No place to hide

Will we allow mainstream Islam to turn into a moderate fringe, while extremists take centre-stage?

By Aijaz Zaka Syed      December 05, 2008                    Muslim India

The great irony of the Mumbai attacks is the killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, a brave officer trying to establish the link between Hindu extremists and the Malegaon blasts. He was killed outside the Cama hospital on Wednesday night. Obviously, some Muslims do not know their friends from their enemies. Aijaz Syed elaborates...

Watching the terror nightmare unfold in Mumbai over the past three days on TV, my children have repeatedly asked me: "Who are these terrorists and why are they doing this?" And every time I wished I could offer them a convincing answer. I was clueless why these people had taken over Mumbai and were targeting people who had nothing to do with them. I was also ashamed to tell them that the terrorists were Muslims and came from a country that was created in the name of Islam.

At work, while my colleagues went about covering the madness in Mumbai and laying out pages with the images of the Taj Hotel with its Islamic arches and domes go up in smoke, I find it hard to look at them in the eye.

This happens all the time. Every time innocents are targeted in the name of Islam around the world, one can't face one's non-Muslim friends and colleagues. A distraught friend who has devoted her life to speaking and fighting on behalf of Arabs and Muslims wrote: "I've had it with the Arabs and Muslims and Islamic militancy. Forgive me but I am throwing in the towel." I couldn't write back to her. She grew up in Mumbai and is upset. She went on to say: "The Muslims and Islam have a problem and only they can solve it. If they do not, the whole world will turn against them."

If this is how our most loyal friends feel, imagine the sentiments and reactions of the rest of the world. Can you blame the world if it's turning against Muslims? What do you expect when not a day passes without the name of our faith being dragged through the mud by fellow believers around the world?

I know that Muslim leaders, including those in the highest echelons of power, have lately started speaking out against the extremists. The Darul Uloom Deoband in India, one of the oldest and most respected centres of learning in the Muslim world, issued a fatwa against terrorism at a large gathering of Islamic scholars in June. Last month, nearly 5,000 scholars backed the edict at a huge congregation in Hyderabad. The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC), and Saudi Arabia have, of late, been vehement in condemning these repulsive acts of violence targeting innocents. But clearly, we need to do more to be heard.

The great irony of the Mumbai attacks is the killing of ATS chief Hemant Karkare, a brave officer trying to establish the link between Hindu extremists and the Malegaon blasts. He was killed outside the Cama hospital on Wednesday night. Obviously, some Muslims do not know their friends from their enemies.

It's all very well for us to say Islam has nothing to do with extremism and terrorism. We can go on deluding ourselves that these psychopaths do not represent us. However, the world finds it hard to accept this line of argument as it sees the extremists increasingly assert themselves and take the centre-stage while mainstream Islam turns into a moderate fringe.

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Photo: A woman reacts during a candlelit march on Saturday for the victims of the Mumbai terrorist attack in which more than 195 people were killed (AP photo)

Aijaz Syed is Opinion Editor, Khaleej Times

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=ca0ddccc-f725-4957-91c7-5ba0f568b371

Karachi satphone, Sims from Vienna, New Jersey

News Analysis: Mumbai Terror attacks
By Ritu Sarin                                                 Dec 04, 2008                                                      Muslim India

New Delhi: Investigation into the Mumbai Terror attacks is acquiring the dimensions of an international probe with trails being tracked in several countries besides Pakistan after evidence that the terrorists used a Thuraya satellite phone bought in Karachi and two SIM cards issued in Vienna, Austria, and New Jersey in the United States.

Top sources have confirmed to The Indian Express that this has drawn in investigators from several countries who are assisting Indian agencies to piece together the complex jigsaw of the terror plot.

The Thuraya satellite phone, located on the Kuber, the fishing trawler used by the terrorists in their journey to Mumbai, has been tracked to a distributor in Karachi. Now efforts are on in Dubai, where the Thuraya company is based, to locate who sold the set to the distributor.

A scrutiny of the call details on the Thuraya set has revealed that the terrorists made four or five calls to numbers in Sialkot and Karachi during the journey.“Efforts are on to zero in on the identities of the persons called,” sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Besides the satphone, two mobile handsets recovered from terrorists killed in the commando action in the Taj Mahal hotel have also widened the scope of the terror probe. These mobile phones were being intercepted, as The Indian Express first reported, by Indian agencies right through the gunbattle.

While the two handsets are manufactured in India, one of the SIM cards was issued by a Telecom company in Vienna, the other by a firm in New Jersey. Sources said intelligence agencies in Switzerland and the USA are now actively working on the purchase trail of these SIM cards.

In a related breakthrough, a foreign intelligence agency has helped land a copy of the Pakistani passport (and thus picture) of Zaki-ur-Rehman Naqvi, the Lashkar-e-Toiba Commander widely believed to be behind the attacks.

Zaki-ur-Rehman has since been named by Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the lone surviving militant now in the custody of the Mumbai police, during interrogation, as the man who debriefed them on the locations and modus operandi of the Mumbai operations. A copy of the passport, accessed by The Indian Express, shows that the travel document had been issued to Naqvi in 2007. It gives the age of the passport holder as 48 and describes him as a resident of Okara.
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Ritu Sarin is head of investigations at ‘The Indian Express’, India's leading investigative newspaper and a contributor to the weekly Hong Kong-based newsmagazine, 'Asiaweek'. During her 17-year career, she has reported extensively on the militant movements in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, as well as done a series of investigative reports on India’s intelligence agencies, narco-terrorism, and political corruption. 

This article was originally published at indianexpress.com

The Mumbai Attacks: More Than Meets the Eye

News Analysis: Mumbai Terror Attacks

By Jeremy R. Hammond      December 4, 2008         Muslim India

Foreign Policy Journal

As details emerge about who was responsible for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week, the evidence points to a militant group and network of associates that can be linked to a number of intelligence agencies, including the ISI, the CIA, and MI6.

Details have emerged regarding who was responsible for the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, with the evidence pointing to the Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). But the trail doesn't end there.

Indications of a coming attack were reportedly received by intelligence agencies well in advance. US signals intelligence (SIGINT) picked up a spike in “chatter” indicating something was brewing, which was supported by information from assets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some of the information that was received by US intelligence was passed on to India as early as September.

