Urban Terrorism

Book excerpt: Outrageous myths have been created and perpetrated about terrorism in general and terrorism by Muslims in particular. There are two reasons for it. One is, of course, genuine ignorance about things Islamic. The other reason is more sinister. Myths are created and perpetuated because that keeps everyone in business. By spinning yarns about the most horrible things the terrorists are capable of doing, the media ensures that they have a never-ending supply of sensational material with which to keep the people hooked it also enables the intelligence agencies and security forces to appear more relevant and expand their turf in the process. The myths must be busted because they tend to settle deep in the collective subconscious and ultimately come to influence policy decisions. The media, for example, would have you believe that we have not been able to eradicate terrorism only because we do not have enough commandos everywhere! The fact is that terrorism would not be finished by killing a few terrorists. Bomb blasts continue to take place in spite of the arrests of the masterminds . As long as we do not address the root cause, there would be many more willing to kill and get killed. Victory against terrorism can be achieved only if you have completely understood the fundamental reasons of terrorism, the motivation of the terrorists, the intrinsic weaknesses of the targets, the innate strength of the way of the terrorist , and the follies of the approach that you have persisted with so far. If a nation has floundered in its war against terrorism , it is because it has never had a serious and honest-to-God analysis of terrorism. Hence this book. Exhaustive yet attractive, informative yet interesting and above all, extremely hard-hitting it is the ultimate encyclopedia of terrorism.