Public sentiment regarding terrorism in South Asia is overwhelmingly characterized by concern and frustration. Commenters express a lack of confidence in government policies and criticize the ideological divides between nations, particularly India and Pakistan. There is a strong call for improved governance, and many urge for a constructive dialogue to break the cycle of violence. While some comments express hope for peace and justice, the overall tone is marked by pessimism about the future and skepticism about the media portrayal of terrorism.

Government of India

Government of Pakistan

International Community

Luuk1210

Japan had their ex prime minister get assassinated not that long ago. That nation actually has a pretty long history of political violence

hellshot8

Russia in 2024:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus\_City\_Hall\_attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus_City_Hall_attack)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024\_Dagestan\_attacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Dagestan_attacks)

thrwwynm

It's because, outside of huge or novel terrorist attacks like the 1995 sarin gas attacks in Tokyo or the 2024 Crocus City Hall shooting in Russia, you don't usually have many English language articles written about them. They're written about in the native language so the English-speaking world isn't very aware.

Add on that a lot of politically-driven attacks in Asian countries have more to do with the politics in those countries, which is largely uninteresting to the average reader in the Western world, so you'll maybe get an AP or Reuters article about the event but none of the followup political commentary.

Fromthepast77

How much do you hear about anything that goes on in those countries outside of the very extreme?

China is also extremely opaque in general. They claim to not have had a domestic terror incident since 2016 which seems quite implausible for a country over a billion people

[deleted]

China has experienced terrorist attacks, such as the Kunming Railway Station incident. Otherwise, why do you think China is dealing with the Xinjiang issue?

luoyeqiufengzao

The Chechens would like to have a word with you.

Middle-Painter-4032

China had a pretty big problem with terrorist attacks.

Now they dont.

Want to know why?

Environmental-Fig62

Asia has a fuckton of terrorist attacks. Asia isnt just "chopstick and rice" Asia. 

Middle East, Pakistan, India, Myanmar all have recent or continous ones. Russia recently just had some.

China, Korea, Japan are developed enough to catch most terrorist groups, have high stability, very harsh regarding guns and out the picture for the biggest groups.

In 2015 terrorost attacked about 30 people in China with trucks and knives. It wasnt caused by a global group, it didnt use bombs or guns, it didnt happen in a big city, China alrrady is a restricted country informstion wise and this was before tiktok among other reasons you didnt know of it.

Lazzen

You don’t read international news apparently? what do you mean you never hear? try listening to npr or BBC

nofriender4life

North Korea is pretty safe too apparently. That’s the natural result of silencing the opposition and controlling the narrative with only one voice, I hear it’s good to be the King.  Sucks to be everyone else.  Keep up the fight for free speech even if it’s speech you disagree with.

PitifulBusiness767

Indonesian here, we dealt very serious islamist terrorism pre-2015ish. Bali bombing was one of the notorious attack.

w32virus

That's because your media and social media feed aren't interested in those topics

EmployAltruistic647

Russia had one at concert recently. Muslim terrorists i think

Dodaddydont

"we" hear about it. It's on xiaohongshu and even Chinese YouTubers.

But yea they get terrorists attacks like the stabbing on Japanese students.

hangender

Two of those three countries don’t have a free or fair press. That’s where we will be soon.

Sea-Jaguar5018

Russian literally had the Crocus City Hall attack with over 100 dead and the Dagestan attack which killed 15 police just last year. There have been multiple bombings and attacks that come to mind during the Chechan Wars and since.

Japan had the AUM Shinrikyo sarin gas attack in the 90s but admittedly nothing of note since to my knowledge.

China has very strict controls on the media and is notoriously violent toward any kind of organized dissent (Tiananmen Square). They happen but are generally much smaller and much much more tightly kept quiet about.

cyvaquero

It does get reported. Perhaps a little less so due to censorship but it’s not a big conspiracy or anything. 

Wasn’t too long ago there was a mass shooting at a theatre in Russia.

-_-Edit_Deleted-_-

One of the key features of first world cultures (in the cold war sense) / western countries is the push for freedom of the press, this is much less true in second world countries that have more Press suppression, and third world cultures rarely have the cultural influence to have their events recognised beyond their borders.

It is also common for those same free press countries to be wholly fascinated with their own culture and not look beyond their borders unless forced (looking at you USA).

TheCIAiscomingforyou

A lot of the world is set up to receive more news from USA than from the rest.   
Modern news is in major ways set up to not cross borders all that much. Facebook changed that in some ways before it drowned in shit.

