Why Blame Muslims Alone for Terrorism?

Abridged, Edited and Translated from Urdu by Yoginder Sikand

This article appeared in the 16^th March, 2008 issue of the Urdu daily 'Rashtriya Sahara', under the title 'Musalmano Par Hi Dahshatgardi Ka Ilzam Kyon?'. The author, Dr. Syed Qasim Rasul Ilyas, is an official spokesman of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and is actively involved with various Indian Muslim organizations. He also edits the Urdu monthly Afkar-e Milli, which focuses essentially on Indian Muslim issues and concerns. I do not necessarily agree with everything that Dr. Ilyas writes in this piece, but I feel that much that he has to say is certainly legitimate, besides being important, especially since these issues are rarely, if ever, discussed in the so-called 'mainstream' press. Hence, I decided to abridge and translate this article for the benefit of those who do not know Urdu. Any translation errors are entirely mine. Words in brackets are my own, supplied to clarify what I think the author possibly means.--Yoginder Sikand

 

ADDRESSING a convention of ulema and Muslim intellectuals held in Delhi in late 2007, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, clearly declared that it is completely wrong to associate terrorism with any particular community. Thereafter, the Chairperson of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi, made a similar remark. Despite this, the tendency to link Islam, Muslims and madrasas with terrorism and to use such words as 'Islamic terrorism' and 'Jihadism' not only remains, but, in fact, has become even more pronounced. The mass media adds spice to reports issued by intelligence agencies and projects them in such a way as to create the impression that Indian Muslim youth, especially those who are highly educated, are engaging in terrorism on a massive scale. Prior to this, the madrasas were targeted [for this by the media], but now the media's focus has shifted to well-educated Muslim youths, professionals, technical experts, engineers, doctors, etc.. Senior journalists associated with some influential newspapers in the country sensationalise material contained in dossiers supplied by the police in such a manner as to present the image that these are their own investigative reports.

 

The following are certain issues [and claims] that emerge in [reporting about] terrorist incidents and activities in the country in recent years:

 

1. Pakistan- and Bangladesh-based terrorist organizations, such as the Lashkar-e Tayyeba, Jaish-e Muhammad, Hizb ul-Mujahidin and HUJI are said to be behind terrorist attacks. Youth associated with the banned Indian Muslim group, the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Muslim professionals and madrasa graduates are [so it is claimed] becoming agents for these organizations.

1. The culprits behind terrorist attacks are [said to be] Muslims—be it in the case of the attack on the Indian Parliament or the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore or the Akshardham Temple, the disputed structure in Ayodhya or the Ajmer dargah, the bomb blasts in trains in Bombay or the [Muslim] graveyard in Malegaon, the Mecca Mosque in Hyderabad or the Ansal shopping complex in Delhi. These Muslims [who are claimed to be behind all these attacks] are either killed in [what are termed as] encounters and [it is said] leave behind with them proof of them being Muslims or Pakistanis. Those who are arrested by the police accept the charges of terrorism that the police slap on them while they are being interrogated by them. However, when they appear in court most of them deny these [confessional] statements that they are forced to make under police torture.

1. The media considers the information about dangerous terrorists supplied by the police and intelligence agencies as divine revelation, and exaggerates this further on its own. The question arises as to why 'Muslim terrorists' would attack mosques, dargahs, [Muslim] graveyards and Muslim localities. In response to this question, intelligence agencies claim that this is so in order that [they can] damage inter-community relations in the country and spread conflict between Hindus and Muslims. However, whether the knife falls on the melon or the melon falls on the knife, either way it is the poor melon that suffers [It is the Muslims themselves who would suffer the most as a result of exacerbation of inter-communal conflict in India—YS].

In this context, certain crucial questions arise which must be answered by the government, the police, the intelligence agencies and the media:

 

1. Without any investigation being conducted, immediately after a terrorist attack—sometimes just a few hours or even a few minutes after—the incident is attributed to an Indian or foreign Muslim organization.

1. Why are judicial inquiries not ordered into major terrorist attacks? Why are they not given to the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate? For instance, in December 2001 there was an attack on the Indian Parliament. The attackers were killed. It was announced that they were Pakistanis and that they hailed from certain places in Pakistan. Now, an attack on the country's Parliament is a very serious event, but, why was there no high-level investigation? How could it be possible that an Ambassador car, filled with weapons and explosives and terrorists, crosses all security barriers with ease and arrives at the door of the Parliament? [How could it be that] terrorists emerge from the car and spray some bullets, killing several policemen and security officials and injuring several more and then they are shot dead by the police? Some questions related to this attack are still to be answered. For instance, [how did the terrorists] acquire a security pass from the Home Ministry? Every car that approaches the Parliament is stopped and its occupants have to undergo a security check. So, how were those dangerous armed terrorists allowed to go inside? According to information supplied by the police, the car was filled with explosives and RDX, and in it were some terrorists who had planned a suicide attack. So, why did they limit themselves to firing some bullets only? If they had simply banged the car into the Parliament building, then, God have mercy, immense, unimaginable damage would have been caused.

