O J's Corner : Reflections

Western world’s distrust of Muslims

The Western world always says there is no cultural discrimination against Muslims. But the truth is they have lost confidence in Muslims after September 11, 2001 and subsequent terrorist attacks. There are terrorists among  Muslims who are out to wreak vengeance on the civilised world. Since they have got a target in the form of the civilised world, they are now concentrating on it.

When the target gets diverted, they would fight among themselves challenging the threadbare differences over their own faith. The paradox is there are crores of Muslims in this world who are innocent, who would not hurt any other being. They are the most benevolent and noble people. The problem is that the community could not identify the black sheep among them. There should be a concerted effort within the community to isolate the evil and keep a distance from them.

There is fear and panick about an impending danger, an attack, an explosion, a chemical weapons’ spray, liquid explosives, cell phone detonators and what not. No one knows where the evil lurks.

The other day the pilot of the North-West Airlines flight which took off from Minneapolis in the US to Mumbai got panicky and landed the plane at Amsterdam airport, escorted by two F-16 military aircraft. Twelve passengers, belonging to Mumbai, were detained for two days before releasing them. The initial apprehension was that there were circumstances to have suspicion about the in-flight conduct of these passengers.

All the 12 passengers were Muslims. The suspicion is conspicuous. The Indian Government had alerted its embassy in Amsterdam to secure consular access for the passengers. Lately, it has registered its protest with the Dutch authorities for detaining them.

There are international issues for the fundamentalists among the Muslims to wage a war against the civilised world. They have the Palestine problem, the Kashmir problem, the Afghan problem, the Iraq problem and what not. They draw financial sustenance from the oil money from various Arab countries.

The best way to weaken the extremists is to see that their funding is stopped. So far as the oil-rich nations are flush with funds, the extremists would easily get money by way of gratis or extortion.

After a few decades, the world is not going to depend on oil or other fossil fuels. The fossil deposits are fast depleting. It is best for the world to devise alternative ways to fuel the engines. I would say, they should not wait for the entire fossil fuel desposits to be used up to put alternative ways into practice. Gradually, the oil-arrogance would evaporate into thin air. The terrorists would not get so much of funds to carry out filthy deeds in this world.

In the prevalent circumstances, terrorists would not call it a day. They have people waiting to do their bidding, to sacrifice their lives, on the pretext of saving Islam. The schooling itself is on religious lines. General education is only a minuscule part of the religious education. No wonder many of the youths get astray.

Salvation does not flow from the barrel of a gun. Destruction of lives and properties would not fetch any good for any community on the long run. But the world is turning topsy-turvy. It has to be re-railed.