The Himalayan Earthquake

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


The Himalayan Earthquake

 As of latest estimate, the Nepal earthquake death toll just exceeded 2400 with about 6000 injured. Since the main quake that measured 7.9 in Richter.Scale(RC), there have been over 60 aftershocks measuring over 4 to 6.7 RC. One solace is that compared to the last one that rocked Nepal in 1934 that measured 8.2 RC and  claimed 10 to 12 thousand lives, this time the causalities so far are much smaller while not ruling out a steep rise in figures when more reports from interiors might  pour in.

 Nepal, located at the central part of the Himalaya represents one of the active seismic zones in the Himalaya There are historical indications that Kathmandu has been struck by repeated severe earthquakes in the past centuries, and more recently in last centuary we know  at least 6 earthquakes have occurred in the country.

Earthquakes happen when any of the major six plates or many minor plates, of which the earth consists of, releases suddenly the pent up strain energy at their margins. Where today the Himalaya mountains exist there was an ancient sea called Tethys sea separating the Indian subdcontinent and Eurasian continent. Tethys was obliterated when the Indian plate underthrust the Eurasian continental plate  raising a ridge between them as the rudiment of the Himalyas and raising it to the present height in a process of  continued action of converging stress field in the last fifty-fi ve million years after the under thrust or collision commenced. The process is still ongoing although much dissipated, the indian plate moving at a rate of about 20 to  45 millimeters an year going under the Eurasian plate. resulting in potentail earthquakes.  Pressure builds up as the plates push together, until the Indian plate lurches suddenly downwards, sending a great earthquake reverberating across hundreds of kilometres.

The Himalaya Mountains, now a well defined arc, and extending  for ~2500 km from Nanga Parbat (8215 m) in west-northwest to Namcha Barwa (7755 m) to the east-northeast are therefore very much prone to earthquakes. Himalayan belt was rocked by four great earthquakes (1897 Assam, 1905 Kangra, 1934 Nepal-Bihar border and 1950 Assam) within fifty-five years (1897-1950) and large number of strong earthquakes caused huge loss of lives and property. Many regions of the central Himalayas are now holding onto at least four meters of convergence, which would cause a great earthquake when released. This amount of slip is thought to have occurred in the great earthquake of 1934 that rocked the Bihar-Nepal region.ut the pressure has been mounting,

Large earthquakes have struck this region every few decades since the early nineteenth century. Since 1950, when the biggest earthquake within a single continent in recorded history shook Assam, the fault lines have been silent. But the pressure has been mounting, and it was predicted since 2001 and as recent as a couple of months back  that an earthquake of up to 8 RC was actually overdue. Considering probable ruptures of 150 km segments the Himalayan plate boundary at seven positions, Kashmir, DehraDun, Garhwal, West Nepal, Kathmandu, Bhutan and Assam are identified as places where sufficient elastic energy is believed to be accumulated for magnitude eight earthquakes. Even if the great thrusts of the Himalaya are now apparently quiescent for large earthquakes, the foothill shows geologically very recent faulting and thrusting on a large scale.

But unfortunately earthquakes cannot be predicted with the accuracy anywhere nearing that of climatic disasters like cyclones. We are rather helpless in preparing and be ready to mitigate the deadly effects. All that any country can do is to cope with its aftermath.

Yes, The Cow is Holy. Protecting the Cow.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


 Yes, The Cow is Holy. Protecting the Cow.

 Beef eating is not anyone's birth right, nor is it enshrined in the constitution of India as a fundamental right. So it cannot be anyone's case that there is a human rights violation in the recent ban of cow slaughter in Maharashtra State. It is rather a foot-in-mouth argument to say that one should be allowed to feed on whatever one has a fancy for, because there are are so many kinds of food restrictions on various grounds prevalent in the world including India.  Due to cultural and or religious taboos a  sort of built-in aversion or disinclination to include an animal's flesh in one's diet is practiced by many broad groups of people . The taboos extend to health grounds and to plants and  beverages too. Many food taboos forbid the meat of a particular animal, including mammals, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, bony fish, mollusks and crustaceans. Some taboos are specific to a particular part or excretion of an animal, while other taboos forgo the consumption of plants, fungi, or insects and some are merely seasonal.

