The Hindu Business Line : Indescribable barbarity

But nothing that humankind has so far known comes anywhere near the acts of barbarism that have taken place in Iraq and Russia in the recent weeks. Indeed there are simply no words to describe them.

They inevitably give rise to the question how it is at all possible for human beings to descend to the level of savagery, so utterly devoid of compassion or mercy.

The way the radicals — calling themselves Ansar al-Sunna, said to be an outgrowth of Ansar al-Islam, supposedly in cahoots with Al Qaeda — have carried out and gloated over their mass slaughter of 12 Nepali hostages in Iraq goes against the transcendental tenets of Islam itself which preaches humanity and nobility, and forbids taking of hostages. They sadistically exulted in telecasting the gruesome spectacle of a masked man in military fatigues beheading a hostage who was lying blindfolded on dusty, grey soil. Eleven more prisoners were then shown being killed by single shots to the back of the head as they lie facedown in a row.

"We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who came from their country to fight the Muslims and to serve the Jews and the Christians . . . believing in Buddha as their God," said a statement posted on their Web site by the terrorists.

It will be impossible for the world at large to erase the memory the horror perpetrated by Chechen terrorists who took hostage more than 1,000 persons, half of them children, in a school in Russia culminating in the gory tragedy in which 336 people, including 155 children died. While exchanging fire with Russian commandos, the terrorists reportedly shot in the back helpless and innocent children fleeing the scene. During the three days of siege, they refused to allow food or water into the school.

Since Islam accounts for 80 per cent of the population of Chechnya, it is presumed that Islamic militants were behind the Russian massacre also. Lending credence to it is the fact that 20 out of the 35 terrorists killed were Arabs.

The repulsive image that terrorism in the name of Islam has acquired all over the world will only get further blackened by such acts. They deserve the strongest possible condemnation of civilised society, especially the mainstream Islamic organisations and the Governments of Muslim countries which are often slow to come out openly against such atrocities.

B. S. Raghavan