The Hindu Renaissance

GLOBAL JIHAD AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR HINDU IDENTITY OF INDIA

R.K. Ohri, I.P.S. (Retd.)

"Islamic governments have never and will never be established by peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they have always been, by pen and gun, by word and bullet, by tongue and teeth"

- Preamble of Al Qaeda

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After Al Qaeda's attack on WTC and Pentagon on Sept 11 2001, the world has been in incessant turmoil. Before deliberating on the objectives of global jihad, its massive reach and far reaching implications for India, it is necessary to understand and analyze the global dimensions of the problem. America's high voltage campaign against Islamist terror by attacking Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in October 2001 and subsequent attack on Iraq are part of recent history. These developments have to be viewed against the backdrop of 9/11.

For understanding the genesis of global jihad, it is necessary to comprehend Samuel Huntington's famously controversial thesis about clash of civilizations and his prophecy that the clash between the radical Islam and the West might continue for many centuries, even a thousand years. Broadly Huntington has listed 8 major civilizations, viz., the Western, the Slavic (the Balkans & Russia), the Sinic (Sino-Confucian), the Japanese, the Hindu, the Latin American, the Islamic and the African - the Jewish could be the ninth, though Huntington did not count it.

In terms of history Samuel Huntington has analyzed four types of conflicts -

• a) between the monarchs and rulers in the past for territorial and economic gains
• b) between nation-states (a concept born after French revolution) for gains
• c) between competing ideologies like democracy, communism, fascism, etc and
• d) Clashes between civilizations which are likely to increase in the near future and will dominate the geopolitical space in the coming decades.

Challenge of Terror

The twentieth century witnessed the growth of numerous country-specific terrorist organizations like the IRA of Northern Ireland, Basque insurgency of Spain, Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) of Columbia (a leftist outfit), LTTE of Sri Lanka, Maoists of Nepal, the Naxalites /Maoists of India and several other terrorist outfits. But all these terrorist campaigns had limited reach and very specific objectives which limited their depredations to certain geographically defined areas. The Islamic terror, however, is altogether of a different genre. According to Al Qaeda's Preamble their aim is to conquer the world by defeating the West (i.e., the Crusaders and the Jews) and also destroying the Hindu civilization. In view of its long reach and global dimensions the Jihadi campaign is far more dangerous than the Nazi ideology of 20^th century. Despite immense appeal of Communist ideology to the poor and the deprived masses the world over; the Communist could never acquire the following of such large numbers in as many countries, as Islamic militancy has.

No wonder, Stella Remington, a former chief of MI 5 (British Intelligence) had forecast nearly five years ago in her well researched status paper that  radical Islam was "the geopolitical menace of the future".

Two powerful turbo engines of Islamist terror are the concept of Ummah and the radical ideology of Jihad worldwide. Islam as a religion has a unique ideological bonding evolved through the concept of Ummah, sort of a transnational bonding which is way above nationalism. The concept of Ummah connotes that all Muslims across the world are united, have one common identity and are one single people belonging to the nation of Islam. And this nation, strongly bonded with the glue of Ummah, is an extra-territorial entity which ignores all national and transnational borders. It places the Islamic fraternity above every other identity, including one's motherland. Shariah enjoins on all Muslims the duty to wage holy war, or Jihad, whenever any part of Ummah is persecuted anywhere in the world, or a call for Jihad is given. For a true Muslim the allegiance to motherland comes a poor second, because he has a higher commitment, the extra-territorial commitment, to defend the Ummah, as ordained in his scriptures.

Most Hindus, including eminent analysts and column-writers, don't know that in addition to the well known five pillars of Islam, namely Shahda (i.e. reciting Kalma), Namaz (compulsory prayer 5 times a day), Zakat (i.e., charity), Fasting (i.e., Roza) and Haj, there is another pillar of Islam, the most important sixth pillar, which is called Jihad.

As vividly brought out by Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid (ex-Chief Justice of Saudia Arabia) in his commentary, Jihad is superior to non-obligatory Prayers, Fasting, Zakat, Umra and Haj, as elucidated in the Quran and the Ahadith. He has emphasized that Allah has ordained through the Prophet that Jihad should be carried out by the following means:

•i)                                            with the heart (i.e., through intentions or feelings)

•ii)                                           with the hands (i.e., by weapons)

•iii)                                         with the tongue (i.e., by preaching Jihad and addressing the faithful).

Qur'an promises that Allah will reward all Jihadi warriors with lofty dwellings in paradise. The holy book of Islam chides those Muslims who shy away from Jihad. Apart from waging war against the ‘Kafir's' the doctrine of Jihad has following important components:

(a)        Slaughter in the land which entails that after victory the Mujahids should put to sword all infidels, excepting those who submit and convert to Islam.