The cow, by Hindus, and the pig, by the Muslims are forbidden to be slaughtered and their meat consumed by respective followers. Hindus are not alone in abstaining from eating beef or bovine meat. Many Zoroastrians do not eat beef, because of the cow that saved Zoroaster's life from murderers when Zoroaster was a baby. Actual Pahlavi texts state that Zoroastrians should be fully vegetarian.
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Judaism prescribes a strict set of rules, called Kashrut, regarding what may and may not be eaten.  Jains  follow religious directives to observe vegetarianism. Some ethnic Chinese may also refrain from eating cow meat, because many of them feel that it is wrong to eat an animal that was so useful in agriculture. Some Chinese Buddhists discourage the consumption of beef, although it is not considered taboo. A similar taboo can be seen among Sinhalese Buddhists, who consider it to be ungrateful to kill the animal whose milk and labor provides livelihoods to many Sinhalese people.

Consumption of beef is taboo for Hindus out of respect for the cow. Those Hindus who do eat meat abstain from the consumption of beef, as the cow holds a sacred place in Hinduism.  Dairy products such as milk, yogurt and particularly ghee are highly revered and used in holy ceremonies. Cow milk was the nearest substitute of mother's milk for orphaned new-born babies before the advent of modern medicine when  young mothers died during or just after delivery.. Cattle, cows and bulls, were the mainstay of our ancient ancestors for their livelihood  both before and after agriculture was developed. Cow particularly was next only to the  mother in providing sustenance which was regarded therefore as 'gomatha", the mother cow, the alter mother. Slaughter of cows is therefor an extremely provocative issue for many Hindus

Some professed right activists and pseudo-progressives even question the very basis of the Hindu belief that beef is proscribed for them by faith, by pointing out that there are here-and-there references to beef eating in the Vedas and Puranas, and to liking of it even by some seers.   Undoubtedly there are,(seer Yajnavalkya is well known for his expressed liking for "tender cow's meat".), but what these half-knowledgeable naivete should learn is that there is express injunction or command against cow slaughter in Vedas and explicit recommendation of vegetarianism, and those few references to beef- eating  are in the nature of concessions under certain circumstances. Every rule has exceptions.

Rig Veda (10.87.16):

"One who partakes of human flesh, the flesh of a horse or of another animal, and deprives others of milk by slaughtering cows, O King, if such a fiend does not desist by other means, then you should not hesitate to cut off his head."

Similar injunctions against meat eating as well as recommendations for vegetarianism are found strewn through out the other Vedas, Sutras, Smritis,and Puranas,-  especially in Manusmriti. As per concessions, cows (and other specified animals) could be slaughtered for yajnas or ritual sacrifices as offerings and small portions of their meat to be consumed as prasaad or partaking of the blessings. (Incidentally, it was a deadly sin not to partake of  these offering)

One may argue that these taboos are self imposed and not enforced by the government. But when the taboo is held or  practiced by the majority, the difference becomes insignificant. Not only that in India the ban  on cow slaughter is already in force which is not widely realized.  The fact that by Indian law, the slaughter of female cattle (i.e. cows) is banned in almost all Indian states except Kerala, West Bengal and the seven north eastern states is  not widely known . A person involved in either cow slaughter or its illegal transportation could be jailed in many states. Now with the ban on cow slaughter to be strictly implemented in Maharashtra, it will not be long before the restriction covers all India.

The Peshawar Carnage

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

The Peshawar Carnage.

  The Peshawar school massacre of children by the Taliban is the nadir of depravity to which human mind can fall .  The only other parallel in modern history that could perhaps outdo this devilry is the one by Chechnya Islamist militant separatists on a Beslan school in North Ossetia, Russia in September 1-3, 2004. In all, at least 385 people were killed there,  including 156 children. The youngest was two years old.

   As night fell on Tuesday in Peshawar, a teeming, volatile city near the Afghan border of Pakistan, security forces wrapped up an operation that lasted more than eight hours and involved intense gun battles.