Ninevehenian

Most other comments are right. With that, it also comes that countries like China and Russia are more contained. They aren’t as open to spill the beans as more democratic nations.

voRYNK

Thailand has been going through some fairly serious shit lately (see below). You realise that you currently have to the world at your fingertips, yet you somehow choose to accept whatever comes to you, instead of going out an looking for it…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Thailand_(2001%E2%80%93present)?wprov=sfti1

lithiumcitizen

Country like China did have issues with the
Muslim minorities or the Tibetans.

They handle it extremely efficient by pretty much go “fuk human right” and Houdini the terrorists and their family up to 3 degrees of kinship to prevent future revenge terrorism. That method has been working for them in the past 2000 years or so and it’s super effective

kad202

Sometimes they do happen though. In April of this year Islamic terrorists committed a horrible crime in Kashmir in India by killing 23 Hindus and only spared people if they could recite the kalima.

deleted_user_0000

Terrorist attacks are taking place in Russia, which are organized by the SBU of Ukraine. Why doesn't your press write about it, ask your press. 
And tell me, since when has Russia become an Asian country?

Serabale

If you are going to want to learn more about global news you need to search it up. Headlines don't cover terrorism all the time. Most Americans don't even know off the top of their head that the world's largest humanitarian crisis is in Sudan right now.

Various-Effect-8146

In Spain they talk about the attacks in Madrid. In Russia they had a few theaters attacked. In Japan they had gas attacks. People everywhere hurt other people, please be kind when you can

MorinOakenshield

White ppl news don’t tend to show poc problems unless it’s trending

Relative_General_649

[Tokyo subway sarin attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_subway_sarin_attack)

crayton-story

There have been ongoing insurgencies in the Philippines, Thailand, and Myanmar for a long time. Depending on who you ask, those can be called terrorist attacks

USSZim

Did you miss the whole terrorist attack in Russia a few years ago. It was all over the news 

RoundCollection4196

Terror attacks in China happen. Japan is less often but the laws in Japan are very different. Japan takes almost an unfair approach to punishment. Reving an engine in the wrong neighborhood or having a dog off leash can lead to jailing.

ChemdawgCake

Japan has had a fair amount of domestic terrorism. Their ex PM was recently assassinated. 


Russia used to have some serious problems too. Terrorists killed 100+ people in a theater. Or the security services killed them while trying to kill the terrorists. 


China is a different story. The government's full control over the media (which now exists in Russia too) means it is harder for such news to come out or if they come out they may not be labeled as terrorism. 

FragrantPlantain6779

Cuz you don't know the language, and American news agencies are too busy fighting each other than report.

According_Spare7788

Japan had a Sarin gas attack in the 1990s.

virtual_human

China had a lot of terrorist attacks. They went pretty heavy handed as a response against their Muslim population.

pretzel-kripaya

I don't know about Russia, but China and Japan has their fair share of terrorist attacks before, though unlike the west, these attacks were domestic. I don't think there are foreign terrorist attacks like those happened in the US or Europe because both country doesn't get too entangled with foreign affairs.

Aside from China and Japan, other Asian countries like India and the Philippines also had terrorist attacks.

statyin

Brutal crackdowns on Islam in all three countries surely have nothing to do with it

Neat-History3580

D_RaX

China in 2015

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/01/at-least-50-reported-dead-in-september-attack-as-china-celebrates-xinjiang[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/01/at-least-50-reported-dead-in-september-attack-as-china-celebrates-xinjiang](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/01/at-least-50-reported-dead-in-september-attack-as-china-celebrates-xinjiang)

Acceptable_Story3536

China and Japan never undertook wars of aggression in the Middle East. Russia has actually experienced multiple terrorist attacks (probably more than the US), because the Russians have, in the past, launched wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, and intervened in Syria, Libya and the Sahel.

In 2024, 149 people were killed by ISKP (ISIS from Afghanistan) in an attack in Crocus, Russia. Putin's rise to power was actually made possible by a terrorist attack known as the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings. The bombings were initially blamed on Islamists, but it's now widely accepted to have been a false flag operation by the FSB to drum up support for the Chechen war. 4 months after the bombings, Putin went from being a relatively unknown Prime Minister to becoming President with an approval rating of 70%.

