A Global Problem
The term ‘terrorism’ is not new. It is in practice since the known recorded history of the world in one way or the other. The terrorists hale this nomenclature for themselves because they justify their actions and strategy to fight against oppression and injustice. The phrase “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” is what the terrorists boast to accept. They normally act upon their motto of violence, fear and intimidation towards government or civil societies in pursuit of their goals that are political, religious or ideological.
The term terrorism was first coined by the French Revolutionary governments by applying systematic state terror against the population of France in 1790s, killing thousands of people.
The heart of every compatriot and Islam loving person weeps when he is labelled as terrorist by the so called civilised nations of the Europe. Whatever claim and Quranic quotations we proffer that we being Muslims are a peace loving nation and our religion strongly teaches us to be peaceful people not only to our brotherhoods but towards the people of the other religions as well. And as the past history proves we have been following these injunctions of the Quran in letter and spirit.
Now the main problem facing the whole world is that will terrorism continue unabated looking at the back history? The answer must be in positive, as grass roots are various forms of political violence in different countries for centuries. After effects of both the World Wars of 1920 and 1940 (First and Second World Wars) as well as post war decolonisation which prolonged through 1960s are considered to be the beginning of terrorism. Besides, the biased American policies and political behaviour also created displeasure, resentment and reaction by the aggrieved freedom fighters irrespective of religion and nationhood, the latest offshoot of which was the 9/11 tragedy.
In spite of most modern scientific devices it is not possible to monitor with exactness the presence and non-presence of terrorist groups of the world who own the claim of terrorist attack. There are certain groups who try to encash the events unnecessarily without having involvement therein.
The dominating policy given to the terrorists by the hidden elements has been to create harassment, uproar and sense of insecurity among the people. Simply killing, or massacre a large number of human beings has never been their main objective. They resort to these tactics as a last step to achieve their aim, when they feel that the concerned rulers show resistance to their demands. The state sponsorship by some of the rulers, particularly the rulers of the Middle East to counter their conflicts inter se has provided sufficient ground to the terrorists when they are provided with the latest technical means to operate lethal devices.
A few years ago attacking, bombing or seizing embassies was a common practice of the terrorists. It declined due to strict security measures. Now the terrorists use varied tactics for their targets which are obviously unlimited and after each event they change their method of attack for the next one. They can attack anything, anytime and anywhere for which they are dictated. Normally their chosen targets are railways, airlines, embassies, rail roads, sub ways, buses, power lines, gas lines, journalists, diplomats, mosques, hotels, restaurants, schools, missionaries, women and children.
The root cause of the trouble and crises is in Middle East as well as the Arab word as a whole. These countries should revamp their agencies with collaboration mutually putting aside the political differences. The UNO and OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) should also play their role with more zeal and propagation. As for Pakistan, it is quite necessary that the religious extremists be bridled more tightly to eradicate this menace.
In the end, we can only hope that the increasing menace of the terrorism be stopped by all the nations in general and the countries of the Third World in particular. But it is not as simple as it looks because unfortunately the rulers of some countries are not much sincere to root out this menace.