Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 2: Are acts of terrorism really committed by people who literally have nothing to lose? It is important to understand it thus if we see terrorism as a nihilist pursuit. Terrorism, in fact, is political, militantly political, with a clear modus operandi, strategies and set-in-stone objectives. That is why reducing terrorism to be the refuge of the poor, the uneducated and the unemployed is insincere considering that rabid Islamist or Naxal ideologies are not merely romantic.
Assuming that they are such would lead to the understanding that it is easy to brainwash people and hence lack of education could be a factor. But, in both cases, the ideologies have transcended mere romanticism and have become a legitimate intellectual pursuit. That is why the indignation is no longer reserved for those who speak, propagate and facilitate but for only those who act. Education is no longer a barrier for extremism, but perhaps an enabler to give the intellectual heft and normalization that an extremist ideology demands.
But, even if one leaves that aspect aside, the existence of the "educated terrorist" is not new. In fact, just a cursory look at some of the most infamous terrorists would show that education has little to do with preventing Islamist radicalization and may in fact propel it further. Osama Bin Laden was a chemical engineer. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, has a PhD in Islamic Studies. The mastermind of 9/11, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and the Camp Chapman suicide bomber, Humam-Khalil Al-Balawi, were both medical doctors. The Pakistani origin "Times Square" bomber, Faisal Shehzad, had an MBA and the assassin of Daniel Pearl, Omar Saeed Sheikh, was studying Statistics at London School of Economics. Findings of the study undertaken only recently on a sample set of 404 terrorists are just revealing. It saw that 20 per cent of the recruits were engineers.
The story of Kashmir is no different. There are cases where educated youth, including University teachers, joined ranks of militants. So, one has to re-look the whole issue of terrorism to reach a right conclusion and find ways and means calculated to tackle this menace, which is disturbing the delicate socio-religious and political equilibrium in many parts of the world. |
