This new ‘ism’ has also transformed the Lashkar-e-Toiba, or similar groups suspected in the Mumbai blasts. "The Lashkar-e-Toiba started for completely different reasons, it was not part of a global movement," Loretta Napoleoni, author of Terror Inc, tells Outlook. The book extensively explores the terror network in the Indian subcontinent. "It was at the beginning focused on the conflict between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, but then, because of the spread of Al Qaedism, and particularly around the beginning of the war in Iraq, it became one of many organisations under the same umbrella."
Evidence of this change comes from the Lashkar itself. "If you see their rhetoric, it’s not any more focused on the national element, it is very much a global rhetoric. And that’s the same with Indonesian groups, for example. They are all a part of the same ideological body, and this is extremely dangerous because they all feel a part of the same counter-crusade against the West in general." And in the minds of many of these groups, India has gone ‘West’. Madrid-London-Mumbai maps a new mind, as it presents a new danger.
"There is in one sense no link between what has happened in Madrid, London and Mumbai because these people did not know each other... but there is clearly a link because these are all part of the same movement," Napoleoni says. "You can’t say that what has happened in Mumbai is related to the situation in Kashmir or the tension between Pakistan and India. It goes beyond that. What’s happening today in Israel and Lebanon and Palestine is going to have an impact on the next attack in Asia inevitably, because they are all part of the same ideology."
And beyond the search for clues in this attack and that, Napoleoni is arguing the need for the bigger clue to the larger problem. And that is to separate, in her words, Al Qaeda from Al Qaedism, ideologue from ideology, and a particular grouse from a deeper grievance. Not distinctions usually quantifiable in plain police language, but distinctions that may have to be learnt to arrest a spreading threat. "The best way to prevent the attacks is to look at why these guys are doing what they are doing, and then operate on that. You’ve got to solve the entire problem. You cannot solve only the security side of the problem. We need a global strategy that understands what really is the jehadist movement. But there is no willingness to present a political solution."
Napoleoni says Al Qaedism is not necessarily religious. "Two of the London bombers were indoctrinated within the past 12 months. You can’t say these people were religious. These people joined the religion because in joining they were joining an ideology, very similar to what Marxism was in armed organisations of the 1970s. So we should not go after the religious element. We should go after the ideological element, because you join an ideology because you willingly want to join it—so it’s much easier to destroy."
That destruction will take some time, as it is being strengthened all the time because of Iraq and Lebanon. "Earlier, the jehadists were focused on their own internal problems. Before 9/11 and before the war on Iraq, they were very much focused on their own fights. Today, they are all a part of this global Al Qaedism. So psychologically, the ideology is much, much stronger," she says.
