The anti-religious/Marxist-secular Islamic terrorist?

During debates on terrorism, one can find many a security expert insisting that terrorism be prefaced with the word ‘Islamic’ whenever it is mentioned. Because, it is said, the first step towards solving a problem is being able to correctly define the problem. If we get squeamish with definition, we’re in trouble.

Whenever I’m reading an article on Islamic terrorism by a security expert, I’m quite prepared for a lot of Islamic terrorism, Islamic extremism, Islamic radicalism, Islamic fanaticism and of course, Islamic fundamentalism. But it’s only being done in pursuit of defining the problem, which is a necessity if we ever want to solve it, so it’s all good.

You can imagine my surprise when I found a misplaced deployment of this definition, while reading Raghu Raman’s column in the Dec. 15th issue of Mint. I always thought an Islamic terrorist was one who was inspired by a certain interpretation of Islam to wreak havoc on the world. Apparently not. Here’s the gem:

Interestingly, secular groups, and not Islamic fundamentalists, have been responsible for more than half of suicide attacks, with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)—a Marxist group— holding top spot. Secular groups with Marxist or anti-religious beliefs (such as the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist organization) also account for more than one-third of Islamic terrorist attacks.

There we have it. How does one manage such inconsistency in the same sentence? How does one point to attacks by secular/anti-religious, Marxist groups and end that sentence by bringing all of them under the Islamic banner. My guess is that it comes from spending too much time and energy defining the problem and doing little else.

Reporting caste-based discrimination

Sunita Jatav fed a leftover roti to a wandering dog, the dog’s owner saw her feeding it and “excommunicated” the creature. Why? Because he belonged to a higher caste and Sunita was an out-caste, i.e. lower than the lowest caste in Indian society.

A meeting of the village elders was called, who decided that Sunita was not only to adopt the dog, but also pay a fine of Rs. 15,000 to the owner. Thankfully, Sunita refused to pay and tried to file a report at the nearest police station.

The Times of India carried this story with a lot of sympathy for, the animal. The poor animal was “accustomed to the creature comforts” of its “influential” home. The poor thing was now ex-communicated and its “life couldn’t get worse”.

By Suchandana Gupta

BHOPAL: A dog’s life couldn’t get worse. A mongrel brought up in an upper caste home in Morena was kicked out after the Rajput family members discovered that their Sheru had eaten a roti from a dalit woman and was now an “untouchable”. Next, Sheru was tied to a pole in the village’s dalit locality. His controversial case is now pending with the district collector, the state police and the Scheduled Caste Atrocities police station in Morena district of north MP.

The black cur, of no particular pedigree, was accustomed to the creature comforts in the home of its influential Rajput owners in Manikpur village in Morena.

Read the rest here.

It’s interesting to note how much and what kind of attention is devoted to the dog and to Sunita.

The story wasn’t reported in The Hindu. But the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, carried a lengthy article by its India correspondent, titled How people like Sunita Jatav make India beautiful.