Everywhere in this world a situation of total chaos prevails. Around the globe a lot of people are being killed due to the terrorist activities. Everyone writes and talks a lot about global terrorism and the menace it has turned into. Everyone looks to be concerned about the innocent lives which are being lost every day in these attacks and everyone wants the world to be free from this demon.
It was 11th of September, year 2001 when the world was rocked by what is called as one of the biggest tragedy in history of mankind. Immediately counter offensive was launched and begin the search for the most wanted man on the face of this earth. Recently the U.S senate passed a resolution, doubling the bounty to catch this man to $50 million. Almost 6 years down the line and the man still is what we call invisible and seems to be invincible. We might have had our share of moments when Taliban fell or news of Osama Bin Laden’s death hit the circle every now and then, to be refuted by another of his tape. We might have succeeded in killing few hundred or thousands of lunatic terrorists. We might have been able to foil few of their terror plots. We might have also been able to get hold on some of their most influential leaders and we might have been able to bring down one or two governments aiding global terrorism. But this is not what we actually plan to achieve and looking at the pace with which things are molding up around the world and that too in a drastic and ghastly manner, the authenticity of this whole war against terrorism comes under scrutiny.
To me this war against terrorism till now is a major failure simply because, Why is it that the number of terrorist attacks increasing every day? Why is it that more and more innocent lives are being lost in this war? Why is it that the working base of these self proclaimed jihadis is increasing and that too at a blitzkrieg speed? Why we are losing this war in spite of winning and they are winning it despite of losing at every stage?
George Bush once called this war as the next phase of crusades, but very next day White House withdrew the statement. The jihadis also claims to be fighting in the name of god and for their religion. For both it is a holy war the difference being, former is subtle enough to hide this naked truth but for latter it is the central idea and they are not at all reluctant in accepting this fact. The basic approach of this war is oppressing the Islamic fundamentalists. The more we try to do it; more rigid they became to continue their struggle. More aggressively we try to crush them, they more daringly retaliate. In a nut shell this has been a war between will of steel against eternal commitment to survive. But why are we trying to oppress one group when both are fighting for the same cause and that too for centuries. The reason being very simple, their methods are utterly brutal and not at all in compliance with the civilized world. Still I really doubt if this approach will ever work in stopping these people from killing the innocent.
What we need here is to understand why the fundamentalists think that they are fighting for their religion when no religion teaches to take innocent lives. The path of radicalism and fundamentalism are not the only things which Islam teaches, but yes certainly and unfortunately they have gain more popularity and that is just because of some of the leaders who for their petty benefits, are shoving the whole world into a holocaust. The Muslims are being misguided by some shrewd leaders, who are using them to fulfill their wants. Whether it is I.S.I inculcating the feeling of hatred among Kashmiri’s or it was Saddam Husain who mislead hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s to war, all are being deceived in the name of religion just for the fulfillment of their personal and hidden desires.
As far as I can infer all this has nothing to do with Islam in particular. This is the brain child of one of the many school of thoughts which defines Islam, known as the Deoband School of thought (Darul Uloom Deoband). Deobandis follow Ilm ul Kalaam i.e. the science of refuting criticism of Islam made using Greek logic. They are characterized by a strict adherence to the Sunnah (the tradition of Prophet Muhammad) and an emphasis on Sharia (Islamic law). It is a world known fact that almost all the fundamentalists are strict followers of Deoband line of thinking and the Taliban are also said to follow the teachings of the Deoband School. In fact the very own origin of the Deoband movement was in reaction to the British colonialism in India, whom they believed to be assimilating the Islamic religion. So accordingly we need to counter one school of thought with other. If this one is radical and fundamentalist in nature then we need the other to be liberal and moderate. Fortunately there exists one such school of thought, popularly known by the name of Barelwi.
Barelwis and Deobandis have certain similarities, like both the parties are Hanafi and Maturidi. But still the two are contrastingly different from each other. Unlike Deobandis, Barelwis in issues of dispute actually turn back to the Quran and Sunnah, the way/words of the Salaf etc. rather than just opting for and standing by the fatwas and opinions of past scholars’ of their background. The Barelwi School was founded to defend the existing beliefs of Muslims of south Asia that were deeply influenced by Sufism and incorporated many unorthodox beliefs against the reformation movements influenced by Hanbali School that emphasized Sharia and Quran.
Between the two schools of thoughts there lies a huge difference and the two are like counteractant to each other. When ones popularity is on a rise it is very much obvious that, that of the other will be on decline and this is what we need. The solution not lies in just killing terrorists, but in killing the root cause culpable for creating terrorists. The basic challenge is not to eliminate the people following this path, but the need of the hour is to encounter the complete thought process which leads to this path. Right now our aim should not be mindless killing of the terrorists like they do, but to bring them to the right path. The day we achieve this then only the war against terrorism will be won in true sense and mind it; this is not at all difficult. It is atleast easier then the methods which we are currently adopting, and has more fruitful and long-lasting results and that too without any severe human causality.
