Territorial Extremism vs Religious Extremism

February 15th, 1989 was a day when a war-ravaged country saw a glimmer of hope after ten long years. The Soviet Union finally decided to withdraw from a country where they had arrived uninvited in 1979. Capitalistic-democracy, then had its greatest victory ever with the collapse of the Soviet union on December 26th, 1991.
The Cold War had finally ended & the World should have been a better place. Unfortunately, a grave mistake was being committed amidst all the fervour behind building a Capitalistic, Democratic world. The United States that supported the mujahideen disappeared irresponsibly from Afghanistan. The fight against Territorial aggression would now transform itself into a Religious crusade.
One should notice that the causes for modern day War have essentially had 3 dimensions- Political, Territorial or Economic. However, after the cold war, a forgotten, more dangerous, dimension was brought back with renewed vigour to modern day war-Religion. Though one can argue that the second world war, the Palestinian intifada have had religious dimensions, the background to these wars remain to be the three mentioned above.
This new war however has only one dimension-Religion. A war in which the participant is guaranteed ultimate glory in the afterlife. This makes death a sought after climax leaving the adversary with very little to threaten.

Despite being a misinterpretation, one has to wonder as to how death can appeal to a larger audience. The point that is often overlooked is that Religious extremism is not all about Religion. There are two parts in motivating the naive participant, one is the misinterpreted religious factor of course, but the second being stories of war crimes, territorial aggression, territorial occupation, humiliation, etc on countries with a predominant population of the religion. Even if the participant has the slightest predicament against the first factor- a misinterpretation, this predicament is rubbished with the second factor which is almost, entirely true. So the motivator uses modern day dimensions of war as much as the Religious dimension. It is only that the religious dimension presents a wider audience, not limited by territory.

So, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Palestinian state broken up to form the State of Israel, United States fuelling the Gulf war, increased United States military presence in the middle east, Bosnia-1992, Chechnya, Iraq-2003, Israel-Gaza 2008, etc, etc are seen as acts of Territorial aggression, Territorial ambition or more candidly Territorial extremism. Rightly so. Such acts have all but complemented the second factor mentioned earlier.

Religious extremism claims innocent lives-never justified. Territorial aggression claims innocent lives-never justified.

Territorial aggression becomes Territorial extremism when economic gains, political mileage, regional supremacy or presence, territorial ambitions, etc are the dirty hidden intentions behind establishing a democratic world. Territorial aggression has existed for centuries & has been accepted more or less, now as aggressive foreign policy & nothing more. Religious extremist backlash in the modern world however, seems to be the ugly fallout. The sad & disgraceful thing with both forms of extremism are the loss of innocent lives.

A war or a jihad, if ever necessary, was meant to engage the militia of the enemy & never unarmed women & children. Let each country evolve itself into the democratic world. Presence of foreign militia to achieve this is perceived only as an imposition rather than a privilege. Interestingly, etymology of the word Terrorism, if ever re-derived seems better derived from Territory-Extremism rather than Religion-Extremism.

A Democradical

After the previous post, I started to brood over the scenario where Pakistan actually extradites Laqvi. As poetic as it may sound, I doubted Pakistan's willingness in doing this. Well, my doubts have been clarified today with the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi clearly stating that there will be no Extradition of Pakistani nationals to India. However, he keeps the option of trying the accused under Pakistani law, open. Another report goes on to state that the US which was pressing for extradition has changed its stance probably realising the complexities behind this demand. Should India be disappointed or was it just a case of high expectations?
At present, looks like the latter.

To begin with, for a country to extradite to another country, some sort of an Extradition treaty needs to be in place. There is absolutely no such agreement between the two countries. Of course, something that can be expected with 3 wars & 60 years of border dispute.

Today, Pakistan has a democratically elected Government- probably, paradoxically, the biggest deterrent to extradition. When former president Pervez Musharraf with the ISI, caught & extradited someone as important as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to the US, the extradition was made easy because only one institution was ruling the country- the Army. Also, the extradition was being done to the US, not conventionally seen as an enemy state, thanks to all the F-16s the PAF uses. Even, if any opposition existed within Pakistan, it was conveniently & discreetly put to rest by the ISI. Under Musharraf, the Constitution & Judiciary of Pakistan had second row seats. So extradition being against the sovereignty of the State was ignored with the pretext of being commited to the War on Terror. Maybe, Musharraf was actually committed to the War on Terror or was the funding provided by the US to strengthen the Pakistani army just too tempting. Besides, who would dare go against Musharraf? The ISI which obviously benefitted from the funding, the Army which Musharraf headed or the Judiciary? Well, what happened to the Chief Justice under Musharraf would certainly not endorse that, would it?

So today when President Zardari or Prime Minister Gillani- whoever decides to be Head of the State (they still seem a little undecided on that)- needs to take a decision to extradite a Pakistani National, he needs to first convince his party, the parliament, the Army, the ISI, the radical heads & every kid who reads a newspaper on the streets of Pakistan. Also, when India happens to be the country at the other end of that extradition agreement, it is a case of hoping beyond hope. If an Indian was wanted by a Pakistani court, would India extradite him? I think not.

