roots of terrorism

EKKENTROS FORUM


The Matter: Report of the proceedings of the discussion held on 17-3-09 (Tuesday)

Venue: Residence of Prof. Mohanan Nair

Coram: Eight members attended. Dr. Thomas could not be present as he was out of station in Bangalore.

Subject: The Roots of Terrorism (cont’d)

Prof. Mohanan Nair: Most of the aspects of terrorism have already been discussed by this forum, and therefore what I have to say here may have some repetitions.
The use of the word ‘terrorism’ began in 1795 with reference to the ‘Reign of Terror’ initiated by the revolutionary government in France, though violence has been used systematically throughout human history by political organizations, nationalist, ethnic and religious groups, and by revolutionaries to create fear and to force government or societies to achieve political, religious and ideological goals. It has been an effective tactics of the weaker side of a conflict. Being an asymmetric form of conflict it confers coercive power with many of the advantages of military force at a fraction of the cost. This is also true with regard to the human lives lost in terrorist operations. Though terrorist activities had started early in human history its impact has been magnified by the deadliness and technological sophistication of modern weapons. The attack on the WTO on Sept.11, 2001 by the Al Qaeda suicide squad is an illustrious example. Changes in the tactics or techniques of the terrorists have been significant, but even more significant, is the growth in the number of causes and social contexts where terrorism is used.
Terrorism has been described variously depending on whose point of view is represented. There are three perspectives of terrorism – that of the terrorist, the victim and the public. The three perspectives can never be accommodated in one definition. The terrorists never consider themselves as evil. They think of themselves as legitimate combatants fighting for what they believe to be right while in discriminately killing the non-combatants including women and children. The suffering of the citizens accomplishes the terrorist’s goal of instilling fear and getting their message out to the world. A victim of terrorism looks at the terrorist as an inhuman criminal having no regard for human life. The perspectives of the general public should have been the most important. But unfortunately it is the most unstable.
There is also another difficulty in constructing a definition for terrorism. History provides us ample examples of organizations and leaders branded as terrorists eventually emerged as accepted leaders. This is particularly applicable to national liberation movements fighting colonial oppression. Nelson Mandela, Bhagat Singh etc. are standing examples. In spite of the terrorist activities committed by the communist party of Nepal, Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, is now the head of a democratically elected government.
Another dimension to terrorism is the exploitation of the capability of the media by the terrorists. The terrorists are always careful to obtain the greatest publicity. The effectiveness of a terrorist act does not lie in the act itself but in the public’s or government’s reaction to the act. The ability of the media and the avidity in covering news of terrorist activity instantaneously encourages the terrorists to carry out novel techniques of suicidal killings.
When we try to analyze the causes of terrorism we find that primarily it is the imbalanced human brain that initiates terrorist activity.
Dr. Abdulla: Not exactly. We cannot call it imbalance which will amount to madness. It is an aberration rather than an imbalance.
Prof. Mohanan Nair: whatever it is, the loss of balance may be due to political reasons as was in the case of the French Revolution or the Soviet Union of Stalin, racial in the case of Nazi Germany, ethnical in the case of LTTE, religious fundamentalism as in the case Lashkar E Tioba or Al Qaeda, or social or economic inequality as in the case of Maoists in a number of states in India. We cannot have an exhaustive list because the number of cases is on the increase. The perpetrators of terrorism exploit the poverty and illiteracy among the masses. Illiteracy breeds gullibility. The sweet imagination of immediate ascent to heaven or having hallows of martyrdom around them are ideas that could be easily driven into a gullible brain. We find that the organizers of terrorism keep themselves away at a safe distance and encourage illiterate ones to blow themselves up in the name of an imaginary cause. The manic ideology of Al-Qaeda has no roots in mainstream Islam which share core values of peace and tolerance with the world’s major religions.
We notice that always it is the crazy idea of one single man that is at the root of any terrorist organization, and he is the person who propagates and builds up a terrorist outfit. It may be either a Hitler or an Osama Bin Laden.
Dr. Babu Ravindran: Any idea is always like that. It originates from one man, spreads and takes root. Only, the originator has to convince his group.
Dr. Abdulla: No Bin Laden or LTTE Prabhakaran will go with the suicide squad. They will only send their brainwashed followers.
Prof. Mohan Nair: No engineer for that matter will join the suicide squad. They plan and engineer from behind. If a few top leaders including the originator are eliminated, the organization could perhaps be destroyed.
Prof. Sakarankutty: If leaders are killed violence may become out of control.
Dr.Abdulla: All the same, it will definitely harm the organization. The second rung leaders would take over, and if they are unable to control the followers there may be chaos and more destruction imposed on the public.
Sri. Kunhikrishan: There is some point in the idea of eliminating the leaders. In olden times when a Raja is killed in battle, his followers and army are defeated and they surrender.
Prof Sankarankutty: There was a news item recently in The Hindu about Bin Laden’s death. Some papers reported, as if originating from authentic source, that Bin Laden was killed. But before his organization was affected by the news they managed to show him alive in some Television Channel.
Prof. Mohanan Nair: though suicide attacks are particularly associated with Al-Qaeda ideology, they have been adopted even much earlier by Tamil Tigers, and by militant groups in Afghanistan (Taliban) and Pakistan. Islamic education system, may be in a very minority of cases, advocate extreme views which are inconsistent with main stream Islam. This has been said to flourish in Pakistan where inadequate funding of state education permits unregulated ‘Madrasa’ religious education to take hold.
Prof. Sankarankutty: When we think about the lack of funds for education, the first thing that comes out is the expenses that are incurred in this world on the military or the defense establishments as a whole. A fraction of that would have been sufficient to promote good education and social uplift.
Prof. Mohanan Nair: Terrorism has invariably an imaginary enemy. To fight it terrorists use all means in their command, right or wrong, basing their activities in weak countries. In fact, the countries which are conducive to the spread of terrorism, according to the UN are those characterized by the ‘lack of rule of law, and violation of human rights, ethnic, national, and religious discrimination, political exclusion, socio-economic marginalization and lack of good governance.’

