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.