So, with mounting US pressure, how does Pakistan wriggle out of this situation. Simply yet cleverly, reminding the world that it is now a Democracy, that it has its own Constitution to adhere to, its own Judiciary to follow. It reminds the world that extraditing a Pakistani national to India would be against the Constitution in absence of an extradition treaty. Unfortunately, Pakistan is absolutely right & justified in doing so. Pakistan however has promised to try Laqvi within Pakistan- anyone's guess as to how effective that would be. Pakistan has made a move which cannot be questioned by the world even with the real intent behind it being evident. This decision by the Pakistani Govt keeps all State, Non-State actors of Pakistan happy & renders a helpless position, more or less, to India & the US.

This is a position that a State like Pakistan enjoys being DEMOCRAtic & raDICAL at the same time, a Democradical State. It can support the most inhuman acts against its neighbour countries while falling back upon the sanctity of "Sovereignty of a Democratic" when threatened. For the first time & probably not the last, India & the World would have preferred a military, totalitarian rule committed to the War on Terror, albeit hidden intentions, to a Democratic Government with only hidden intentions.

26/11 & the UPA

It has been a month since Mumbai 26/11. A month super-charged with emotion- Anger, sadness, mourning, pride & disgust. However, the way this country reacted (the Government included) was, I thought commendable. 26/11 was branded as India's 9/11. Even if there was a parallel in terms of these incidents being the biggest attacks the respective countries have faced, there certainly is no parallel in the way the two countries have reacted.

Post 26/11, there was a sense of immediate unexpected anger. An anger not towards the terrorist, not towards the neighbour, not thankfully towards the Indian Muslim but towards the System. A Terrorist act aimed at bringing a divide in the delicate social fabric of the Indian society in fact strengthened it further. It was immensely mature in the way the country reacted by directing its anger first not towards external factors but internal factors for the attack. The external factor however could never be neglected which directed this anger towards the neighbour, Pakistan.

So anger towards Al Qaeda for 9/11 & anger towards the Internal System & Pakistan for 26/11. The similarity in reactions to 26/11 & 9/11 end there. This anger in the United States sadly lost direction. Muslims in the US were targeted. You had acts like the Patriot Act which ridiculed the rights of citizens & Muslims living in the US in particular. And of course the two wars which made the victim countries & in turn the world more unstable than before.

This sense of war cry was voiced by many in India too but thankfully was not considered as the first option by the UPA. There were calls for invading Pakistan, bombing Terrorist camps in POK, etc. This is where India (comman man included) needs to realise the complexities & consequences of such actions.

Before we wage a full scale war on Pakistan, we need to realise that we as a country, militarily are neither as strong as the United States nor is Pakistan as an enemy, as weak as an Afghanistan or Iraq. Pakistan is nuclear-powered, hasn't denied first-use if provoked, is ruled by two institutions-the government & the Army. These facts make it an extremely complex country to deal with.

So what do u do to such a country. Exactly what the Government Of India is doing. International Pressure. Though Pakistan is an irresponsible state with no remorse to promoting Terrorism, inherently it still cares about its image among the World's elite. Pakistan today cannot afford to lose international (read US) support. By being actively involved in the War on Terror, the Govt of Pakistan (not the Army) fears a backlash on the northwest frontier by the Pashtun-Taliban & also internally from its own Pashtun community. Also, war is not something that Pakistan can afford. The economy of Pakistan is in tatters. The system as a whole is crumbling & it is in danger of moving toward a state of radical mayhem.
This weakness of Pakistan has been wonderfully exploited by the Govt of India. The MEA's statement of keeping all options open, military included, was certainly not comforting to the US. They do not want a war on Pakistan's Eastern front when they want Pakistan on the western front. This was again tactically exploited by India which made the US step up pressure on Pakistan to act & act effectively. India further scored when the ban on Jama'at-ud-Da'wah came as an order from the UN Security Council rather than as a request from the Indian Govt to the Pakistani Govt. This, one should notice was commendable for the Indian Govt still upheld the sanctity of UN as an organisation. To the Indian Govt, the Security Council & not War, is still the negotiator. This not only strengthened India's position but further alienated Pakistan on the World stage. Pakistan is currently succumbing to pressure from the World & yielding to India's demands. As of today, the FBI has provided Pakistan with evidence of Laqvi's & Let's involvement in 26/11. If we do manage to get Laqvi convicted for 26/11, the Indian Govt would have accomplished what the US Govt hasn't after 8 years of bloodshed.

Frankly, blogging has not been something that has fascinated me probably because of my limited writing skills or because I just didn't see a need to. So what would encourage an amateur writer(if you want to call me that) to start writing !!

Its the first day of the year 2009 & I have spent the first half of it glued to the television. I was watching the news & its quite interesting to notice the change in content being broadcast compared to previous years on the first day of a new year. No one seems really bothered about the new year or as to where India's elite partied. The names of Laqvi, Kasav & Hamas resonate on every news channel.

Is this how the world welcomes a new year. With the names of heartless terrorists flashing on the news, with two nuclear-powered countries at loggerheads, with a country bombing its neighbour with utter disregard to innocent human lives & world opinion. Can we, the human race disintegrate further or do we still have a long way to go? With all the advancement & modernity we boast of, we probably are as barbaric as ever in our minds.

So here is born a new blogger. A blogger encouraged to blog only because there is just so much he can write about- Sadly !!