The details were specific. The CIA station chief in Delhi reportedly met with his counterpart at India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to pass on intelligence that LeT was planning a major attack that would come from the sea.

Less than a week before the attacks, a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan purportedly killed a British citizen of Pakistani descent named Rashid Rauf, who was suspected of planning to blow up commercial airliners flying from Britain to the U.S. He fled Britain in 2002 after being suspected of stabbing to death his uncle, Mohammed Saeed. He settled in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, and married a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of another militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Besides being linked to JeM, he was also suspected by some intelligence sources of having connections to the ISI. Pakistani authorities arrested him in Bahawalpur in August 2006 at the behest of British authorities, but he escaped police custody when they allowed him to enter a mosque ostensibly to say afternoon prayers. While police waited outside, Rauf walked out the back door. He may have just escaped, but there were also rumors that he was secretly taken into custody by the ISI in a plan that kept him under wraps while preventing him from being extradited to Britain.

The location of Rauf was reportedly given to U.S. officials by the Pakistani government, and may have been a move calculated to appease the U.S. over charges that elements of the ISI are still assisting militants engaged in cross-border attacks into Afghanistan. Earlier this year, terrorists bombed the Indian embassy in Kabul, and both India and the U.S. claimed that the ISI had been involved in the attack.

The airstrike that killed Rauf may also have been the result of early information obtained on the attack on Mumbai, as intelligence agencies reportedly had learned that he was involved in the planning of a major upcoming terrorist event. They may have sought to take him out before such an attack could occur.

Indian intelligence had obtained its own warnings of an attack. One indication was a request from a LeT operative to obtain international SIM cards for an upcoming operation. There was also information that a LeT team was training at a camp near Karachi, and that part of their training was to prepare for launching attacks from the sea. The team was trained under Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, also known as “Chacha”. Also among the information received was that the Taj Mahal hotel was pinpointed as a major target.                                  

As a result, security at the hotel was increased, but was lessened again just a week prior to the attacks because of complaints from the hotel’s clients. Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, which owns the hotel, acknowledged that warnings of a possible attack had been received.

The Tata Group is also invested in the energy sector, and stands to gain from the recent deal between the U.S. and India, which would provide India with nuclear resources outside of the framework of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards system. Pakistan has voiced its opposition to the U.S. deal with its nuclear-armed neighbor.

On November 18, RAW intercepted a satellite phone conversation made to a number in Lahore, Pakistan, known to be used by the military commander of LeT known alternatively by the names Yusuf Muzammil or Abu Hurrera, also known as “Yahah”. The caller notified his handlers that he was heading for Mumbai with unspecified cargo.

As a result of the intelligence it had received, India’s Navy and Coast Guard were on the lookout for suspicious ships entering Indian territorial waters, and were specifically told to watch for an unidentified ship coming from Karachi.

Only one of the terrorists in the Mumbai attacks was captured alive, Azam Amir Kasab, a resident of the territory of Punjab in Pakistan. According to reports, he has told his interrogators a great deal about how the attacks went down.

Kasab confessed to being a member of LeT. He and his fellow terrorists were instructed to target foreigners, particularly Americans, British, and Israelis. They had set out from Karachi in a ship called the “MV Alpha”, which is allegedly owned by Dawood Ibrahim, a terrorist wanted by India in connection with bombings in Bombay in 1993 that resulted in 250 deaths. Ibrahim is also wanted by Interpol, and has been designated a global terrorist by the U.S.

Confronted with increased naval patrols that were boarding and searching suspect vessels, the team hijacked a fishing trawler called the “Kuber”, registration number 2303, and killed most of its crew except for Amarsinh Solanki, whom they kept alive to help navigate.

On November 26, as the terrorists neared their target destination, they killed Solanki by slitting his throat. An associate of Ibrahim’s in Mumbai had arranged to pick the team up in inflatable rubber dinghies. They went ashore at about 9pm. Witnesses reported seeing them land in the dinghies, which were unusual among the common wooden fishing boats, and unloading a number of large bags.

Once on shore near the Gateway to India, Mumbai’s main landing point near the Naval dockyard, the team split up. Four men went to the Taj Mahal hotel, where an advance team had already checked in on November 22 and set up a control room. Two went to the Nariman House, the Mumbai headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-orthodox Jewish group. Another acquisitioned a taxi and drove to the railway station. Two others headed to the Leopold restaurant, a hot spot for foreign visitors to Mumbai.

At about 9:20pm, one team arrived at the Nariman House, where they took hostages, while another opened fire at the Leopold café. At 9:45, terrorists entered both the Taj Mahal and Trident Oberoi hotels, where hostages were again taken. At 10:15, two of the men began firing indiscriminately outside the Cama hospital. At 10:30, terrorists entered the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station and again opened fire.

According to Pakistan’s Daily Times, the terrorists identified and killed two U.S. intelligence officers at the Taj Mahal hotel.

Indian officials are now saying that just 10 men were responsible, indicating that two-man teams were able to strike one target and move on to the next. Teams held out under siege the the Nariman House and the hotels, with the Taj Mahal the last to be cleared. By the end, it had taken Indian forces 60 hours to kill or capture the attackers, with their reign of terror finally ending on the 29th with nearly 200 people reported dead.

According to police, the men were aged 18 to 28. They were found to have drugs in their system, and traces of cocaine and LSD were found at one or more scenes of their attack, which they apparently had taken for an additional adrenaline boost to keep them going for the long siege and battle with Indian special forces.

A Mauritian government identity card was discovered with the terrorists who attacked the Taj Mahal hotel, along with credit and debit cards of a number of different banks, including HSBC (headquartered in London and named after its founding member, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, with global branches), HDFC, and ICICI (both banks in India). The Republic of Mauritius is a former British colony and member of the Commonwealth off the east coast of Africa, near Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

They were reported to be using AK-47 assault rifles. Photos shown in the press reveal what appear to be variants with a folding stock. They were also reported to have handguns and grenades. Additionally, police recovered sub-machine guns used by the terrorists. An Associated Press photo of the confiscated guns reveals what appear to be Heckler & Koch MP5-N sub-machine guns. The “N” model is a version of the MP5 designed specifically for the U.S. Navy and used by Navy Seals teams.

BlackBerry cell phones were also recovered from the terrorists, containing international SIM cards investigators believe correlate with the early intelligence further connecting the team to LeT. During the attacks, they received calls from outside the country, which is apparently among the evidence leading government officials to early on state publicly that the terrorists had ties to a foreign nation.

