Terrorism is bred and fostered in the minds and hearts of people. It stems from deep rooted beliefs which sanction indiscriminate killing of even innocents in defence of one’s religion and avenging perceived wrongs perpetrated on co-religionists. This contaminated mindset is the genesis of suicide bombers, all of whom are not Muslims. Justification of terrorist acts by reference to the tenets of any religion exhibits culpable ignorance and prejudice. The Darul Uloom fatwa of 2008, to its credit, makes it explicit that “Islam rejects all kinds of unwarranted violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, killing and plunder, and does not allow it in any form”. Sadly the fatwa has not reduced terror activities and suicide bombings. Darul Uloom may well consider issuing another fatwa which unequivocally brands terrorists and suicide bombers as enemies of Islam and imposes strict religious sanctions on them.

Terrorism has to be combated relentlessly and ruthlessly. However, as our Vice-President Hamid Ansari perceptively pointed out in an excellent recent speech, terrorist acts “emanate from a radicalisation of the mind propelled by perceived grievances and sought to be anchored on ideology or faith. Combating terrorism thus becomes a sociological, psychological and political effort as much as a security one; the corrective effort on each of these needs to begin simultaneously rather than sequentially”. Regrettably, there is no realisation of the urgency of the corrective effort.

Singing Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram is an inspirational song connected with our freedom struggle and is joyously sung by a vast majority of our people. However, many Muslims are opposed to singing Vande Mataram on the ground that its verses are against the tenets of Islam and that compelling them to sing the song would violate their freedom of religion.

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