At least 132 students and nine staff members were killed on that day in the bloodiest massacre Pakistan has seen for years when Taliban gunmen broke into the school at about 10 am and opened fire. A teacher was burnt to death in front of the students in a classroom. “One of my teachers was crying,” a student narrated from hospital. “She had been shot in the hand and was crying in pain. One terrorist then walked up to her and started shooting her until she stopped making any sound. All around me my friends were lying injured and dead.” The school is located on the edge of a military cantonment in Peshawar, where the militant gunmen , equipped with suicide vests entered through a graveyard which is adjacent to the school.

The horrific attack, carried out by a relatively small number of militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban group, a Pakistani militant splinter group  also sent dozens of wounded flooding into local hospitals, as terrified parents searched for their children.  The attack on the military-run high school attended by more than 1,100 people, bulk of them children of army personnel, but many of them civilians too , pierced the heart of Pakistan's military establishment. Pakistan has both created and  lived with terrorist attacks for years, but the scale and savageness of this latest attack reverberated around not only the country but the world. “There is not a belief system in the world that can justify such an act. I think what this shows is the worldwide threat that is posed by this poisonous ideology of extremist Islamist terrorism. said David Cameron, British Prime Minister. Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally spoke to his counterpart Nawaz Sheriff.

Taliban sent a few clear messages here. They attacked a soft target that was very sensitive to the army, - clearly, an attempt to demoralize the military. May be, the second is to do with Malala who herself has been shot earlier by Taliban and who  is now receiving accolades from all over the world and whose views on modern education for all is opposed by Taliban who wants Islamic schooling system. Thirdly the Taliban is showing that in their fight against the state, this part of Pakistan is already ungovernable.

The heinous attack and massacre of children by Taliban, the extent of depravity and savage brutality it exhibits  emphasize the lessons this failed errant state that is  Pakistan, should learn, who terms terrorists as "good terrorists" and "bad terrorists" and employ the former kind to attack India,  The historical unholy covert connections between the Pakistan army, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), security police, and the Taliban itself –abetted by the corruption and avarice of the political elite of the country has been a double-edged sword. As Hilary Clinton remarked, you cannot rear poisonous snakes in your backyard and expect them to bite only the neighbors. For many years, the ISI and the Pakistani army helped to fund and arm the mujahedin and then the Taliban in Afghanistan, first against Russians and  then covertly against Americans and the ineffective Afghan regime, even after America discovered  that Pakistan was a Trojan horse hiding Osama bin Laden. And the Afghans are complaining that Pakistan is assisting the Taliban in its struggle against the pro-American regime in Kabul

Now that the snake in the backyard has bitten them,  the Pakistan security forces regard the Taliban as their principal enemy. When stories  of Pakistani military barbarity  against the Taliban in Pakistan – reports of the execution of Taliban prisoners in Waziristan, whose bodies were left to lie upon the roads to be eaten by animals – came out recently,  the revenge by the Taliban had also become certain..  Now that the all out retaliation by the army is sure to make the battle between the Pak military and the Islamists  more vicious in Waziristan, it also ensures that more brutal could be the response of the Islamists. Pakistani military offensives against the Taliban are now seen by the victims in Waziristan as part of America’s war against Muslims.



Pakistan is on the horns of deadly dilemma: its army has to  hate and fight  the Taliban – but it also needs Taliban - for use against India.

Kem Cho? Obama! Modi's " Aswamedha" (Conquest) in USA.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup




Kem Cho Obama! Modi's " Aswamedha" (Conquest) in USA.

 The 'Kem cho' moment


 Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic official visit to USA has gone down in history as an episode when the untouchable and  persona non grata Modi that he was to President Obama and his government made them all stand in line and salute him, pay all the obeisance overtures and ovations and even kowtow to his deft diplomatic moves..A moment of sweet revenge, although he never rubbed the ignominy in to them. Navarathri not only signifies victory of good over evil but also rejuvenation and resurrection, and the greatness of it all was that everyone involved felt the change.

