Terrorist organizations promote an ‘ideology of terrorism’ by selectively interpreting religious texts and concepts to create a false religious imperative for violence
As efforts focus on bridging community divides through interfaith dialogues, it is pertinent to understand that the effectiveness of the peacebuilding exercise is only maximised when combined with concrete actions addressing the full spectrum of issues that divide communities.
However, divisive elements within the society can make achieving lasting peace difficult by promoting an environment of conflict and mistrust. These dynamics often involve complex, social, economic, and political factors that perpetuate cycles of division.
When different groups feel their core identities, resources, or values are threatened by others, it often leads to a breakdown in communication and cooperation, hindering collective efforts toward social harmony and peaceful coexistence.
It is the terror orchestrations by our hostile neighbour that has however kept the country on tenterhooks, so to speak.
Terror operators from across the border have attempted to camouflage political violence in the garb of religious extremism by instrumentalizing faith to justify their actions, recruit members and gain legitimacy.
This has involved twisting religious doctrines of peace and harmony to serve their violent, geopolitical agenda. The projection of an image of religious righteousness has further helped them to hide their true political or power-seeking motivations behind a veneer of devoutness.
Terrorist organizations promote an ‘ideology of terrorism’ by selectively interpreting religious texts and concepts to create a false religious imperative for violence.
Terrorist ideologies explicitly leverage and exacerbate existing societal divisions. They exploit grievances and a sense of injustice among marginalised or disaffected populations to recruit members and justify violence, ultimately aiming to erode trust and social cohesion within communities.
Extremists across the world are known to exploit social and economic grievances and then use the appeal of a ‘higher purpose’ found in their manipulated religious identity to radicalize vulnerable individuals.
The ‘White-Collar’ radicalization involving recruitment of highly educated professionals by terror outfits is a recognized and growing security concern, particularly highlighted by the atrocious Red Fort car-bombing late in November this year.
Security agencies confirm a significant shift in terror module recruitment, moving away from targeting solely the economically disadvantaged to pursuing educated and skilled individuals such as doctors, engineers, and IT experts. Several doctors were implicated in the November 2025 Red Fort car explosion in Delhi, with investigators uncovering a ‘white-collar’ terror network involving medical professionals from Kashmir.
Shockingly, investigations into the Red Fort car-explosion have further unearthed a recent trend where women are being recruited by extremists groups through specific and organized online radicalization and dedicated propaganda, effectively making them a ‘force multiplier’ within their communities. Seen as the epitome of healing, knowledge, compassion, and dedication, doctors are symbols of expertise and selflessness in the service of health.
When medical professionals are induced to act in a manner that fundamentally violates their core ethical principles of healing and preserving life, one can gauge the type of indoctrination that transforms healers into killers.
Women, likewise, are described as the personification of strength, nurturing, resilience, grace, and empathy. They are celebrated for their diverse roles and contributions to society, culture, and family life. Associating women with terror and disruptive activities challenges the stereotypical view of women solely as victims.
Although these trends may be new to India, research highlights that women have long participated in terrorist movements in diverse roles, from logistical support to combatants, and suicide bombers, with motivations often mirroring those of men.
It is widely acknowledged and well-documented that the LTTE and its women cadres demonstrated significant intensity and vehemence in their involvement in the Tamil nationalist struggle of Sri Lanka.
However, the profound impact and high regard in which both doctors and women are generally held in society makes their involvement in terrorism seem counter-intuitive and unfathomable, at least from the Indian point of view. Nevertheless, we have learnt the hard way that this high regard does not inherently make them immune to radicalization or recruitment efforts.
The evolving tactics, ideologies, and operational methods used by terrorist organizations in the contemporary world involve the exploitation of modern technology, globalization, and shifting social dynamics.
Terrorism in the modern world is widely recognized as a tactic aimed fundamentally at destabilization, going far beyond isolated acts of violence to strategically undermine the core functions and stabilities of societies and governments.
It is important to note that many experts argue that religion is not the root cause of terrorism itself. The overall landscape of terrorism and disruptive activities encompass strong political, ideological, and ethnic factors.
Yet, a major analysis of major terror and disruptive operations in the country from across the border support the finding that religious extremism is often a deadly facet of the security threats facing India.
It is observed that terrorist groups frequently exploit religious beliefs, divisions, and institutions to mobilize support, recruit fighters, secure funding, and provide ideological justification for their actions.
Nevertheless, we need to realize that India’s safety and internal security are challenged by several complex issues other than terrorism, including insurgencies, organized crime, cyber threats, communal and ethnic conflicts, and socio-economic disparities. But when these issues overlap, the situation evolves into intricate, hybrid threats often described as the crime-terror-insurgency nexus.
This nexus effectively dons the guise of terrorism when the groups involved adopt terrorist tactics or their primary motivation shifts from purely financial gain to achieving political, social, or ideological objectives through violence and intimidation. The ‘intimate’ connection between insurgency, organized crime, and terrorism is evident in several ‘conflict zones’ in the country.
In these instances, groups that may have started with political or ideological motivations have adopted sophisticated criminal enterprises to sustain themselves, blurring the lines between traditional crime and political violence (read ‘terrorism’).
In this fast-paced era where ‘evasion’ is becoming easier than ‘detection’ in matters related to crime and criminal activities, the nation’s security challenges have only increased manifold.
