The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the devastating terrorist attack on a gurdwara in Kabul earlier this month. Killing close to 25 Sikh devotees, the attack was conducted by the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), an ISIS affiliate that pledged allegiance to the terrorist group in 2015. The attacks by the IS-K came in the midst of a pandemic and still managed to grab headlines in Indian media. The public perception of the intention and implications of these attacks are crucial to unpack in context of India seeing the fact that Islamist terror is a looming threat perceived by the Indian political and civilian community alike. Moreover, with the IS-K rationalising the attack as a response to state sponsored discrimination in Kashmir, the attack’s relevance to the Indian context is all the more pervasive.

Public opinion on the Kashmir conflict amongst many Indians is heavily rooted in the idea of nationalism. The importance of an India characterised by uniformity which does not allow for individual states to become autonomous entities is paramount for realising a nationalist idea. Thus, a disenchanted civilian population in the Valley seeking an “Azaad Kashmir” goes against the aforementioned tenets of Hindu nationalism and has underscored a bitter rivalry between Kashmir and nationalist elements in the rest of India for decades. These tensions and alienation with the Indian state were excarebrated with the revocation of Article 370 which sought to further integrate Kashmir with India and fulfill the nationalist ambitions of the ruling dispensation. Hence, it is no surprise that the situation in Kashmir is described as an insurgency by some and a freedom struggle by others, depending on their political leanings. In context of the sensitivity of the Kashmir topic in India, an affiliate of ISIS using Kashmir as a means to rationalise violence was bound to stir up some controversy. A tendency to conceptualise the relationship between Islam and terrorism as one of cause and effect has been a major component of right wing propaganda. This highly reductive and simplistic understanding of what forges radicalisation renders the possibility of retaliatory discrimination against Muslims and the emboldening of stereotypes of violence inspired by Islamic faith to be a looming threat that must be addressed.

A tendency to conceptualise the relationship between Islam and terrorism as one of cause and effect has been a major component of right wing propaganda.

ISIS has demonstrated a keen interest in using the perceived injustice and discrimination felt by Indian Muslims to inspire them to wage the war of Jihad and join the group. Using Kashmir as a means to legitimise the Kabul attacks further reiterates the terror group’s burgeoning ambitions in South Asia. Thus, it is imperative that public opinion in India, in response to these attacks, demonstrates maturity and prevents binary classifications of good and evil based on religion. Retaliatory discrimination on the basis of religion shall only play into the hands of terror recruiters who seek to frame the grivences of vulnerable youth on relgious lines so as to romanticise the call for Jihad. Additionally, ensuring that public perception of these attacks do not contain blatant generalisations about the intersectionalities of terrorism and religion is important as notions of injustice informing the victim status of Indian Muslims is vastly different to that of Kashmiris.

Scholars studying Kashmir have warned against the conflation of the militancy in Kashmir with any global Jihadist ambitions. Inspite of religion playing a pivotal role in shaping Kashmiri identity, the lack of Jihadist elements in the Kashmir struggle must not be sidelined. As noted by Muhammed Tahir — professor specialising in the Kashmir conflict in Dublin university, “Kashmir is not susceptible to its ideology because of peculiar social dynamics of Kashmir and the history and political orientation of the Kashmiri self-determination movement.” Thus, the desire for self determination — rooted in the ambitions of territorial sovereignty are at the heart of the Kashmiri struggle. The territorial underpinnings of the Kashmiri rebellion goes against the core idea of a borderless caliphate purported by ISIS which seeks the mobilisation of Muslims against non-believers wherein specific territorial disputes have little significance. Thus, for ISIS, it is imperative that recruits frame their injustice as one of religious persecution and that their religious identity supersedes other aspects of their identity.

With ISIS demonstrating intent to expand its influence in Kashmir and leverage communal tensions in India, Indians must be wary of tactics used by ISIS that seek to further divides between “Us” and “Them” wherein Muslims are made to feel more alienated.

