Hindu-Muslim violence threatens subcontinent

The blood of the innocents is once again flowing in the name of religion in India, but unlike past clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the world's largest Democracy, there is a subtext to the latest violence that cannot be ignored.
India, with its Hindu majority, and neighboring Pakistan, which is predominantly Muslim, remain on the brink of war because of the Dec. 13 attack by Pakistani Islamists on India's Parliament in New Delhi. The attack claimed 14 lives. But even before that act of aggression, the two countries had demonstrated a willingness to use war as an expression of their religious hatred for each other. The future of the mountain region of Kashmir has become an excuse for cross-border violence.
Therefore, it would not take much for the internal strife that has gripped India over the past six days to become a flashpoint for these two nuclear powers. Both countries are capable of launching nuclear weapons, which has made the subcontinent one of the most unstable regions in the world.
The current wave of Hindu-Muslim violence began last Wednesday when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists who were returning from the town of Ayodhya in Northern India. Hindu extremists intend to build a temple in the town on the site of a 16th century mosque destroyed by Hindus in 1992. Construction is scheduled to begin March 15.
The 58 deaths provoked a retaliatory rampage by Hindus. Most of the 544 people who were killed as of Sunday were Muslims.
Rampaging mobs: While police have finally begun to crack down on the rampaging mobs who have targeted Muslim neighborhoods in many cities, towns and villages in India, the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee must know that any easing of tensions will be temporary at best if Hindus are permitted to proceed with the construction of the temple in Ayodhya.
Vajpayee is well aware of the fact that Pakistan, which has been singled out by Washington for its support for President Bush's war on global terrorism, has long been a safe haven for Islamic terrorists. There are unconfirmed reports that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of international terrorism and head of the Al-Qaida terrorist network, is hiding in a remote part of Pakistan, from which he is directing his followers.
As the attack on the Indian Parliament and the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have shown, religious extremism knows no bounds.
The question the Vajpayee government must ask itself is this: given the worldwide threat of terrorism, is India in a position to defend against another terrorist attack, short of declaring all out war on Pakistan?