Dr. Sadanandan: Terrorism is an extreme form of violence, heinous, tragic, and distressing. Innocent people getting caught unawares, killed for no reason, and for no fault of theirs, is barbaric. It is brutal, coming out of some crazy ideas of a beastly mind.
Our concern here is to get to the root of terrorism, perhaps to find out means to eradicate this evil completely. We have been going through all possible reasons behind this problem and what contributes in the making of a terrorist. It may be the violent reaction in an outburst of an oppressed and disgruntled individual in his struggle for existence. And someone cunning and having ulterior motives might be exploiting this mind to his virulent designs.
We have explained many reasons that lead to violence in our social existence. Social upheavals, social differences and discriminations, religious fundamentalism, economic disparity, political and national differences, ideological conflicts and psychological idiosyncrasies, are all causes for violence in our society. The problem is in human relationships. The existence of appalling division and thereby isolation of individuals into different groups, sects and compartments does not help to instill good relationship in the society. But why these differences cause violence amongst us? Is it that while getting evolved, human beings still retain and inherit those qualities of animals that generate violence? And is it that in humans, apart from the biological evolutions, changes take place in their consciousness too – the evolution of the mental process – thereby a refinement and maturity of the mind is possible, but is lacking when one is violent? In our day to day life we are all violent sometime or other. We are at war with each other on our differences. Battle is there in the psyche too. Mind is where all thoughts, feelings, ideas, experiences exist. And our relationship is based on this mind. Daily living is a struggle for each one of us. When we compete with each other and force one’s way up, there develops friction, noise, and violence. For generations we have lived with these noises. We are getting accustomed to it. Our social morality has been shaped accordingly and we live with it.
But terrorism is horrible and dangerous. With it civilized society cannot exist. That dark-hooded man from the distant land crossing the sea, getting into a hotel room fully armed, killing a helpless innocent lady, the mother of a small, kid and shooting anybody at sight, it is horrifying1 one can’t see any logic in it. The only logic could be that man is still an animal. At least some are, and they behave beast-like.
The Tatas are considering doing whatever is possible to rebuild the structures of their hotel to make it terror proof. Government is making sure that every nook and corner of our land is accessible to the security guards and commandos within no time when the need comes. Cross- border terrorism has to be sorted out with our neighbors with dialogues and appropriate diplomacy. Now we try to rest our hope on Mr. Obama, the most powerful leader on earth to save us from Osama, the terrorist. Osama Bin Laden is there very much alive in his den, and to extricate him seem to be a real task. And who knows how many dens are there with terrorists inside, and where all?
Is not the real den our own mind, the resting place of the wildest of all beasts always exuding venom and creating whatever problems we have? Do we see this? Can we understand? Is there light? Is there intelligence? What is it that we lack?

Sri. Kunhikrishnan: We have seen that criminally minded people will be there as long as human mind does not change either by individual effort on a wide scale or by mutation. Till then the causes for terrorism will have to be contained, viz. 1) the patronages by, politicians of different states and countries, interests of religious groups, ideologies, and selfish interests who use the criminals and 2) people or organizations who finance the operation of terrorists.
I feel that there is a need to make people aware of the utter need to eschew violence on a wide scale, in matters of dispute or dissatisfaction or grievances, relating to religion, ideology or politics. Nothing can be achieved by violence as it breeds counter violence. One may think it is a futile exercise, or is useless to try. But why not make a world wide campaign for all organizations, political parties and religions to be forced to give a declaration that they are against terrorism and violence in all matters? Those who do not give a declaration or include the pledge in their manifesto should be treated as criminals by the world society. And to remedy grievances there could be arrangements to solve them in all countries, sponsored by the world Forum. This may at least morally discourage the general public not to join or support terrorism financially or otherwise.