Terrorism is not a Muslim monopoly

"All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." This comment , frequently heard after the Mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a Muslim specialty, if not a monopoly. The facts are very different.

First, there is nothing new about terrorism. In 1881, anarchists killed the Russian Tsar Alexander II and 21 bystanders. In 1901, anarchists killed US President McKinley as well as King Humbert I of Italy.

World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. These terrorist attacks were not Muslim. Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of civilians for political reasons.

Going by this definition, the British Raj referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikh rather than Muslim.

Guerrilla fighters from Mao Zedong to Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro killed civilians during their revolutionary campaigns. They too were called terrorists until they triumphed.

Nothing Muslim about them. In Palestine, after World War II, Jewish groups (the Haganah, Irgun and Stern Gang) fought for the creation of a Jewish state, bombing hotels and installations and killing civilians.

The British, who then governed Palestine, rightly called these Jewish groups terrorists. Many of these terrorists later became leaders of independent Israel — Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Ariel Sharon.

Ironically, these former terrorists then lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very same nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier.

In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang killed dozens, including the head of Treuhand, the German privatisation agency. In Italy, the Red Brigades kidnapped and killed Aldo Moro, former prime minister.

The Japanese Red Army was an Asian version of this. Japan was also the home of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist cult that tried to kill thousands in the Tokyo metro system using nerve gas in 1995.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/sa-aiyar//Terrorism-is-not-a-Muslim-monopoly/articleshow/1794203.cms?curpg=1

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Nothing Islamic about terrorism: US special envoy

The envoy said terrorism is not connected with Islam.

'I reject the idea that there is something like Islamic terrorism. There is nothing Islamic about terrorism,' he said.

'Acts of terrorism are committed by people of all faiths...there can be many reasons for that. Recently we saw attacks on Muslims by Muslims, nearly 80 percent or higher of the victims are Muslims,' Hussain said, calling upon all religions to join the fight against the scourge.

'Terrorism is something that has no religion, it is rejected by good people all over the world, including Muslims, Hindus, Jewish, Christians and that is why we must work together to eradicate this problem,' he said.

Son of an Indian migrant couple from Bihar, Hussain is both a Quran scholar and an ardent North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan.

Hussain's father, a mining engineer, moved from Bihar to Wyoming in the late 1960s. A few years later, during a visit to India, he married Hussain's mother, now an obstetrician in Plano.

After the 2008 presidential election, Hussain was recruited to the White House counsel's office where he has worked on national security and new media issues, and helped inform the administration's Muslim outreach efforts. Ben Rhodes, Obama's chief foreign policy speech writer, sought Hussain's counsel last year as he drafted the president's Cairo address reaching out to Muslims.

The 32-year-old, who is the youngest person to have been appointed ambassador by US President Barack Obama, said both India and Pakistan are important strategic partners for the US.

'United States will continue to work with India as a part of our partnership...we have a comprehensive counter-terrorism partnership by which we are working together,' he said adding the links with Pakistan were equally important for peace in the region.

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Who is Americas greatest enemy ?? not terrorism

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Islamic Stand Against Terrorism and 9 11

In Iran, they observed a minute's silence for the victims of 9/11. Ayatollah Imami Kashani said this act of terrorism could only be condemned by all Muslims, adding that the whole world should mobilise against terrorism. On September 18th, Iranians held a vigil on the streets of Tehran. They lit candles, prayed for the victims, and condemned terrorism.

In Bangladesh and Indonesia they held rallies condemning terrorism.

Palestinian organizations strongly condemned the terrorist attack. Palestinians held candle light vigils on September 12th and 14th to express their grief and solidarity with Americans. Close to a million Palestinian students stood for five minutes in silence, to express their solidarity for American children who were struck by the tragedy. Palestinian university students in East Jerusalem began a blood drive to donate blood to the victims of 9/11.

In Kuwait, they sent so many flowers in sympathy to the American Embassy, it formed a ring around the embassy.

Every leader, from every Muslim country, except Iraq, condemned the terrorist attack and denounced terrorism, along with thousands of Muslim organizations and scholars around the world.More

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