Terrorism is not a Muslim Monopoly

"All Muslims may not be terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims." This comment is frequently
heard after the mumbai bomb blasts implies that terrorism is a muslim speciality, 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 Mc Kinley as
well as King Humber I of Italy. World War I started in 1914 when anarchists killed Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria. These terrorists attack were not Muslim.

Terrorism is generally defined as the killing of civilians for political reasons.

Going by this definition the British referred to Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many
other Indian freedom fighters as terrorists. These were Hindu and Sikhs rather than Muslims.
This indicate that many a times different labels are being put to one ideology.

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 like Moshe
Dayan, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachen Begin, Ariel Sharon. Ironically, these former terrorists then
lambasted terrorism, applying this label only to Arabs fighting for the very same cause of
nationhood that the Jews had fought for earlier.

In Germany in 1968-92, the Baader-Meinhof 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.

In Europe, the Irish Republican Army has been a Catholic terrorist organisation
for almost a century. Spain and France face a terrorist challenge from ETA, the Basque terrorist
organization.

Africa is ravaged by so much civil war and internal strife that few people even
bother to check which groups can be labelled terrorist. They stretch across the continent.
Possibly the most notorious is the Lord's Salvation Army in Uganda, a Christian outfit that uses
children as warriors.
 In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers have long constituted one of the most vicious and
formidable terrorist groups in the world. They were the first to train children as terrorists. They
happen to be Hindus. Suicide bombing is widely associated with Muslim Paletinians and Iraqis,
but Tamil Tigers were the first to use this tactic on a large scale. One such suicide bombers
assasinated Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

In India the militants in Kashmir are Muslim. But they are only one of several
militant groups. The Punjab militants, led by Bhindarwale, were Sikhs. The United Liberation
Front of Assam is a Hindu Terrorist group that targets Muslism rather than the other way round.
Tripura has witnessed rise and fall of several terrorist groups, and so have Bodo strongholds in
Assam. Christian Mizos mounted an insurrection for decades, and Christian Nagas are still
heading militant groups.

But most important of all are the Maoist terrorist groups that now exist in no less
than 150 out of India's 600 districts. They have attacked police stations, and killed and razed
entire villages that oppose them. These are secular terrorists (like the Baader Meinhof Gang or
Red Brigades). In terms of membership and area controlled, secular terrorists are far ahead of
Muslim terrorists.

In sum, terrorism is certainly not a Muslim monopoly. Infact Islam is the fasted
growing religion in the world. Fasted growing religion in America and Europe. An article in
Reader's Digest 'Almanac', year book 1986, gave the statistics of the increase of percentage of
the major religions of the world in half a century from 1934 to 1984. This article also appeared
in 'The Plain Truth' magazine. At the top was Islam, which increased by 235%, and Christianity
had increased only by 47% in the span of only 50 years. There are or have been terrorist groups
among Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and even Buddhists. Secular terrorists (anarchists,
Maoists) have been the biggest killers.

Why then is there such a widespread impression that most or all terrorists groups
are Muslim? I see two reasons. First, the Indian elite keenly follows the western media, and the
West feels under attack from Islamic groups. Catholic Irish terrorists have killed far more
people in Britain than Muslims, yet the subway bombings in London and Madrid are what
Europeans remember today. The Baader Meinhof Gang, IRA and Red Brigades no longer pose
much of a threat, but after 9/11 Americans and Europeans fear that they could be hit anywhere
anytime. So they focus attention on Islamic militancy. They pay little notice to other forms of
terrorism in Africa, Sri Lanka or India; these pose no threat to the West.

Within India, Maoists pose a far greater threat than Muslim militants. But major
cities feel threatened only by Muslims groups. So the national elite and media focus
overwhelmingly on Muslim terrorism. The elite are hardly aware that this is an elite
phenomenon.