dynamics of contemporary world. It needs to be restructured radically if it has to remain relevant.
The most heinous crime committed against the Muslim world has been a sustained effort to enslave it by propping up dictators and kings against popular will. Most of the rulers in Muslim majority countries do not represent the aspirations of their people. They rule with an iron hand with no obligation, whatsoever, to empower their people through education and political participation. Their lifestyle is in sharp contrast to that of ordinary citizens.
The welfare of the people is never their priority. What, however, they never forget is their total submission to the US and other ‘masters’ in return for getting legitimacy to rule and ‘necessary’ support for survival. Whether someone likes it or not but hopelessness and dispossession in the Muslim world has provided the breeding ground for militant groups such as the TTP, Al-Shabab, and Isis.
It is extremely important to understand that terrorism has nothing to do with any religion, including Islam. It is quite evident that individuals and groups who decide to take up arms against a state will invoke religion or race to justify their actions.
It is also convenient and strategically important for countries fighting Isis and other such groups to make terrorism an ideological war. Ideological differences create conditions where people can hardly think and act justly. Ideology conceals real motives and distracts attention from real problems.
Tactical gains against the enemy are always necessary for boosting the morale of the soldiers and placating apprehensions of defeat but they are not sufficient to win a war.
War, according to Churchill, is too serious a matter to be left to the generals. Terrorism is not an ordinary war; it is complex, protracted, and illusive. Killing a few individuals here and there and hitting some hideouts from the skies may bring solace to some but it is nothing more than pushing the real problem under the carpet.
The writer teaches at FAST-NU, Peshawar.
Email: zeb.khannu.edu.pk