•(b)                             Ghanima, which means that the booty plundered from the vanquished Kafirs, including their wives and children, should be shared and distributed between the victor Mujahids, after sending the "holy one-fifth" to the Prophet, and after him to the Hajaz or the Caliph. Verse 8.69 of the Qur'an in Surah Anfal clearly proclaims: "Eat ye the spoils of war. They are lawful and pure". According to Verse 4.24 "All married women are forbidden, save those (captives) whom your right hand possesses". The expression right hand possesses means those hapless womenfolk (of the vanquished) who have been captured in Jihad.

•(c)                             Imposition of jiziya, or protection money, on those infidels who refuse to convert to Islam. Originally the right to life by paying jiziya was limited only to the People of the Book, i.e., the Christians and Jews, but with expansion of Islamic empire its benefit was extended even to idolators like Hindus of India.

The history of Jihad throughout Islam-dominated centuries has been very brutal and gory. Even now, in the 21^st century, the Jihadi warriors of Islam have been displaying decapitated heads of infidels on TV channels.

Over the centuries Jihad has been fine tuned into a comprehensive art of war against non-Muslims. Terrorism is only one of the many tools, or ground tactics, of Jihad which aims at striking fear into the hearts of the infidels, as explained by Brig. (Retd) S.K. Malik of Pakistani army in his strategic war book, ‘The Qur'anic Concept of War'. He has lucidly explained by quoting Prophet Muhammad the importance of "instilling terror into the hearts of unbelievers" as laid down in Surah Anfal.

As admitted by M.J. Akbar, who is widely considered to be a secular Muslim, in his tome, The Shade of Swords, "Jihad is the signature tune of Islamic history". He further elaborates that "Jihad is not merely a question of cleansing the inner spirit; it is also a call for the holy war regularly heard since the beginning of Islam". There are many Islamic scholars who keep on saying, perhaps to deceive the gullible Hindus, that the true Jihad (i.e., Jihad-e Akbar) is an act of self-purification, as mentioned by their Prophet in one or two places, and that the lesser Jihad (or Jihad-e Asghar) was some kind of aberration. But credit must be given to M.J. Akbar for candidly admitting that it was "the lesser Jihad which inspired the spirit that once powered the armies of Islam and made them all conquering". He also draws attention to the fact that according to Prophet Muhammad "paradise comes under the shade of swords". More or less a similar claim was made by Osama bin Laden in an interview aired by the CNN on May 10, 1997, when he grandly proclaimed that "the acme of this religion is Jihad."

Some very disquieting aspects of the concepts of  Ummah and Jihad were lucidly brought out by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in his book, ‘Pakistan or The Partition of India', by quoting from the deposition made by Maulana Mahomed Ali, a stalwart activist of Khilafat  movement and close associate of Gandhiji, while facing the charge of preaching sedition by exhorting the Muslim soldiers of the British Indian army not to take up arms against the Amir of Afghanistan during the latter's war against the British. Maulana Mahomed Ali's contention was that if the Amir of Afghanistan was motivated for waging Jihad in defence of Khilafat and wrongful occupation of the Jazirat-ul Arab and other holy places, Islam does not permit Muslim soldiers to take up arms against the Amir. He argued that whenever a Jihad is launched, the law of Islam requires that no Muslim shall render any assistance to anyone against the Mujahideen. And in the second place, and more importantly, if Jihad approaches the region where Muslims were living, every Mussalman of that region must join the Mujahideen and assist them to the best of his or her ability. That was the clear and undisputed law of Islam, as expounded by Maulana in his deposition duly supported by scriptures. No wonder, many Muslims living in the western countries, or even in India, frequently opt to act as collaborators or spies in the global Jihad unleashed by Islamists.

That explains how and why Muslim warriors from 42 countries were found waging war against the U. S. coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2001. A total of more than 760 Islamic warriors from 42 countries were arrested in Afghanistan alone. Presently Jihadis are reported to be militantly active in more than 60 countries, including many non-Muslim nation-states. Not many Indians know that during the ongoing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in J&K, armed Islamic warriors from at least 19 countries have been caught or killed while fighting the Indian security forces.

For centuries the concept of Jihad has been the major source of innumerable conflicts between Islam and other civilizational groups. According to Islamic orthopraxy, Jihad is continuum and will continue till the Day of Judgment.

During his lifetime Prophet Muhammad had waged 82 Jihads and in 26 of these he personally led the Jihadis. These were called ‘Ghazwahs' (the word ghazi appears to be derived from the word ‘ghazwah'). Many Chechen rebels, especially their group-leaders wear berets/skull caps with the word "Ghazwah" emblazoned across their headgears. Today Jihad is the only fully globalized enterprise with franchises in more than 80 countries.

