The Indian Experience With Jihadists

by Dr. Babu Suseelan

Jihadi terrorism and the alarming incidence of violent crimes inspired and directed by global Islamic jihad groups are the most pressing security challenge facing the free world today. Jihadi terrorism is not a new phenomenon. It is as old as Islam. The first terrorist incident involves Prophet Mohamed’s command to his followers to kill any non-believers who comes under their power. Thereupon Mohamed’s followers killed hundreds of Jews and other non-believers. Jihadi terrorism we witness today represents exactly what Mohamed did and what he preached.

The Jihadi terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11, attack on the USS Cole, the destruction of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, bombing of the American Embassy in Kenya, the overthrow of the Shaw of Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini and the mass murder that followed, beheading of Wall Street Journalist Pearl in Karachi, the destruction of Afghanistan by Taliban, murder of American Peace keepers in Iraq, killing of school children in Israel, and the bombing in London, Paris, Mumbai, New Delhi, Madrid, Rome, as well as death and destruction caused by Jihadis in different parts of India are the continuation of the Islamic brutality stretching back to the time when Mohamed led Muslims in the first Jihad.

Islam provides motivation and justification for wars of conquest, plunder, loot and destruction. Jihadi invaders began entering India in the early eighth century, on the orders of Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq. Beginning in 712 Islamic Jihadi raiders, commanded by Muhammad Qassim demolished Hindu temples, Buddhist monasteries, Sikh Gurudhwaras, and Jain temples, shattered cultural institutions, learning centers, sacred monuments, cultural artifacts, plundered palaces and killed millions of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians, and carried off women and children to slavery. Bin Qasism another Jihadi warrior massacred more than 16, ooo men in the town of Brahminabad.

Until Islam invaded India, India was one of the world’s great civilizations. India was rich, flourished in Philosophy, Mathematics, and science, Art, Architecture, Natural and Health Sciences. Jihadi terrorism continued in the early 11th century when Mohamed Ghazni invaded India. Guided by the hate messages of the Koran, Ghazni utterly ruined many parts of India, destroying, pillaging and massacring. Jihadis have destroyed ancient cities of Varanasi, Mathura, Ujjain, Maheswar, Dwaraka and thousands of temples and learning centers were destroyed.

During the 12th century, Muhammad of Ghor invaded the Indo-Gangetic plain conquering in succession Ghanzni, Multan, Sindh, Lahore and Delhi. Quib-ud-bin-Aybak in the 13th century established an Islamic dynasty in Delhi, which enabled Islamic invaders to push in every direction in India. Within the next 100 years, Islamic invaders have murdered more than 80 million Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Zoroastrians. The Slave Dynasty (1206-90), the Khilji Dynasty (1296-1316), Tughlaq Dynasty (1320-1413), Sayyid Dynasty (1414-1451), and the Lodi Dynasty (1451-1526) murdered millions of Hindus, forcefully converted Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs by the Islamic sword.

The Mughal Empire (Baber, Humayun, Akbhar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb) continued Islamic brutality from 1526 to 1707. Islamic invasion and the destruction of ancient Indian civilization followed the Islamic preaching of Mohamed. It required Islamic warriors to sack and burn down villages and towns after the defenders had died or had fled. Hindu temples, Sikh Gurudwaras, Buddhist monasteries, spiritual institutions, learning centers, cultural monuments and historical artifacts were their special targets in an orgy of pillage and arson. Those whom they did not kill they captured and sold as slaves.

In his The Story of Civilization, Will Durant termed “Islamic invasion of India is probably the bloodiest story in history”. Historians have stated “The massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparallel in history, bigger in sheer numbers than the Holocaust or the massacre of the Armenians by the Islamic Turks, more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese”.

The British colonial masters pursuing their policy of divide-and-rule colluded to whitewash the atrocious record of the Muslims so that they could set up the Muslims as a strategic counterbalance to the Hindus. During independence struggle, Indian politicians continued the policy of denial of Islamic brutality. After independence, Pseudo secular Indian politicians, leftist intellectuals, phony liberals and the alienated academicians continued the policy of ignoring Jihadi threats and appeasement of Muslims.

