A Brand of Islam with a Difference

present times. This problem is not limited to a particular region; it would be truer to say that it has assumed the proportions of a universal threat. In Muslim countries, the fundamentalists are at war with their secular rulers, while in non-Muslim countries, they are at loggerheads with the powers that be, because they believe that these lead the forces against Islam. Whenever they find an opportunity in their homelands or in the countries of their adoption, they promptly lay the basis for a culture of violence. Where they find no opportunity for physical violence, they start to vitiate the atmosphere through their writings and speeches, so as to produce a culture of hate. In this way, by constant manoeuvring, they are continually engaged in the campaign of arousing hatred among the Muslims for their nonMuslim compatriots. Those rulers, or nations, who are faced with this problem have largely found a solution in the form of counter-violence. In Muslim countries these aggressive elements are directly crushed, but in non-Muslim countries such activity has to be dealt with in a more indirect fashion. But this is no solution to the problem. That is because the present Muslim fundamentalists are not militants in the simple sense. Actually, they have been activated by a particular theory of Islam. Under the influence of this theory they see their mission as Muslims as having to establish Islam as a complete political system. And that they have been appointed by God as His vicegerents in order that they may establish His rule on earth. What brings them close to being almost indomitable is that they are preoccupied with the thought that even if they do not succeed in this bid, and even if they are killed, they will become martyrs and will be ushered with full honours into paradise, where they will have all that they desire. This obsession has gone beyond all limits, so that, unafraid of death, they are prepared to take any option,