Faith under attack?!?

 

 

Along with places like financial hubs and premier hotels, there seems to be a new inclusion in the target list of terrorists. Going by recent incidents, it's quite evident that terror organisations across the word are targeting places of worship. Be it attacks on religious places/ shrines in Pakistan or on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (June 10, 2009) or the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Community Centre (May 20, 2009) – terrorists are not letting go of any opportunity.

Terrorists are targeting these soft targets primarily because of lack of special and permanent protection of these places in spite of having huge footfalls. Besides this, attacks on such places and venues lead to huge human fatalities and also shakes the pillar of faith among commoners. Even if no one is hurt in the incident, the emotional damage caused to a community by an act of vandalism of religious place is quite devastating. Most of the time, authorities overreact after these attacks and arrest the members of the community from which the terrorists have cropped up and thus create division among different communities. This eventually helps the terrorists in sowing the seeds of communalism and in attracting young, illiterate, especially from financially weak families.

Moreover, in order to target these venues, terrorists don't require long term planning, instead exploit sleeper cells or clandestine cells (isolated grouping of agents that belong to an organisation and lies dormant inside a target population until it receives orders) do the job. As per Global Terrorism Database report 2007, worldwide, there have been 1615 attacks on religious figures and institutions, with the largest concentration in South America, Middle East and South Asia.

It’s literally not possible to guard all religious places and identify the sleeper agents all the time. What is required is the creation of small groups in the lines of Anti-Defamation League or the Secure Community Network of US and try to screen people approaching a house of worship. In simple words, co-ordination between the authority of place of worship and nearby population should be able to notice any abnormal movement. With the world becoming a dangerous place, there is an urgent requirement of proactive security measures that can identify attackers.