The inquest into the Mumbai attacks is going ahead with the finger of blame seemingly turning to point at Pakistan, a situation that has the potential to ignite a catastrophic war between two nuclear armed countries who do not so much have relations as resentfully tolerate each other.
Many reasons have been put forward as to why a group of Pakistanis with so much hate in their hearts would want to brutally slay 172 in the Indian city of Mumbai, all of them seen as a continuation of the long running feud between India and Pakistan, but nobody here seems to want to think that we may have had a hand in it with our policy in the area.
The Kashmir conflict provides the focus and the fact that the terrorists targeted an Indian hospital reeks of revenge for the Kashmiri Hospital the Indian security forces shot up in August this year but i can see other reasons why young Pakistani men are drawn towards extremist groups and that's where we and our ill thought out Afghan tactics come in.
Using unmanned drones, NATO has been dropping bombs on the North West area of Pakistan and a glance through any newspaper over the past few months has seen a steady flow of stories telling of civilian deaths from these tactics. Anger at the West in Pakistan has understandably bloomed, and in have stepped the extremists who haven't had the hardest job of convincing many of them of the hostility of the West towards Muslims.
With the Northwest tribal areas of the country slipping out of control, political and religious extremists have been exploiting the Wests policy of taking it onto itself to attack parts of Pakistan and with its ranks swelled with angry young men, we see the results in Mumbai this week.
This, coupled with India's continued ill-treatment of the people of Kashmir, we have managed to hand to the jihadis an entire generation of angry Muslims and not those from poor families easily brainwashed by extremists but the designer clad educated class who this week went about the killing business in expensive jeans and trainers and incensed at Israel's ill-treatment of the Palestinians, the Wests strategy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and India's treatment of the people of Kashmir.
What is needed now is some cool heads in India and Pakistan to ease the situation that has the potential to explode horribly in all sorts of directions. Pakistan has to clamp down on its extremists but India and the West have to stop making it easy for the jihadists by stoking up the hatred with its actions or we are going to see more of these tragic events unfolding and the circle of death and destruction continuing. As uncomfortable as it may be, it isn't enough to treat the symptom and let the disease merrily carry on.
6 comments:
It's so hard to think about these events with a cool head. Absolutely sickening. I have several close relatives in Mumbai (in fact, there are more Muslims in India than Pakistan!), who only live about 20 minutes from the scene of this particular tragedy.
I agree, we need to treat the disease, and not just the symptoms. However, I cannot begin to comprehend how these people can do what they do... And they call themselves "mujahideen"?
The status of a "mujahid" in Muslim society can be equated to that of a "knight", i.e., someone who fights with honour, for just causes.
These boys have no honour whatsoever. There is no way on Earth that their acts can be justified... no matter how much oppression is prevalent in their home countries.
Yet, to understand is not the same as to condone. These people were not born this way. Several billion other Muslims do not follow the same path, thank God.
I pray that we are guided to the cure for this terrible affliction... we are in desperate need of guidance!
*several million - typo!
It should be condemned and never condoned but it is too easy to look at the events and casually say it is a matter between Pakistan and India as we seem to be doing and not see that our actions have helped create the situation where the jihadists can use our actions as a potent recruitment sargeant.
We shall reap what we sow, Lucy! In spades.
Claudine.
I have mentioned before that we are stoking up a lot of hatred in other countries for what we are doing abroad. We are not solely to blame for the Indian attacks but we have certainly been a contributing factor as you explain in the post.
Lucy,
someone is always angry. we can cleary make things worse, but we can never eliminate anger or hatred. it just won't happen... what a pleasant thought.
Q
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