A global-positioning system (GPS) and satellite phone were found in the abandoned Kuber fishing trawler. Navigation routes plotted in the GPS revealed the planned route from Karachi to Mumbai and back again, indicating that the terrorists hoped they might possibly be able to escape and return to Pakistan. Investigators determined that this was the phone used to contact Muzammil, the LeT military commander. Calls from the phone were also traced to Lakhvi, the LeT training specialist.

The MV Alpha was also intercepted after the attacks by the Indian Navy.

Responsibility for the attacks was claimed via e-mail by a previously unknown group calling itself Deccan Mujahideen. This appears to be a front, apparently designed to direct blame upon groups within India and give the appearance of a home-grown terrorist attack. Deccan may refer to a neighborhood in the city of Hyderabad or to the Decaan Plateau that dominates the middle and south of India.

The RAW traced IP addresses used to send the e-mail to an account in Russia that was opened on the Wednesday just prior to the attack and used to relay the message to media in India. The e-mail was further traced to a computer in Pakistan, and investigators have also said that it was generated by dictation using voice recognition software.

India has called for Pakistan to hand over 20 individuals it has alleged were involved in the attacks. Among the wanted men are Dawood Ibrahim, Hafiz Saeed, and Maulana Masood Azhar.

As noted, Ibrahim is among Interpol’s most wanted. The U.S. designated him as a global terrorist in 2003, stating that he had ties to al Qaeda and that he funded attacks by militant groups, including LeT, aimed at destabilizing the Indian government. Ibrahim’s organization is known as the D-Company and is known to be heavily involved in drug trafficking. According to the U.S. government, D-Company is involved in large-scale shipment of narcotics into the U.K. and Western Europe. He is also alleged to have ties to the CIA through casino operations in Nepal.

Ibrahim is the son of a police constable and worked as a police informant, only to become involved in crime. He rose through the ranks of the underworld in Bombay (now Mumbai) to become one of the city’s leading organized crime bosses. He later fled to Pakistan, where he is believed to have stayed in Karachi under the protection of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. Some Indian analysts have suggested that it was at the behest of the ISI that Ibrahim planned the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan has denied that he is in the country.

Wanted along with Ibrahim for the 1993 Bombay attacks is Aftab Ansari, also an Indian national. Ansari is linked to Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British national of Pakistani origin. Omar Sheikh is an associate of Osama bin Laden and has been accused of masterminding the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal.

Omar Skeikh was also the paymaster of the 9/11 hijackers and wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta in Florida. According to Indian intelligence, working with the FBI a link was established between Omar Sheikh and the head of Pakistan’s ISI, Lt. Gen. Mahmud Ahmed. Sources revealed to the media that the evidence obtained from Omar Sheikh’s cell phone indicated that it was at the behest of Mahmud Ahmed that the money was sent to finance the 9/11 hijackers. While this has widely been reported internationally, including by the Press Trust of India, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, Agence France-Presse, and UK’s The Guardian and The Times, it has not received any mention in the U.S. mainstream media.

Hafiz Saeed is the founder of LeT. He travelled to Peshawar to join the CIA-backed effort to overthrow the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan. Peshawar served as the command base for both the CIA and Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK). Haiz Saeed became the protégé of Abdullah Azzam, who, along with Osama bin Laden, founded MAK to recruit and train foreign fighters to join the mujahedeen. The CIA worked closely with the ISI to finance, arm, and train the mujahedeen.

By about 1988, MAK had been evolved into the group known as al-Qaeda by bin Laden. The name “al-Qaeda” literally means “the base”, and may either refer bin Laden’s base of operations for the mujahedeen war effort or the actual database of names of jihadist recruits. While numerous terrorist attacks have been attributed to al-Qaeda over the years, it isn’t so much a centralized organization as a loose network of individuals and affiliate groups having roots or otherwise associated with the CIA-backed effort against the Soviet Union.

Maulana Masood Azhar is the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and is also wanted by Interpol. Like LeT, JeM is said to have close links with the ISI, which has used the groups to wage a proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir.

Like Hafiz Saeed, Azhar was numbered among the veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war. He was educated at Jamia Binoria, a madrassa (religious school) in Karachi that also served as a recruitment center for the mujahedeen.

He later became a leader of Karkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistani militant group, and was captured by India in Kashmir in 1994. He was tried and acquitted, but spent six years in jail before being freed in exchange for the release of the crew and passengers of a hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999. He formed JeM after returning to Pakistan.

Omar Saeed Sheikh was also caught and imprisoned by India for involvement in that hijacking, and was likewise released in exchange for the hostages. Like Azhar, Omar Seikh is reported to have close links to the ISI and, according to former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, was also an agent of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, which sent him to engage in operations in the Balkans.

Relations between India and Pakistan also reached a crisis point in December 2001, when gunmen attacked the Indian parliament. JeM and Let were held responsible for that attack as well, and both countries amassed troops on the border, a situation that led to fears of war between two nuclear-armed countries. The U.S. helped mediate an end to the crisis, pressuring Pakistan to crack down on militant groups and setting in motion the plan to assist India with its nuclear program that was finally realized this year.

LeT was banned in Pakistan in 2002 following the attack on the Indian parliament, but remained active in the country nevertheless. The group has denied responsibility for the attacks in Mumbai last week.

Pakistan has on one hand said it would formulate a response to India’s request to turn over the 20 wanted men, and on the other hand indicated it would not do so, insisting that the men are either not in Pakistan or that they have been under Pakistani surveillance and no indication seen that they were in any way involved.

While the evidence strongly points to LeT and a network of associates affiliated with the group or with each other, that web also includes the CIA and MI6. One early report said that some of the Mumbai terrorists were, like Rashid Rauf, British nationals. This was picked up by numerous press accounts around the globe, but the Indian government official this information was attributed to denied ever having said such a thing.

Theories that this was a false flag operation have already begun to spread around the internet, with varying culprits and motives. Whatever the truth is, what is clear from the facts one is able to piece together from media accounts is that there is more to the Mumbai attacks than meets the eye.
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Photo: Captured Mumbai terrorist Azam Amir Kasab

Jeremy R. Hammond is the editor of Foreign Policy Journal, a website dedicated to providing news, critical analysis, and opinion commentary on U.S. foreign policy from outside of the standard framework offered by government officials and the mainstream corporate media, particularly with regard to the "war on terrorism" and events in the Middle East. He has also written for numerous other online publications. You can contact him at jeremy@foreignpolicyjournal.com.