He practically razed Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, to the ground, and a 2003 UN report would describe it as "the most destroyed city on Earth". Most Russians either didn't care or supported it, because they preferred a hardliner in power to rejuvenate the country and reclaim the lost glory of the Soviets. Putin ended up using the bombings to justify expanding the FSB's powers and new "counterterrorism" laws, which mainly ended up being abused to detain political opponents. Navalny was the most recent and prolific person to be detained and killed under these "counterterrorism" laws.

Long-Cantaloupe1041

Japan's ex-PM was murdered in 2022. I heard about this while I was in boot camp. You know-. The place where they take your phone from you and yell at you for not folding your laundry fast enough. I think most people know about the Sarin gas attack and that iconic Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Inejirō Asanuma getting stabbed to death.

We hear about terrorist incidents in Russia all the time. Remember Crocus Hall or those apartment bombings in 1999 that propelled Putin to power? Western media has a very big incentive on reporting on everything that they think the average westerner will think is bad that happens in Russia no matter how small. I'm American too and I recall a NBC story about how Russia has officially designated the gay rights movement as terrorist.

We don't hear about terrorism in China because it appears to either be very infrequent or the government are masters of covering stuff up.

Maleficent_Law_1082

Russia literally had that Moscow concert hall attack last year in march. The funny thing is that the State Department warned Russia of the attack but they ignored it as they always do.

Isis39

There have been but most of them were not reported as such in the US media.  Japanese terrorist attacked were mostly domestic in nature and had little to do with outside religion.  In the cases in Russia and China,  they are related Muslim minority independence movement within their country so US media often did not label them as terrorist attacks.

_dtw_

As a Southeast Asian (Vietnamese in particular)

Vietnam has a rather strict firearm laws, so usually only the Army, Militia, and organized crime gangs can get their hands on military-grade stuff. There was an attack in Daklak a couple years ago by Degar separatists that killed 9 people, but terrorist attacks are kinda hard to fund, and mostly limited in the highlands.

Philippines has been dealing with Muslim and Communist rebels for decades. The most newsworthy battle was the Marawi Siege with was between the Philippine Army and ISIS. Philippines made peace with the Moros a couple years ago by giving them autonomy, while the Communists have been reduced to an oversized gang.

Thailand is still dealing with insurgents. I'm not familiar with the Thai issue  but I don't hear any noteworthy attack.

Myanmar is in a civil war, so everyone gets to call each other terrorists. How fun.

Malaysia's Sabah island got attacked by a small army by the "Sultan of Sulu" from the Philippines. Dunno who that guy is but I don't think the official Philippine government has anything to do with it.

Indonesia also have been fighting separatist rebels since they were a thing. Timor-Leste got their independence, Aceh surrendered, and West Papua is still fighting. Of course, those guys would call Indonesia the real terrorist.

RAlexa21th

Salty_Growth648

Then how dare you to say anything related to Uyghurs 😁

Otherwise_Internet71

China had a number of terrorist attacks by Uyghur Muslim separatists, so China rounded up all their Uygurs and put them in camps and the attacks stopped.

Russia had a bunch of high profile terrorist attacks, one happened just last year, and it was all over the news.

Japan is very homogenous and they don't have many Muslims living there so not many terrorist attacks. The last one that happened was perpetrated by a local cult - sarin gas was released in the metro in the 90s.

BringOutTheImp

Those other countries don’t have nearly as complicated with other countries as we’ve had. One large factor is our Cold War proxy wars, realpolitik support of any government that would support us or at least oppose the USSR, and our interference in the domestic politics of various countries.

Our support of the Israeli government, to name just one, is a substantial factor in inspiring Islamist attacks. Our support of the Shah of Iran arguably fueled the revolution that led to the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and the subsequent “death to America” mentality. Along with that, the new Iranian government armed and funded various paramilitary, jihadist, ot terrorist groups in the Middle East.

jfshay

They have them in all of those countries as well.  Definitely a lot in China and Russia.  Less often in Japan.

Miserable-Lawyer-233

Russia and Japan have both had numerous terrorist attacks. Who knows about China.

Severe-Illustrator87

In Russia they have had school shootings. There has also been quite a few terrorist attacks in Russia itself with some of those attackers being linked to Chechen serparatists.

In Japan there have been chemical attacks on public transport, most notably in the Tokyo Metro system. Other than that most of the attacks are done by people who have a grudge against one particular part of society.

In China there are terrorist attacks targeting children all the time. Mass stabbings where attackers will target and stab as many children as they can. This is done simply because children are held in such high regard in Chinese society as they are the literal future.

I think you need to get your head out of your arse and actually look around the world. Just because different countries are different does not mean that they are better, they aren't. Every society has their own and quite damaging literal skin bags full of human shaped shit. 

