Mohammad Ali Sattar

With the sudden surge in ‘militant’ acts and widespread confusion and fear, a slice of the populace have been saying that it’s time we came out of the fear factor and get on with business as usual. I stand by this realization. I am all for a regular life. Fear and panic is tantamount to an unfeeling and paralyzed life. We need to be agile and living. Wondering is human but we won’t be cowed down. Worries will hollow us out.
I would like to be positive and get on with life. We have very little time for life’s work to be done; we can’t stop and take indefinite (or frequent) breaks from our responsibilities. However there are factors that need to be taken into consideration, we ought to be on guard and decide on watchful measures for our wellbeing. There is a change in the socio-political scenario. The global metamorphosis is there to behold. So we shall have to acclimatize to the changed conditions as we have been doing for ages.
However there is a difference in conditions of acclimatizing. Evolutionary process is a peaceful means of adopting to changes while forceful situations ( like natural calamity or manmade disasters ) puts one under pressure to accept the changed conditions.
As we try to normalize our lives here, acts of killing go on everyday in other parts of the world. Acts of terror has taken a different hue. Apart from terror groups we have lone killing missions. These wayward minds go out and pull the guns on any one they like. In Japan, the lone attacker hacked as many as 19 ‘disabled’ persons- the reason? He doesn’t like the disabled. The nature of assassination is varied; from shooting to stabbing to hacking to mowing by vehicles.
Are we ready to familiarize ourselves to the changed conditions and go on with life? May be we shall have to. Or how can we move forward to accept new challenges and responsibilities? French Prime Minister has remarked that France will have to live with terrorism. Living with terrorism does not mean that we shall have to accept the acts of terror; rather we must concentrate on creating larger space and time to train ourselves for countering the rogue elements and make life worth living.
The good news is the so-called ‘caliphate’ (ISIL) in the borders of Iraq and Syria is vanishing faster than anticipated. The founders themselves are either on the run or killed. The strategy they had adopted was far from pragmatic and modern political thoughts. Days of Chengiz Khan and Kemal Ataturk are gone. Now one cannot be a marauding force and conquer lands and people – it needs lot more. You need support of the people of the land and associates to support you in occupying or freeing people from slavery or tyranny.
But the bad news is; the IS army or followers are now spread all over the world. They will, by their sweet will, strike at anybody, at any place. That’s the danger. The seeds of IS have been sown all over. We shall have to be vigilant. We must launch a ferocious campaign to arrest the young ones from falling into traps of this dangerous IS creed. This is a serious task. But let’s get on with life. As mentioned earlier, worry will hollow us out.

Mohammad Ali Sattar is a journalist, columnist and peace activist
Email: [email protected]