Islam,Terrorism and Jihad
Scan the recent high-profile terrorist attacks, and these relationships
among the perpetrators recur. Between them there is not just the performed
intimacy of a guerrilla group, of brothers in arms, but the deep intimacy of
actual brothers, sisters, and lovers. Salah Abdeslam was joined in the Paris
attacks by his brother Ibrahim, who blew himself up outside a café. The
shooting at the Charlie Hebdo office, in January, 2015, was carried out by
another pair of brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi.The mass shooting in San
Bernardino, last December, was the work of a married couple, Syed Farook and
Tashfeen Malik. ....
To downplay something is not to ignore it. The terrorists have specific
aims, deploying their atrocities for a political cause. There is no sensible
defence in a free society against atrocity. But there is a defence against its
purpose. It is to avoid hysteria, to show caution and a measure of courage, not
Cameron’s lapse into public fear. It is not to alter laws, not to infringe
liberties, not to persecute Muslims.....
After London people said ‘What can we learn from France’. After Paris they said ‘What can we learn from
the Swedish model.’ Nobody cites Sweden
anymore. In fact nobody looks to anyone
else’s model anymore. Because all of the
‘models’ failed. So here we are – stuck
with a problem our politicians have given us and to which they have no
answers. Perhaps all this pointless
chatter is just what people do to distract themselves before they have to face
up to that fact.....
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain
Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain
Intellectual examination of Islamic ideology and philosophy has been
ongoing in outstanding think-tanks in the US, the UK and other Western
countries, but it is at the implementation stage that things get unstuck. There
is no doubt that evil organizations like Daesh and its associates in the Middle
East need to be physically eliminated, but more important it is the narrative
of confrontation which has to be removed from the minds of the followers of
Radical Islam.....
As we mourn the victims of any act of vicious violence in Brussels or in
Beirut, in Paris or in Aleppo, in San Bernardino or in Istanbul, we must remain
steadfast not to fall victim to the dim-witted conceptual trap this vicious
cycle of violence has devised to perpetuate itself between ("Terror"
and "War on Terror"). "Terror" and "War on
Terror" are the mirror images of each other. We have nothing to do with either
of those two vicious ideologies. We - Muslims, Christians, Jews, gentiles,
Europeans, Arabs, US citizens or otherwise - are victims of it......
"Every Salafi and Deobandi is not a terrorist but I have no
hesitation in saying that everyone is a well-wisher of terrorists and this has
not been appreciated by the Western governments," he said.
Dr ul-Qadri, who has the authority of a Sheikh–ul-Islam, a title given
to those who have superior knowledge of the principles of the faith, is coming
out with his statement now because the Wahhabis and Deobandis have been silent
in condemning the killings in Pakistan and abroad.
They dominate much of the apparatus of state in Pakistan — as well as
most of the mosques in London — which is why in the West we receive mixed
messages: the military launches vast offensives while the religious and
education ministries say nothing. As a result, many in the West believe that
the church in Pakistan is not doing enough to counter the violence.---
Genocide is a momentous term in international law. According to a 1948
convention, it describes killing and other heinous acts, committed “with intent
to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group”. The American government can argue that the new designation does not
imply any new policy, given that it is fighting IS already....
Khaled Ahmed
Khaled Ahmed
It probably became disenchanted in 2010 when it saw two old ISI
officers, Colonel Sultan Amir Tarar alias Colonel Imam and Squadron Leader
Khalid Khwaja, being kidnapped by the Taliban on a video before their murder at
the hands of the Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud....
For it was many of their Arab Sunni neighbours who welcomed Isis in. It
was the same people they said good morning to every day who stood by as Isis
dragged Yazidi women off into sexual slavery and decapitated their children.
The mother of the family, still in the same dress she escaped in, drew her
finger over her throat.....
Al Qaeda’s Branch In Africa Makes A Lethal Comeback
Dionne Searcey, Eric Schmitt And Rukmini Callimach
One American military counterterrorism official said that Boko Haram, the extremist group that has terrorized northern Nigeria for years, might be trying to increase its body count to uphold the bloody standard of the Islamic State, to which it has pledged allegiance. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in turn, seems to be trying to keep up with the bloodshed.
I have recently come across Deobandi preachers with green turbans in the small cities of India, preaching against Sufism as a heretical school. A study reported that about Rs 1700 Crore has been poured into India to facilitate the takeover of the management of mosques by Wahhabi ideologues, which is certainly an alarming development. However, I would say that still the positives outweigh the negatives, and it can be seen in the fact that to date hardly 25 to 30 Indians have joined ISIS according to intelligence agencies. Those who return are also disillusioned because of their low position in the ISIS pecking order....
