Using the Mumbai attacks as his starting point, Saudi columnist Mshari Al-Zaydi gives us an interesting history of the problems of Islam in the subcontinent. He uses ‘India’ to not only cover the current country, but the historical region, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh in discussing how, after the failure of the Mogul Empire, Muslims tried to contend with a rapidly changing world. He cites the Indian response, starting with people like Mawdudi, as critical to current Arab Muslim thought as well as in the ideological background of organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. I strongly recommend his essay.

The Islamic Open Wound of the Indian Subcontinent
Mshari Al-Zaydi

The relationship between India and Pakistan has reached boiling point with India now on a high state of alert, accusing Pakistan of allowing terrorists to leave Pakistan to launch attacks on Indian cities, the latest of which was the horrific siege of Mumbai last week. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari dismissed such accusations and urged India to remain calm.

The scene that we are witnessing in India is almost a mirror image of the aftermath of the 2001 Indian parliament attack. In December 2001, an armed group attacked the Indian Parliament in New Delhi killing and injuring dozens. Following this attack, the then Prime Minister of India Atal Vajpayee accused Pakistan of facilitating terrorism. The then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dismissed these accusations saying that both India and Pakistan are in the same boat against terrorism, and pointed the finger at fundamentalist Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and groups linked to the Pakistani Taliban, colluding with elements within the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The escalation between Pakistan and India continued to the point that artillery fire was exchanged along the border until January 2002.

We have no idea what will happen now with regards to Pakistani-Indian escalation despite the change in both governments since 2001. Atal Vajpayee served as Indian Prime Minister during the 2001 parliament attack and was the head of a right-wing Hindu party, while the Pakistani President at the time was General Musharraf, who was Islamic terrorism’s number-one enemy. Both Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri had pledged on a number of occasions to kill the former Pakistani president and he has been subjected to a number of assassination attempts.
…