What if Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was on Navarathri fast - to the great wonder and amazement of Americans -  and President Barack Obama couldn’t really break bread together, but they bonded over political banter. For Obama and Modi, the visit was all about the basics: getting to know each other, committing to get the relationship back on track, and promising to push toward even greater cooperation. To others, the visit amounted to an official clearing of the air after Modi's visa issue and India's outrage at the arrest in New York last year of one of its diplomats,.Devyani Khobragaede.



There were uniquely a number of 'firsts' on Modi's trip to USA. An epic arrival for any international delegation and unprecedented Indian-American enthusiasm; Unprecedented business CEO interactions; Joint Vision Statement of a modal-for-world strategic partnership; Modi-Obama joint editorial; Modi's Hollywood tryst; and all these accomplishments on religious fast by any Indian PM or any PM  in the world!



Modi had three clear objectives when he set out for USA. His main aim of the trip appears to have been to send out the message that India was strong, and that India is ready to engage with Indian-Americans and the US . Modi wanted to show the United States that it's a very different India today and to convince his interlocutors that energy was back in India  Apart from that,his most important outreach was to American business. This is part of his "Make in India" drive, and part of the holy triumvirate with "Clean India" and "Clean Ganga". The third aspect of his visit was the outreach to the Indian-American community, which is among the wealthiest, best educated and influential. He wants the Indian "lobby" to evolve into something approaching the Jewish lobby and to influence US policies and approaches towards India.



Modi's meeting with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and the American Jewish Committee touched another important part of this outreach. For the first time in years, Narendra Modi brought the India-Israel ties out of the closet, making the Netanyahu meeting the only one bilateral outside of South Asia. At the same time, with Obama, Modi established two things — that the discomforts of the past were behind him, but he wouldn't be a pushover in tough negotiations, on WTO or elsewhere.



The major gains and accomplishments by Modi in the engagement he had with Obama could now be enumerated: On the trade and economic front, U.S. will help develop 'smart cities' Ajmer,Visahakapatnam and Allahabad. Partnership in Digital India initiative to enhance digital infrastructure, e-governance, and e-services. Set up 'infrastructure collaboration platform' with single point of contact that will identify critical infra needs and ensure greater US industry presence in infra projects.Push an' investment initiative' to help institutional investors and corporate houses to invest in India. Extend an Indo-pacificEconomic corridor to Myanmar and South East Asia,  identifying  critical ports, rail, aviation, and intermodal infra projects.

The United States is promoting a New Silk Road initiative linking Central and South Asia in four key areas: Regional Energy Markets, Trade and Transport, Customs and Border Operations, Businesses and People-to-People. India has endorsed the US-sponsored new Silk Road idea. A few weeks ago, India refrained from joining China's maritime Silk Road initiative put forward by Xi Jinping.

In strategic consultations, an  UN and Multilateral Issues Dialogue dealing with UN's role, development, and UN reforms, and also  an Indian Ocean Region Dialogue will be commenced.

In the matter of mutual ties, close collaboration wth National Defence Universities, visa on arrival for US nationals, increased participation for Indians in US Global Entry Program, supply of advanced defense vehicles, MOU in environmental and occupational health fields, were agreed upon.

In a push for science and tech,  Joint mission on climate change impacts, in space exploration, Indian participation in Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project,and Mars Working Group, creating a clean energy finance forum, and MOU in matters of renewable energy issues were decided on.



The immediate effect of  these whole spectrum of Indo-American forward movements is emerging. According to an assessment done by ASSOCHAM's newly-opened US office in New York, US policy-makers, think tanks, Congressional leaders across bi-partisan line and most significantly CEOs of top Fortune 500 companies believe that PM Narendra Modi and his NDA government can deliver and transform India into a modern nation with democratic values and America Inc would like to engage with this transformation, 

The Great Kashmir deluge.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


 The Great Kashmir Deluge.

 Hafiz Saeed, one of South Asia's most dangerous militants, has no doubt who is to blame for devastating Sept., 2014 floods that have submerged swathes of Pakistani countryside and claimed hundreds of lives.

