Experiencing TERRORISM through Closed Doors of MIND

Wednesday night was not a usual night for me, it was not a night for me to find comfort on my bed, it was not a night when my eyes slept with solace, rather, it was a night of fear in my mind, and it was a night of insecurity as I was staying alone. Though not in Mumbai, my heartbeat stopped for umpteen number of times seeing the terrorist attack on Taj in Mumbai. Enough has been said, enough has been done and enough has been tolerated in the name of “Jihad”, not anymore.

Seeing those images on television and reading headlines at midnight, what hurt me the most was, the terrorists were “young boys” around 22-25 who were used for this operation. This is the age where the boys have high aspiration and want to do something for themselves and rise high in their life, but it's sad to see guns in their hands and killing people mercilessly. Are we so helpless?? Don't we realize that in the name of religion, a lot has been destroyed including innocent minds which have been brainwashed to carry such activity? All these events in the last 2 days have impacted me a lot and I took some time to read the diaries of these terrorists and understand their psychology. Going through articles on web, I gained a lot of insight on how these innocent individuals are moulded and influenced to carry heinous crimes which they tag under “Martyrism”. One of the Jihadis said in his personal dairy is “The only education they undergo is RELIGION”. For them, guerilla war involved "sacrifice for Allah". I happened to come across a cathartic journey of a jihadi who was caught and kept inside a jail, where he has penned down his memory. As a teenager, he was being exposed to the extremists group and their ideologies. The only thing in his mind was “not to lead a normal life” like his elder brother whom he condemned saying that it was against “Allah”. His diary offers a chilling, fragmented, self-portrait of a young Muslim man not only disaffected with Western society, but with other Muslims unwilling to join in jihad. All in the name of Allah, this was the only way to go heaven. I also came across a letter written by a 21 yr old who was studying in medicine in Sydney and his decision to become a Jihad. He says “Western patients look at me as if I'm a frog. They don't wish to speak English to me. How can I spend five to six years with them? A disillusioned Ul-Haque wanted to take part in a jihad with the militant Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), fighting the Indian Army for the freedom of Kashmir. And he would fight to his death to become a martyr. But after finishing the 20-day Ul-Haque decided combat was not for him and he returned to Sydney but was convicted 25 years of jail.

According to Mr. Sageman, Jihad process has four stages. The initial trigger is a sense of moral outrage, usually over some incident of Muslim suffering in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya or elsewhere. This acquires a broader context, becoming part of what Mr Sageman calls a “morality play” in which Islam and the West are seen to be at war. In stage three, the global and the local are fused, as geopolitical grievance resonates with personal experience of discrimination or joblessness. And finally the individual joins a terrorist cell, which becomes a surrogate family, nurturing the jihadist world-view and preparing the initiate for martyrdom. Many Muslims pass through the first three phases; only a few take the final step.

It’s so true that “Hate is not inherited but taught and believe me these young jihadis are taught to hate and kept away from living a peaceful life. The thing which is taught to these innocent children in schools is “We, the Muslims are good and the rest of the world, the Non-Muslims, is evil. And therefore, Good and Evil will fight and Good will eventually win through human sacrifices.” which was not true, the dream of children were molested every night when they heard shootings, yelling and screaming from the streets and alleys. Atrocities and continuous atrocities on these children have left nothing other than hatred which takes human toll in the form of bombings, killing and a brutal set of events which end the “LIFE” of thousands with a fullstop.