 

1. Take the case of the Ansal Plaza attack. A non-Muslim doctor who witnessed the event himself has been crying out in front of the media that the person who was branded as a dangerous terrorist [and accused of being involved in the alleged terrorist attack] and who was later shot dead was actually made to sit in a jeep by the police, and the police brought him in such a state that he could not even walk properly. And then he was showered with bullets and killed. For a few days the statements of this doctor appeared in newspapers, who also reported that he was being threatened by the police. The, suddenly, these statements stopped being published. One does not know what punishment that helpless man received for his commitment to truth.

 

[…] Thanks to God that in many states, leaving aside Gujarat and some other places, the seemingly never-ending conflicts between Hindus and Muslims have now subsided. At the time when communal riots were raging throughout the country there was a possibility that some Muslim youth might have reacted, but now what reason do they have to pick up weapons?

 

[…] In many cases, [Muslim] people accused of being involved in terrorist activities have been ordered to be set free by the courts. For instance, Abdur Rahman Gilani, who was cleared by the courts of charges of being involved in the Parliament attack case. Those [Muslims] accused of being behind the blasts in Ghatkopar in Bombay have also been cleared of charges by the Bombay High Court. Many of those [Muslims] accused of involvement in the Coimbatore bomb blasts have been cleared of charges by the Tamil Nadu High Court. The court found SIMI activists accused of being involved in an attack on the RSS headquarters to be innocent. Aftab Ansari of Calcutta, who was arrested on being accused of involvement of attacks on courts in Uttar Pradesh, had to be later released by the police. Likewise, many other people [wrongly] accused of being terrorists have been saved by the courts. But they have been forced to spend many invaluable years of their lives in jail, being wrongly branded as terrorists. Later, the courts respectfully ordered them to be released [on finding them innocent], although the media had all along [wrongly] labeled them as 'dangerous terrorists'.

 

In the cases of certain alleged terrorist attacks, human rights' and other impartial organizations found the charges that were made [against innocent Muslims] to be bogus, but the Central and state governments took no notice of this. For instance, the report issued by the Peoples' Union for Civil Liberties on the attack on the RSS headquarters, the report of the Andhra Pradesh Minorities' Commission on the attack on the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, and so on. What does the government have to say about this?

 

In some places, such as Nanded, Aurangabad and Jalna in Maharashtra and Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu, activists belonging to the RSS and other Hindu fascist organisations have been caught red-handed while being engaged in terrorist activities. Bomb-making factories were discovered in some of their houses. Muslim-style clothes and beards and maps of mosques were also recovered from them. But, far from accusing them of terrorism, they were given the opportunity to get bail from the courts and be released. Why so?

 

After the serial bomb blasts in trains in Bombay, Muslim localities in the city were surrounded by the police. Scores of Muslim youth were arrested and tortured. After harassing several hundred persons, 13 innocent people were arrested under a draconian law, although till this day the actual perpetrators of these blasts and their motives remain unknown.

 

[…] The Students' Islamic Movement of India has been banned for the last six years. All its activities have been suspended. The Government has sealed its headquarters and provincial offices. It is another matter that the court has not had the chance to examine the appeals, issued several years ago, against these restrictions [on the SIMI]. All of the SIMI's leaders, who were arrested on different charges, have been cleared of charges by the courts or are out on bail. […] Is the SIMI being made into a scapegoat like al-Qaeda?

 

[…] Why do the Central and state governments not also discern the hand of [Hindu] fascist communal organizations, the [Israeli secret service] Mossad and the [American] Central Intelligence Agency behind terrorist attacks? The first-mentioned of these are well known to be vehemently against Islam and Muslims. Likewise, the destructive role of the other organizations throughout the world is widely-known.

 

Various forms of terrorism afflict the country today.[….] But these are not associated with Hinduism or Christianity [although many of those engaged in these forms of terrorism belong to these religions]. So, why should [earlier mentioned] forms of terrorism be branded as 'Islamic terrorism' and 'Jihadism'? Is it the case that by seeking to link Islam and Muslims with terrorism attempts are being made to spread hatred against Muslims across the country and to instigate conflict so that [Muslims] are suspected by the majority and are treated as Untouchables, and that anti-Islamic sentiments are fanned?

 

The [previous BJP-led] NDA Government rushed in to embrace the 'War against Terror' launched by America and the West against Islam. Will the [present Congress-led] UPA Government unthinkingly, or because of certain other interests, also pursue the same agenda?

 

The Muslim leadership must […] demand from the Government an answer to all the questions raised above. They must demand that all incidents of terrorism must be investigated at the highest level.[…]

 

 Syed Qasim Rasul Ilyas may be contacted on sqrilyas@gmail.com