"India irrigates its deserts and dumps extra water on Pakistan without any warning," he accuses doing his very best in exploiting the floods to turn people against India."If we don't stop India now, Pakistan will continue to face this danger." he warns. The fact is that such calumnious views might get currency in Pakistan because many Pakistanis believe that rival India uses its upstream dams to manipulate how much water flows down to Pakistani wheat and cotton fields, with some describing it as a "water bomb" designed to weaken its neighbor.

It is said that the valley of Kashmir was once a lake which in ancient Purana was known as Satisar and the legend goes on to say that Kashyap Maharshi caused it to be drained to dry land for his people to inhabit the valley. This time, torrential rains of unprecedented fury and volume again rendered the valley to a virtual lake

The demon Jalodbhava whom many Kashmiris know in legend, tormented the inhabitants of the valley again in the form of heavy torrential rains unprecedented in the last 60 or even 100 years which hit the Jammu &; Kashmir region as well as Pak Occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Pak Punjab. As a result, an estimated 200 people in India and 280 people in Pakistan died in the floods.  By 5, September, the Jhelum River in Srinagar was reported to be flowing at  4.40 feet (1.34 m) above the danger mark in Srinagar and by 12 feet in Ananthanag district. The discharge rate in the river was recorded as 70000 m3/s against the normal discharge of 25000 m3/s.  2600 villages were reported to be affected in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which 390 villages in Kashmir were completely submerged. 1225 villages were partially affected and 1000 villages were affected in Jammu Division. By September 8, in many parts of Srinagar's neighborhood, the water was about 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, submerging entire house.

 Landslides triggered by heavy rainfall had damaged roads, dozens of bridges, buildings and crops. 50 bridges were reported to have been damaged across the state. The preliminary assessment of damages to property was estimated between Rs. 5000 cr to Rs. 6000 cr . Similarly, the Chenab River was also reported to flow above the danger mark by which hundreds of villages were affected in Pakistan.

India's Defense  forces: the Army, Air force, and Navy mounted massive rescue and aid operations.  82 aircraft and helicopters, 10 battalions of Border Security Force 329 columns of Indian Army and 300 boats were in the rescue operations. Two IL 76, One C-130J and one AN 32 aircraft carried a total of 50 tonnes of supplies including food, water and medicines. 300 boats were dispatched to South Kashmir for excavation of people from submerged areas.[13] Armed Forces including Border Security Force (B.S.F) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued over 200,000 persons from different regions of Jammu and Kashmir. 10 VSAT systems were air lifted to restore critical telecom towers and a satellite link from Bardula had been provided for crucial communication.

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi offered an assistance of Rs.1000 crore (US$170 million) to the state government, in addition to Rs.1100 crore (US$180 million) already earmarked for the disaster. Aid poured in from other states too. Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Chief Minister of Telangana announced an aid of Rs.10 crore (US$1.7 million) each from the chief minister's relief fund for the rescue and relief for Jammu and Kashmir flood victims,  Also, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, announced an assistance of Rs.5 crore (US$830,000) each
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Of course it was a demon of all floods, truly a  Jalodbhava (born of water), but the real demon according to environmentalists is a combination of unprecedented and intense rain, mismanagement, unplanned urbanization and a lack of preparedness. They would ascribe the floods to manifestation of an extreme weather event linked to climate change. In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its fourth assessment report, said extreme rainfall events were set to increase over the Indian subcontinent. In its fifth assessment report, the IPCC said the intensity of rainfall in India would increase. A study by  the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in 2006 had predicted changes in rainfall across India and especially over the Himalayan range, which would have a high impact in the region, apart from the west coast and central India.

The study of data between 1950 and 2000 showed that the incidence of heavy and very heavy rainfall (more than 100 mm and 150 mm/ a day) had increased and moderate rainfall decreased. They point out that  in 2004, a remote sensing data-based study of Jammu and Kashmir had shown that 55 per cent of wetlands, drainage channels and water bodies had been encroached upon. Jammu and Kashmir had an intricate system of water management. The lake areas had diminished, the holding capacity of many water bodies had gone down, and houses were built in places they should never have been.

