Belagere On Islamic Extremism

Ravi Belagere writes here about Islamic extremism. To be more specific, he asks the all important question: How does a Muslim become an extremist?

This is an important topic. We at 108 Sullu H.Q. compliment him for that. We generally don't get to read such topics being discussed by major Kannada journalists like.

It is also refreshing to note that Mr.Belagere does not view -- unlike many of our intellectuals -- the phenomenon of Islamic extremism (in India) as a reaction to the rise in Hindu fundamentalism. In fact, Mr.Belagere excoriates them for their theory that the Islamic extremism is a natural expression of Muslim minority's fears of insecurity in a Hindu majority India. According Mr.Belagere, these are the thoughts of intellectually immature people.

If that is not enough, he further calls these -- albeit nameless -- intellectuals: "phoney revolutionaries who condemn the meek and punish the undeserved"

Even those -- again nameless -- intellectuals who condemn all orthodoxy including the Islamic variety do not escape Mr.Belagere's ire. According to him, these intellectuals do not show the same alacrity when reacting to the violent acts of Islamic terrorists that they show when they issue condemnations when a structure of a mosque is disturbed.

We at 108 Sullu World H.Q. always welcome articles on such topics. Especially, if the writer is ready to name the names. However in Mr.Belagere's article, except for Mr.Baraguru Ramachandrappa's name -- who gets mildly skewered for an unrelated issue -- there are no other names mentioned.

Now to the topic of Mr.Belagere's article: "Why does a Muslim become an extremist?"

He has a simple -- in our opinion a rather simplistic -- answer: Bangladeshis.

As per Mr.Belagere, Bangladeshi Islamic preachers are brain-washing and recruiting Indian Muslims against Israel, USA and of course India.

While this may or may not be true in a particular incident like what happened at I.I.Sc., we have seen no statistics to blame Bangladeshis for the general rise in Islamic extremism. Mr.Belagere of course does not prvide any either.

There probably are more Bangladeshis in West Bengal and Assam than in most other states. But, we are unaware of any statistics that show that Islamic extremism is more prevalent in these states than others.

Mr.Belagere also engages in hyperbole: For example, all the taxi drivers in Mumbai and Calcutta are Bangladeshis. And the gentle Bangaloreans do not even sound their vehicle's horns near the mosques lest that disturb the prayers of Muslims!

We also did not like Mr.Belagere's disinterest or even seeming acceptance of extremism against Israel and USA. In our opinion, when it comes to violent extremism, it is not acceptable anywhere; India, Israel or USA.

Mr.Belagere's article has many nits to pick. Still, we at 108 World H.Q. congratulate him for his intellectual independence from the still fashionable left wing intellectual orthodoxy.