This article was originally published at Foreign Policy Journal. It may be reprinted with attribution and a link to the source.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles and statements published in Muslim India are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editor/publisher of Muslim India.

The United State of India

By Sitaram Yechury               December 03, 2008                Muslim India

Make no mistake: if the Hindu-Muslim divide deepens, then the terrorists have succeeded to the extent of destabilising our society. Seeking an electoral dividend by deepening this divide only emboldens terrorism further. In fact, terrorism and communalism feed off each other. Sitaram Yechury elaborates...

Even for a country experiencing the widest possible variety of terrorist attacks, alarmingly recurring at shorter intervals, the terrorist blitzkrieg on Mumbai has chillingly numbed and outraged the nation. The anger, revulsion, distress, disgust, shame and initial helplessness, rising to a crescendo of revenge, have all been captured in images that will continue to torment each one of us. The display of selfless courage and valour in defeating the terrorists will, likewise, evoke salutes of pride, raising the bar of patriotism higher.

Clearly, there is a need to overhaul the entire system and rid ourselves of the perennial weaknesses in our intelligence gathering and security apparatus that permit such terrorist attacks to take place. On previous occasions, many suggestions to strengthen and modernise our security forces, and an improved coordination between various agencies involved, have been discussed in this column. Alas. Nothing substantial has happened despite a plethora of reports and recommendations. These were reiterated at the post-Mumbai all-party meeting convened by the Prime Minister. It is only hoped that these will now merit the urgency that is required.

At a time when the country should have demonstrated its united will in battling terrorism, it is unfortunate that the BJP refused to be party to any common declaration of such resolve at the all-party meeting. Recollect that after the terrorist attack on the Parliament, the country rose as one in denouncing and declaring the determination to defeat terrorism, despite serious differences over the manner in which the then Vajpayee government was handling matters of internal security. The BJP, however, choosing to utilise this terrorist attack for improving its electoral fortunes by sharpening communal polarisation, refused to join the rest of the country in condemning and combating terrorism.

Make no mistake: if the Hindu-Muslim divide deepens, then the terrorists have succeeded to the extent of destabilising our society. Seeking an electoral dividend by deepening this divide only emboldens terrorism further. In fact, terrorism and communalism feed off each other. Recollect that the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (the lone surviving terrorist, in Mumbai, admitted that he belongs to the LeT) had, on the eve of the 1999 elections, stated: “The BJP suits us. Within a year they have made us into a nuclear and missile power. Lashkar-e-Tayyeba is getting a good response because of the BJP’s statements. It is much better than before. We pray to God that they come to power again. Then we will emerge even stronger.” (Hindustan Times, July 19, 1999). India cannot afford to be thus sandwiched.

Have al-Qaeda and the Taliban reached Indian shores? Do these outfits now see India as a US ally? It appears so. If the government has decided to go ahead with the nuclear deal, and emerge as the preferred partner of the US in this part of the world, shouldn't costs of such an alliance have been assessed in advance? Should not have India been prepared for what it means to be seen as aligned with US strategic interests in the so-called ‘war against terror’? Why should civilians be victims of this not having been thought through, and of internal security not having been beefed up?

From all information furnished by the government, these terrorists had come by sea from Karachi to execute a carefully prepared, diabolically planned attack. Foreign territory and facilities have, obviously, been used to mount these attacks. Soon after 9/11, the UN Security Council adopted a unanimous resolution (Resolution 1373) against terrorism. Accordingly, all countries are obliged to deny “safe havens to those who finance, plan, support, or commit terrorist acts”. The UN also created a committee to monitor the implementation of this resolution. The decision that all countries are obliged to prevent those who commit terrorist acts from using their respective territories against other countries and citizens must now be invoked by India. This is required for marshalling international support to advance in our struggle against terrorism.

Much is being talked about the manner in which the US had dealt with 9/11. Remember that after images of the second plane plunging into the twin tower, the next set of images the world saw were of Ground Zero. There was no live telecast of blood, dead bodies, rescue operations etc. The nation dealt with the tragedy with dignity. Even the fiercest champions of freedom of expression cannot condone the competitive rival live footage of the details of the movement of security forces, which facilitated the terrorists' assaults. We all will have to put our minds together to arrive at an acceptable solution in such situations (which mercifully would not be allowed to recur) in the future.

Finally, these attacks took place on iconic symbols of modern India in Mumbai — a hotel and hospital, properties of Parsis, another hotel, the property of a Sikh, a home owned by Jews and the busiest railway station — the property of all Indians. This was an attack on India’s syncretic civilisational ethos. This can be defeated only by India united in its diversity. Any cynical effort to draw political mileage and electoral dividends by perpetuating a communal divide can only give a further lease of life to such anti-national terrorists.

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Sitaram Yechury is Rajya Sabha MP and member, CPI(M) Politburo.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=705b4474-914b-43b0-9ee8-67c59ed7286d

Lies of the Lashkar-e-Taiba

By Yoginder Sikand         03 December 2008              Muslim India

"Those whom the Creator Lord would destroy - first He strips them of virtue (Sri Guru Granth Sahib)."

Not possessing a television set myself, it was only just now that was I able to listen to the recording, hosted on the Internet, of a conversation which took place some days ago between a terrorist holed up at Nariman House in Mumbai and calling himself 'Imran Babar' and reporters of the India TV channel. (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QhO6rynb1C8).

It is plainly evident from the conversation that the terrorist was a Pakistani, most likely a Punjabi. This obvious from his accent and the sort of Urdu he speaks. One can easily make out that he had been carefully tutored by his mentors who masterminded the deadly terror assault on Mumbai to intersperse his hate-driven harangue with some Hindi words (shanti, parivar etc.) and to use Urdu words in the typical Hindi way (jabardasti, instead of zabardasti, etc.) so as to give the misleading impression that he and the other terrorists with him were Indian Muslims, not Pakistanis. The terrorists claimed to belong to the 'Deccan', in India, but it is obvious that this was not at all the case. There can be no doubt that these Pakistani terrorists were trained to lie that they were Indian Muslims who were allegedly resorting to terror in revenge for the atrocities committed on Muslims in India.