Islamic Jihadis consider India as “unfinished business” and Jihadis are busy terrorizing the populace in the name of Islam. The steady decline of Indian assertiveness, apathy, denial, indifference, silence, the ill considered adoption of appeasement as a policy have clouded Indian policy and program for the detection, containment and prevention of jihadi terrorism in India.

There is lack of awareness across the world about the brutal Jihadi terrorism in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan and Bangladesh have become training centers for jihadi terrorists. In Pakistan, Jihadis have murdered or forcefully converted most of the Hindus. Hindu population has been reduced from 26% to 2% in Pakistan. In Bangladesh Hindu population was reduced by Jihadis from 30% to 10%.

Pakistan orchestrated Taliban Jihad of the 1980’s against Soviet troops in Afghanistan inspired extremist Jihadis in Pakistan, and India. Several Jihadi mercenaries from India went to Pakistan for training. Pakistan had diverted funds received from the west, United States and Saudi Arabia to recruit and train Jihadis from several Indian states including Kashmir, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Utter Pradesh and West Bengal. During the 1990’s Pakistan created a Jihadi networks in all parts of India. Pakistan Inter Service Intelligence Agency (ISI) recruited Jihadis from all parts of India and send them to Pakistan occupied Kashmir for terrorism training. Since 1992 several Jihadi groups financed by Pakistan and the Middle East sprang up in different parts of India. Several Islamic terrorist groups which openly preach hatred and violence against unbelievers are operating in India. The following Jihadi terrorist groups including Student Islamic Movement of India, Al-Ummah, National Democratic Front (NDF), Jihad war Group, Muslim Volunteer Force, Islamic Revolutionary Front, Islamic Liberation Army of Assam, Jamait-e-Islami, Hurriyat Conference, Jamit-al-Quran Hadis, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, Islamic Movement of India, Al Huda, Tehreek-Ul-Mujahideen, Milli Parliament, Indian Muslim Mohammadi Mujahideen, and Dawood Ibrahim Gang are operating in India. Majority of these Jihadi terrorist groups are organized under the auspices of seven main groups. Al-Bader, Laskar-e-Taiba (LET), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JEM), Harakat Ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Harakat-Ul-Jihad Islami (HUJI), Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen (JUM), and Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front (KIF). Of these seven, three-LET, JEM and HUM-have been directly linked to Bin Laden terrorist group.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran provide financial and logistical support to establish Jihadi terrorist operation bases in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Jihadi terrorist groups in Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Hyderabad, Karachi and Dacca share manpower, money and munitions to launch dangerous destructive operation –not just against Indian targets, but against international targets as well. Kashmir has historically been the focus of Jihadi terrorist groups. Jihadis have killed or pushed out all the Hindus out of Kashmir. Kashmir based terrorist groups have attacked India’s parliament building and the US information center in Calcutta. Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan based Jihadi terrorist organization, affiliated with Al-Qaeda was responsible for the Mumbai attack, the Ghodra Train attack, Varanasi Temple blast, Akshradham Temple attack and several bomb blasts in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi.

These jihadi terrorist groups are pursuing a twofold ideological and operational agenda that is both Pan Islamic and anti India. Specifically, these Jihadi terrorist groups want to institute an Islamic order in the state of Kashmir and trigger a wider Islamic war all over India. Harakat-Ul-Mujahideen retains significant strong holds in Kashmir and advocates an extremist global Islamic ideology and want to establish a separate Islamic state in Kashmir as stepping stage for a wider Jihad war against India. All Jihadi groups in India have a common anti-Indian agenda and Islamic goal. They have established links with Islamic terrorist groups in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Middle East.

Jihadi terrorist groups in India is responsible for bombing, murder, violence, riots, kidnapping, bank robbery, abduction, bus and train bombing, arms smuggling, counterfeit money distribution, drug distribution, and gang violence. Jihadi groups exploit local issues to promote their global Islamic mission.

The Central government in New Delhi and state governments has no coherent and coordinated policy or program against the growing menace of Jihadi terrorism. Phony secular politicians, bogus intellectuals, leftist academicians, liberal media and Jihad organizations have made an unholy alliance in India. The weak and vacillating attitude of the Government of India, the lethargic and indifferent attitude of the media, leftist support, the sickening secular press and the public apathy make Islamic terrorism to continue in India. To eliminate Islamic violence, India should join with the free world and challenge the very Islamic ideology that fosters Jihadists.