As an ordinary Muslim, who became accustomed to the hate rhetoric –‘Islamophobia’, ‘Islamist terrorism’ and ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ – I shuddered to imagine, as to how the global media and the world leaders would have construed the terror in Norway – had Anders Breivik stopped his act just by exploding bombs in the government buildings – and not continued the havoc by spraying bullets on civilians after a few hours. Some big Western media houses like Washington Post and New York Times had jumped to the conclusion within minutes after the bomb explosions in Oslo that – Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, a new Islamic terrorist organisation is a prime suspect. The lesson which we Indians should learn from the Norway terror attack is to stop seeing terrorism only through the “Islamist” prism.
Syed Sultan Mohiddin
Kadapa, A.P.