Originally posted by: chatbuster
there's an underlying question here that i think has been ignored. there's also an undercurrent across different threads, and hopefully i can take a stab at it without offending anyone.
i am actually surprised as to how we are equating bashing terrorists with bashing islam. why do we assume that we are bashing islam when we say that almost all terrorists are muslims? if simply saying that terrorism today has its roots in muslim countries is bashing islam, then i wonder what terrorists are doing to islam when they actually perpretrate their menace. isnt the indignation misplaced?
next, why do we think we are bashing muslims when we suggest that we do have to be especially vigilant when it comes to muslim neighborhoods or countries, given how the terror elements have come from there? what would you do if you found violence emanating from certain quarters? dont countries arm themselves up to defend against others, even though we all know that not everyone in the other country is a war-mongerer? would you rely on platitudes as to how not everyone is a bad apple, or would you try to proactively root out such elements, at times maybe even infringing on personal liberties and sensitivities? fwiw, it's fine to make nice speeches, but you'll get a different perspective on things when you lose someone you idolized and loved dearly because of the other side.
then why do we think we are bashing muslims and pakistanis when some of us think that musharraf, particularly pre-9/11, was a double-speaking double-dealing fellow? well, wasnt he? wasn't he the one who plotted kargil in the midst of all the wonderful bonhomie, who went to agra and declared that JK terrorism was home grown, that there were no pak army regulars? wasnt he the one who also said that terrorism is a legitimate struggle for self-determination? well, didnt he find out since that terrorism is not considered legitimate by the world at large? given what folks have had to endure, could you understand some of the satisfaction one gets to see him having to deal with similar elements now? how is any of this bashing islam? meanwhile, maybe we do get the idea now as to why some of us want to be careful about dealing with folks from the other side. never know who might be a musharraf-types.
yes, i think it would be bashing islam if we brought up underlying philosophies and principles of any religion and deliberated on whether some of them lead to violence, and pronounced them bad.
meanwhile, what are non-muslims to make of all this? should they worry whenever a muslim cleric, supposedly someone who understands his religion better than us, makes a fiery statement inciting violence against infidels in the name of religion? or should we ignore him on the grounds that islam is a peaceful religion as some others want us to know? let me know what you would do if you were on the opposite side, where you found people willing to kill and blow themselves up as long as they could take you along? it's fine to say that non-muslims dont know the meaning of jihad, but how about first letting those terrorists know that they got it wrong? or even the clerics who incite them?
seriously, what would you do if you faced the same peril in your society? and what have you actually done if not come down hard on them? didnt we have musharraf sending the army into a mosque to root out terrorists? would there have been similar understanding if an indira gandhi or an indian politician had ordered that force on a mosque? raiding a mosque is not bashing islam, but calling terrorists for what they are is somehow bashing islam?
awesome post once again Rahul👏👏👏 you said it all there.
I read an interesting article in TOI couple of days ago about radicals in Islam titled "Radicals On The Rampage"......beautifully written and gets to the root cause of what we are seeing happening around us now a days. providing the link below😊
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Radicals_On_The_Rampage/a rticleshow/2218522.cms
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