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A Strategy to Deter Terrorism continues....
Dr. Muthu Muthuswamy in his Art of Terror notes, these practices include literal interpretations of the Islamic trilogy and the importance of conquest through jihad, rather than introspection and the reinterpretation of scriptures in a contemporary way, and or the secular downgrading of the importance given to them. The fundamentalists instead assert that once the whole world is Islamized, everyone will feel fulfilled and be at peace with one another. And those Muslims who will willingly die for this cause, including by committing suicide, will go to a “heaven” resembling an Islamic Las Vegas.
Hence, the agenda set by political Islam for believing Muslims is spawning of terrorism and is at the root of it.
The doctrine of jihad is the most important tool that political Islam uses to assert its influence and achieve its vision. The term jihad in Islamic trilogy describes two concepts: there is jihad as an inner struggle, whose aim is to please the almighty God by spiritual purity and then there is jihad as external warfare, aimed at conquest of unbelievers and the imposition of Islam on its inhabitants. Armed warfare imposed on unbelievers is one acceptable form of jihad. In Bukhari Hadith, the most respected of Hadiths, 97 per cent of the jihad references are about war and only 3 per cent are about the inner spiritual struggle.
Pakistan’s orthodoxy, regarding their nation as the torchbearer for Islam in South Asia, sees the largest nation in the region, the Hindu dominant majority India, as the stumbling block for extending Islamic boundaries. Although Sunni-majority Pakistan was frustrated by its smaller size and lack of resources, it has an extensive track record of jihad dating back to 1947. Even without Saudi funding, between 1947-1980, Pakistan has been a nation committed to selective killings of non-Muslims or their displacement as part of a jihad. Generous jihad funding from Saudi Arabia (which is also predominantly Sunni) since the mid-1970s has made Pakistan powerful den of Islamic orthodoxy. The secular urbanized Pakistani community is a wholly marginalized segment of society.
to be continued...