The growing political democratic stability of Western African countries which face terrorist threats on a daily basis is also a lesson for populations in industrialised countries in Europe and the United States. While the latter have decided to cower into debates on national identity and to turn more and more towards populistic leaders...
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
Tushar Ranjan Mohanty
FATA continues to remain highly insecure and has has already recorded 230 fatalities, including 190 terrorists, 21 civilians and 19 SFs, in 2016 [till March 11]. The worst attacks in FATA in 2016 include the January 19 strike, where 12 persons, including a journalist, were killed while 39 others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber targeted the tribal Khassadar force in the Karkhano Market of Khyber Agency;...
...In another letter seized from Abbottabad that was written in December 2010 by Atiyah to Hakemullah Mehsud, who at the time was the emir of the TTP, the al Qaeda leader asserted the group’s authority over the TTP. The letter referred to other exchanges between the TTP and al Qaeda, and while it was contentious, it highlights al Qaeda’s primacy over the TTP.
Holding territory is key to the longevity and expansion of extremist groups like Boko Haram because it provides a steady stream of food and other sources of financial support. For example, the Daesh financial model has changed as cross-border oil sales have become less secure, Gartenstein-Ross notes, now focusing on taxation of local populations.
Once again, it seems that efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and end the dispute between them and the Western-backed government in Kabul will come to nothing. We may think that this is regrettable, but from their point of view, this is the most reasonable course of action.
...It is hoped that both the Afghan government and the Taliban would start the dialogue without forcing their conditions, and the matter could be resolved through give-and-take. It has to be remembered that in the past all rulers in Afghanistan were Pashtuns, except once for a brief period in 1929 when Habibullah alias Bacha-e-Saqa, a Tajik, and second time from 1992 to 1996, Burhanuddin Rabbani, again a Tajik ruled Afghanistan.
Unless the Taliban is defeated militarily, and the spread of IS is contained, no stability can be brought into Afghanistan. At a time when the Taliban is rampaging across the country, the talks process can only confer legitimacy on the extremists and cede undue leverage to the external forces that have long been guilty of aiding and abetting terrorism. It is now critical time to bring to account the powers - both state and non-state - that have been responsible for the enduring suffering of the people of Afghanistan.
Bearing in mind
the establishment of caliphate as the ultimate objective, the Islamic State has
begun to shrewdly exploit the political tensions rampant in Afghanistan in its
own stride. The public beheadings of security personnel as well as local
residents along with the swelling contingent of foreign militants enticed by
the extremist interpretation of Sharia laws by ISIS ....
Or the shocking
notion that the false Islamic State regardless of how murderous is ‘still an
Islamic State’. The self-proclaimed
Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is not something that Muslims would ever want
to live in. In conversation with British Muslims few will discount the idea of
an Islamic State though. Many will point to the fact that this is
necessity.....
One consequence
of this and of the fact that Islam does not focus on ethnicity is that ethnic
Russian Muslims become part of the Umma as a whole rather than forming “any
separate Russian diaspora inside it,” but because they lack an Islamic
tradition, they are an easy catch for “radical ideological” groups....
A crucial
component ISIS uses to control its roadside bombs is made in America, a new
report reveals. The 'microcontrollers' are manufactured by an innocent Arizona
firm but their normal use is subverted by the terror group's armourers and they
are turned into deadly improvised explosive devices. The hi-tech components are
among hundreds of items produced around the world which are sourced by ISIS and
trafficked into their terror heartland in Iraq and Syria. These include hair
bleach and even Nokia mobile phones.....
Removing Daesh
from its strategic strongholds, in addition to depriving it of its various
sources of income (e.g. sale of oil and antiquities, 'taxation', extortion) as
well as recruitment of foreign fighters is an urgent mission that can be
completed in 2016....
As a matter of
fact, Islam is a peaceful religion, and never ever allows its followers to
carry out destruction on earth. The
concept of holy war in Islam arises only in self-defence, which is everyone’s
right. Throughout the Muslim history, and during the time of Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him), Muslims fought when attacked by the opponents of Islam.
Hiranmay Karlekar
Hiranmay Karlekar
Boko Haram,
which has killed 20,000, and displaced 2.5 million, people since 2009,
continues to suffer reverses at the hands of troops from Nigeria, Niger,
Cameroon, Chad and Benin acting in concert....