From: amitabh tripathi tripathi_amitabh11@yahoo.co.in Date: Fri, 30 May 2008
In last one and half a decade, the world has changed a lot. On one hand flow
of information has brought people together from various nationalities, races, and languages. On the other hand due to this globalization some
ideologies have also become global. One of these ideologies is Islamism.
It has been described in various ways and its adherence to terrorism to
achieve its political goal has put civilized world before a grave and
immediate threat. Being an Indian terrorism was no more than law&
order problem and an abetment of insurgency by our neighbor country
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Pakistan. No one was
ready to buy the argument of its global reach and ideology or political
goal behind it. Few groups who were apprehensive of terrorism in
J&K as a part of Islamism were termed as frenzies with their vested
interest to vitiate communal atmosphere with their pre partition
syndrome.
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All these arguments and assessment went wrong when 9\11 happen and
world exposed to a new threat. But was it a really new threat which
emerged suddenly and trend of this happening never came under scanner?
If we jump to this conclusion it would be naïve. Various scholars and
academicians were aware of this new growing trend and trying their best
to make aware people of this menace but most of them were dismissed as
Islam phobic. After 9\11 when threat was so visible and incidents were
on rampant efforts were initiated to analyze the cause and motive
behind these ghastly acts. Now the situation has come to such extent
that every government is forced to reshape its internal and external
policies in background of Islamist
terrorism.
When we talk of Islamist terrorism and ideology we have not to scratch
our head for long to find out those figures to whom we can claim as an
authority on this subject. I have two names well known figures in
America and one of them is renounced figure of this subject across the
world and that name is Dr Daniel Pipes. Other name which is not known
to the world at this juncture
but very soon going to become familiar name in South Asia is Dr Richard Benkin.
Dr Daniel Pipes and Dr Benkin have few similarities in them.. Both are
American citizen and Jew from their faith as well as Zionist and
don’t hesitate to be called conservative. Dr Daniel Pipes could be
called an intellectual warrior without any hesitation and same is true
with Dr Richard Benkin. I have one chance to meet both of them.
In January this year when one leading Hindi newspaper named Dainik
Jagran organized a conclave on Asian subjects and invited Dr Daniel
Pipes in that talk it was like a dream come true. It was a funny story
also that I came to know about his programme in India. One of my
friends told me about his programme seeing the advertisement on that
very Hindu newspaper which was organizing the conclave. Before meeting
him I was in touch with him through electronic correspondence and
trying to assess myself how right I was in reading him through his
writings.
We had two meetings for at least two hours and chat on various
ontemporary subjects. I am repeatedly calling him warrior because he is
so clear in his perception and express him frankly to give next
generation freedom and free world. Dr Pipes described how Islamism,
communism and Fascism are a big threat to civilized world. His
definition of Islamism gives a hope to take on this problem. According
to Dr Pipes Islam as a faith is not an enemy and it is Islamism which
is enemy. He described this Islamism as an ideology which gets
inspiration from communism and Fascism of 20th century and use Islam
faith as a tool to achieve its totalitarian goal. He very frankly talks
of his theory that radical Islam is problem and moderate Islam is
solution.
In America there are several takers of this theory.
Dr Pipes proved my objective that he is an intellectual warrior because
he was the person who was writing and warning US from 80’s against
growing tendency of Islamism. Being a big reader of Dr Pipes I was
surprised to know how much clarity he has in his thought that in his
few articles he has given example of ambitions of some Mujaheedeens
fighting with America in Afghanistan against USSR to destroy America
also after Russia to pave the way for Islamisation of America. He is
the only
person who has sensed Islamist movement very early and I will say
because of his scholarly acumen America was able to handle the
situation after 9\11 to some extent in such a manner that other
countries did not.
Often people come to his most visited site and some of them made allegations against him of being Islam phobe but if you meet
him not from any stretch of imagination he will appear as Islam phobe.
He is very logical and rationalist person with deep insight and
analytical power. Some other qualities which make him different from
others are his commitment to truth. In last year of president ship of
George W Bush he did not hesitate to criticize him for some of his
failures of policies at implementation level. If one would say that Dr
Pipes has emerged as a necessity among intellectuals across the world
then it is no hyperbole.
Other intellectual warrior who has emerged from the soil of America is Dr Richard Benkin . I was first introduced to Dr
Richard by Dr Daniel Pipes when he referred my name to him and I responded him with an email. I was little bit surprised and
amused to get back the reply from Dr Richard calling me as brother. In the meantime I had a chance to go to his website
InterfaithStrength.com. Visiting that site I came to know of his fight for his friend Salahudin Shoaib Choudhary. His
fight for Salahuddin proves him a warrior who is slightly different
from Dr Daniel Pipes because of his activist nature. We could
call him intellectual activist warrior. Like Dr Daniel Pipes I also got chance to meet Dr Richard Benkin and it was much more
time than I spend with Dr Pipes. I got this chance when Dr Richard visited India to know the status of Bangladeshi Hindus in
West Bengal. Being a Hindu I was little hesitant also to know that he has come from America to fight for the cause of
Bangladeshi Hindus and I am unable to do any help for them even living in India. Dr Richard is very energetic, enthusiastic and
youthful person. He has sharp learning capacity and zeal to learn. In his visit to India he showed lot of energy. Accompanying
him for three days it was very easy for me to assess his fighting
instinct. He is a true warrior who is committed for human rights.
Some times back he was professor in Human psychology and her wife also works for disable children. I still have in my
memory one story which Dr Richard told me that how he told her daughter not to beat anybody only because you are in anger.
His fight against extremism revolves around this theory that you are not justified to harm anybody only because you are angry.
He has seen how his mother, wife and daughter had a narrow escape in a suicide bombing in a restaurant. According to Dr
Richard this incident compelled him to think about the psyche of suicide bombers and ideology which enjoy the human
causality and how these people could not be our friends. They are enemies and we should deal with them in that manner. His
thought is not confined to only debate and lectures he is ready to
fight for the cause of oppressed and repressed. His resolve to
fight against all odds makes him warrior.
As earlier it has been said Dr Daniel Pipes and Dr Richard Benkin has
something common in both of them. The most common thing for them is
their faith and legacy. They belong to that legacy which fought
ceaselessly for thousand of years for their promised land and finally
got their nation but unfortunately the whole Islamist ideology and
Islamist terrorism has propagated the birth right of Jews as pivotal to
resurgence of Islamist movement. In history of mankind no community has
been persecuted
to such extent as Jews( It has only parallel of Hindus who were
murdered, slaughtered and butchered in 800 years of Islamic rule) but
it is their chivalry and gallantry which survives them. It is not a
coincidence that again two Jewish intellectual warriors has come out
openly to fight against Islamist terrorism.
Bring your gang together. Do your thing. Find your favourite Yahoo! Group.
)
