Attacks in Mumbai seek to create divide

Blame is difficult to assign, especially when the acts in question have resulted in at least 174 deaths and an additional 239 wounded.

Of course, the 10 highly trained gunmen who wreaked havoc through Mumbai’s streets last Wednesday before holing up in two of the city’s poshest hotels until Saturday morning are not innocent.

Their actions were extreme and despicable. Those who spread violence with guns or bombs or airplanes are seriously misguided in their desire to bring about social upheaval.

Speculation has it that the attacks were perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Muhammad, both Pakistani groups that focus on the conflict in Kashmir.
Before Sept. 11, the Pakistani intelligence community maintained a healthy relationship with the groups. And although the collusion has disappeared, the government has still not cracked down on either group. India, too, has helped fuel support for the groups by continuing human rights violations in Kashmir.

The greatest fear involves the possibility of a home-grown India group being involved with the attacks. That would be a shame. India is home to more than 150 million Muslims – the largest Muslim minority population in the world. The notion that any of India’s various religious groups could ever gain an advantage through violence is clearly misguided.

In many ways, terrorist attacks like the one last Wednesday are attacks on diversity. Unfortunately, as we become increasingly accustomed to such atrocities, it becomes easy to view diversity as something that is dangerous and unstable.

Many were probably disappointed that we were reminded of how dangerous our world was at a time when we were supposed to be giving thanks.

Yet, we can still be thankful that there are plenty of examples of diverse groups coexisting peacefully, even if they don’t always grab headlines. Our country, in which we have recently elected our first black president and in which “minority” groups make up some 20 percent of the total population sets a nice example, even if it sometimes could do better.

Relations on this campus could improve and there are sometimes distractions, (think the Ora L. Wildermuth controversy) but IU students should appreciate the diversity that exists in Bloomington and take as much away from it as they can.
 
It would be a shame if attacks like the one in Mumbai convinced us that, like partying five days a week and ordering pizza at 4 a.m., all this talk of peaceful coexistence and its potential benefits was just a part of the college world and another thing that is not really possible in the real one.