Your country is just more visibly fucked as the of 24 hour news.

skiveman

Russia has terrorist attacks way more often than the US. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

PandemicPiglet

Because they don't go around the world/neighbor telling/bullying others what to do, doing regime changes, and making unnecessary enemies.

One of the profound reasons why China has quietly become a superpower and not hated by many.

BaconMeetsCheese

Normally, the term "terrorist"  is associated with the United States because they basically invented it (or at least made it popular) and they use it a lot to victimize themselves and to gaslight their population, just like Israel.

In other countries, is not that common to use it, since everyone knows that no attack is just for the fear of it.

AngelDarkC

Because they are civilized and very few within the borders of those countries engage in such vile behavior and the few that do receive harsh punishments in order to maintain a harmonious society. 

Known-Bad2702

The Russians have a reputation for not fucking around. While I don't know current methods, during the KGB days they would execute the terrorist and then execute their family. Currently if you have opposition to Russia you can go to Ukraine.

Japan....Has no real enemies who must resort to terrorist tactics due to asymmetry.

China is pretty good at keeping it's internal conflicts contained and out of international news.

Terrorists aren't some movie/tv trope cabal plotting world domination. Terrorism is a tactic of conflict, in the same way Blitzkrieg or strategic bombing are tactics of conflict. The difference is terrorism allows non nation actors without a conventional army to wage war against even the largest of enemies. If you don't have enemies able or willing to do that then you don't have a terrorist problem. 

Those Saudi's who did 9/11 had reasons, Osama bin Laden was a wealthy man he didn't need to be a terrorist. It wasn't Japanese or Russian or Chinese troops who were being stationed in Saudi Arabia after the First Gulf War it was American. It's not Japan, China, Russia standing practically alone in being uncritical of Israel for the past 80+ years.

Terrorism has causes and reasons, you may not believe in them or believe they are justified but to the other person they are.

notatmycompute

China has suffered many terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, but they have covered up the news

ytzfLZ

Stabbing and running people over with cars is super common in mainland China. The CCP just censored everything so it’s hard for anyone to see.

Futaba800

In the case of China, the terrorists are frame as the heroes or "victims" fighting back

Neither_Attitude1827

Japan just has very low crime in general.

Realistic-Cow-7839

Well, in general we have very few things in the news about any of those countries. 

In the case of Japan, I doubt if they have many terrorist attacks.

In Russia, they absolutely have them, on a regular basis. Most are incidences not released to the press, or the 'official' story claims it was just an accident, or something of the like, not a terrorist incident. Keep in mind there is NO free press in Russia. And people who do publicly say things that Putin and his supporters do not like, tend to fall out of 7th floor windows, come down with a mysterious case of poisoning that no one can explain, manage to hang themselves after first killing their wife and children, or end up with long prison sentences ... which they frequently do not survive. Oh, or the plane they re on somehow get mistaken for an enemy Ukrainian aircraft and is shot down. Word still gets out but since it does out come from a validated source, oru press will usually not touch the story. Russia is an interesting place. They have a law on the books that allows imprisonment for up to 15 years for just making a derogatory statement about their military.

The Chinese, I don't know. What I do know is that the Chinese government controls every form of news reporting, and information flow and content on the internet going in or out of the country, Censorship in China if VERY strong and covers damn near everything. Pretty much nothing comes out of China except what the ruling government chooses to let out. And I know the ruling party does not like any criticism about anything in China getting out, nor any news that would make them 'Lose Face'. They are VERY strict about such things.

Russia is much the same way, but people find ways around the censorship. The Chinese government is more clever and thorough.

So, I'm not saying the do have terrorist problems. Wouldn't know, and there really isn't any way of finding out that I know about. And I am not familiar with China's internal politics and troubles. And without at least some facts, I am unwilling to speculate.

But there are terrorist attacks all over the world, all the time. It's pretty constant that it's happening somewhere every day. But US journalists aren't going to report on what happened today in this or that country most Americans can't even find on a map and may have never heard of. Most Americans wouldn't read or listen to the article.

Ok-Afternoon-3724

China has a lot of attacks you’d consider terrorist but the whole ruling party is also a terrorist group. They have iron fist over entire country including news going in and out. 

The most popular is people being mad about their lives and taking „revenge” by killing usually children. It’s sick

Gophy6

Separation of ladakh from jammu kashmir was the best decision taken by the government.

