When Brussels suicide bomber attack happened the whole world rallied around them for consolation and rightly so. But when similar attacks happen in Ankara, Baghdad, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Kabul, there is dead silence from the world. Why? Because West has conveniently labelled all terrorism as Islamic so it becomes an internal issue for Muslim majority countries. West is secular in all respects except when it comes to terrorism; they have a religious label for it. It was the West that used violent jihad to defeat a communist superpower and sought regime change in Middle East through violent civil wars. It was the West that used drone and aerial strikes without any regard for collateral damage. It is the West that maintain a kill list without any regard for the sovereignty of other countries. I am not suggesting Muslims don’t have an issue to deal with but West keep poking their nose rather than allow us to deal with it through peaceful transformation of our societies.
We can’t overcome expansion of terrorism and fundamentalism until all innocent lives become equally important and a global effort is initiated to eradicate it. Pakistan along with Belgium and Turkey should request a special session of the UN Security Council to discuss an action plan for the global response against these acts of terrorism. In this session it should be clearly defined what constitute terrorism; religious and sectarian labelling of terrorist attacks and victims by media should be stopped; global database of suspected terrorists should be prepared; armed intervention in other countries whether drones or training of opposition militants should be stopped; UN charter to respect sovereignty of other countries should be reinstated; and people of a country should be allowed to seek peaceful protest for their political rights. If we fail to rally the world for a new charter on terrorism then we should be prepared for continuation of this low intensity world war that will wreak havoc on economies, produce social break downs, result in radicalisation of societies and rise in organise crime.
I pray for the deceased in all countries that are victim of terrorism and condole with their families.
ABDUL QUAYYUM KHAN KUNDI
Islamabad