Militants Killed in Kashmir Mosque

Houses of worship are dangerous places for countries. They are dangerous not only because they are the places where religious angst gets collected and distributed. This is across many religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity or Judaism.

There is a different issue worth considering. Quite a lot of times, militants will take refuge in a place of worship, such as the famous case of the Sikh Holy of Holies, Harminder Sahib, in Amritsar, Punjab, India. It took tanks, artillery and a full scale invasion to get rid of the terrorists sheltering inside the gurudwara. Or the situation where Palestinian terrorists holed up inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and it again took quite a lot of fighting to get rid of those terrorists. Or the recent Lal Masjid Siege in Islamabad, or the one in the mosque in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Let us also not forget the Mecca incident or the Kashmir Incident.

This happens quite frequently I am afraid. And for very good reason. Religiously motivated terrorists would naturally see the mosques and gurudwara's as their primary source of inspiration. And also with spires, minarets and towers, they are quite eye catching. So many times, they make a beeline to it and hide out.

Police usually find it very difficult to keep an eye out on these places of worship given the sensitivities involved and anyway, who would ever suspect a house of God being used for murderous purposes? Well, that's the thinking which allows the militants and terrorists to use mosques quite frequently. Also, the caretakers are usually pious individuals, they are not the kind of people who will stand up to these murderers!

Unfortunately, the only solution for the country is to turf them out. Although India has learnt through bitter experience to walk carefully around religious places, I do not think other countries have. It is a warning that while you have to be very careful and sensitive, involve the community leaders in trying to get the terrorists to surrender, but at end of the day, the steel fist has to be shown. Religion must never be allowed to overpower the state!

See this current story for an example of how to deal with terrorists in a mosque.