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Armchair Counter-Terrorism
Editorial Team
Last week's
hostage-taking by Chechens in Moscow ended in dramatic fashion. As their
deadline to blow up over 700 hostages approached, the terrorists were
getting increasingly violent and killed two hostages. The Russian
authorities implemented a well-thought out plan, storming the theater
building after using a gas that apparently incapacitated the terrorists
before they could trigger explosions that would have leveled the entire
building. Most of the terrorists died in the operation. Adverse effects of
the gas also killed over
a hundred hostages, while the rest were rescued.....More...
KASHMIR AND DEMOCRACY
François Gautier
No
doubt Mr Vajpayee is a nice man, no doubt he is well-meaning, no doubt
he also embodies some of the better virtues of tolerance and ahimsa of
Hinduism, but lately, he has all but surrendered Kashmir to Islamic
separatism, not only losing elections there, even amongst his own
people, but also saying that “democracy has won in Kashmir”. Democracy
has won in Kashmir?.........More... Wahi: The
Supernatural Basis of Islam
Part II
- The Modern View of the Quranic Trance
Dr. Koenraad ELST
So, where did
the Quranic messages come from?
“It is the
concept of the unconscious that has enabled us to understand these
things. (…) One has only to dip into psychology text-books to find a
hundred perfectly bona fide cases of people in a state of hallucination
hearing things and seeing visions which they claim quite genuinely never
to have seen or heard before........More...
Two Elections:
Two Misnomers
Sreeram Chaulia
No
sooner had election results for the Jammu and Kashmir legislative
assembly and the Pakistan national and provincial assemblies been
declared in the first half of October, than the American press and
audiovisual media went into overdrive transmitting two major misnomers
which are at total odds with reality.......More...
Beyond Subcontinental Elections: Stabilizing Kashmir and Redefining
Restraint
Subodh Atal, Ph. D.
The recently
concluded elections in South Asia have highlighted the sharp contrast
between democracy and pluralism in India and religious fundamentalism
and terrorism. In Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state in India, Pakistan
did its utmost to disrupt elections and expression of democracy by
sending terrorists tasked with killing civilians and politicians, and
attacking campaign rallies and voting booths......More...
J&K: Forward to the Past?
K.P.S. Gill
Attempting to predict the future is, of course, an activity fraught with
danger, but it is safe to speculate on the basis of the historical
record that Sayeed's elevation at the present stage of the conflict in
J&K bodes ill for the counter-terrorism effort in the State......More...
Islam and
prisoners of war
Vinod Kumar
Islam advocates clemency with captives. History has never
known warriors so merciful to their captives as the early Muslims who
followed the teachings of their religion. The most authentic source of Islam is the Koran itself and after the
Koran it is the recorded traditions of the Prophet known as the Hadis.
Of all the four most well known traditions, the one compiled by Imam
Bukhari is deemed to be most authentic......More...
A one day conference,
titled "Kashmiri Pandits - A Hindu Community
Seeks to Survive" was held at the Bharat Sevashram Sangh,
Kendall Park, New Jersey, USA on October 27, 2002. The speakers were
Kashmir experts from around the United States. A broad range of topics
was covered, including ancient and recent Kashmiri history, particularly
its deep and rich Hindu roots, Muslim depredations in the region, the
13-year long ethnic cleansing of more than 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus,
suggestions for political solutions within the state, and strategic
options for India to neutralize the jehad war.
The conference ended
with a lively and intense discussion that covered the breadth of issues
plaguing the region. Cultural events, including songs by several
children offered another dimension to the day's program.
The presentation by
Dr. Subodh Atal, titled "Will War Bring Peace to
Jammu and Kashmir?", analyzing India's strategic options is
available here.
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