PARAGRAPH AND WORDS

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PARAGRAPH AND WORDS

  1. a) Seeing through a glass darkly: on combating terrorism

Yet another anniversary of the November 26, 2008 terror attacks on multiple targets in Mumbai has come and gone. Much has changed since then and terror has evolved into an even more dangerous phenomenon. Recent variants represent a paradigmatic change in the practice of violence.

A different genre

It is difficult to recognise the new generation of terrorists as a mere extension of the earlier lot of radical Islamist terrorists who were influenced by the teachings of the Egyptian thinker, Sayyid Qutb, and the Palestinian Islamist preacher, Abdullah Azzam, and adopted the practical theology of the Afghan warlord, Jalaluddin Haqqani. There is less theology today and the new age terrorist seems to belong to an altogether different genre of terrorism. This is not to say that the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai were not different in the methodology and the tactics used in the September 11, 2001 attack in New York City. Nevertheless, the spate of recent attacks in Europe and parts of Asia, from 2015 to 2017 — beginning with the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in January 2015, the major incidents at Brussels and Istanbul Ataturk airports as well as the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, all in 2016, to the string of attacks in London, Stockholm, Barcelona and New York, in 2017 — are very different in structure and the morphology from attacks of an earlier period.

Standing out from the crowd

A large number of terror attacks in the past three years have been attributed to the handiwork of the Islamic State (IS), and reveal its leaning towards the “nihilism” of Sayyid Qutb. It is this which distinguishes the IS from many of the other radical Islamist groups such as al-Qaeda and its affiliates. The IS’s recruitment techniques, especially its ability to proselytise over the Internet, including “direct to home jihad” as also its more sanguinary brand of violence, set it apart from earlier variants of radical Islamist terror. Even while the IS has gained a great deal of prominence due to its brand of violence, other terror networks have continued to be no less active. For example, al-Qaeda and its affiliates. The Boko Haram in Africa has been responsible for more killings than most people would realise. Closer home, the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network have carried out several spectacular attacks inside Afghanistan. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have carried out several attacks inside Pakistan. Pakistan provides the wherewithal and the support to terror outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad to launch well-planned attacks on Indian targets. Most of these outfits continue to adopt earlier methodologies. These have proved no less effective than those followed by the IS. The terror attack on a mosque in North Sinai, Egypt in November this year, which killed over 230 persons, is one such example. In December, the TTP was responsible for a terror attack on an agricultural training institute in Peshawar, Pakistan. Differences among terror outfits, do not, however, preclude a complicated pattern of relationships when it comes to operational aspects.

 

WORDS/ VOCABULARY

1) Paradigmatic

Meaning: Of or denoting the relationship between a set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles.

2) Mere

Meaning: Used to emphasize that the fact of something being present in a situation is enough to influence that situation.

Example:”His stomach rebelled at the mere thought of food”

3) Preacher

Meaning: A person who preaches, especially a minister of religion.

Synonyms: Parson, Clergyman

4) Tactics

Meaning: An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.

Example: “The minority attempted to control the Council by a delaying tactic”

Synonyms: Strategy, Scheme

5) Spate

Meaning: A large number of similar things coming in quick succession.

Example: “A spate of attacks on holidaymakers”

Synonyms: Series, Succession

6) String

Meaning: A sequence of similar items or events.

Example: “A string of burglaries”

Synonyms:  Series, Succession

7) Morphology

Meaning: The study of the forms of words, in particular inflected forms.

Example: “Grammar is organized along two main dimensions: morphology and syntax”

8) Attributed

Meaning: Regard something as being caused by.

Example: “He attributed the firm’s success to the efforts of the managing director”

Synonyms:  Ascribe, Assign

9) Nihilism

Meaning: The rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.

Synonyms: Negativity, Cynicism

10) Affiliates

Meaning: Officially attach or connect (a subsidiary group or a person) to an organization.

Example: “They are national associations affiliated to larger organizations”

Synonyms:  Associate with, Be in league with

11) Proselytise

Meaning: Convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another.

Example:”The programme did have a tremendous evangelical effect, proselytizing many”

Synonyms: Evangelize, Convert

12) Sanguinary

Meaning: Involving or causing much bloodshed.

Example: “They lost heavily in the sanguinary campaigns that followed”

13) Wherewithal

Meaning: The money or other means needed for a particular purpose.

Example: “They lacked the wherewithal to pay”

Synonyms:  Money, Ready

14) Preclude

Meaning: Prevent from happening; make impossible.

Example: “The secret nature of his work precluded official recognition”

Synonyms: Prevent, Interdict