In Uttarakhand or in Kashmir it may be the enactment of the same story: man's avaricious, thoughtless, assaults on nature and its balancing system, and nature hitting back fiercely. And we never heed or learn. The columnist rightly said"We are a disaster when it comes to disasters”

And amidst all this herculean efforts going on by the Indian Government, its Defence Forces, NDRF, and the rest of India, there are the despicable and discordant elements like separatists who pelt stones at the helicopters and boats of the Army and NDRF, and separatist leaders like the 84-year Sayed Ali Shah Geelani who speaks to Pakistan TV channels that "Indian Army men were moving around in boats with TV crews only to stage an act of rescuing a few locals for the purpose of publicity and propaganda,". Gilani is mortally afraid that if the fact that Indian Defence forces and Agencies rescued over 200000 people including separatists like Yasin malik, while his own followers were not visible anywhere doing any thing good, whatever little appeal he has in the valley will be dead before him. Yasin Malik who was rescued by the Army personnel on 13 Sept. from his downtown Miasuma residence. just bit the hand that saved his life by hijacking an Army boat with its food and aid supplies meant for the flood victims, virtually stealing food from the mouths of his own starving people. .Now have you any doubt why the land of such inhabitants went down under?. It is these people that brought such devastating calamity to the land as a  nature's reprisal for their wrongs.

The U.S. Incursion of Iraq and Creation of ISIS.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup


 The U.S. Incursion of Iraq and Creation of ISIS.

 

A sign of what was to come: fighters parade a commandeered Iraqi military truck through Mosul.

 In what a slow and steady way the USA bungled and tumbled in Iraq! Eleven years after the U.S. invasion, Iraq remains steeped in violence, with militant extremists gaining ground, civil war hanging in the balance and no clear resolution to the chaos

With staggering pace the invasion proceeded to crumble the Iraqi Army, drove president Saddam Hussein to hide, and and then get caught and put in captivity and rule the streets of Iraq, only to be confronted with the task of securing and governing a complex nation of 30 million people utterly unfathomable to Americans. Not surprisingly the series of bungles started to roll, with almost similar alacrity seen in the invasion. The Iraqi National army was disbanded. Hussein's Ba'ath Party was divested of all professional positions.

 Within hours of disbanding the army insurgency erupted. The de-Ba'thification alienated the skilled Sunnis leaving them disenfranchised, angry and as potential recruits for the nascent insurgency. In a few months the insurgency was in full force.  White House got cold feet driving it to decide to leave Iraq too soon. Authority was handed over to Iraqi Governing Council and American troops withdrew to fortified bases in haste.

This was the situation Sunnis wanted - try and subjugate the Shia majority. Shias patiently bore the brunt of the string of attacks till Iraqi Al Queda, eager to provoke a sectarian war, pushed the Shias over the edge by destroying one of their holiest shrine,(Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra). Fierce reprisal and bloodshed followed cocking a snook at American presence. President Bush responded by hoisting Nouri al-Maliki who it was believed could rally the Shias but also not be perceived ,as too sectarian by the Sunnis and Kurds, as the new Iraqi leader, and on the ground, by what was termed the "surge", - dispatching  an additional 30,000 U.S. troops who moved off the large, fortified bases and into the neighborhoods. The result was that the U.S. forces sustained their heaviest losses during this period as both Sunnis ans Shias turned their ire on the coalition forces. This continued till a truce was arranged with Shias, while the Sunnis were bought out by cash not to attack U.S.troops but only Al Queda. Somehow the Iraqi violence was reduced to a low grade insurgency.

And enter President Obama with his electoral promise of pull out from Iraq and subsequent pull out dateline of Dec.2011. By December 2011, almost all U.S. forces had left Iraq, leaving Maliki to govern on his own. Left to himself, Maliki lost no time to turn against the Sunnis and by a series of actions gave a clear message that  there would be no role for Sunnis in Maliki’s Shia regime.

Disenfranchised Sunnis found an outlet in a militant group that had recently coalesced in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. ISIS, which had a reputation for ruthlessness, gained a rapid foothold in Iraq, capturing the towns of Fallujah and Ramadi in January, and Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, in June.

