Terrorists have no religion???? huh

Mumbai attacks are sad. It makes me angry when I think about it. Angry because of the several failures of existing systems that led to it, Angry because of the lax attitude of the current govt. towards terrorism. Angry at how slow and inefficient our response has been. Angry at the insensitive media. And the irresponsible politicians didn't help much. Like most common men, I mouthed some choicy cuss words for the terrorists and wanted to have some friendly interaction with Qasab in person. And decided not to go to Ravi Kebobs, DC area's finest Paki restaurant, just so as to cut down that 0.01 dollar of my haleem bill which would go to fund some dubious religious charity in Pakistan from where it would be re-routed to rip apart the flesh of my fellow Indians.

India has not stated any concrete steps that would be taken yet. Some ministers were blamed and kicked out. Dr.Singh made a bland address to the nation promising strong action against the terrorists which we have got so used to in the past 5 years. And thankfully we passed the bill to form a centralized intelligence agency and decentralize the NSG commando forces. Both big loopholes in our system which needs to be addressed at the earliest. 

US has taken notice of Pakistan's involvement with the terrorists but I don't think they'll go beyond words to take any action due to their own constraints. It would be stupid for India also to act directly given that they are our neighbours with Nukes and missiles that can reach deep into our country. We should continue applying the diplomatic pressure and resort to some economic arm twisting, directly or indirectly, to force Pak to act on these anti India organizations. However given that the average Pak junta is sympathetic to the Kashmir cause it will be difficult to wipe out the support completely. But we should at least ensure that it becomes difficult for these anti India organizations to run operations on their soil. 

 

Coming to the attacks, I was surprised at how seemingly well prepared the media was to ditch the much popularized Mumbai resilience from the last attacks. It was the darling of media during the previous bomb blasts. Everybody praised the mumbai spirit and resilience to the sky. But there were absolutely no takers for it this time around. Probably because they have abused it so badly the previous time. What has become extremely fashionable these days is saying "Terrorists have no religion".

NONSENSE

Terrorists have a religion and that is THE PROBLEM. Face it. Religion is the problem, not the solution anymore. Statements like this blatantly deny the problem. Why would the 20-25 year old youth take up arms and walk into certain death instead of doing more productive things like maybe having chilled beer in the friendly neighborhood bar? What could motivate them to give up the prime of their youth and go die for a dubious cause? The promise of a paradise and the 72 virgins waiting for them over must definitely have been an influential factor in their decision model.

And who are these 20-25 year olds anyways. We have established that they are Pakistanis. But irrespective of their nationality, I'd like to know what they did before they got into this. And if my guess is right, they would be fairly normal people, without any serious criminal offences. Unlike most of us they probably didn't booze, watched no porn, ate according to their Holy book and prayed 5 times a day. The moderately sinful people like us, who drink an odd beer, gamble, watch adult content etc. could not even think of doing anything even remotely so destructing and stupid as what they did.  For one, I am not very convinced of the 72 virgin paradise and would rather stay here and try my luck. That makes a big difference as I want to live vs. these folks who probably aren't having much luck here and can't wait to see their 72 girls. Once the zeal to live is gone they become infinitely more dangerous. And secondly, I don't believe that there is anybody jobless enough to watch over my acts and judge them. So I give myself the responsibility and I tend to be pretty ruthless. I'll never allow myself to cause such grief. Most of these folks also under normal conditions would have been good to others. But their cause, the religion, gives them the license to destroy in its name. They have the comfort of prayer and religion which will absolve them of their sins. I don't have such comfort. And if these guys really didn't have that comfort, they would never have been proud of taking this extreme step. 

Apparently the Hindu fundamentalists have also recently made their decent to these abysmal levels of violence. Almost every other major religion has also proved its capability to destroy under favourable conditions. So if provided suitable pressure and temperature all religions can get destructive. Nothing can fill people with such pure hatred as religion and make them feel great about it. Religion gives people an identity and makes a reason for "us" to fight "them". If there was no religion, there would have been no "us" vs. "them". Actually that's not true. There would always be "us" vs. "them". If it is not religion, man would find other innovative ways to differentiate among themselves and reduce it to a "us" vs. "them".

As much as I'd love to, I am not asking Man to give up religion up yet. I understand Man has not yet evolved enough to do the right thing without the fear of some kind of ambiguous supernatural power. It would actually be disastrous for people without a good conscience to give up religion as they won't have a reason to be nice to others. So religion is still required at some level. But we should atleast acknowledge the problem and give religion the credit it is due. Denial of the problem doesn't help us at all in finding a solution. Atleast not a solution that can work in the long term. 

It might give you popular support from religious people if you claim that the terrorists have no religion. It won't help the nation to deny the problem, repackage it and sell it in a more marketable form. Stand up for the truth, do the right thing. The truth is religion is the mother ship of terrorism.