Why the Pakistan-based terror outfit behind the attacks would do this needs no explanation. The aim of the attacks was probably to destabilise India, fuel Hindu-Muslim violence, instigate Muslims to take to terror in response to attacks by Hindus and then drown India in flames. This, indeed, is precisely what several Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist groups have been consistently plotting to do for decades, although, mercifully, by and large, the Indian Muslims have refused to fall into their trap. It is to the credit of the Indian Muslims that, barring some stray exceptions, they have consistently opposed all forms of terror, including that committed in the name of Islam, despite the growing menace of Hindutva-driven fascist terror across India, sometimes abetted by the state, of which they are the principal and worst-hit victims.

The Lashkar-e Tayyeba has never made any bones about its dastardly plans of destabilisng and destroying India. It has gone to the ridiculous extent of claiming that it will not rest till the 'Islamic' flag is hoisted atop the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi and till India is absorbed into what it calls in its lunacy 'Greater Pakistan'. In order to gain theological legitimacy for its deadly project it even claims that the Prophet Muhammad is said to have declared that Muslims who participate in a war with India would be saved from the fires of hell. There can be no doubt that this sort of horrendous misuse and deliberate distortion of Islam by the Lashkar has played a major role in attracting vast numbers of would-be terrorists in Pakistan to its fold who are fed with the poisonous propaganda that by participating in what it calls a holy war against India they would win a ticket to heaven.

The Pakistani state, it must be noted, has taken no action whatsoever against this heinous propaganda, and elements of the ISI are said to be in cahoots with the Lashkar and other such hate-driven self-styled Islamist groups in the country. In the wake of the Mumbai attacks, and when asked what action Pakistan had taken against the Lashkar, the Pakistani President hurriedly shrugged off the question by claiming that the Lashkar had been 'banned'. If that is indeed the case—which it is obviously not—then how does Mr. Zardari explain the fact that, as the Lashkar's official Urdu website itself announces, on the 29th of November the Lashkar's supremo Hafiz Muhammad Saeed addressed what it termed a 'mammoth' convention at 'New Saeedabad' (a locality named after him?), organized by the Sindh unit of the Markaz Dawat ul-Irshad (the 'religious' and political wing of the Lashkar). It was held, of all places, in the premises of the local Government Degree College. The Lashkar's website is replete with news about the whirlwind tours of Saeed and his cronies across the country, delivering rabble-rousing speeches, thundering against India and non-Muslims in general. And the outfit, Mr. Zardari wants us to believe, is 'banned'.

Having been writing on Indian Muslim issues for years now, I can say with some confidence that the general Indian Muslim is completely fed up and fiercely opposed to the gross misuse of Islam by the Pakistani state and Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist outfits. Deep down inside, most of them lament the very creation of Pakistan, based on the discredited 'two nation' theory, for it has left them permanently helpless in the face of Hindutva aggression. They know full well that, despite its bombastic claims, Pakistan is far being from the 'Islamic state' it claims to be—with its problems of poverty, illiteracy, mounting inequalities, endemic violence, and lawlessness, its corrupt American puppet politicians who have reduced Islam to a plaything to be employed for their own purposes, and so on. They face the brunt of mounting Islamophobia stirred up by Hindutva fascist forces that play upon Pakistan's dubious Kashmir policy and the heinous crimes of Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist radicals to whip up violently anti-Muslim sentiments in India. The general Indian Muslim's undisguised disgust of the terror in the name of Islam that groups like the Lashkar are seeking to spearhead is amply evident in the news that is pouring in of Muslims across the country roundly denouncing the Mumbai attacks and even insisting that the dreaded terrorists not be allowed to be buried on Indian soil.

India's Muslims need to be seen as a potential asset, rather than a liability, in the struggle against terrorism. Scores of Indian ulema or Islamic clerics are now openly castigating all forms of terror, organizing mass rallies and even issuing fatwas to get the message across. The Indian state and civil society urgently needs to realize that hounding the Indian Muslims, instead of seeking to listen to their voices and concerns and genuinely dialoguing with them, can only play into the hands of outfits of groups like the Lashkar. The fact that Hindutva terror and Islamist terror only feed on each other must also be urgently acknowledged. Our very future as a country crucially depends on all communities, particularly Hindus and Muslims, presenting a joint front to work together for peace and security. That would be a fitting reply to both Hindutva and radical Islamist forces, whose very existence is based on the frighteningly Manichaean notion of perpetual antagonism between Hindus and Muslims.
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Photo: Messages by residents of Mumbai are seen on a board during a gathering where hundreds of people chanted pro-India slogans and lit candles in memory of people killed in the recent terror attacks outside the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai. Gautam Singh, AP

Awake India Awake!!! The World Needs You

By Abdul Basit                 02 December, 2008            Muslim India

The frequent innovative methods of terrorist attacks seem to leave us in a constant state of shock. While we were startled by the recent incident of hijacking of huge Saudi Oil tanker by the Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden that has been unheard of in the recent past, we were soon overwhelmed by the terrifying news of the assault on one of the largest metropolis in the world, Mumbai, with a population of 20 million by a group of 20 to 30 youths in their twenties who approached by boat. These terrorists not only silenced this metropolis teeming with activities round the clock to a standstill and took over high profile hotels and iconic landmarks, but also kept one of the largest and most powerful countries in the world with the most powerful armies at the edge for two days leading to the death of 185 innocents including three outstanding police officers. The terrorists attained this merely with AK-47s and grenades!!! We are stunned, confused and dismayed. What is happening?

While all eyes where glued to the TV as if watching a live thriller movie, the shock and desperation gave way to contemplation and in trying to make sense of these senseless incidents. What has infected our society and to where are we heading for? What were the target and motivation of the terrorists who meticulously planned this operation and fought for two days against around 400 NSG commandos?

The Target of Terrorists

While arguments and conspiracy theories continue to pour in about whom was behind the Mumbai attack, the most important factor to consider is about the aim of these terrorists. Although they targeted the high profile hotels and iconic landmarks of Mumbai, their aim was much beyond the physical concrete structures and innocent lives. Their aim was to destroy the spirit of oneness and unity in diversity for which the Indian nation stands. They wanted to destabilize this country by splitting the Indian people on the basis of religion and to create fragmentation in their minds and spirits. We should ensure that these enemies of humanity do not succeed. The actions of a handful of terrorists from any religious background should not create division and hatred among the different religious communities.

