ROOT CAUSE OF TERRORISM AND ITS SOLUTION

ROOT CAUSE OF TERRORISM AND ITS SOLUTION Changing the Mindset T HERE is no doubt that terror attacks in different parts of the world are highly condemnable. People the world over are trying to find a solution to this menace. The authorities are trying to crush the terror menace through legal action, while reformers are trying to curb it by engaging in condemnation. However both these methods are, apparently, proving to be ineffective. Then what is the solution? Practical assessment shows that the present problem of terrorism is based on an ideology and an ideology cannot be countered through legal action or by mere condemnation. We have to develop a counterideology to overcome it. According to UNESCO, ‘Violence begins from the mind’, it has to, therefore, be uprooted from the mind itself. This succinctly captures the root cause of terrorism. Therefore, in order to eliminate this root cause we need to initiate our efforts by beginning from the right starting point—the re-engineering of minds of individuals by taking them away from the culture of violence and bringing them closer to the culture of peace. Mistaken belief To explain the importance of the above, Let us take two parallel examples from history: one of the American campaign against Communist Russia and the other of the American campaign against Saddam-led Iraq. While the US was successful in curbing the menace of Communist Russia, the same America failed to cope with the menace of Saddam-led Iraq. This is because America met the Russian challenge at an ideological level while it opted for military action against Saddam’s Iraq. Terrorism will persist in one form or another until the ideology of violence is countered with another ideology based on peace. The ideology behind present day terrorism is that, 'Islam being a political system, it is the duty of all Muslims to establish Islamic rule in the Peace is always desirable for its own sake, and every other desirable state comes after peace, not along with it.