Time has come for the righteous thinking nations to recalibrate their strategies towards this growing menace of anti-Islam mind set of India and curb its export of religious hate mongering in the whole world.
By Rafiq Jan
Sri Lanka, a peace-loving nation, becomes the victim of terrorism after a long respite. It had hardly finished celebrating the economic growth that had long been stymied by two decades of civil war against its indigenous separatist groups who were brain washed and sponsored by a much powerful neighbor.
Merely eight percent Muslims but contributing almost 25 percent to the country’s economy cannot be expected to blow it up in bomb explosions. The blasts in Sri Lankan capital that killed 300 and injured 500 has more to be done with ongoing Islamophobia across the globe.
Sri Lanka bombings on Easter day had very little precedent. The country endured a ghastly civil war and innumerous suicide bombings in the past by Tamil Tigers, the militant outfit that kept changing tactics and causing severe economic damage to the country. This time the scale of the damage and the level of coordination behind the deadly strikes indicated possibility of international involvement. “Sri Lanka has never seen this sort of attacks coordinated, multiple and high casualty. I am not easily convinced this is a Sri Lankan thing. I think the dynamics are global, not driven by some indigenous debate. It seems to me to be a different kind of ballgame” commented Alan Keenan, a Sri Lankan expert at the International Crisis Group.
Another Canada-based expert on extremism Amarnath Amarasingam says, “Agreed that the nature of the terrorism and targets selected suggest that the attacks were not an exclusively local affair.” He further added, “If it was strictly locally planned and operated, you would assume Buddhists as the targets. The attacks on the Christians point to something different Christians have rarely been targets of violence so far.” Pakistan went through similar terrorist attacks last week and both were in Balochistan where India has admitted that it has been instigating and actively carrying out anti-state activities against Pakistan. In hindsight, one can clearly perceive the Sri Lankan explosions in the same week are part of the Indian state-sponsored terrorism to implicate Muslims of Sri Lanka and get the world’s support to justify the genocide of Muslims in Kashmir.
India and Israel are both going through their elections these days. Israel has completed and as expected by all the hardliner anti-Islam US ally Benjamin Netanyahu is poised to continue in PM’s office. His fellow Narendra Modi is half way through his election campaign is using all his options to woo voters. He has already worked in his previous five-year rule to successfully polarize the so-called secular India towards a Hindutva ideology-based state where Muslims will eventually be declared second-class citizens or even worse.
The Geopolitical map is fast-changing
US President Donald Trump, a well-known personality with a fickle temperament, has yet again proved he is least concerned about humanity and human rights when it comes to the third world countries. His latest maneuvers in taking sides with Saudi, Emirati, and Egyptian leadership to support an anti-UN renegade commander to take control of Libya in order to ensure security of its oil. All those dictators will do whatever it takes to nip any move in the bud that can lead towards democracy.
Deplorably the US had never been too kind to notice the plight of Sri Lankan people during civil war and its destruction in almost two decades. The reasons were that it hardly had any vested interest geographically in that island. The world left them at the mercy of foreign trained and supported anti-state militant group. A tweet from Vice President Mike Pence shows the perfunctory views that hardly mean a heartfelt sympathy. Indian Narendra Modi is hell bent on damaging Pakistan at any cost. His policies of jingoism in the region have open support of Trump as well as a tacit support of Britain, France, and Germany. They all are playing a double game with the world’s peaceful community by allowing India to spread hatred against Muslims of India and Kashmir and those living in Europe and the Western countries to slyly support the Islamophobia.
The style, planning, accuracy and coordination of the explosions are undeniably a proof that no religious groups in Sri Lanka or elsewhere have ever been so highly skilled and financially able to carry out attacks against the state. These simultaneous attacks on two grand churches and three big hotels, while ensuring the high number of casualties, are not different than 9/11, and the Bombay Taj hotel attack. All three have much similar which lead to the belief they were done by a highly trained and tactically-organized group to ensure the objectives are achieved. Needless to name the technical advisor behind this heinous state-sponsored terrorism of India on the soil of its weak neighbor. World super powers have no interest in Sri Lanka and its people. India used Sri Lankan soil as its terrorism breeding grounds for decades with impunity. There had never been any UNSC resolution tabled or passed in support of their sufferings. Time has come for the righteous thinking nations to recalibrate their strategies towards this growing menace of anti-Islam mindset of India and curb its export of religious hate mongering in the whole world.
Rafiq Jan is a Political Analyst. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s Editorial Policy.