My Terrorists are your Freedom Fighters?

Thomas L Friedman in his article Muslim Problem, Muslim Solution suggests that the Islamic militancy is on the rise because it enjoys somewhat of a popular following in the Islamic States. The Muslim polity needs to defy this by condemning these acts at all levels.

Robert Parry in one of his insightful articles points out the futility of trying to kill the Islamic militancy by attacking Muslim nations under the false pretext of saving the world and War on Terror.

B Raman in his article on Rediff about the 5 lessons from the London Bombings talks about how easy it is for someone with hatred on their mind to cause casualties, without any serious threat to get caught.

Also read an interview with someone who subscribes to the views of those who want to hurt the "imperialist forces."

I believe that Islamic militancy......I hate the word actually - even though I am a Hindu. The militancy cannot have a religion. Do we call the killings of innocents in Iraq and Christian Militancy. NO - Militants are militants and all religions have their share of bad apples.

The age old adage that someone's terrorists are someone else's freedom fighters comes to my mind all the time. I have had my own misconceptions about the terrorism saga in India and all my childhood believed that all the people from Khalistan Liberation, Kashmir and Naxal movement were people who have gone crazy and are completely wrong.

As much as I still despise and condemn the use of violence that any terrorist of "right aligned" organizations takes in making their voice heard, I have outgrown my belief that the voice of these organizations cannot be crushed by force but can surely be heard and given a vent in the democratic society.

Hunting the perpetrators of the horrendous killings of London, New York, Madrid, Ayodhya, Bombay, Israel and other similar places should surely be on the "to do list" of the civilized world. But they should not forget that the voice of those organizations and their demands cannot be muted. The bang is caused cause we do not listen to anything else. This is the sorry state of our politics and media. We discern the voice of the weak and wait until they take a unwarranted step, wherein we can punish them.

Kill the hatred and you will surely kill the terrorist.