India and the US on the same side of the divide

Swapan Dasgupta The Pioneer

India today needs business partners, markets and a loose security umbrella to further its remarkable success story. The US is a "natural ally" in the quest for technological excellence and the fight against jihadi terror. In a world which is lurching towards a civilisational conflict, India and the US will inevitably be on the same side of the divide, unless India is overwhelmed by dhimmitude. For all his shortcomings, the Prime Minister has grasped this, although vote bank politics rule out any formal acknowledgement of national threats.

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A determined band of fanatics committed to unrelenting jihad against all "non-believers" have landed Muslims in a soup. A YouGov survey published in Friday's Daily Telegraph revealed that 53 per cent of Britons believe "Islam posed a threat to Western liberal democracy". In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 less than a third of the United Kingdom held such views. What began as a "war on terror" in the West is fast escalating into the much-feared "clash of civilisations."

Coming on the heels of another survey which suggested that nearly one-third of British Muslims are in sympathy with those President Bush called "Islamic fascists", it is not surprising that the West is gripped by a dread of Islam - a fear which explains the disproportionate reaction to 12 exuberant Mumbai Muslims on the flight from Amsterdam. "We simply do not know", admitted writer William Shawcross in the Wall Street Journal, "how to deal with the fact that we are threatened by a vast fifth column..."