There are three primary drivers behind the global rise in terrorism. First, major global powers exploit religious, ideological, and political forces to achieve their own geostrategic goals. To these puppet masters, terrorists are merely brainwashed “useful idiots.” Second, as new technologies make it easier to influence the human mind, they are being weaponized to spread religious fundamentalism. Third, terrorism stems from deep flaws, perversions, and delusions within religious worldviews—most notably, an obsession with the afterlife. By deeply embedding the illusion that a magnificent “other world” exists where unlimited pleasures await the souls of those “martyred” in holy war, recruiters successfully breed suicide bombers. Individuals are ruthlessly brainwashed into believing that dying for religion is their highest spiritual duty. With the explosion of mass media and social network technologies, efforts to spread fundamentalism and trap people inside a matrix of religious fanaticism have escalated dramatically. Obsessed with a promised paradise, these terrorists are driven to a point where they do not hesitate to destroy the very world they live in.
It was the American CIA that originally manufactured and unleashed countless terrorists across West Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey have also played significant roles in this process. Pakistan, meanwhile, has provided safe haven to all of them, nurturing and deploying them at will. The stronger people’s religious fanaticism becomes, the easier it is for these powers to manipulate them. A dangerous collective delusion has taken root: “We are the warriors of the faith. Our belief is the only truth, and everything else is ignorance and falsehood. It is our religious duty to rid the world of these false beliefs and bring the entire globe under our rules and control. Only then will we attain salvation in the afterlife.” This precise illusion is what drives the current surge in inter-religious conflicts and wars. Global powers that once relied on direct warfare and conventional invasions have now shifted their strategy to depend heavily on the tactics of terrorism.
Pakistan, which harbors dreams of creating a religious empire, is internally crumbling. Yet, it refuses to scale back its terror apparatus, largely because it is backed by foreign powers. The country is currently trapped in a vicious cycle of political instability, economic collapse, religious frenzy, social fracturing, deep-seated hatred, and natural disasters. Cohesion between its various provinces has completely broken down. It is effectively on life support, surviving solely on aid from the United States and China. Pakistan somehow stumbles along by offering its masters a single, continuous promise: “We will keep India in check.” How much longer must this game continue? This is something India must seriously contemplate.
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