “Faqir”,warna har aankh mein ashqon ka samandar kyon hain”.
this is to signify that now the problem is an internal one these dastardly acts of barbarism is designed by the auspices of nefarious politicians & bigotry organisations.
These intransingent and impudent politicians are involved hand and glove with antithetical forces it has been proven time and again by the intelligence but no heed has been paid hitherto,wether they be blasts in pak or in india.
Mr. Mahindar Jeet Sing Bitta whom i do have a lot of veneration ,he heads a non political forum by the name of “Anti Terrorist Front”,has time and again harped that all these henious acts are trigerred by the insinuation of the tainted politicians who for the sake of vote bank
join hands with hardliners(most of them if not all),when their selfish motive is served they visit the site and politicise the issue,playing blame games.,Recently in delhi when the bomb blast took place none of the M.P”s, M.L.A’s&M.L.C’s came to take stock of the victims they were busy involved in political imbloglio.
They have always used this as a tool and taken the country for a ransom just to amass on the public grievences “vote bank politics”,declaring surruptitiously “a terrorist organisation” by the name of so & so is involved in such acts.
Recently when inspector M.C.Sharma a great legion and son of the motherland exhibited great valour & courage to fight the rogue forces in the process had to make an exemplory sacrifice.
At the funeral procession of this great Martyr none of the politicians were seen,all of them were seen at various channels adorning glitzy attire & guess what “playing blame games”.
Dear Sir this is a proven fact that the politicians (both in pak & india) are wrecker in cheif of the society.
So firstly all these gristy & sordid Netas should be brought to book and hanged as these anti nationalists spitefully collude to save “A Bhindarwallah,A Babloo Shrivastava,A Arun Gawli,A Mohommad Afzal & A Abu Salim bereft of their responsibility”.They don’t have sense of respect for the supreme court verdict(Mohd.Afzal’s case&many more to follow suit).
In my opinion any act which is subversive to national interest & whichever person or organisation undertakes- should be severly dealt with; alas as long as these Netas are there it looks improbable.
I would end my enumaration with a couplet which is a sarcass upon the leader by Janab Kunwar Bechain”Kabhi Dhool toh Kabhi Parbath se Darr lagta hain., Ab toh Netaon Ki harr bhool se Darr lagta hain.,Yeh kaisi hawan Chali ke Chaman Walon ko Kaanton ki jagah Phoolon se Darr Lagta hain.”
Respected Sir hum sub jaante hain ke yeh netaaon ki gandi rajniti hain.chahe bomb blst hon yah farmers ka suicide sab ke peeche inka haath hain asli insaaniyat key asli dushmann aaj ke leader hain.
thank you
Aapka Anuj
Rithwick Chatterjee
Can anyone,can tell me the bad imapct of POTA why congress doesn’t want implement POTA in India even after series of blast happen in India.
Does they are making it a political issue (it was taken by BJP & there alliances) Who cares for general people………does they born to die bizzare.
Pankaj
it is no longer about islamic terrorism.
their is a prophecy in islam, that one shall rise, known as the mehdi, and he will destroy islam forever. it is a legend in iran.
nostradamus also predicted, that world war 3, will wipe out the middle east and arab masses forever.
now.. what many folks have said.. it isnt osama bin laden, but indian icon, narendra modi, that will be the downfall of islam.
why.. the day modi becomes prime minister of india, world order and hegemony will tilt.
modi is fearless, and will tackle islam assymetrically, with use of biological weapons, nukes, physco war fare and etc tactics.
the countdown has begun..
osama and modi are at opposite ends.
one fights for its survival, one will destroy it forever.