IT was troubling to witness India and Pakistan descend into a futile blame game after the tragic Bondi Beach incident in Sydney, with both sides obsessively speculating over the nationality of those involved. This is precisely what religiously motivated terrorists want. When states and societies become entangled in such narratives, they inadvertently provide space for extremist propaganda to spread, amplify its impact, and divide people into opposing camps. These dynamics often provoke harsh state responses, which in turn validate extremist worldviews and escalate tensions within and between societies.

For several days, public opinion in both India and Pakistan remained hostage to this obsession, labelling the perpetrators as belonging to one nation or the other, without recognising a fundamental reality: for religiously motivated terrorists, the nationality and boundaries of the nation-state are irrelevant. They operate with an entirely different worldview, one that rejects not only international borders but even the judgements and doctrines of their own ideological or religious authorities when those contradict their violent practices.

This pattern is clearly visible in Afghanistan today. More than 1,000 Afghan ulema have issued a fatwa declaring the use of Afghan soil for terrorist attacks impermissible. Yet such voices have failed to resonate with terrorist groups. The same disregard was shown towards the numerous fatwas issued by Pakistani ulema against terrorism over the past two and a half decades.

In principle, the Afghan ulema’s fatwa is a welcome and positive development. However, the critical question remains: how can such pronouncements meaningfully curb cross-border terrorism when terrorists have repeatedly demonstrated their indifference to religious, moral, and scholarly........

© Dawn