(Edited version of this has been ublished in the Reader's Forum column of January 3, 2010 issue of Organiser weekly. To view it please click on the link http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=325&page=23 )
How are terrorists created? We must understand this in order to tackle the menace of terrorism. One popularly acceptable view is that one who suffers a lot becomes a terrorist; when somebody is left behind with no option, he resorts to the path of terror; when a person notices that nobody is supporting what he thinks is the right cause then he is left with no other option; when a person fighting for a cause feels helplessly isolated or finds himself in a minority, he takes the terrorist’s approach. The reality however is that there are innumerable sufferers in this cruel world but not all of them follow terror-line. Why only some of these become terrorists?
Another equally strong view is that religion is used to produce terrorists. To what extent religion actually play a role in this? There is a huge misunderstanding on this issue and that is the aim of my initiating this discussion. Lord Rama resorted to war against Ravana and killed him since He exhausted all other approaches to convince him. Kansa, HiranKashyap and Duryodhan were all killed since they refused to follow the ‘right line’ and gave no other option to their respective opponents. Does this teach a Hindu believer to become a terrorist?
Unfortunately the fact is that we all actually use our religion only to justify what we consider is the right line. What is right and what is wrong actually is not decided by any Book but comes from within you. When an act is appreciated it encourages others to follow. Glamour of being appreciated and probably worshipped as heroes makes a person what we consider to be a terrorist. What is going to be appreciated is learnt by everybody while observing his social surroundings, interacting with close friends and living with his family. When we like the way our father takes care of his ailing father we understand that this is what is to be done when we come across the same situation. When we appreciate somebody sacrificing for his family we know what is to be done in a similar scenario. This is how we learn to understand what is right and what is wrong in our formative stage.
Once we get to know what is correct then we use our respective Holy book only to furher confirm that. It gives us an immense satisfaction when we come across a line which even tangentially supports our thinking and we ignore all other lines that directly contradict that.
This is why reciting a line from Koran to convince a terrorist that he is contradicting Koran’s preaching with his acts is a waste. Telling the correct meaning of ‘JIHAD’ is not going to be understood by him since he never understood its meaning through reading Koran. He has got it through persons and society around him to which he is attached to. He has got the meaning of Jihad through examples in real life. The line from Koran that means that 'Jihad is a war against your own evil within you' only convinces those who are already convinced with that. You can win hearts with your behavior but can never change it by preaching. You appreciate an argument only when it favors your conviction. Those who think that a fatwa announcing that there is no need of Jihad in India or denouncing a terrorist’s act by a community in print and visual media would restrain others from taking up terrorism, are either living in a fool’s paradise or are playing some kind of dirty politics.
Unless the neighbors, acquaintances and surroundings change, terrorists will continue to be produced. Unless even in their own small world they stop considering them as martyrs and stop worshipping them as hero-militants, terrorists would be produced for the sheer glamour and excitement that are associated with it.
Terrorists live in a small world created by them wherein they are the ultimate imitable heroes. Unless their world is expanded I cannot see these terror-factories being shut.
