A terrifying strategic logic - self-radicalised killing device
Rome, 2 Dec. (AKI) - A “terrifying strategic logic” lies behind last week’s attacks in Mumbai, terrorism expert, Brian Michael Jenkins, chief advisor to US think-tank The Rand Corporation, told Adnkronos. India was targeted because “the jihadists consider it the nation of the Hindus, who, together with Christians and Jews are considered the enemies of Islam,” Jenkins said.
One of the targets of the attacks is the strategic dialogue between India and Pakistan, according to Jenkins. Another is Islamabad’s role in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
Q.Much of your writing about terrorism over the years has focused on the psychology of terrorism. What do the terrorists’ attacks in Mumbai tell you about the terrorists’ motives?
A.We tend to describe terrorism as senseless violence, mindless violence. It seldom is. That does not mean terrorists think as you or I think. They have their own world view. If we look at the attacks from this perspective we can discern a terrifying strategic logic.
Q: What criteria guide their decisions?
A: Terrorists seek three goals: attacking targets that are icons or have ‘emotional value’ to use their terminology; obtaining high body counts; and causing economic damage.
Q. So why from their perspective did the terrorists attack India?
A.The jihadists see India as a Hindu nation, which along with Christians and the Jews, makes it an enemy of Islam. Muslim Kashmir ruled, sometimes with a heavy-hand by Hindu India, provides a further cause. India also has increasingly become an ally of the United States thereby elevating its status as a target in the eyes of the jihadists inspired by Al-Qaeda’s ideology. Some jihadists look forward to the creation of an Islamic state in India. With Muslims comprising just 14 percent of India’s population that seems to be an unrealistic goal. More pragmatically, a terrorist attack on India can exacerbate antagonisms between India’s Hindu and Muslim and communities and provoke Hindu reprisals like the 2002 massacre of m