09/27/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10154

TERRORISM AT INDIAN TEMPLE

Terrorists have struck another deadly blow in India. On September 24^th, two gunmen took over a Hindu temple complex in Gandhinagar, in India’s Gujarat province. During a fourteen-hour siege, the terrorists killed more than thirty men, women, and children with assault rifles and grenades before being killed themselves by Indian army commandos.

No group has claimed responsibility for this monstrous act of terrorism. Indian authorities said that two letters found on the bodies of the young gunmen bore the previously unknown name, "Movement for Taking Revenge."

It is essential, as Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee put it, for Indians to "fight terrorism and defeat it together." But what is absolutely not needed is any further revenge-taking. Indians have had far too much of that already. This year alone, hundreds of people in Gujarat province have been killed in violence between Hindus and Muslims. The violence began on February 27^th in Godhra, a town near Ahmedabad. A mob of Muslims set fire to a train filled with Hindus, who were returning from a rally and shouting religious and nationalistic slogans. Nearly sixty Hindus were killed.

The next day, rioting broke out in Ahmedabad and other places. Hundreds of Muslims were killed when Hindus set fire to their homes. The Indian army had to be called in to stop the rioting. Now, thousands of soldiers have been called in again to try to prevent more violence in the wake of the attack on Hindu worshipers at Gandhinagar.

Clearly, national and state governments must take firm action to keep the peace between Hindus and Muslims in India. Even more needed is a renewed dedication to tolerance -- in India and in all places where people of different faiths or ethnic backgrounds live next to one another.

As U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has pointed out, "much of the misery, danger, and instability around the world today is caused or exacerbated by intolerance." There is also overwhelming evidence that intolerance hurts prospects for economic development. As Secretary of State Powell said, "countries consumed with ethnic or sectarian violence cannot seize [economic] opportunities, and the only way to break the cycle of violence is to convince. . . [them] that investing in peace and cooperating with their neighbors pays greater rewards than unending strife."

It is time, as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee put it, to end this "mindless revenge."