Islamic Terrorism and Public Opinion

swapna, i appreciate u drawing the line of distinction between lay muslim brothers & the terrorists!!
i do not know if these ppl shud be counted among believing muslims! i for 1 dont consider them such!!!! ISLAM - the religion is based on truth, peace & love.
indeeed these ppl r beasts of the 1st order!!! they dont seem to have a heart & soul within them, how can sumone be so cold-blooded & blinded as to masacre innocent victims. if they thnk thats bravery, well they have another think comin up!! if they thnk this kind of act is vengeance then so be it, nothning i say or u will change that.
they forget, in this war that they call is for religion, that they r answerable to almighty god tomorow wen they die! we muslims blv in the day of judgement (life after death) & everythng v do on this earth is accounted for!!! our religion does not teach us to kill or masacre in the name of religion, no! on the contrary it preaches us to spread the message of LOVE & HARMONY!!! we are told in the 'noble quran' to love r neighbour irrespective of their bad attitude towards us. then how does it justify these freaks to carry on cold-blooded carnages like this. we are preached to forgive & be tolerant, hw can sumthng so gruesome be associated as islamic. am sorry to say bt u will have to rephrase that!!!

we cant be vry sure that all that is potrayed in movies / television is true! for all we know it could be another game of the dirty politics of which we are all a part, directly or non!!!! am definately not justifying the ghastly act of the militants bt take a moment & thnk .... they myt not be muslims at all!!

i find it very intriguing wen u say: To simply say that terrorism has no religion is just meek political correctness. its like u want to prove that the entire muslim community is the same!!! i will call it double standards on ur part bcuz on 1 hand u play safe & begin ur post by saying not all muslims are terrorists & u close ur post with exact contrast of ur own statement!!
wen incidents like godhra hpnd, dreadfully similar to the bombay attacks in terms of tragedy. hindus carried on cold-blooded gruesome acts of violence & at that time it was covered up as the very same meek political
correctness as u so spitefully put it!

why blame the religion, blame the man!!!

like u pointed, i too wonder wen influencial muslims in this country will take a stand & come out to say our hands are clean!!

desertrose!






PS: i request the moderators to plz not edit my post. wotever i have written is off utmost imporatnce & requires to be read in full!!! thanku.

 

swapna!!

thankfully atleast aamir khan has stepped up to blog sumthng worthwile.
try the below link, he voices my opinions majorly!!!

Terrorists have no religion; politicians, act responsibly: Aamir Khan | Bollywood News - Yahoo! India Movies

 

Swapna

I must echo DesertRose's objection to your strange, contradictory assertion that:

Not ALL acts of terror involve Muslims as perpetrators - Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski are two American terrorists who killed Americans; there have been acts of terrorism in places like Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Sudan committed by non-Muslims (or against Muslims), and in South Africa, even Nelson Mandela and other members of freedom organisations were considered to be terrorists, as have some groups of Hindus. While we must condemn acts of terror, to do so blindly and without looking at the issue from all perspectives will just aggravate the mess we are already in in so many places in the world.

We cannot define terrorism narrowly as only those acts of terror committed against "us" (whomever "us" happens to be). In fact, to the Iraqi child who has just lost limbs or family members in an "accidental" bombing of civilians by US troops, George Bush and Americans might very well seem like quite effective terrorists too. It is an age-old strategy, used by every conceivable group in the world throughout history, to further political or tribal agendas. For one group to act innocent, or blame another group exclusively, is exactly the kind of narrow thinking that perpetuates hatred and violence.

While I agree with you that acts of terror should be condemned, especially by more moderate members of that same ethnic or religious group, I suspect it is polarised attitudes that make open and honest dialogue difficult. If we have already condemned a group and ALL its members, who among that group would have the inclination or motivation to speak out in their defence? Why should they seek to explain or excuse the actions of people who, beyond the sharing of a religious faith, really have nothing to do with them? Am I responsible for people and their actions who share my ethnicity or religion?

