Post by sublime92 on Feb 8, 2018 20:04:30 GMT
Previously I discussed the thesis of Ding Gang, a well-connected Chinese writer on geopolitics, who wrote last fall that he believed that Indian Muslims, unlike their counterparts elsewhere, were less extreme, less violent, less prone to engaging in terrorist acts, and that he attributed this to the “moderate” side of Hinduism, which kept Muslims to a large extent satisfied, and certainly not eager to take part in terrorism.
By way of response, I gave a list of many serious terrorist attacks carried out by Indian Muslims. I also noted that the most devastating attacks by Indian Muslims took place in Kashmir, and that much of the news from that region has not always penetrated into the Western consciousness. One reason is that the government, and media, of India may not wish it to be known how poorly they have defended their own — that is, Hindus — in Kashmir. For the killings of the Pandits have been particularly gruesome.
And there is one other countervailing force holding Indian Muslims in partial check: Fear. Unlike in Europe, Muslims in India have a healthy fear of violent retaliation for any acts of terrorism. There are a few hundred million Hindus who do not work in offices; many of them are poor laborers, or peasant farmers, easy to whip up into a mob. Hindu nationalism has been on the rise, as the victory of the BJP in 2014 testifies. It’s not hard to arouse anti-Muslim sentiment; it’s never far from the surface. Hindus in the “Hindutva” movement, or in the BJP, are ready to remind the Hindu masses of what happened during the several hundred years of Muslim rule.
According to the Indian historian K. S. Lal, between 70 and 80 million Hindus may have been killed during that period, while millions of others, of course, converted to Islam to avoid having to pay, as dhimmis, the Jizyah and submit to other onerous conditions. Many of the Hindus are ready to retaliate with tit-for-tat violence, or often, in retaliating, with even greater violence. In 2002, after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire by Muslims, killing 68 Hindus, the Hindus in Gujarat erupted, and the resulting inter-communal riots led to 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus being killed. Many Muslim properties were destroyed. These “Gujarat riots,” as they became known, were a lesson for Muslims. It was not the government they had to fear, but Hindus acting out their rage and resentment, and their historic memories of the brutality of Muslim rulers. “Why does it seem that Muslims in India have remained largely apart from the radicalization that has happened to Muslim groups in other parts of the world
Ding Gang fails to realize that in India proper, Muslims have not been nearly as quiescent as he seems to think. Though two of the most important acts of terrorism — those in Mumbai in 2008 and at the Parliament Building in Delhi — were conducted by Pakistan-based groups, there has certainly been plenty of terrorism by Indian Muslims, including attacks by members of the group Indian Mujahideen. The 1993 bombings in Mumbai, with 257 dead, and 717 wounded, making it still the deadliest of any terrorist attack in India, were carried out by Indian Muslims controlled by the famous gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
The 1998 series of bombings at Coimbatore Junction Railway Station, with 12 separate bombings, killing 58 and wounding more than 200, were part of a plot by local Muslims to kill L. K. Advani, a leader in the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, or Hindu Nationalists). The ten major attacks by the Indian Mujahideen, right up to the present, about which Ding Gang ought to, but may not, know, are listed above. That those attacks are not more numerous testifies not so much to the meek-and-mildness of Indian jihadists, as to their incapacity, as compared to the terrorists who prepare their attacks, undisturbed, in Pakistan, and also to the efficient monitoring of the Indian Muhajideen by the Indian security services.
By way of response, I gave a list of many serious terrorist attacks carried out by Indian Muslims. I also noted that the most devastating attacks by Indian Muslims took place in Kashmir, and that much of the news from that region has not always penetrated into the Western consciousness. One reason is that the government, and media, of India may not wish it to be known how poorly they have defended their own — that is, Hindus — in Kashmir. For the killings of the Pandits have been particularly gruesome.
And there is one other countervailing force holding Indian Muslims in partial check: Fear. Unlike in Europe, Muslims in India have a healthy fear of violent retaliation for any acts of terrorism. There are a few hundred million Hindus who do not work in offices; many of them are poor laborers, or peasant farmers, easy to whip up into a mob. Hindu nationalism has been on the rise, as the victory of the BJP in 2014 testifies. It’s not hard to arouse anti-Muslim sentiment; it’s never far from the surface. Hindus in the “Hindutva” movement, or in the BJP, are ready to remind the Hindu masses of what happened during the several hundred years of Muslim rule.
According to the Indian historian K. S. Lal, between 70 and 80 million Hindus may have been killed during that period, while millions of others, of course, converted to Islam to avoid having to pay, as dhimmis, the Jizyah and submit to other onerous conditions. Many of the Hindus are ready to retaliate with tit-for-tat violence, or often, in retaliating, with even greater violence. In 2002, after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire by Muslims, killing 68 Hindus, the Hindus in Gujarat erupted, and the resulting inter-communal riots led to 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus being killed. Many Muslim properties were destroyed. These “Gujarat riots,” as they became known, were a lesson for Muslims. It was not the government they had to fear, but Hindus acting out their rage and resentment, and their historic memories of the brutality of Muslim rulers. “Why does it seem that Muslims in India have remained largely apart from the radicalization that has happened to Muslim groups in other parts of the world
Ding Gang fails to realize that in India proper, Muslims have not been nearly as quiescent as he seems to think. Though two of the most important acts of terrorism — those in Mumbai in 2008 and at the Parliament Building in Delhi — were conducted by Pakistan-based groups, there has certainly been plenty of terrorism by Indian Muslims, including attacks by members of the group Indian Mujahideen. The 1993 bombings in Mumbai, with 257 dead, and 717 wounded, making it still the deadliest of any terrorist attack in India, were carried out by Indian Muslims controlled by the famous gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
The 1998 series of bombings at Coimbatore Junction Railway Station, with 12 separate bombings, killing 58 and wounding more than 200, were part of a plot by local Muslims to kill L. K. Advani, a leader in the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party, or Hindu Nationalists). The ten major attacks by the Indian Mujahideen, right up to the present, about which Ding Gang ought to, but may not, know, are listed above. That those attacks are not more numerous testifies not so much to the meek-and-mildness of Indian jihadists, as to their incapacity, as compared to the terrorists who prepare their attacks, undisturbed, in Pakistan, and also to the efficient monitoring of the Indian Muhajideen by the Indian security services.
