The 26th of November shall forever be marked in our memories as one of the darkest days in the history of our great country. On this day, eight years ago, the gravest of assaults was launched against our collective identity as Indians. Hundreds were slaughtered, even more injured, specifically because of their identity as Indians, slaughtered because an ideology that festers morbid hatred among its adherents against everything that we hold dear and cherish decided to wreak devastation on our sacred land.
Eight years hence, the threat of Radical Islam still looms large in the distance. It’s no longer on the horizon, it has gotten much nearer over the years since the tragic Mumbai Attacks. 67 ISIS-inspired youths have been arrested so far while planning attacks. Islamic fundamentalism continues to flourish in Kashmir and cause irreparable damage to the future of our children by burning down schools and indoctrinating their youths to adopt the viciousness of Jihad. And these are merely the most overt instances of the enemy attempting to destabilize our country from within.
The State that has for years sponsored terrorism as a matter of policy against India still persists in its efforts. Pakistan is a civilizational threat and must be recognized as such. Peace with Pakistan is a logical impossibility. Our conflict has escalated immensely over the past couple of years as our soldiers continue to retaliate vigorously against Pakistan’s ceasefire violations amidst terrorist attacks almost on a daily basis that costs us the lives of our valiant Jawans. Eight years hence, Hafeez Saeed continues to roam freely in Pakistan and the state machinery continues to protect him.
The culture of hatred that plotted the Mumbai Attacks continues to thrive, not just in India but all over the world. There’s hardly a region in the Map today where the scourge of Radical Islam hasn’t left its mark. It was the same ideology that led to the massacre in Paris and the carnage at Orlando. It was the same ideology that inspired the rampage at Nice and the butchery at Dhaka. The enemy has no respect for the sanctity of human life and is not worthy of any shred of sympathy from us. We can no longer afford to be complacent about the threat that we are currently faced with.
Significant sections of our intelligentsia and indeed, our society, need to accept that Islamophobia is no longer illegitimate fear mongering and in fact, never was. The threat of Radical Islam is very real and very much thriving. Much hue and cry about Islamophobia prevents us from enforcing measures that may indeed go a long way towards curbing the radicalization of our youth. Criticism of Islam must not be greeted with screams of bigotry and Islamophobia but must be scrutinized. We cannot allow Islam to be shielded from critique and mockery or negate the negative experiences of Ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali or scuttle the efforts of Muslim reformers such as Maajid Nawaz. The very future of our civilization may rest on it.
The Political establishment of various countries have a lot of questions to answer. Why is it that they invariably do not hold Islam to the same standard of morality as other religions are subjected to? Why is it that given a choice between liberal Muslim clerics and Islamist preachers like Zakir Naik, they invariably choose to side with the latter? Why is it that efforts are always made to shield Islam from critique? Inspite of all that has gone wrong, I still have hope in my heart that you’ll one day realize the error in your ways and put National Security over petty Votebank Politics. I only hope it’s not too late by then for you to redeem yourselves.
The culture of hatred does not manifest itself solely through terrorist attacks. It continues to cause havoc in the lives of thousands wherever it manages to wrestle enough political power. The Hindus at Malda continue to suffer from the wrath of Radical Islam. The Kairana Exodus is yet another manifestation of Radical Islam. The Kashmiri Muslim children who cannot attend schools because they were burnt down by Islamic fundamentalists bear the brunt as well. Instances such as these do not hurt us as much as terrorist attacks because the latter are representative of wholesale slaughter of innocent lives but in the long run, the damage they inflict on the collective psyche of the people they victimize cannot be deemed insignificant at all. It is with great sadness that I say that we are no closer to curbing the threat of Radical Islam as we were eight years ago.
History has brought us to this critical precipice. We can either relinquish our liberty, our values, our virtues at the feet of an enemy with an insatiable lust for blood or we can stand together, united and strong, against a nemesis that threatens our core civilizational values. While it is true that it is not a war of our own making, when confronted with such malice, Valor demands that we defend and protect what is ours by Right and honour the sacrifices made by our ancestors when they were confronted by the same vicious ideology that seeks to decimate us today.
The greatest tribute that we can pay to the Victims of the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks is to ensure that the venomous ideology responsible for it is not permitted to subvert our beautiful country from within.
We shall not forsake our children and the future generations at the altar of multiculturalism. We shall not cower before a brutal enemy and secure the lives of our countrymen. And we shall do it together, as Indians. Divisiveness among our ranks has long been exploited by the enemy, we must stand together or fall. History does not look favorably at the Craven. Let the lives lost in Mumbai on that dark night strengthen our resolve against the scourge of Radical Islamic Terrorism, let their blood be the fuel that keeps the fire in our heart burning in these dark times and for a hundred years to come.
