Will South Asia rise to the jihadi challenge?
This profile of the main actors rekindles an old debate: why do seemingly well educated young (in this case) South Asians, often equipped with promising technical and engineering backgrounds take the Islamic terror path ? This pattern has been evidenced in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives over the last decade and Sri Lanka which was considered to be the exception, has alas, joined the list
The responsibility for the Sri Lanka terror attacks on Easter Sunday, that killed 253 people including local citizens and foreign tourists, has been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq-Syria infamy. It is comparable to the Mumbai 26/11 attack, in that highend hotels were murderously targeted and preliminary analysis would suggest that 21/4 points to the abiding radical Islamist terror challenge for South Asia.
Investigations are going on in a politically divided Colombo and local police were engaged in gun-battles with terror suspects alleged to have IS links. Clearly the Sri Lankan 21/4 challenge is still unfolding. President Mathripala Srisena confirmed that, according to intelligence agencies, there were as many as 130 to 140 Sri Lankan citizens with “links to the IS” who were still hiding in the island nation.
Apart from the devastating human anguish that it caused and the ethnoreligious symbolism of targeting churches, there is an element of tragic political irony for Sri Lanka in the timing of this attack. On May 19, 2009 the country announced the defeat of the LTTE (Tamil extremists) and Colombo’s war on terror. Then President Mahinda Rajapaksa delivered a triumphant address in parliament, declaring that his country had been “liberated” from terrorism. Thus in the run up to the 10th anniversary of the ‘liberation’ from domestic terrorism, it is doubly tragic for Sri Lanka to confront the till now concealed reality that the popular tourist destination had been nurturing another virulent Islamic terror group - the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) - that had internalized the murderous jihadi ideology of the IS.
A distinctive but not unfamiliar pattern in the attack is the fact that many of the nine Sri Lankan perpetrators were both affluent and well-educated; three of them were reported to have done their graduate studies in UK and Australia. Two of them, the Ibrahim brothers - Imsath and Ilham (along with seven other siblings) belonged to the richest spice trading family of the island and did not fit the template of the ISIS-inspired terrorist.
This profile of the main actors rekindles an old debate: why do seemingly well educated young (in this case) South Asians, often equipped with promising technical and engineering backgrounds take the Islamic terror path ? This pattern has been evidenced in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives over the last decade and Sri Lanka which was considered to be the exception, has alas, joined the list.
One of the causal factors for this kind of suicide-bomber path choice can be linked to a corrosive socio-religious sense of collective persecution internalized by the young and bitter Muslim citizen - whose alienation has been exacerbated in the post 9/11 global security discourse. This concealed zealotry is often channelized by bigoted Islamic clerics who preach the path of violence and bloodshed against the ‘kafir’ or the infidel - which is almost everyone including fellow Muslims who do not uncritically subscribe to what is referred to as the Sunni-Wahabi-Salafi school of Islam.
The potential terror recruit is drawn into a make-believe world, where he or she is cast as the lone and valiant savior who must kill to avenge the evil that has befallen the true believer. A cynically inflamed discourse and narrative which emotively typecasts the beleaguered Allah-fearing Muslim citizen as the eternal victim after 9/11 often leads to an anomalous role reversal - the ‘victim’ is transformed into the resolute guardian and savior of the faith.
Alas, many young men in South Asia are seduced by the lurid imagery of the joys that await the true ‘jihadi’ in heaven and those familiar with this subject would have seen many videos and audio-tapes with such proselytizing content bordering on pornography being distributed at the Friday prayers and busy market places. The more recent market-driven permeation of cyber communication (smart phones) and social media has led to a digital drive - where young Muslims are indoctrinated through new technologies to join the jihadi cause.
After the military defeat of the IS in West Asia, it is evident that the modus has now shifted to one of ‘outsourcing’ and ‘inspiring’ empathetic local Muslim fringe groups through cyber tools to mount terror attacks. South Asia - including India - is fertile ground for radicalisation and 21/4 the most recent example of this murderous advocacy. A collective approach is imperative - but alas, remains politically elusive.