Is the attack on Garissa University campus hostel in Kenya, April 02, which left around 150 students dead and countless injured and severally traumatised, going to be remembered as APS attack in Peshawar, Dec 16 last year? May be not, as I see no real sense of crises and cohesiveness among Kenyans to get tough to eliminate the terrorism from their country. It appears to be a response as usual — cordon off the venue, issue condemnation press releases, vow to crush the terrorists with iron fist, and then go back to normal life till the next attack. Westgate shopping mall attack has not been erased from memory and now this attack on a hostel tells the same story: there are countless brainwashed people around us who believe in philosophies which permit them to kill people of different faith or those who don’t share their sect/school of thought.
Whether it’s Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shebab in Somalia, Kenya and neighbouring countries, Daesh in Syria and Iraq, Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula and North Africa — they all share the same line to consider their religious/sectarian opponents and their supporters as liable to death under the doctrine of ‘Takfir’. Whole world, especially the Muslim World, needs to liberate itself of such destructive philosophies — there is nothing wrong with this approach. In fact it is a repeat of what Christianity went through in the Middle Ages and afterwards. But half-hearted efforts by individual governments and scholars are not going to do any good — we have to strike at the root cause of the issue, otherwise killing of foot soldiers is of no use as new zombies are ready to take their place. In fact that’s evident from the large scale recruitment Daesh is doing in the West.
It’s time to wake up or we will likely be killed while asleep as was the fate of 150 students in Kenya.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia