Mumbai Massacre

Ten young men armed with AK 47s and grenades, approaching the city of Mumbai by sea and looking like college backpackers, brought the city to a standstill for three days, when a tableau of death and destruction, mayhem and bloodshed, grabbed the attention of the 19 million Indians who live in Mumbai and the rest of the world through television and phone cameras. That of course was what whoever sent them there were seeking, publicity, to scare the hell out a wide range of people, to let them know that “soft targets” were now not only fair game, but preferred targets. The ten broke into pairs and hit several targets in a close cluster of buildings, sometimes killing randomly, mowing down dozens in a railroad station, and other times trying to round up as many Brits and Americans as they could find. They killed 9 people at a Jewish Center, including an American Rabbi and his wife. In another location they killed 53 people. Two Hotels were hit. The Taj Mahal Hotel, a beautiful ornate structure that was built 105 years ago, became the focus of much gunfire and numerous interior fires; it was where the last two terrorists died. At last count there were 190 people who lost their lives and 350 who were wounded. One terrorist was captured alive, a Pakistani, who was a member of a well-known extremist fringe group in Pakistan. All Indians looked toward Pakistan as the source of the attack.

The Pakistan Government spoke up immediately, saying they had nothing to do with the incident; and in a show of good faith they are sending an official to help with the investigation. On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that the Pakistani Intelligence organization has rogue elements in it that could easily be part of the event in Mumbai. The ten zealots called themselves the Deccan Mujahidin, as if they came from the sub-continent of India. Most observers think it was made up to throw authorities off the scent of the real origins of the group. In any case, outside parties, including our government, are concerned about any rise in tension between the two nuclear nations that hardly trust each other.

This well planned and vicious attack on innocent people was a killing spree that graphically and definitively illustrates that Islamic terrorism is a species of blatant and vile nihilism, and whatever religious or political gloss supporters give to it is a thin veneer over a passion to kill, not only infidels, but whoever by chance gets in their sights. Hindu, Muslim, American, British, Catholic or Jew, whoever, they are all fair game; it doesn’t make any difference to the cold-blooded fanatic. Anyone unlike who they see in a mirror is a valid target. The source of their hate and resentment is, broadly speaking, modernity, the world as it is in the West, which is the preferred model for many other countries, including such adversaries as China. The extremists have no matching program to appeal to other aspiring peoples, just a Faith distorted beyond recognition. There is only scattershot violence and a heaping up of bodies for its own sake. Their brand of Islam has become a soulless snuff act from a group of people who have totally lost their bearings.