Trump’s plan against terrorism

Letter January 24, 2017
President Donald Trump is sincere and willing to eradicate the menace of terrorism

FAISALABAD: United States President Donald Trump, in his inaugural speech, vowed to eliminate radical Islamic terrorism completely from earth. Earlier, he targeted Muslims and Islam many times during his election campaign. Indeed, in modern times, terrorism has become a global issue and is considered a major threat to society but it is emphatically mistaken to legitimise the faith of Islam with terrorism and to suggest there is something wrong with some aspect of Islam. In reality, a broad array of right-wing and left-wing political organisations, nationalist, religious, revolutionaries groups and ruling governments have practised terrorism to further their objectives.

During the French Revolution, tens of thousands of people were massacred in the reign of terror War of Vendee (1793 to 1796). The Zionist paramilitary organisation Irgun (1931-1948) operated in Palestine. The Italian neofascist Militant organisation Nuclei Armati Revolutionary (1977- 1981) committed murders. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (1983-2009) was a militant organisation based in Sri Lanka. In July 2011, Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik killed eight people by detonating a van bomb in Oslo, and then shot dead 69 participants of a youth league summer camp on the island of Utoya. There are 180 terrorist groups that have operated within India over the last 20 years. Maoist violence in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are examples of left-wing terrorism in India, where the ideology of Marx, Engels, Mao, Lenin and others are considered as the only valid economic path. These are few instances of multidimensional form of terrorism.

The modern terms of ‘jihadi’, ‘mujahiddin’, and ‘fidayeen’ related to Islamic terrorism were used during the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979. Interestingly, it was the US behind the infinite game of algebra known as Islamic extremism. President Ronald Reagan and others in the American administration frequently called the mujahiddin ‘freedom fighters’. Once, the Taliban and the TTP were blue-eyed of America and now, they have become terrorists. Islam is a religion of peace, harmony and tranquillity in which no one is allowed to waste water during washing parts of the body for ritual ablution. It is beyond imagination that Islam would permit to spread bloodshed, violence and intolerance.

All religions, faiths and beliefs are respectable and it is unjustifiable to link them with terrorism. Under Saudi Arabia, the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism (IMAFT) is being prepared by 39 Muslim countries against ISIL and other counter-terrorist activities. If President Donald Trump is sincere and willing to eradicate the menace of terrorism, he would have to take the initiative with the help and coordination of the Muslim world.

Engr. Mansoor Ahmed

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2017.

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