The era of ‘total war’ does not discriminate between civilians and combatants. However, one cannot petition the other to remain neutral towards the crime that is as barbaric as genocide or the terrorism that the psychotics plague upon men under the sheath of “jihad” (or call it the holy war, as you like it). As the past is never dead and is ever dynamic, constantly shaping our future, the 21st century must take lessons from the unbundled evil that had been inflicted by the misanthropes like Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussain, Al-Badr, Al-Shams before humanity is wiped off completely. Negotiations with such mentally deranged extremist people are often catastrophic. While the bureaucrats sit in their offices and try to negotiate with the extremists by ways that are most approved by any civilized society, the radicles bomb innocent children, mutilate men, rape women mercilessly. Thus slaughtering the generations to come and striking fear in the hearts as long as the heart is in rhythm.
The word “genocide” was first coined by Raphael Lemkin, where“genos” imply people or race and “cide” which means to kill. An elaborate definition has now been provided by the international law in the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. It’s an act committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. It must be noted that every war does not constitute genocide as the motive of most wars are to curtail the extremism and counter the threat to the nation and its interest. A war generally restricts itself once the threat has been contained and is mostly restricted to the battle fields. Furthermore, a war cannot be called a genocide in the strict sense as a war is waged between two groups who are sufficiently armed while in case of a genocide or terrorism, one group is armed while the other is absolutely unarmed and with no intentions to arm up and kill other than on the grounds of self-defense.
Terrorism on the other hand seems to have been an eternal traveller in ‘history’ that has adopted itself with the changing times and bears a close relation to genocide. Basically “terrorism” is a deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victim who is mostly a civilian; in the furtherance of a political, social, racial or cultural agenda. The “terror outfits” seems to have confused themselves with the concept of “jihad. It is an Arabic word which often translates as “holy war”, although in the pure linguistic sense, the word means “struggling” or “striving”. It is ironic that they are still struggling to understand the concept and true meaning of the said word. Islam or the Quran or the teachings of Prophet Muhammad does not even remotely ask its disciples to wage war against any other religion. There is no concept of violence anywhere in that word or in its strict interpretation. It is the handy work of the mentally deranged, self-proclaimed ‘saints’ and the so called ‘wise men’ who distort the very ideologies of the word. It is also worth noting that the Quran specifically refers to Jews and Christians as “people of the book” who should be protected and respected. All these three faiths worship the one and the same God. So why does the followers of Islam wreak havoc on the people following these religions or for that matter at times even at those of the same religion as theirs? Why do the militants of Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria(ISIS), having its faith founded on the principles of Islam want a Christian free nation by beheading Christian children? What gives them pleasure by bombing their own people, people who practice the same faith as they do and where one goes to seek for the divine answers and blessings? It is all partly because of ignorance of people towards their holy scriptures and partly because of the distortions that are concocted by some irresponsible and insensitive fanatics.
