B.RAMAN
( This is an update of a paper titled “From
Internet To Islamnet” that I had presented at an international conference at
Bali, Indonesia, in October,2005. Available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers16%5Cpaper1584.html )
What we have been seeing since May,2012, is a proxy
jihad through the Internet and modern means of communications such as the
cellphone and I-pad being waged by a new generation of IT savvy jihadis still
unidentified.
2. It started in the Rakhine State of Myanmar
following violent clashes between some
Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims whom Myanmar looks upon as illegal immigrants
from Bangladesh. The clashes resulted in about 80 fatalities from both the
communities and the internal displacement of a large number of Buddhists and
Rohingya Muslims.
3. Following these clashes, a group of as yet
unidentified Islamic elements, possibly based in the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India
region, started a vicious campaign through the Internet and the new social
media sites for the demonization of the Myanmar Government and for promoting
Islamic solidarity.
4.President Thein Sein of Myanmar was reported to
have told a delegation of the OIC that visited Myanmar last week that through the Internet and its social media sites these
elements circulated highly exaggerated reports of what they called a genocide
of Muslims in Myanmar with the help of morphed pictures of violent incidents in
other countries not related to Myanmar.
5. This Psyjihad was meant to destabilise not only
the Rakhine State of Myanmar, but also the Sheikh Hasina Government of
Bangladesh, which has refused to allow the Rohingyas enter Bangladesh and use it as a rear base for
their destabilisation operations in Myanmar.
6.One noticed a similar Psyjihad being waged in
India through the Internet and its social media sites by a group of
unidentified Muslim extremists after the outbreak of violent clashes between
some Bodos and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Kokrajhar and other Bodo areas
of Assam last month.
7.These elements used the Internet and its social
media sites for the dissemination of exaggerated accounts of the violence in
Assam and for re-circulating the fabricated Psyjihad material produced by or on
behalf of the Rohingyas of the Rakhine State.
8. These sought to inflame the passions of
impressionable Muslims in different parts of India during the holy fasting
period of Ramadan. It resulted in incidents of shocking violence and
vandalisation by some Muslims during and after a public meeting held in the
Azad Maidan of Mumbai on August 5,2012, to protest against the violent
incidents in the Assam State of India and in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.
9. Some Muslims incited to violence by the Psyjihad
material and the highly emotional speeches attacked police men, including women
members of the police, vandalised a memorial in homage of the Unknown Indian
Soldier, attacked sections of the media and burnt down some media vehicles.
While the anger of such incited Muslim extremist mobs against the police is
nothing unusual, its anger against the media was. Its rage against sections of
the media was due to the fact that, in its view, the media did not give
sufficient publicity to the Psyjihad material produced by or on behalf of the
Rohingyas.
10. After the Mumbai incidents which have been
condemned by many leaders of the Muslim community, these unidentified elements
have been directing their Psyjihad against people from the North-East, who have
been working in Pune and certain cities of South India like Bengaluru,
Hyderabad and Chennai in order to create feelings of insecurity in their minds
and make them go back to the North-East.
11. There is an underlying message in this new
phase of the Psyjihad directed at people from the North-East living and working
in South India and Pune. That is: “If the Government does not regularise the illegal
immigration of Bangladeshis into the North-East, we will not allow people from
the North-East to migrate to work in other parts of India.” One has to note that
the Psyjihad directed at the people from the North-East is not based on their
religion. Many of them are Christians and not Hindus. It is based on their
right to migrate to other parts of India.
12. As a result of the feelings of insecurity
created in the minds of people from the North-East in South India, many have
already left for their homes, creating the danger of a fresh wave of communal
violence when the displaced people of the North-East reach their homes with
their tales of how they were intimidated resulting in their decision to come
back home.
13.During the last 20 years the mental divide
between the people of the North-East and those in the rest of India, that had
given rise to different insurgencies, had disappeared. The insurgencies started
losing public support and a large number of youngsters from the North-East had
started identifying themselves with the rest of India. Many of them migrated to
other parts of India in search of jobs. They were welcomed by people in other parts
of India. A process of natural integration between the people of the North-East
and other parts of India began.
14.In the Psyjihad directed against the people from
the North-east, one sees the beginning of an insidious attempt to re-create the
mental divide and drive a new wedge.
15. Unfortunately, one does not have the impression
that our intelligence agencies and police have been able to keep pace with the
evolution of the Psyjihad being waged through the Internet, mobile phones and
I-pads. One does not see signs of any coherent and co-ordinated attempt to
counter and neutralise it, identify the elements behind this Psyjihad and act
against them firmly under the laws of the land.
16.In addition to neutralising this Psyjihad, it is
important to initiate urgent measures to restore the sense of security of the
people from the North-East by interacting with them continuously and vigorously
and by providing them additional protection. The civil society too has an
important role in this matter. This is the time to further strengthen our bonds
of solidarity with them and reassure them that the civil society will stand by
them.
17. All political parties should resist the urge,
which could prove suicidal for the nation, to exploit these developments for
their partisan advantage. This is the time for everybody to come together and
unite against the new breed of extremists, who can turn out to be more
dangerous than those of the past who relied on improvised explosive devices for
destabilising us. ( 17-8-2012)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
