A truth always ignored and always denied is that the terrorists never belong to some particular religious school of thought; they never come from some specific social community. Terrorists have their own philosophy, their own school of thought. That is the reason that we find multi-dimensional type of terrorist activities around us.
Some of the terrorist activities are very refined, clad in a decent robe. Recently the Michaela Community School in Brent, north-west London, has been challenged in the high court for its policy of banning prayer rituals on school premises. The Michaela Community School is well reputed for its marvelous results, immaculate discipline and very talented and competent teaching faculty and is ranked among England’s highest performing state schools.
The case has been brought by one of its Muslim students, who claims the ban is discriminatory. The Student told the honourable court that ‘Not being able to pray at school made me feel guilty and unhappy, it was like somebody saying they don’t feel like I properly belong here’. The lawyer of the student, Sarah Hannett KC, told the court that the ban policy had the practical effect of only ‘preventing Muslims from praying because their prayer by nature has a ritualized nature rather than being internal’.
The matter is still under discussion in the court; what would be the court’s decision, it is difficult to predict but one thing is very much clear, such kind of inhuman and merciless steps like banning someone from saying prayers, simply reflect an extremist approach of mind. If you stop some Hindu worshippers from bathing in Ganga or you forbid a Sikh to wear a turban or you restrict a Buddhist from bowing before the statue of Buddha, it would simply give birth to hatred.
This hatred sometimes becomes so intense that it gradually and silently turns into a reaction which is usually called extremism; at some later stage this reaction may lead to terrorism. If we seriously desire to curb and crush the menace of terrorism, we will have to review our approach and point of view regarding the religious philosophies followed by our fellow human beings.
The fact of the matter is that terrorism is simply a commercial activity; simply a way to earn a living. Different forces use or misuse them in their own interests. These terrorist groups, sometimes become so strong and influential that they even drag friendly countries to the brink of war but one thing is very much clear that these ‘birds of a feather, flock together’ in reaction to some injustice or unfairness. Moreover they are always patronized, supervised, guided and controlled by someone always invisible whom we may call the Hidden Enemy.
It is no doubt a very prejudiced approach that since long, the whole world has been blaming the Muslims for promoting radicalism, fanaticism and extremism leading to terrorism. ‘Our World in Data’ is a research-based website which compiles facts and figures about the world’s largest problems. In a recent report on the issue of terrorism it stated, “The number of terrorism deaths had been changing a lot from year to year; in 2010 this number was less than 8,000. In 2014, almost 45,000 people died in terrorist attacks, globally around 20,000 people died from terrorism in 2019; the average over the last decade was around 24,000 per year.” The World Fact Book has issued a list of terrorist organizations with reference to the US State Department. This list includes more than 60 terrorist groups designated by the US State Department as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Another list of the same type says that there are 21 designated terrorist organizations in the autonomous list of the European Union.
According to that report ‘The deadliest terrorist groups in the world in 2022 were Islamic State and its affiliates, followed by al-Shabaab, Baluchistan Liberation Army and Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam-wal-Muslimeen and Boko Haram, among others. These organizations carried out around 13,600 attacks and killed 72,519 people between 2013 and 2017. It is something very interesting that all such lists comprise only the Muslim terrorists; not even a single non-Muslim organization has been mentioned in these lists of terrorist organizations and terrorist groups. All these analyses and all these reports give an impression that all terrorism is brought up and nurtured only by the Muslims all over the world; all others are simply innocents.
If all terrorists were Muslims, they would never have targeted their own community anywhere in the world. On 20 January 2015, a very interesting article of Ruth Alexander and Hannah Moore was shared by the BBC with the title, ‘Are most victims of terrorism Muslim?’ The article said, “The Muslims suffered between 82 and 97% of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years. Between 2004 and 2013 about half of all terrorist attacks, and 60% of fatalities due to terrorist attacks, took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan- all of which have a mostly Muslim population.”
The fact of the matter is that terrorism is simply a commercial activity; simply a way to earn a living. Different forces use or misuse them in their own interests. These terrorist groups, sometimes become so strong and influential that they even drag friendly countries to the brink of war but one thing is very much clear that these ‘ birds of a feather, flock together’ in reaction to some injustice or unfairness. Moreover they are always patronized, supervised, guided and controlled by someone always invisible whom we may call the Hidden Enemy.