Slow_Second_2009

"You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors”: Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State during the Obama Administration) on Pakistan. This map just reminded me of that.

Bro marking the entire Chittagong Division of Bangladesh yellow is crazy. Coz the separists are only active in the very border regions of Myanmar, that's like a little less than 10% of what you marked. The marked regions in this map contains huge metropolises like Chittagong and other important cities like Cumilla and Cox's Bazar and they are nowhere near any conflict. And they peaked in the 90s nowadays they cause trouble now and then that's it

our_cut_remastered

Sad that half a country is affected by terrorism.

Soggy-Face8364

Is this up to date ? 

Modi govt has made huge inroads on ending maoist terror. The internal blob is getting smaller by the day.

Screye

What caused those bits in southern Andhra Pradesh (away from the Maoist belt), Chennai and Pondicherry(?)?

Also, wasn't there quite some activity in Sri Lanka due to LTTE?

manish_s

Another day of thanking jinnah for taking pakistan away from us.

Good riddance.

Ember_Roots

saynotodumbassary

The Hindutva folks have colonized the comment sections 😭

Effective_Ad2556

CPI maosit has nothing to do with Maharashtra and Karnataka. They are concentrated in the north Kerala region, and are the sole reason for the under development of that region. They are just communist disguised as secular party goons.

Always_Duh

Clearly, an rss made map. The obsession these losers have

Weirdoeirdo

In some cases the terror comes more from the government than from the rebels

Particular-Bike-28

How are cow vigilante grouped, they'd be atleast domestic terrorists right?

Lost-Letterhead-6615

This would seem to leave off hardline Hindutva groups entirely, despite their participation in numerous attacks on politicians they dislike, women practicing Western holidays, meat vendors, people allegedly involve in the beef trade, Indian Muslims, Indian Christians, and Dalits that aren't toeing the party line.

mrdeworde

FYI most of the one regarding northern and eastern Pakistan is quite wrong , looked the source and it's think tank from India. I am from Gilgit-Baltistan and the place is as safe as Ladakh.
The very fact it's shown otherwise and the study when looked into uses biased languages for such regions makes me question it's legitimacy 

kanEDY7

Why is India such a hotbed for terrorism?

Filthiest_Tleilaxu

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Regarding whether the doctrine of a particular theology promotes violence, is almost always going to be yes. Literally almost all forms of organised religion were born in a divisive and violent environment, so I don't think the Quran in particular has some sort of unique justification for violence in comparison with the bible or Torah. Coming to the sociology of Islamic fundamentalism, in modernity, there is a much clearer answer, which is supported by a tremendous amount of scholarship.

The Arab world, if you look into the times of the post-Ottoman period and World War 2, was in no way less secular compared to the West.  Theology and the clergy were very important spiritual pillars of governance, but most countries were not in any way theocracies or showed any tendencies to move towards them. Iran is one of the best examples of this. Mossadegh was a democratically elected leader with very explicit socialist tendencies and was tremendously popular among the people. While women didn't gain voting rights for a while, they were rapidly expanding into the workforce, and press freedom was also quite high. Then the Abadan crisis happened- Mossadegh nationalised the oil companies in Abadan, and the West staged a coup and installed a pro-Western brutal dictator. Iranians who already hated Western meddling were even more enraged. Clerics mainly just cooperated with the anti-imperialist fervour Iranians had to seize power. Iran is more or less a flagship model of how democracies in the Arab world and the Middle East descended into the throes of fundamentalism. Afghanistan also had a similar story, which is kinda of well-known. The link between American imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism is direct. Saddam Hussein, who was undoubtedly a tyrant, was also pretty secular, and ISIS would have been crushed before it gained any sort of meaningful momentum under his regime. There had to be a fairly systematic and organised intervention in these countries that allowed more radical philosophies to take over. Israel's role is also another major focal point, as from the pov of world systems analysis, it's a US colony in the Middle East. If the Arab world were filled with Christians, we would have had Christian terrorism, or if the most mineral-rich part of the world were somewhere deep in South Asia, we would similarly have Hindu or some other religious terrorists. Actual doctrine is mostly not that relevant, compared to what political circumstances force a people to weaponise it. The following works explain this in much more detail

Alzubairi, F. (2019). *On imperialism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism* (pp. 19–49). In *Colonialism, neo-colonialism, and anti-terrorism law in the Arab world*. Cambridge University Press. [https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569262.002](https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569262.002)

Hobsbawm, E. (2007). Globalisation, democracy and terrorism. Little, Brown. [https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Hobsbawm%2C+E.+J.+%28Eric+J.%29%2C+1917-2012%22](https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Hobsbawm%2C+E.+J.+%28Eric+J.%29%2C+1917-2012%22)

Also, Indian Islamophobia is very different as it's not a racialised one compared to the Western one. It's more or less the aftereffects of colonial policies that sustained tensions. Then the Hindutva movement very successfully weaponised it. If the Hindu Mahasabha had no role in assassinating Gandhi, they would have gained power long ago.