External And Internal Enemies

The Indian nation is much beyond the narrow comprehension of these terrorists and the divisive forces of hate that aim to destabilize this country. The inherent strength of India depends on the unity of a wide variety of religious, racial, geographical and linguistic communities. Here is a nation that is exclusive from other world nations due to it inclusive and accommodative nature and wherein all religions and cultures flourished and greatly contributed to the world in the field of spirituality, medicine, art, meditation and culture. This pluralism, tolerance and mutual respect between people of different religious, racial and cultural backgrounds is the strength of Indian nation and if any group of people try to manipulate or tamper with this diversity and attempt to create any type of uniformity, they are in fact trying to tear down the very foundation of the Indian nation.

This inherent strength and resilience has helped the Indian Nation that has a heritage of thousands of years (which include the Indus Valley civilization that goes back to at least 5000 year), to overcome extreme challenges during its long history and to become a beacon of diverse cultures that has been cherished throughout the world. Compared to the challenges that it has overcome during its long history, neither the recent stunts that were shown by some diehard terrorists nor any divisive acts of all or any of the neighboring countries including Pakistan will in anyway be able to disrupt or destabilize this great nation, as long as this nation stays united within.

But the greatest challenge to Indian nation comes from within. Although these internal rift and conflicts date back to time immemorial, it was more evident during the freedom struggle against the British colonialists and the resulting partition of the country during the middle of the last century. And this process of destabilization and internal threat has particularly grown during the last two decades with the growth of Hindutva Nationalist forces represented by the present opposition party and its ideological parivar of RSS and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The greatest damage to social fabric of India has been done by Hindutva leaders like Narendra Modi, Bal Thackerey and Praveen Togadia and the resulting reactions by extremists to the actions of these leaders, which even the extreme enemy nations or groups could not dream of. Intentionally or unintentionally, the actions of the external terrorist groups and these communal and fundamentalist organizations are mutually supportive as the aims of both are to communalize the Indian populace. The greatest beneficiary from the Mumbai attacks will be the Sangh Parivar led by BJP who will reap the benefit in the upcoming election. The demolition of Babri Masjid and the ensuing communal riots, the Gujarat massacre that cost huge innocent lives, the attack on Christians minorities in different parts of India and the recent string of bomb blasts have created immense fragmentation in the Indian society. The issue of Kashmir that has been bleeding the subcontinent for many decades has also created much distrust among the neighbors and has been the main reason for most of the terrorist attacks that are taking place in India

An Appeal to Sangh Parivar

The actions of Sangh Parivar and its leaders like Narendra Modi and Praveen Togadia which has resulted in the lose of many innocent lives and deterioration in the relations between the different religious communities have only helped the enemies of India. If we want to prevent any further destruction and hatred, the Indian people require a total change of heart from the Sangh Parivar leaders and their ideologues. After all, change of heart is also part of the Indian ethos when the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka changed for the better and pledged not fight any more wars after the seeing the destruction in the battle of Kalinga, as revealed in Ashoka Dhamma.

We have to restore confidence among the Hindus, Muslims and Christians and strengthen the cohesiveness and trust between all the sections in the Indian society. For this we have to rebuild the lives of families affected by communal violence and bomb blasts so that their future generation overcomes the trauma and revenge mentality that sustain this hatred and instead unite to build a bright India.

Awake India, The World needs you…

The incidents in Mumbai are only one of the symptoms of the disease that has infected the global community in general and India in particular. If we have to prevent these terrorist attacks and conflicts, we have to address the whole problem in totality. The September 11th incident and following wars have resulted in the worsening relationship between different religious, racial and ideological communities, as well as the growing social fragmentation and sectarian divisions in different parts of the world, leading to civil wars, violence and social unrest. There is a great deal of fragmentation, hatred and intolerance at the individual, social, religious and national level that has had an affect on all the sectors of the society. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the tribal regions of Pakistan, the anti-Muslim feelings that are widespread in Western world and the worsening relations between religious communities; shows the gravity of the situation.

The attack on Mumbai is mentioned as India's 9 /11. But what the world cannot endure is another "George Bush style" reaction from India especially when we can see the chaos he has brought to his own country. India is different from United States of America.

The recent financial recession and climate change crises that had repercussions on all countries and continents have emphatically proved that we as humanity have a common destiny. No part of this planet will escape the consequences of growing poverty and hunger due to the financial and climate crises. The Indian nation can help the world to organize beyond the confines of geographic, racial and religious boundaries and unite to address the common issues that concern existence of the humanity as a whole and sustaining habitability of earth and to overcome the infinite physical and mental boundaries that have divided mankind into many nations, religions and creeds, which is the basic reason for these conflicts.

With its vast religious, cultural, racial, geographical and linguistic diversities, India can contribute to the building of a one world where the mental, physical and geographical boundaries disappear based on tolerance, mutual respect and democratic principles. Contrary to the western approach of hegemony and subjugation of other countries, this "Unity in Diversity" and pluralism is the message that the Indian nation has to offer to the world and can be emulated worldwide. This diversity has helped India to be the home and birthplace of great religions and spiritual movements and has contributed some the most beautiful art and cultural forms.

In this hour of global crisis, to face the challenges to the humanity, the world must unite as one human community on the basis of peace, tolerance and mutual understanding and the Indian nation has a major role in this regard.

Awake India Awake!! The World needs you…
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This article was first published on the Counter Currents.Org website on 02/12/2008.
Photo: People attend a candle-light vigil Sunday for the victims of the gunfire and grenade attacks in Mumbai. (Altaf Qadri/Associated Press).

Terror in the Name of God

By Yoginder Sikand          01 December 2008              Muslim india

"Never forget that the life of this world is only a game and a passing delight, a show ….the life of this world is nothing but means of deception:. (The Quran, Al-Hadid: 20)"

"There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim" (Baba Guru Nanak Sahib)

According to media reports, it is possible that the recent deadly assault on Mumbai was masterminded by the Lashkar-e Tayyeba, a Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist terrorist outfit. Whether the attacks were indeed the handiwork of the Lashkar, as is being alleged, or of some other agency, such as the CIA and the Israseli Mossad, as others believe, remains to be fully investigated, but there can be no doubt that radical Islamism, like radical Hindutva, poses a major threat to peace and security in both India and Pakistan.