The world was surprised by how quickly the Iraqi army fell to a small force of fighters. Shia militias have stepped in to fill the void, and sectarian killings are on the rise again. The world, not only Iraq, was aghast at the audacious declaration of an Islamic caliphate by ISIS including territories under its control in Iraq and Syria and demanding all Muslims pledge obedience to its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS is feared as the most noxious outfit of all Muslim terrorist organizations, bloodcurdlingly brutal and savage.“They make bin Laden’s 2011 Al Qaeda look like Boy Scouts.” The throat-cutting ISIS is the fiend that came out of U.S. incursion of Iraq with its professed intention of subjugating the entire Muslim world,  which the U.S is now trying to blast out by aerial bombing.

Kicking Away The Talk.

Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup

Kicking Away The Talk.

 

 I had earlier in Facebook referred to the foolhardiness that is characteristic of the Islam mind. This trait is a later acquisition as the Qur'an doesn't enjoin its believers to act like that. There is,  however, a streak of violence that is preached in the holy book which I believe is the root cause of Islam's belligerent interactions with the rest of the world. This exhortation to violence to the extent of disregarding the endangering of one's life for perceived causes of defending or promoting the faith and or the followers and the very explicit promise of just and pleasurable rewards in the nether life for the resulting self sacrifice should be held as the prime causative factor for this foolhardiness. While Islam spread with astonishing speed on the wave of sustained crusades or jehads, especially in the then no man's land of Middle-East, and later on, in a good part of the relatively less intellectual or vacuum-lands of the world where at that time the spread met with little resistance, the attempts to further the faith, expanding its credo to an establishment of global Islamic World Order that includes nations  in progressive parts of the world have been resisted and been  the major cause of global strife after the end of world war 2.

The Islamic history is riddled with senseless and mostly self decimating conflicts with the rest of the people   so much so that 95 percent of all world strife is of Muslim origin and or causation,. - whether it is the Middle-East, Bosnia, Cyprus, Afghanistan,Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Nigeria, or the latest Gaza rocketeers, the story is the same. While the non-Muslim nations have progressed to religious liberalism and tolerant democracy, the Muslim nations and people have regressed towards radicalism and theocratic state, spreading in its wake  a scourge of violence in a new form of medieval jehad: the terrorism.

These theocratic states find themselves in continuous conflict, with Jewish Israel, Hindu India, and Christian Europe. Added to their religious bigotry of scriptural origin, they are also the hallucinated sufferers from their history.  They had a hoary history of cultural and scientific advancement as part of the eastern civilizations compared to the rudimentary state of the west in the distant past. But no more so, which they don't realize. The world has gone far ahead of them and reached greater heights while they still wallow in the muddied pit of their decadent medievalism that is now shone of all the assets of the past. Muslims all over the world and specially of the Middle East, their home, want to experience the history as a current reality. In short. their religion teaches them that they are recipients of the final and most perfect revelation of God for which and whose enhancement it is noble to die and reap the reward, while their history tells them that they were able to conquer others.

Muslims of the world are living out this fantasy and chasing the  past chimeras in the present. And Pakistan is just another theocratic medieval Muslim nation living in the illusion of  grandiose Muslim past, and on that account, falling apart refusing to acknowledge reality. They believe that they will emulate the Moguls and pitiably refuse to recognize that in both the wars they fought with India, they came a cropper and with a severed limb that is Bangla Desh. Their nose is still bleeding in Kashmir which only enrages them. So long as the Kashmir bleeds in to their eyes they will be incapable of clear vision and to see what is really happening.

Does any one of them, their govt. their media, the leaders and intelligentsia, halt and ponderfor a moment  what they did achieve in the current episode of their pigheaded  insistence on meeting the separatists and getting the talks bombed. A reluctant Modi govt. finally consented to initiate the resumption of talks due to some bonhomie developed between the two PMs in the immediate wake of swearing-in attendance and the meet that followed, and it took some pleadings by Pakistan to get that consent. Then to to go about and dash all that hope and expectation of better days on  to the hard rock of sheer diplomatic pigheadedness and loose everything gained only to revert to the old state of bleeding and brooding, and finding some consolation in sending more terrorists across the border in to India! Only a Muslim nation can carry it off and bring about its own fiasco.

                                                 Pak High Commissioner Abdul Basit