I find your statement that follows quite problematic:

There is a connection between religion and terrorism, but religion is not the only reason groups use terror as leverage to further their agendas. We must acknowledge the many facets of terrorism, and not polarise the issue as you have. It is not Hindu (or Jew, or Christian) against Muslim, with an eventual winner emerging from the bloodshed. There are no winners in this kind of situation, only the dead, the maimed, and those left behind to pick up the pieces.

Hindu fundamentalism is not the answer, and it is simply too convenient to justify its existence or strength simply as a reaction to the acts of terrorists. We are all thinking human beings, and it is within our power not to have a knee-jerk reaction of meeting violence and hatred with more violence and hatred. This is the problem, and the reason we find ourselves in this horrific downward spiral of destruction.

The recent tragedy in Mumbai has greatly saddened me, and I am not in any way absolving the terrorists of blame. I'm just trying to point out that it is just the most recent link in a chain that stretches back centuries, and it it is a chain that has become stronger precisely because despite all our technological and intellectual advances, we have not made much progress morally. As soon as someone pushes our buttons, threatens "our" people, appeals to our baser emotions and bloodlust, we react in exactly the same way as we always have. We want to do the same to them and worse, and so it goes on - we pass a legacy of hatred onto our children to keep fighting a never-ending war. There is no "us" and "them" - we all sink or swim together.

Ansuya

 

Muslims condemn Mumbai attacks, worry about image - Yahoo! News

 

Swapna u don’t seem to understand mine or ansuyas point of view!! U say u agree but ur reiterating ur previous post, in detail this time. I identify with your emotional outburst but that does not justify your anger towards the muslim community!! A bunch of lunatics who are sick in their head commited a horrific rampage & you want us to come ahead & play the blame game!!
You want the muslims to hold press conferences & announce to the world how we are not a part of it & how some country is!! If, like u mention, prominent muslims do go out of their way & condemn these acts, you probably will be the 1st one to label it as politicizing the issue in their interest!
Holding enormous speeches is not going to help the situation, what we need at this point of time is to stand united, not demand whose worth whose salt!! The India we take pride in by saying is a nation is diversity, is bleeding today. Before u ask a feedback of terrorist activities from muslims, bear in mind we are as absolutely clueless as u are!!

& swapna it does not make u anti-muslim if u demand a few questions to be answered, you are angry and filled with remorse at the unreasonable felony committed against innocent victims, (blv me so am I, all of us are) but making statements like this aint gonna facilitate!
If u help a charity organization what does it matter to u who is benefiting by it, ur just doing ur good work with good intensions… or is it to make declarations in the event of some mishap which may occur at a later stage!

 

thanks ansuya, ur write up was what i had in mind... but the turmoil dint allow me to pen it. we need more ppl like u who have a broader range of thinking!! thank u for understanding the minority's plight.

regards,
desertrose!

 

hello,
Read your views.
One thing that struck me ,somebody wrote -we need to grow morally..
Rather than dividing people on the basis of religion divide them as murderers and sensitive people.
Murderers should include not only the people who carry guns and swords but also those who instigate this behaviour.
This is my personal opinion and i might be wrong... You what is wrong with this country politicians for their personal gains have created a wedge among people people who are naive to some extent are simply being used ,exploited for furthering the gains of so called leaders.
Tell me which mosque or temple is worth destroying a human life for..
This year i saw blood and mud together from my community, that can never anger me enough to harm any other form of life, but it made me hate the people who laid the foundations of this drama.

 

Swapna, I am one of those who really find the silence against any act of extremism disturbing. But somehow I am not surprised at the media chosing to report some and not the other. This article in Tehelka is the only one that I have seen about Islmaic moderates in eternity.
I am really surpised at this statement of yours:

I dont think I have read anything about moderate Hindus condemning these acts of voilence. They have gone about minding their businesses and yet we expect Muslims to affirm, re-affirm and re-re-affirm their dedication or patriotism to a country which has only hounded them.