Dear Gotham,
I suppose your father asked you to write this post instead of him apologizing to the people of Mumbai for his very wise analysis "Attack prompts tough questions" with Larry King.

As a non-Muslim, all I can do is ask myself the really hard questions: what in me corresponds to the anger of so many Muslim groups? After all, their message is loudest right now.

Is it racism? Prejudice? Superiority? Projection? Pride? Fear? Anger? All of them?? How about offering "them" sincerity about what I found? What would happen then, do you think?

Maybe Pakistan and India are being played against each other by something that benefits from the conflict. Sure the conflict exists in minds of the players on the field, but who put the conflict in the minds of those playing pieces?

Who benefits?

Pakistan and India are but pieces on the chess board, who are the chess players?

The common Jew, Christian, or Muslim is also simply a playing piece on the chess board.

Hint: Islam forbids interest or usury while others profit from it, an entire empire is built upon selling money. There is no doubt a conflict here.

Here is another clue, those that finance and sell weapons and security benefit from conflict. The citizens of Pakistan and India are all going into debt which must be paid back with interest, and will be done so by force through taxation. Looks to be that the people of Pakistan and India have a common enemy, ignorance perpetuated by a few, and this enemy could unite which could unite them.

This type of game has been going on for a very very long time, maybe someone could shatter these age old illusions that so many act upon, that were created so long ago a lot of people have been duped.

"maximize attention, gain the notice of the world"

That could be the Divine Intention, for there is the thought that those who were killed that in some deeper arrangement sacrificed their lives to bring attention to the much bigger problem of the pain and suffering in the world which some find easy to ignore because they are so removed from it.

For who would give up a life worth living to become a terrorist? In that lies the insight into the solution.

"maximize attention, gain the notice of the world"

That could be the Divine Intention, for there is the thought that those who were killed that in some deeper arrangement sacrificed their lives to bring attention to the much bigger problem of the pain and suffering in the world which some find easy to ignore because they are so removed from it.

For who would give up a life worth living to become a terrorist? In that lies the insight into the solution.

We need to investigate all possibilities. People quickly assume it has to do with militant Islamists funding from Saudi Arabia, but who is to say it wasn't some obscure militant Jewish Banker Sect that just cannot cope with the idea of a religion that has earning “interest” as being forbidden? Jesus a Jew was also against it by the way and look what happened to him at least in story.

But many would say they attacked Jews, of course this would throw everyone off the trail. What price is a few to save the many, might be the warped thinking?

We are not talking about those deluded people that actually did the acts, we are talking about those deluded people that might have fomented and facilitated it, taking advantage of those that are already very angry.

These “operative” terrorists just are not that smart, if they were they could do much more damage than they have, and they are certainly not capable of rational thinking, so who is the intelligence behind all these terrorist organizations, perhaps a number of chess players?

The solution is not in blaming anyone but in creating for everyone a life worth living, where at least the basic needs are met.

Who benefits most from a conflict between Pakistan and India, those that finance and equip it?

One thing is clear the Jews, Christians and the Muslims are not the ones responsible for the world conflict, some may individually may get sucked into the game, the fiction and the drama, but who or what is really creating it? Who feeds their minds with fictions and divides them?

I realized I left out the Hindus and they are part of the equation, but really it would be nice to just do away with the labels. Who knows maybe the God they all share will come along and get all to play together nicely.

Gotham,
Senseless violence calls us to unify and claim our ground. There are many sane and compassionate people on this planet and we must gather our collective force. Not against anyone or anything...but FOR Truth, Love and Life. FOR that which is sacred. We don't all agree....all the more reason for those of us who do agree to find our common ground and unify in spirit and in action. Enough already!

Trish~~

I wasn't pinning the blame on the bankers, the religions, the governments, the oil industry, or any individuals either. Not that they don't share all share some culpability. There is nobody to pin the blame on. There is something that we can blame though and that is the fictions, the ignorance, and the failure to adhere to the truth that all the religions minus the ego born dogma hint at. I also recognize the transgressions that have occurred against all the groups and individuals involved it’s one big vicious self perpetuating cycle that must be broken with wisdom and compassion. When we evolve history will no longer repeat itself, and we might find ourselves in a paradise that everyone dreams of. Which does not mean a world void of work but rather a world where we love what we toil to create.

One problem though is that it is hard to shift to living the truth, this includes people and nations, if most everyone else is not doing the same. It is something we all need to do together at the same time, and then it makes it easy for everyone. So first we need to have a conversation and come to an agreement to embrace the truth, which will require adjustments to how we have everything set up now. Many things will go away to be replaced by the new things and there will be a somewhat arduous transition.

Everyone was born innocent into the world. It must have been something that was already here something that gets passed on to each new generation and something that each generation before inherited. Somewhere way back in history someone told a lie and others believed it, and you know the rest of the story.

Trish you mention senseless violence but what is easy to do is to look at the aggressive violence, it stands out, what everyone is missing is the passive violence, it's just as senseless but much more innocuous, it kills and maims as well it’s just not as blatant and has repercussions as well.

"we - and more importantly Muslims themselves - ask the hard questions as to why the Islamic faith has distinguished itself so."

Gotham- caution needs to be applied to extremist views likewise to all the faiths lest they be "hijacked" by few fundamentalists making them representatives for the group. No-one wants to reach that point and ask this question about their faith.

it was islamic terrorists behind 9/11, behind, Bali, behind, the train attacks in spain and now in mumbai...

it's time for islamic leaders to preach an end of this cold-blooded violence..what do they hope to accompish? so what if these nuts use nuclear weapons one day to wipe out everyone in the world...what is the point?

this is insanity pure and simple and it's time for it to end.

I wrote an article here at my blog: http://captaink.blogspot.com/2008/12/mumbai-terror-attack-2611.html on this subject.

But in trying to answer your question Gotham:

- No demands by the terrorists. As DK Matai said this is a fault line between nihilism and globalization. The intent of these people goes beyond fundamentalism or fascism, it a signal of a fracture of purpose and existence.

- You have a country that was created to be Pro-Islam, Anti-Hindu, Anti-India -- it has defined Pakistani politics since its inception ... and as such that institutional thinking still festers with many parts of the ISI and Army infrastructure in Pakistan. In short, they still haven't "gotten over" losing India. Call it a misguided and insecure superiority complex when seeing the success of India today.

- Some people claim it was an attack on foreigners, granted it certainly Internationalized the situation but i don't buy it. The forces at play, lets use the words Zadari used, "non-state actors" are having to define the idea of a new Pakistan template, in part due to the success of India and perhaps more closely modeled around a a country like Malaysia. These are bold ambitions for a country like Pakistan given that it is fighting 2 wars on both borders, at risk of becoming a failed state like Somalia given that it was close to defaulting on its debt liabilities and needed to get money from the IMF, it is in Civil war internally and its best export is not leather but well-trained urban guerillas.

- Call this the clash between aspirations of modernity/globalization and a state underpinned by Islamic theological and theocratic ideologies. It seems it has to get much worse before it can get better.