Lashkar-e-Toiba attacked the Indian Institute of Science, under tight security, one and a half years ago. I recall National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, the topmost person in the field, telling me a day before the attack that terrorists could strike anywhere, any time. He sounded helpless and resigned.

My purpose for narrating this is to emphasise that, in the face of such a warning, the response of the authorities was tepid. The authorities did not, at that time, look closely at the network that the terrorists had spread in the state and beyond. The one who drove a blazing jeep into Glasgow airport and those supporting him are doctors from Bangalore. Apparently, the police, the intelligence agencies, and the state machinery, did a shoddy job then. They failed to reach the centres of pan-Islamic fundamentalism and the Tablig, where the doctors were indoctrinated.

Seeing the overall performance of the authorities all over India, I feel that they either lack expertise or do not put their hearts in the job because of political pressures. The latter is true of many states, especially Maharashtra. Yet, the revelations following the Glasgow airport incident have ripped open underground activities and the agencies behind them. Woefully, it has to be admitted that the Taliban and the Al-Qaida have cells operating in India. Some well-educated and well-placed Muslims are part of those. They are suspected of harnessing the help of fundamentalists from Europe as well.

What has shocked some is that only a couple of years ago all of us did proudly say that Indian Muslims had firmly rejected the extremists' call to participate in the jihad in Afghanistan. Congress president Sonia Gandhi asserted at Oxford in 2002 that: "Indian Muslims were not of an Al-Qaida bent of mind." For some years, there has been no demolition like that of the the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, nor has there been a Gujarat-like

massacre. The two still torment the Muslims and the pluralists in the country. Yet, they are old wounds which may not have healed, but the Muslims do not reach for their guns to avenge the happenings.

True, most Muslims are still distant from the mainstream, but they have learnt to live with the situation when the larger picture is secular. My hunch is that the reaction of the doctors from Bangalore is because of what the West has been doing to the Muslim world in the last few decades. It feels alienated and believes that America, Great Britain, and other European countries are spoiling for a fight on the belief that the two civilizations, of Christians and of Muslims, are in the midst of a clash to establish which is supreme.

The invasion on Iraq is seen in the same light. It has been proved beyond doubt that there were no weapons of mass destruction in the country, and that the invasion was President Bush's butchery for exterior reasons. Thousands of Iraqis have been killed, and thousands of them have been reduced to living in the stone-age like conditions. The US has inducted more troops. If it had tried to make amends for its aggression it would have made the Muslim world think that it was probably wrong in assuming the West as its enemy. Some immediate gesture by Washington to show its regret may go a long way to mollifying the Muslims all over. New British Prime Minister Gordon Brown can break the ground instead of remaining America's poodle.

Palestine is on the minds of Muslims. They may not be able to do anything substantial to help the country, but it is mentioned from the pulpits of mosques all over the world. Nobody wants "to throw the Jews into the sea," as was the phrase used in the past. Israel

is a fact which the Muslims grudgingly recognize. Yet, there is no indication that Israel is prepared to go back to its original borders, mandated by the UN when the state was stablished. The proposal by the Saudi Arabia prince on the recognition of Israel, provided it vacated the territories it had occupied during the wars or otherwise, is fair. America should have put all its weight behind the proposal. But it has not, because the Jewish lobby is too powerful in the US Congress and inWall Street, dominating America's finances.

The grievances of Muslims, some real and some imaginary, do not mean that there is something wrong with the religion. Terrorism is not its part, and the call of jihad has been raised wrongly and goes against the tenets of Islam. Look at Turkey. It is an Islamic state. But one has not heard that such and such terrorist is a Turkish. Not long ago, a procession was taken out on the streets of Istanbul in support of secularism. Still the biggest rawback of Turkey, in not making the European market, is that it is a Muslim country.

There is no doubt that the sheikhs and the savants from the Muslim world should meet to devise ways to introduce "dissent" in Islam. Some reinterpretation of dogmas is required. One can see this already happening in Turkey, Pakistan and Bangladesh. But the voicing of objections should take place more visibly and more categorically. The Quran says: "Fight in the name of Allah against those who fight against you, but do not begin ostilities." Terrorism is a deliberate act to kill the innocent, which is not sanctioned in slam.

What is disconcerting is that the Indian nation, nurtured in pluralism and tolerance, should have some people who place religion above the country. One can be proud of being Indian and Muslim at the same time. The Bangalore doctors have given a bad name to India because they have ventilated their anger through bombs. This is as much un- slamic as anti-Indian. Equally unfortunate is the backlash against Indian doctors in Australia, the UK, and elsewhere. There are some bad eggs in every community. That does not mean that the entire community is rotten. But I suspect a bit of racialism in the attitude that some western countries have adopted.

As India's high commissioner in London in 1990, I was horrified to find racialism reeping into a mature and pluralistic nation like the UK. Every person from the

subcontinent was "Paki" in those days. Even sophisticated white Britons used this term of contempt. Non-white was tolerated, not accepted.

I shudder to imagine what new rules and regulations the British will introduce in the name of immigration. Mrs Margaret Thatcher, in her last days as prime minister, told me that Islam was the biggest danger to the world after the defeat of communism. I think she meant Islamic fundamentalism.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.