Terror strikes in Bangalore on Wednesday last and a more lethal one in Boston a day earlier, have ironically come when our “secularists” are pleading for mercy for other terrorists in India whose mercy petition has been rejected or who has been convicted for terror-related activities. At the time of writing, the investigators, both in Boston and Bangalore have not zeroed in on the perpetrators of the bomb blasts. What , however , would have encouraged a “shell-shocked” American nation is its President’s declaration that the “full weight” of the US justice system will bear down on them. Back home, we would hear pontification about the “resilience of our people” to carry on with their lives in a normal manner in spite of repeated terror attacks. Several times after the 9/11 terror attack, the Jehadi terrorists have tried their hand in the US but were frustrated by the vigil that country’s security services maintained. The shoe bomber was caught in the nick of time in the plane he was seeking to blow up. But as anti-terrorism experts say several failures for the Islamists do not matter to them, one success out of many attempts is enough to boost their morale. India is periodically hit by terror strikes. And the reasons for our failure to end the terror menace are not far to seek. To our “secularists” and human rights peddlers, the killing of hundred in Mumbai does not seem to matter. One hanging of a terrorist caught is all they cry over, shout about and paint as a state that has turned vindictive. When the apex courts confirm the death sentence they seek legal remedies again and again. Then the rejection of the mercy petition is also sought to be annulled by some legal stratagem. When everything fails they accuse the State and cry over the shoulders of the accused. After the US showed courage to eliminate Osama bin Laden (‘Osamaji,’ Congress General Secretary Digvijayji calls him so lovingly) even after finding him in a secure Pakistani cantonment, our secularists were regretting this Evil Personified dying. Bin Laden had called on all Muslims to go after Americans killing as many of them as they could. In an interview he gave to US journalist Miller he did not hide his intentions; aim was to exterminate all non-Muslims including those in India. The continuing danger of Islamic terror across the world for all nations is highlighted by a series of recent events. Despite the Arab Spring and democracy Islamists have gained in those liberated Muslim majority countries. In Libya the Islamists have succeeded in killing the US envoy. In Egypt the liberal among the people are battling the Islamists who have gained power and have imposed a constitution that does not allow any questioning of the dominant religion and restricts fundamental rights severely. This was despite the promise by the Islamist President that the constitution would be secular. It once again confirms that while the Islamists clamour for secularism where they are in a minority, they deny any liberal rights once they come to power. It is also interesting that in all the recent events threatening terror action in the US, the potential terrorists were invariably the recent converts to Islam. Why are the recent converts ready to kill hundreds and thousands and even die in the process? What is the ideology that creates this diabolical mindset? Also significantly in authoritarian Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia it is much more difficult to propagate the radical Islam of the variety that Al-Qaeda represents. It takes years for Jehadi terrorists caught in countries like America and India to be tried and sentenced and bring them to the end of the numerous appeal processes. But in Saudi Arabia, it takes only a few minutes to end the menace of Jehadis caught in the act: they are summarily dispatched after a sham trial. Where Muslims are in a minority, they are exposed to ideas like democracy, liberal thinking, electing the people who could rule them, etc. They face the challenge of modernity, industrial economy and its socio-economic consequences. And then they find the radical mullahs preaching that the only solution is to isolate themselves in a ghetto, going only to madrasas that teach only about their holy book, condemn every other religious group as a threat to Islam. Ironically, in India , the ‘secularists’ and venom spewing mullahs work hand in glove to promote such a communal and divisive mindset. The radical Jehadis work on common Muslims. They tell them that such adjustment and isolation is not enough but they must seek to turn the country into a part of the Muslim world. While a majority of Muslims ignore radical Islam, many do fall victim to religious extremism. In an article analysing different views among Muslims in India, a reputed columnist quoted Firoz Batatawala, a Sufi and a member of World Sufi Council living in Mumbai: “A certain sense of siege has also played on the Muslim psyche to fence the community to become overly defensive — and insular”. It is evident that the more you become insular the more you develop a psychology of victimhood painting the external world as your sworn enemy. Analysing this in the context of some political leaders trying to play to the gallery and promoting this insularity in the name of identity politics, a former Vice-Chancellor of Calicut University, Syed Iqbal Husnain wrote in a newspaper article on September 5, 2006, cautioning his community against such politicians. “The main reason for the backwardness of Muslims in North India is lack of sufficient inclusive public educational institutions, both in professional and non-professional courses, but certainly not exclusive madrasas and marginalized Urdu schools.” He contrasts this with madrasas in South India working near public schools and adjusting their timings to the free hours after the school time enabling religious instruction to go hand in hand with secular education in various modern subjects. (Imagine how backward Hindus would be if they confine education to Vedic schools only and shun modern history, sociology, science, etc.and ban TV and radio from their premises!) That links the Boston bomber to the Bangalore bomber and explains many complexities in both the American and Indian situation where both have been exposed to prolonged periods of Jihadi terror.