As the grievances of the Kashmir conflict correspond more to territorial freedom rather than religious persecution, ISIS using Kashmir as a means to rationalise its perverse ambitions is a dangerous sign that it hopes to frame the Kashmiri struggle on religious lines. Signs of ISIS presence or the affinity to ISIS ideology in Kashmir was witnessed in 2016 with disenchanted locals waving the ISIS flag on multiple occasions. Although the waving of these flags was more due to the frustration of the civilian populace and may not prove ISIS presence in the Valley, the existence of these flags and its association with injustice was a cause for concern. Moreover, ISIS media agency Al-Qaraar also sought to increase its Kashmir centric propaganda in 2017 when it released a document criticising groups backed by the ISI that fought for national rather than religious ambitions. Thus, ISIS has long tried to frame the Kashmiri rebellion as a religious one and its inability to do so has been a major reason for its failure to have a stronghold in the Valley. It is imperative to ensure that ISIS is understood as an independent entity with its own perverse aims. Moreover, with ISIS demonstrating intent to expand its influence in Kashmir and leverage communal tensions in India, Indians must be wary of tactics used by ISIS that seek to further divides between “Us” and “Them” wherein Muslims are made to feel more alienated.

The Hindu nationalist ideology purported by the ruling dispensation has already led to widespread communal tensions in India with the Muslim community feeling especially targetted. A detailed report by the Human Rights Watch provided a glimpse of this growing communal disharmony in its report on the rise in cow vigilantism in India. The report revealed that between 2015 to 2018, 44 people — 36 of them Muslims were killed in the name of cow vigilantism in India. This meteoric rise in hate crimes was also acknowledged and used as a means to legitimise retaliatory violence by the ISIS media apparatus. Additionally, with the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act also being perceived as a policy intended to to selectively target the Muslim community, terrorist organisations are presented with numerous avenues to frame grievances on religious lines and further their perverse ambitions. Thus, it is imperative that the Kabul attacks- legitimised as revenge for atrocities in the Valley, is not met with further hate towards the Muslim community. Instead, a show of solidarity to the Muslim community in India that have consistently condemned violent Jihad and shown a keen appreciation for democracy is the need of the hour.

The rationale behind the attack did not allude to the Delhi riots or protests over CAA. Thus, a tendency to consider the Kashmir issue and communal violence in the rest of India as mutually inclusive — evident in the backlash against Sikh community for helping protesters — is dangerous.

Unfortunately, the lack of empathy towards the Sikh community in the aftermath of these attacks from certain right wing circles in India does not indicate an attempt at forging solidarity and instead seems to be further alienating minorities in India. The Sikh community were victims to taunts regarding their practice of providing food to protestors at Shaheen Bagh. “What will those who were distributing langar at Shaheen Bagh be thinking?” tweeted BJP leader Kapil Mishra while other right wing sympathisers accused Sikhs serving food at the CAA protests as being somehow responsible for these attacks with one such tweet claiming that “the bloodbath is on you”. Such hateful and Islamophobic public outcry seems to be playing into the hands of ISIS propaganda that wants religion to become the basis of victimhood. It is worth noting that the rationale behind the attack did not allude to the Delhi riots or protests over CAA. Thus, a tendency to consider the Kashmir issue and communal violence in the rest of India as mutually inclusive — evident in the backlash against Sikh community for helping protesters — is dangerous.

The Kashmiri community seemed to be cognizant of the possibility of retaliatory discrmination from right wing circles in India. The hashtag“#NotInMyName” was trending on twitter in the days after the attack thereby reiterating their condemnation for terrorism and reminding people that they do not support the violent Jihad practiced by ISIS. Will this help in ensuring that avenues for misinformation and fake news don’t use these attacks to legitimise violence against Muslims or blame the Kashmiri rebellion for inciting the ISIS attack? It is critical that such narratives are discouraged and the age old proverb, “terrorism has no religion” is actively embodied so as to counter the stategic ploy of ISIS in expanding its recruitment base into South Asia.

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