Extremism is a multi faced monster

Submitted by Frahad Navkhoda (United Kingdom), May 2, 2007 at 06:25

Dear Vishwas,

It has been established in our correspondence that we both hate Islamic extremism, but this is where the similarities end.

It seems that you hate one form of extremism yet defend another. You uphold the 'benefits' of the Hindu caste sytem, yet it has withheld the progress of the Indian subcontinent for generation and even today keeps the greatest number of people in the world in extreme poverty ! condeming fellow humans to a state of feudalism. It consigns some to sub-human status and promotes others to demi-god status, a system that promotes subservience and conformity! It can be creadited with creating delusion of grandeur merely by being born into a family and has bestowed and consigned the benefits of education and career opportunities to a select few. Today, Modernisation and Westernisation are challenging these beliefs and inbuilt-lies and in the process creating die-hard Hindu nationalists like yourself, who feel threatened by change and new outside ideas. What, with the symbolic but yet equally important mass conversions of Dalits into the folds of Buddhism, Christianity and other faiths, you are clearly feeling threatened and self conscious.

Your comments display the same mantras as those of extremists the world over, be they of religious or nationalistic leanings. Angry young men are symbolic of all societies and when they take up extremist causes, be they Islamic, Far-Right or communist, they are all projecting their inadequecies and failures onto the society at large or focus in on the scapegoat of the moment!

I hope that you find some peace with the world and your place in the larger picture and that you reconcile with your fellow man, whatever caste and creed they are!

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