What makes such terror-driven self-styled Islamist groups thrive in Pakistan? It would appear that the very foundational myth of Pakistan, the so-called 'two nation theory' on which the country was founded, is itself conducive to militaristic interpretations of Islam. In a mirror image of the thesis propounded by the early ideologues of Hindutva—that the Hindus and Muslims of India were two entirely different nations and that the latter could live in India only if they agreed to turn Hindu or else be stripped of all civic rights—the ideologues of the Pakistan movement claimed that the Hindus and Muslims of pre-Partition India were two irreconcilable nations that could not live together. On the basis of this specious argument, they demanded a separate state for the Indian Muslims. This is how Pakistan came into being.

Thus, the very basis of the Pakistan movement was the myth of undying hatred and hostility between Hindus and Muslims. This so-called 'two-nation theory' remains the official ideology of the state of Pakistan, and is taught to every Pakistani child in school through carefully doctored textbooks. To question the theory, as many Pakistanis privately do, is considered a punishable crime and as akin to sedition. Accordingly, the Pakistani state has, since its inception, seen its survival as being crucially dependent on actively promoting as well as indirectly abetting anti-Indian and anti-Hindu sentiments. As movements for autonomy in provinces increasingly restive of Punjabi domination mounted, first in the erstwhile East Bengal, and then in Baluchistan and Sindh, the Pakistani state came to increasingly rely on an instrumental use and cynical manipulation of Islam and on the bogey of Hindu or Indian domination to ensure its survival and increasingly threatened legitimacy. Naturally, this expanded the space and scope for groups, not just the Lashkar, but scores of others as well, who claimed to speak in the name of Islam to whip up anti-Indian and anti-Hindu sentiments. For them hatred of India and the Hindus were considered as among the defining features of Pakistani nationalism.

The rise of the Lashkar and similar self-styled jihadist groups thus cannot be understood in isolation from these broader political processes. These groups received a major impetus under the American-backed and hugely unpopular military dictator, General Zia ul-Haq, who cynically backed radical Islamist groups to win public support as well as to pursue the CIA-funded war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was at around this time that self-styled Islamist groups began entering the political arena in a major way, setting up political parties and fighting elections. This led to all sorts of compromises, to widespread corruption and to rapidly escalating militancy by different Islamist groups competing with each other to prove to the electorate their purported claims of representing and speaking for Islam. The more obscurantist a group's approach was with regard to a whole host of issues—women's rights, the Kashmir question, relations with India and so on—the more ardently 'Islamic' it considered itself to be and it presented itself so to the public whose support it sought to win.

Under Zia, several dozen radical Islamist groups were liberally funded by the Saudis and the Americans in the war in Afghanistan, but soon these went out of control. They turned against their American patrons and started dreaming of exporting their self-styled jihad to the rest of the world. Some of them, including the Lashkar, even went to the extent of calling for the establishment of a global so-called Islamic Caliphate and for conquering the entire world under the 'Islamic flag'. Whether or not the leaders of these groups actually believed all this bombastic rhetoric no one can say, but it certainly appealed to vast numbers of youth, particularly from impoverished families, who were fed on a steady diet of fanciful tales about the luxuries they would wallow in if they died or were 'martyred' in the cause of what was presented to them as a divine mission.

These groups went on to serve what were seen as the strategic interests of the Pakistani state, as for instance in Kashmir, where they were sent to battle Indian forces as well as Kashmiri nationalist groups struggling for a sovereign Jammu and Kashmir, which would be independent of both India and Pakistan. Since Pakistan was a crucial ally of the West, America chose to remain mute in the face of these developments. Likewise, these groups were solidly backed by the Pakistani state in its desperate effort to install the pro-Pakistan Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and this also received American support. The Lashkar set up several training camps in Afghanistan and gave the Taliban considerable military and moral support.

It is thus the consistent assistance given by the Pakistani state to self-styled Islamist groups that has allowed them to flourish in the country, so much so that now, when the Pakistani state has itself begun to face an immense threat from these very groups, it finds itself helpless. It is an indicator of how powerful these groups have become in Pakistan that even though the present government might want to clamp down on them it cannot do so. Large parts of Pakistan are today characterized by extreme lawlessness where the writ of the state does not run. Decades of cynical manipulation of Islam by the Pakistani state for the narrowly construed ends of Pakistan's elites have now led to a situation where even if the state wants to curb these self-styled Islamist groups it finds itself helpless. Powerful sections within the Pakistani state apparatus, including in the ISI and the Army, are fiercely averse to taking any action against these groups, and are said to be consistently providing support to them.

But is the Pakistani state serious in its claims of being determined to take on Islamist terror groups that have mushroomed across the country? It appears not, just as the Indian state has not taken any serious steps against Hindutva terror groups in India. The Pakistani government claims to have banned the Lashkar, to have frozen all its assets and to have put its leaders under arrest. But ample indications exist to suggest that, in actual fact, the Lashkar is being permitted to operate freely after being conveniently allowed to change its name and re-christen itself as the Jamaat ud-Dawa. The Jamaat ud-Dawa's website is freely accessible on the Internet, relaying incendiary, hate-driven speeches of its senior leaders, who seem to be under no control whatsoever. The Markaz's magazines in English, Arabic and Urdu continue to be published, with a reported circulation of several hundred thousand. On a visit to Lahore three years ago I chanced upon a bookshop in the very heart of the sprawling Urdu Bazaar that specializes in Lashkar literature that spews venom and hatred against India and the Hindus, but also against a whole host of Muslim groups that the Lashkar does not consider genuinely Islamic—including the followers of the Sufis, the Barelvis, the quietistic Deobandi-related Tablighi Jamaat and the Shias, all of which it brands as 'enemies of Islam' or their 'agents'. And, I was told, despite the fact that the Lashkar was officially 'banned', it still operated from its headquarters in Muridke, not far from Lahore, and also managed several dozens of centres across the country under various names. Is one to imagine that the Pakistani government is so weak in the face of radical groups as to be unable to close all these institutions down?