Lower-Canary-2528

The Quran contains many verses which literally encourage killing non-believers (infidels). Of course there are many interpretations of these verses, but they have certainly been used by violent extremists including ISIS and al Qaeda to justify terrorism.

https://crcs.ugm.ac.id/the-violent-verses-of-the-quran-in-comparison-between-the-classical-and-modern-interpretations/

Background-Key-457

&gt; 4. Does Quran actually tell the followers to commit harmful acts? 

No, quite the opposite. Consider this analysis from Fatawa Islamiyyah, Vol 2, 401-411. This was actually presented as a case right after 9/11 when the hate crimes against innocent Muslims were reaching new levels in US and other countries:

[“It is only as regards those who fought against you on account of religion, and have driven you out of your homes, and helped to drive you out, that Allaah forbids you to befriend them. And whosoever will befriend them, then such are the Zaalimoon (wrongdoers those who disobey Allaah).”[al-Mumtahinah 60:9]  Such people are to be fought against when [the Muslims] have the power to do so, and when fighting them and declaring jihad against them is more likely to serve a purpose. But when you can achieve your purpose with gentleness and kindness, it is not right to resort to violence and force. Muslims should only use force when they are compelled to, and as a last resort. They should not initiate fighting, unless there is some cause on the part of the kaafirs, such as their fighting the Muslims, or helping other enemies of the Muslims, or preventing them from following the path of Allaah and establishing the law of Allaah in the land.”](https://islamqa.info/en/answers/21757/muslim-attitudes-towards-violence-and-how-to-react-to-kaafir-aggression-against-the-muslim-community)

Be wary on any source that is not an accepted authority in Islam, in general islamqa.org is the best source online and one of the only available in English while also checked and verified for accuracy in its narration if you cannot read Arabic. ‘Peer reviewed sources’ in Islam are not academia, this is an important distinction and academia is not authoritative in any regard to liturgical texts or knowledge.

HaifaJenner123

The creation of Pakistan and Postmortem Trauma attached to it in the vein of partition likely exacerbated Anti-Muslim sentiment. If we look at polls, we see a distinct trend in Islamophobia being more prevalent in Northern India vs. Southern India which strengthens the claim.

&gt;*Muslims in North India reported experiencing religious discrimination more frequently (40%) than those in the Southern region (where no more than one-in-five reported discrimination).*

[https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/religious-identity-2/](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/religious-identity-2/)

Furthermore, to understand the rise of Islamic terrorism overall, we have to rewind the clock. In the early 20th century, some of the first politically motivated bombings in the Middle East were carried out by Zionist ethno-nationalist groups, most notably the Irgun’s 1946 King David Hotel bombing. These acts of violence weren’t rooted in Islamism but in nationalist struggles, showing that terrorism in the region predates the modern jihadist wave.

The later wave of Islamist militancy cannot be separated from the collapse of secular Arab nationalism, especially Baathism. Leaders like Assad, Saddam, and Nasser organized their regimes around the promise of modernization and secular unity, yet maintained their rule with an iron fist. Over time, their “secular values” became associated with corruption, tyranny, and stagnation. The clerics and Islamist movements emerged as the only viable foil.

We can see a similar dynamic in the Eastern Bloc, where decades of state-sanctioned atheism under the USSR failed to minimize religiosity. In fact, it often inflamed it. When belief is banned, it turns inward and becomes a quiet form of resistance. The same paradox played out across parts of the Middle East: state tyranny in the name of secularism bred a backlash that turned faith into rebellion.

Sources:

*Froese, Paul. The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization. University of California Press, 2008.*

*Khatib, Line. Islamic Revivalism in Syria: The Rise and Fall of Baʿthist Secularism. Routledge, 2011.*

*Ajami, Fouad. The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967. Cambridge University Press, 1981.*

fuggitdude22

Recent deadly terrorist attacks in Delhi and Islamabad have escalated tensions in South Asia, highlighting issues of national security and regional stability.

Terrorism in South Asia

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