Answering A Contemptible Charge

Rezwan responded to our recent post Vinod Mehta On Terrorism with an astonishing diatribe where he accuses us ("you people") of generalizing our hatred against all the Muslims, thereby dishonoring the struggles of these (anti-radical) majority against the radicals.

He also suggests that by taking a hardline view of Islamist terror (which he denies exists, wow!), we risk letting the backlash grow, thereby placing all the browns in trouble.

The last suggestion is profoundly racist. We don't see ourselves part of any "brown ummah" requiring us to hide from the truth out of a "solidarity of fear" with the communities where recent Islamist terrorists have come from.

Rezwan's ridiculous accusation of our generalizing our hatred against all Muslims comes from our unequivocal rejection of the root-cause arguments -- which too many moderate Muslims and their liberal allies are, alas, too quick to offer. Those who accuse us of hatred should take their words back because we have rejected the root-cause logic not just in the case of Islamist terror, but also in the case of Hindutva terror (in Gujarat). As evidence we offer this January post (written upon the release of Justice Banerjee report absolving the Muslims accused of the Godhara arson which spawned the subsequent mass Muslim lynchings at Hindu hands). We wrote:

We think this obsession with cause & effect -- or better put, root cause & effect -- is wrong. In this context, even if there was perfidy by some Muslim hoodlums (a claim Justice Banerjee disputes), we still cannot find any justification for what followed. No root cause can ever justify deliberate murder of innocent human beings.

We stand by the logic of these words and they apply to all people. This root-cause rationalization for utter depravity has already gone too far. It's time to call it for what it is: a rationalization for evil.

It's one thing to debate an issue, but to accuse us of hatred is beyond the pale. How dare somebody think they can level such a disgraceful charge and not expect a harsh response? How dare they?