Exploiting religion for crime

Terror visited the fun-loving city of Manchester last week. What was particularly cruel about this incident was that it targeted the young and, more specifically, teenage girls and children at an Ariana Grande concert. Young girls form the core of Ariana Grande’s fan base, the pop star who rose to fame on Nickelodeon, the kids’ channel. There is no disputing the fact that the perpetrator of this atrocity and his co-travellers knew exactly who they were targeting and the choice of this venue being a “sinful” place because of the music and the display of fun and empowerment the “Dangerous Woman” concert brought into the lives of girls and young women.

In any civil society, this articulation would be celebrated. And in Manchester that Monday night, it was being celebrated by mums and daughters, sisters and friends, before it was destroyed by a perverted vision of the world, women and young girls.

Sadly, as victims of terror ourselves and as a society that shares and aspires to similar values of emancipation of women, personal freedoms, respect and empathy for all, while facing the challenges posed by this ideology as it spreads its tentacles around the world and even in our country, we cannot remain immune. When governments come together so must free, democratic societies. Every community has to learn lessons from these tragedies — the intelligence community, law agencies, politicians, society and us, citizens of democracies. The values we uphold in times when we remain relatively untouched by terror and in the times when it enters our lives must be introspected on.

I do not want to dwell on the noxious character who indulged in this inhumanity or his “motivations”. Back home, there were horrific and shameful incidents of lynching in Jharkhand that led to seven people losing their lives on Thursday, May 18. The two separate incidents of violence triggered by rumours on WhatsApp led to mob violence in which Hindus and Muslims were killed. However, some news reports and verified handles on Twitter started presenting this as a case in which Hindus were hunting down Muslims and how this was the “new normal”. It was a dangerous and dishonest interpretation that added fuel to an already tense situation. The next day, a riot-like situation was reported in a newspaper in Jharkhand, where police were involved in a standoff with protesters after religious places were attacked based on assumptions that the attack was communal.

Communalism is a reality we live with and have for many decades. There is no point in denying its existence but must it be attributed to instances where it has no place? It is hypocritical when we ask religion be removed from terror (I agree) but insist on pushing a narrative of Hindus as aggressors in instances when it is not even the case in an attempt to build an overarching narrative. It is essential to treat criminality as just criminality and address it effectively by not making identity politics its axis. The motivations for an atrocity may differ and each one must be evaluated and addressed. A “prevent” strategy must come into action, and not denial or demonising of communities.

Today the perpetrators of these atrocities are unconcerned about their own personal safety. The last time Manchester saw a terror attack was in 1996, when the IRA called in two hours ahead to warn of what was coming.

There was no such alert this time around and there won’t be in the future either. The attacks can be sophisticated or might be carried out with the use of everyday items, a car or a knife. But they will happen. Rather than rushing to politicise or communalise, it is in our collective interest to suppress these instincts.

Terror attacks are a reality of our times. Rather than normalising them with platitudes of ‘we are one in the aftermath’, it is now more important than ever to uphold shared values, celebrate our national identity and recognise that the villain is looking for divisive rhetoric, looking to prey on the young who are fed the narrative of being under siege, and the marginalised. We all have our share of grievances! Let that not be an excuse for terror and also let it not be ignored. 

As the mother of the 15-year-old victim Olivia Campbell said through her tears at her daughter’s vigil: “Stay united, stay strong, don’t let this happen to anyone, don’t let my daughter be a victim.”

The author is an established writer and screenwriter