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Statement on the Launch of the
South Asia Terrorism Portal
The SOUTH ASIA TERRORISM PORTAL is a project
rooted in a deep conviction that the rising scourge of terrorism is
a threat not only to this region, but to all humanity. Terrorism is
a method that recognises no limits of law and knows no constraints of
morality, of honour, of human compassion, or even of the minimal rules
of warfare. Crucially, it transcends all international boundaries, and
returns to consume the very systems and societies that create, support
and sponsor it, even as it destroys those who tolerate or succumb to
it.
For some years now, a part of the political and intellectual
world has been seduced by the improbable idea of a clash of civilisations,
of a final determination of the superiority of one culture, ideology
or Faith over all others. And terrorist violence is sometimes seen as
a legitimate instrument in this final, millennial, struggle by those
who are absolutely convinced that their vision of the world is the only
one possible. But no nation, culture or civilisation can conceivably
benefit from terrorism. This is the pitiless enemy of every nation state
in the world, of all cultures and of civilisation itself.
Terrorism, moreover, is not the problem of its victim
societies alone. Its impact reverberates across the globe. A victory
for terrorism anywhere in the world is a victory for terrorism everywhere.
This is why this evil must be fought collectively,
by all nations, all cultures and all civilisations. When we speak of
defeating terrorism, we do not speak of the right or wrong of a specific
ideology or Faith, or of any nation's claims in a particular dispute.
We speak only of the rejection of an extraordinarily inhuman and barbaric
method of warfare as an instrument of resolution.
The global community must now come together to arm
and defend itself against the random and indiscriminate violence of
the rising tide of terror. But this, alone, will not suffice. Arms and
force are necessary, if we are not to succumb. But the eventual victory
against terrorism will be secured in the minds of men.
Therein lies the significance of the Internet. Like
terrorism, it transcends international borders; unlike terrorism, however,
it creates and communicates the possibilities of a greater understanding
of the diversity of mankind, of the resolution of disputes and differences
without violence, of the hopes and dreams of all of humanity living
in peace.
It has often been said that, if you wish to change
the world, you must first accept and understand it as it is. The SOUTH
ASIA TERRORISM PORTAL is an endeavour to achieve such an understanding
of the world of terror.
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