Anatomy of Terrorism

Terrorism is an attitude. It is a cognitive distortion. Every terrorist perceives reality inaccurately and hence behaves or acts deviantly. But the terrorist believes that he is doing the most right thing which has a divine sanction to boot.

Osama bin Laden believed that Islam was the only right religion and Sharia the only right way of living. The USA was the evil empire with its orgies of fornication and intoxication, gambling and usury. It had to be destroyed in order to create a better world. So his terrorists fought against it and went to the extent of ramming passenger airplanes into the World Trade Centre and a few other buildings.

Osama bin Laden is just a specimen of the vast species of terrorists. But he provides us with a rewarding anatomy of terrorism. Terrorism is , in very few words:

1.     A belief in certain absolutes like God, scriptures, etc;

2.     Intolerance of those who refuse to accept those absolutes as truths; and

3.     Violent struggle against perceived enemies.

Is Islam the only breeder of terrorism? Not at all. America was a terrorist country in the heyday of western capitalism. Christianity was a terrorist religion in the whole medieval era. Russia practised the leftist variety of terrorism particularly under Stalin.

Is India teetering on the edge of terrorism under the leadership of Narendra Modi? The violent attacks on people belonging to particular communities point to the possibility. Terrorism always begins with alienating certain communities of people from the mainstream, projecting them as evil, and then attacking them in various ways. India has been doing precisely that from 2014.

What can an individual do to prevent terrorism? This is the question raised by a fellow blogger at a blogging community. At the subjective level, we can question our own cognitive distortions. When people impose their truths as well as lies on us in the name of gods and traditions, we should always question them rationally and factually.

At the socio-political level, we should help our fellow beings to question their cognitive distortions which lead to terrorism eventually if the political ground is fertile for that to happen. At least we can stop propagating falsehood through social networks and other means.

If we are attacked from outside, as has been happening vis-a-vis Pakistan, we maybe helpless at our personal levels. We can support the effective measures taken by our armed forces and the government. There is always one thing that matters in the end, irrespective of the type of terrorism: our attitude.  

PS. Written for In(di)spire Edition 263: #WorkForBharat