Tackling various aspects of terrorism

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Tackling various aspects of terrorism

Tuesday, 27 July 2021 | DEVANSHU JHA

We must realise that terrorist activities cannot be used as means to improve people's lives and the use of violence by the Government will only be like playing in hands of terrorists. This may create problems of alienation and creating cult figures like Osama Bin laden.

 If we want to control the menace of terrorism, we need counter mobilisation efforts through psychological operations or anti-propaganda measures. We must convince the youth that the interpretation of terrorist organisations like ISIS, Hamas, regarding religion is fallacious, and there is no connection between war crimes and Islam. Further, the stories of kind of atrocities they inflict on women and slaves must be propagated among youth through social media platforms.  Efforts must be made to bring out their hypocrisy and control their operation through social media. Governments may take pre-emptive action against the terror groups by forming joint action groups just to signal the terrorist community that they will pay for the heinous act against humanity. The role of world powers like the USA, Russia, France, and the involvement of Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran on a common anti-terror platform is very important. Although it was not seen in the case of Syria which emerged as a major geopolitical battlefield.

Lastly taking the stand as a policymaker we must realize that any form of concession for the terrorists be it partial or incremental may be self-debilitating for humanity. For example, dynamic action taken by the Putin government in the case of Chechnya terrorists. Also, offensive military action is not a sustainable solution, so countries must focus on homeland security measures through strengthening intelligence and forming groups. But it is not the ultimate or long-term solution. We must target those causes of terrorism which help the terrorists in building their organization. In this context, we need to integrate the groups feeling alienated from society. For example, the housing policy of Singapore which tries to bring “forced integration” into society. In Singapore, 80 percent of the population lives in government-subsidized flats based on a balloting system with no higher concentration of one community. Also, the national service scheme of countries like Singapore and Israel is an apt way for promoting the “Eat together die together” approach among the communities to counter the “BAND OF BROTHERS” like spirit which terrorist groups try to promote in young recruits. Further, there are groups in all societies of the world which feel socially marginalized and have a deep feeling of resentment for government and institutions. To solve the issue of psychological deprivation of these groups, governments must pass laws or take affirmative action to bring them back into the mainstream. For example, the reservation system in India or “language groups” based on positive discrimination done in Singapore show a way forward in this regard.

It is also necessary to understand the root cause on which the menace of terrorism thrives.  It includes a whole range of factors from economic which includes wage rates, unemployment, inequality, and poverty. These factors must be tackled as they catalyze the resentment and anti-national feeling among the youth.  Region-based policies must be started and monitored by the governments to counter terrorist tendencies among youth. For example, the Udaan scheme was implemented in Jammu and Kashmir for giving skills-based training to unemployed & educated youth.  On similar lines, governments in terrorist-prone areas must also try to solve the issue of male-female demographic imbalance and sort out the ethnoreligious hatred which creeps into societies.  In this context, the approach of the American government under the Barack Obama regime is highly commendable which tried to promote an Americanized version of Islam to further propel intermixing of Muslim communities within society. Educating people regarding demographic balance and sex ratio is an important policy measure being taken by governments of states like Punjab and Chhattisgarh in India to curtail insurgent and anti-national activities.

Taking a rationalist bent, it is important to understand that terrorist groups all over the world from Columbia to Kashmir need funding, guidance, networks, and leadership to operate.  So, it is very important to pass deterrent laws to promote heavy capital punishment for these activities. It is very important to infiltrate their networks and launch a relentless fight against them psychologically, socially, and politically to uproot them holistically by making common people realize that “terrorists are anti-human and principally flawed”. These efforts are necessary to uproot them as an organization as once they are ideologically bankrupt and exposed in front of the common masses, terrorists lose their ability to charm youth.

So, taking a holistic picture we must realize that we need three broad approaches to counter terrorism in any society of the world, wherever it's prospering from Columbia to Sudan. The combination of socialists, rationalists, and organizational theorists’ approach is the most potent way to fight terrorism or insurgent activities as we live in a world that is interconnected in terms of social capital, resource mobilization, economic activities. This may act as both boon and bane for mankind. The growth prospects and developmental aspects present the shiny side for mankind, but it also allows networking and cross-border funding to terrorist groups. So, the role of organizations like FATF (Financial action task force) has become very important. The world must demolish terrorism by working as a unit. The top-down approach (from UNO to regional level) which trickles down from UN CHARTER must be synchronized and backed by the action of the states guided by sound policy mechanisms.

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