Ideology of terror outlives ideologue

Ideology of terror outlives ideologue

The point is to drain the pool Baghdadi tapped.

That a terrorist chief who ordered large-scale destruction of life and property and justified enslavement of people, all in the name of faith, will no longer be able to cause mayhem is a matter of satisfaction. But it would be a mistake to imagine that the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi represents victory over terror carried out in the name of Islam. Sure, US President Donald Trump can take credit for Baghdadi’s death by self-destruction when cornered by US security personnel in a tunnel in Idlib, a holdout region of Syria where the government is yet to establish its authority after its victory over rebels in much of Syria. President Barack Obama had taken credit for killing Osama bin Laden, founder and chief of Al-Qaeda, but the Islamic State, led by Baghdadi, had taken on the mantle of terror in the name of Islam and carried out atrocities on Muslims and others in different parts of the world. Baghdadi will not lack a successor either.

The point is to kill the ideology, and not just individual ideologues. So long as the ideology thrives, the killing of one ideologue will only serve to produce another ideologue to take his place. And it would be a mistake to place the responsibility for vanquishing the ideology of deadly jihad entirely on the followers of Islam. The roots of Al-Qaeda run in the murky sponsorship of the Taliban by American and Pak covert operations agencies, with the aim of using religious fanaticism to drive the Soviet forces out of Afghanistan. Well-funded Sunni and Shia radio stations in West Asia spew venom at the rival denomination, producing a climate of hatred towards anyone other than those considered pure, but also promoting internecine warfare among the followers of Islam, to the benefit of those who stand to lose if the Arabs were to close ranks and look to solve their common problems. Islamabad’s use of religion-based terror as a means of securing additional strategic depth has little to do with theology.

For India, the self-radicalised cells of the Islamic State that operate autonomously are part of the reality and call for eternal vigilance, Baghdadi or no Baghdadi.