The Jihadis draw their authority from certain verses of the Qur'an. Two such examples are given below:

•1.                   Verses 47.4-6 of the Qur'an proclaim - So when you meet (in Jihad-in Allah's cause) "those who disbelieve smite at their necks till when you have killed many of them, then bind a bond firmly (on them, i.e., take them as captives). Thereafter (is the time) either for generosity (i.e., free them without payment) or ransom (according to what benefits Islam), until war lays down its burden. Thus you are ordered by Allah to continue in carrying out Jihad against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam (and are saved from hell-fire) or at least come under your protection."

•2.                   Verse 2.193 says "Make war on them until idolatory is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme."

A regular Jihad against the Crusaders (i.e. Christians) and the Jews was declared by Al Qaeda, under Bin Laden's leadership on February 23, 1998, by publishing a proclamation in Al Qudus al-Arabi, a London-based Arabic newspaper. Immediately after 9/11 the name of ‘Hindu India' was added to the list of nations and communities to be targeted by Jihadis because of the so-called persecution of Muslims in India, especially in Kashmir. It was done in October 2001 through a video-taped message, released through Al Jazeera television network.

Unfortunately the successive Indian governments and our mainstream media have successfully managed to keep under wraps the important truth of a regular Jihad against Hindus of India, with the avowed aim of destroying their ancient civilizational identity. And the ever-somnolent Hindus society, too, has failed to realize its gravity despite repetitive attacks at will on Hindu temples, religious festivals, unarmed pilgrims and innocent worshippers across the country. Today Mumbai and Delhi are the most bombed cities in the world regularly targeted by Jihadi warriors of Islam and hundreds of Hindu temples are security protected in scores of Indian cities. Whatever is happening all over the country is not mere terrorism; it is much more. It is a regular Jihad against Hindu identity of India. The sooner our people understand it, better it will be for all of us.

Today the Hindu society stands at the cross roads of history. Frankly, the Hindu leadership has miserably failed to devise a strategy to fight the ongoing Jihad. Another aspect of the problem is that due to sheer gullibility most Hindus have come to believe that all religions are equal and that every religion preaches peace. But the truth is altogether different. It is time to realize the important difference between what is ‘dharma' and what is ‘adharma'. The word ‘dharma' derived from Sanskrit syntax ‘dhri' has a sacred meaning in as much as it signifies all those actions which are fit to be adopted and followed by the householders, e.g., commitment to truth, kindness towards the oppressed and the weak, performance of one's duty with dedication, and similar other ‘dharmic' actions. But does every religion says so, or preaches spiritual values? No, perhaps not. Can the ‘adharmic' concepts like senseless slaughter of the vanquished, or plunder of the booty, including carrying away of women and children, be accepted as ‘dharma'? Can imposition of ‘protection money' by a ruler on his or her subjects be considered ‘dharma'? Yet without realizing the true import of what they are saying, many Hindu preachers and Dharmagurus have been proclaiming in congregation that all religions are equal. Some have even written books by unwittingly equating the ‘dharma' with ‘adharma' by placing all religions on equal footing. Surely all such religious scholars of Hindu Samaj have lost their spiritual moorings. That is the tragedy of Hindu society.

Yet another important development fuelling global Jihad is the exponential growth in Muslim population all over the world, an important fact missed out by most strategic analysts. Muslims were only 12 percent of the world population in 1900; became 18 percent in 1990s when Huntington wrote his first article on the ‘Clash of Civilizations'; became 20 percent in 2001 and will be 30 percent of the world population by 2025 - barely 19 years away from now. Some analysts feel that they could constitute 37 to 40 percent of the world population by the year 2100. Along with increase in Muslim population across the globe the number of Jihads has grown. In 1990s there were only 6 or 7 Jihads (Huntington calls them fault line conflicts. Presently more than 25 Jihads are being waged worldwide from the Philippines to USA.

In the coming decades India is bound to emerge as an important civilizational battleground in the ongoing Jihad, it being the sole bulwark of democracy and civil society against the growing menace of Jihad. While the Americans and the British are aware of this important fact, the middle class Hindus and political leaders of the country have failed to realize the gravity of the situation. Unless a bold proactive counter strategy to meet the challenge of Jihad is evolved soon, in the coming years the Hindu identity of India is likely to suffer extensive damage, including the possibility of its disappearance from several parts of India. Time has come to spread the message of Gita all over the country by reminding all Hindus of the import of Krishna-Arjuna samvad. So long as the threat of Jihad remains it will be useful to forget Gautam Buddha, and remember only Sri Krishna and Sri Rama who preached and practiced the path of ‘victory through valour'. Buddha's teachings are useful only in times of peace. Let us not forget that even a deeply religious Buddhist country like Thailand has opted to fight the Jihadi menace by following the glorious path shown by Sri Ram and Sri Krishna.

R .K. Ohri

(Retd. I.P.S.)