In this context, the question arises as to why Pakistani civil society has been unable to effectively challenge the venomous (and what I, as someone who has studied Islam for the past two decades, regard as a wholly distorted) version of Islam that is propelled by self-styled Islamist groups such as the Lashkar. This issue is particularly intriguing given the fact that radical Islamist groups have consistently received only a relatively small share of the vote in successive elections, indicating that their hate-driven vision of Islam does not appeal to the majority of Pakistani people.

There are several reasons for this, among the most salient being the fact that the liberal, progressive middle class in Pakistan is very miniscule, the country still remaining largely feudal, tribalistic and extremely patriarchal in its set-up and ethos. Efforts by the few liberal Islamic scholars that exist in Pakistan to articulate progressive interpretations of Islam on a range of issues—including women's rights, relations with non-Muslims and relations between India and Pakistan—have generally met with stern opposition and even violence from Islamist outfits, with some of these scholars being forced to flee for safety to the West. The sheer fear of being killed for publicly opposing radicals and their perverted brand of Islam keeps numerous progressive thinkers in Pakistan silent, thus perpetuating a vicious circle in which the radicals are allowed to go unchallenged. Furthermore, the state has consistently denied space to progressive Islamic scholars, fearing their potential for dissent from the official view, seeing the radicals as more pliable and amenable to manipulation. This explains, for instance, the fact that despite its bombastic 'Islamic' credentials, Pakistan is yet to produce any well-known Islamic intellectual who has sought to deal creatively with the manifold demands and challenges that modernity poses. The status of Islamic, in addition to social science, research in Pakistan is woeful, and this can be explained, in part, by the fear on the part of the establishment of voices of dissenting scholars that might challenge ruling myths. The fact that Pakistan spends less than 2 per cent of its budget on education and that numerous Vice-Chancellors of Pakistani universities are retired army generals are indicators of this mind-set.

Terrorism—and this includes terror resorted to by non-state actors as well as by the state—today poses a grave threat to the peoples of both India and Pakistan. Islamist and Hindutva terrorism feed on each other, while posing to be each other's most inveterate foes. I recall reading some years ago—I cannot recall where, though—the perverse pleasure that a senior Lashkar expressed when the BJP-led NDA government came to power. Syed Maududi, the chief ideologue of the Jamaat-e Islami, who can be considered the major architect of modern-day Islamism, is on record as having declared that he would prefer India to be an officially Hindu country to being secular because that would further his case for the 'Islamic state' that he dreamed of establishing in Pakistan. Islamist outfits in Pakistan find ready fodder for whipping up anti-Indian and anti-Hindu passions by pouncing on acts of terror and anti-Muslim violence spearheaded by Hindutva groups in India, often abetted by the state. Likewise, gruesome acts of terror committed by Pakistan-based Islamist groups are quickly seized upon by Hindutva forces in India to further demonise Muslims and to build their Hindu vote-bank. Hindu and Islamist terror thus enjoy a symbiotic or mutually beneficial relationship while claiming to oppose each other. This obvious fact must be recognized when conceiving responses to the challenge of terrorism in our region.

There are no easy solutions to the predicament we find ourselves in today. But there is surely at least one thing that we must do, and this was suggested to me by the noted New Delhi-based Arya Samaj scholar, Swami Agnivesh, who has consistently been speaking out against all forms of terror, including in the name of Islam and Hinduism as well as state terrorism. The most effective way to challenge terrorism in the name of religion, Swami Agnivesh suggested, is for Muslims to denounce and stiffly oppose terror engaged in by self-styled Islamic groups who claim to speak in the name of Islam, and for Hindus to do likewise with regard to terror spread by militant Hindu groups. Sadly, today, the approach of many of us to the phenomenon is selective and skewed, with many Hindus denouncing only the terror unleashed by self-styled Islamist groups, and many Muslims denouncing only acts of terror masterminded by Hindu groups. At the same time, many Hindus and Muslims continue to turn a blind eye to, or even support, forms of terror being perpetrated in the name of the very religion which they claim to follow.

And there is something else that we need to do as individuals, and I have found that this simple principle works wonders even at a very personal level. It might sound 'unfashionable' or even 'purile' for those who do not find any place for God in their lives, but for millions of people in India and Pakistan who do believe in some higher force, no matter what they name it, it would strike an immediate chord.

This principle I owe to Rano Devi, a landless Dalit labourer from the Bhil tribe who had been released through the efforts of a human rights' group from slavery-like conditions in the estate of a powerful landlord. I Rano met while on a visit to Sindh in southern Pakistan three years ago. A powerful woman she was—dark and tall, and walking proud and erect. A courteous hostess, she welcomed me into her one-roomed hovel built on a scrawny patch of land that a social activist friend of mine had provided her and plied me with milk-less tea and a roti, which was all that she could afford.

Rano told me her story, of how she was enslaved by a landlord, who happened to be a Muslim, and who kept her for four years in shackles. Then, after a protracted legal battle, she was released through the efforts of my friend and his comrades, all of who happened to be Muslims.

She went on to enunciate a simple but very compelling principle thus:

'Live for your religion, don't die or kill for it. Express your religion through love and service, like the brothers who rescued me did, not through oppression, murder and mayhem, for that is a heinous crime in God's eyes. After all, we are all accountable for all our actions to God. To Him we shall return after we die, when He will decide our fate till eternity based on our deeds in this world'.

'If we were to realize that this world is temporary and that real, eternal life starts after death,' Rano continued softly, tears welling up in her eyes, 'and if we were to constantly keep this in mind, perhaps people would dread to misuse God's name for un-Godly acts'.

And there was another thing that Rano said that inspires me as I write these lines:

'We call Him Ishwar, and Muslims call Him Allah, but He is one and the same', said Rano. 'There are good people in every community, just as there are bad people, too. Just as that landlord who enslaved me claimed to be a Muslim, the brothers who freed me were also Muslims. And there are both good and bad people among Hindus as well. Remember that, brother. It is only when good people in every community join hands that this Hindu-Muslim problem or the problems between India and Pakistan can ever be resolved'.

That sage advice from this impoverished Pakistani Dalit woman is, to my mind, a basic premise we need to start from in our joint struggle against terror in the name of religion and national chauvinism.

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Photo: Hundreds of civilians held a candlelight march along Marine Drive toward Mumbai's Oberoi Hotel, the second luxury hotel to be attacked. Photo:Ruth Fremson/The New York Times