It is high time Western governments get serious in the war on terror.
By JAGDISH N SINGHPeople hold panels to create the eyes of late ‘Charlie Hebdo’ editor Stephane Charbonnier.(photo credit: REUTERS)
I wonder why US President Barack Obama and his top aides were missing at the historic rally convened in Paris last Sunday to express solidarity with France against the terror that claimed the lives of Charlie Hebdo's former editor Stephane Charbonnier and other members of staff. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Prime Minister David Cameron were among world leaders present at the march. But none of the top guys from the American administration—Obama or Vice President Joe Biden or Secretary of State Jon Kerry—were to be seen.The central message that should be taken from those three days of terror in Paris is: let’s practice zero tolerance in the face of any group that preaches or practices hatred and violence against non-believers and questioning individuals. Freedom of expression is the soul of modern civilization. The journalists of Hebdo were killed by the two Islamist fanatics for having exercised this freedom.The paper has always been critical of the established order in all forms: it has ridiculed bureaucracy, the police and the army; it published the famous provocative "mort aux vaches" (“Death to Pigs”) reserved for the cops; on New Year’s eve it published a caricature of a dog having sex with French President Hollande's leg. The paper has lampooned all religions — Judaism, Christianity, Islam. In 2006, Charlie Hebdo published notorious Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. In 2006, the magazine had Jesus on the cross on its cover shouting, “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.” In 2010, it had Pope Benedict XVI holding a condom. In December 2014, it published a cartoon of the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus with a pig snout. In 2011, it had Prophet Mohammad saying, “100 lashes for not laughing.” Charbonnier was averse to illogical extremism of any kind, religious ones especially. He chose not to shield himself with self-censorship and paid the price for it. Democratic Western governments have never been weary of advocating freedom of expression; they now must play a leading role in neutralizing the threat Islamist terrorism poses to this freedom. So far most of the Western governments have hardly been serious about combating this menace. Their politics of appeasement towards certain states and groups supportive of the violent Islamist ideology has been among the root causes of the evil. This must be discarded if the war on Islamist terror is to be won.Hollande's government must make special efforts to win the war on terror at home. It is clear from the Paris tragedy that its internal security mechanism is flawed. According to a former high-ranking Indian official, France today has 2,72,500 personnel in its internal security system. It has 30,850 men in the special units of the national police. After 9/11 it merged the old political intelligence wing (RG) with the counter-terrorism branch (DST) and made a new unit for internal intelligence (DCRG). A new anti-terrorism coordinating unit UCLAT has been created for coordinating intelligence on terrorism; UCLAT has its own anti-terrorist force, BLAT. The official says France also created a National Intelligence Council (CNR) with a coordinator, who reports to the president. Paris has a special procedure for processing terrorism-related intelligence by the prosecutor through investigating magistrates. Under this system, it is the prosecutor, not the intelligence or police chiefs, who decides collection of further intelligence to detect terrorism plots and makes arrests. However, Paris has not been able to rein in the radicalized jihadists returning from the Syrian civil war and nearly 1,000 extremists travelling to and fro.I would suggest that President Hollande and his counterparts in the West work pay attention to such holes in their internal security systems. It is assuring to learn that they have already started coordinating to work against the Islamist extremists; in the wake of the Paris tragedy, French, German, Belgian and Irish police have conducted anti-terror raids and have put at least 30 suspects behind bars. Belgium has increased its terror warning to three, the second-highest, following the anti-terror raids. Soldiers have fanned out to guard possible terror targets across Belgium, including some buildings within the Jewish quarter of the port city of Antwerp. These kind of efforts must be carried forward. In fighting Islamist terrorism all conscientious components of the modern, free world — media, rights groups, political leaders and religious scholars—must also support their governments.There is a near consensus among leading theologians and historians that terrorism is absolutely un-Islamic. Every religion’s origin lies in humanity and it accommodates all other schools of thought. All religions — Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism and Islam — propagate the values of liberalism, equality and justice. Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is an Abrahamic religion. The Koran shares with the Hebrew scripture, the Torah and the Bible a lot of history, prophets, stories and teachings. The consensus goes that Islam shares a lot even with the Vedas. Ultimately, both prescribe worshipping the One Supreme Lord. Both systems recommend fighting for dharma or justice -- without any ulterior motives or violence toward the noncombatants and civilians, especially women and children -- and that, too, only when there is no alternative to war.The enlightened sections of humanity, Muslims in particular, have to assert this finer version of Islam. There has been no dearth of the doctrines of hatred and violence against non-believers, women and conscientious individuals based on the distorted interpretations of the Koran. In modern times the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood has championed the doctrine of hatred and violence in the name of Islam. In the Indian sub-continent authors like the late Pakistani Brigadier S K Malik have made a case for terror based on their interpretation of the Koran.In his “The Quranic Concept of War---" the foreword of which was written by Pakistan’s then Chief of the Army Staff General Zia-ul Haq---- Brigadier Malik argues that the human soul is the center of conflict; the best way to strike at your enemy's soul is through terror, "the point where the means and the end meet."The enlightened world has a tough battle ahead. Will it march forward?The author is a senior Indian journalist based in New Delhi
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