25th July 2008, Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore, 3.00PM
I was there attending a conference when my colleague flashed the screen of his blackberry at me which had breaking news from BBC: “Bangalore, IT Capital of India, rocked by serial bomb blasts”
I was not so sure about what to do next if at all anything was necessary to be done. So, I just backed out of the conference called my wife and told her that I was fine and sat down for a few minutes trying to get more information about the blasts. Called up a friend who told me that there was one at Sarjapur Road. I was staying 100m from there at my friend’s place. My friends still stay there – I mean it is their permanent house as they say in this part of the World. Let’s assume these terrorists had planned these blasts a day before, I would be one person gone for sure as I was walking around that place the previous day.
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According to this report:
70 per cent of Palestinians believe suicide bombing is justified but support for terrorism is falling in the wider Muslim world, according to a comprehensive US survey
What kind of a country would believe that? Anyway, the respite is supposed to be that support for terrorism is in fact falling.
In Lebanon, those believing that suicide bombing is justified often or sometimes has slumped from 74 per cent five years ago to 34 per cent now. In Pakistan, where Islamist violence has surged, the figure is just nine per cent.
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I have had this debate with many people for long. I had always advocated tolerance towards all religions if not acceptance. But recent developments have left me and my faith in such a philosophy questioned. And as always, it is again Islam under the scanner.
More than the feeling of my philosophy being questioned I am wondering if I was totally wrong in the first place itself. As in was I wrong to include Islam in my list of ‘all’ religions to be tolerated? Were my friends who strongly opposed every bit of the religion right?
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