Terrorism today

..” As always, I tripped the alarm and was at the receiving end of a massage rendered by big burly hands.

“Be careful, Ramesh!”, my Dad tells me. “Be very, very careful,” was my Mom’s way of driving home their point. Like all parents, mine too are quite paranoid when they hear items on the news. They had just heard about some guy of Indian origin who got arrested in Australia for ‘aiding’ terror. While he was exonerated, albeit under controversial circumstances, their concern was about a backlash on the Indian community abroad. I am at a total loss about what I can do in such matters, however. How exactly am I supposed to ‘be careful’ while living abroad? I don’t even know what that means, and surely neither did my parents. After all, I could very easily be singled out and victimized simply on the basis of my skin color . it takes just one fanatic to ignite anger for some jackass’ involvement in terror on the other side of the world.

Better yet, Indian news agencies had been running a story about terror groups possibly accosting ‘highly educated’ Indian Muslims in Europe in an attempt to win them over to their cause. While the media can be quite notorious for blowing matters out of proportion, my well-meaning parents nevertheless asked me to “keep away from all Muslims.” How the heck can that be the answer? Some of the people I work with on a daily basis and some of my good friends are Muslims.

If being an Indian, originating from a Muslim minority country, has forced me into the above, I’m sure the issue can only be more pertinent to my colleagues from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, etc. The issue of terrorism has so far remained a taboo topic; it’s an issue that we may have concerns about, but prefer not to address. Fact is more lives are lost to natural disasters than to terrorism. Yet, the latter seems to be excellent material for the media, because it sells a lot better. Nevertheless, this issue stinks far too much to continue ignoring beyond this point.

I would ask the TU to pool a selected group of their best strategists to work out guidelines for TU-students to adopt into their everyday lives to counter the spread of terrorism and its related propaganda. Maybe the TU should even set up a hotline for students to anonymously report concerns. I don’t know the solution. But I’m hoping that the TU can facilitate the formulation of one. With a huge number of students enrolling from nations that make them potential targets for extremist proselytization, the administration can no longer look the other way and pretend that the problem does not matter!

Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is a recent MSc micro-electronics graduate of TU Delft and until recently worked for NXP Semiconductors in Nijmegen.

Air-travel nowadays has become borderline comical. Recently, I had to travel within Europe and my experiences were quite amusing. It started with the guy at the security-check taking a close, intense look at my passport and telling me in a doctor-like hushed voice, “it’s okay….” As always, I tripped the alarm and was at the receiving end of a massage rendered by big burly hands.

“Be careful, Ramesh!”, my Dad tells me. “Be very, very careful,” was my Mom’s way of driving home their point. Like all parents, mine too are quite paranoid when they hear items on the news. They had just heard about some guy of Indian origin who got arrested in Australia for ‘aiding’ terror. While he was exonerated, albeit under controversial circumstances, their concern was about a backlash on the Indian community abroad. I am at a total loss about what I can do in such matters, however. How exactly am I supposed to ‘be careful’ while living abroad? I don’t even know what that means, and surely neither did my parents. After all, I could very easily be singled out and victimized simply on the basis of my skin color . it takes just one fanatic to ignite anger for some jackass’ involvement in terror on the other side of the world.

Better yet, Indian news agencies had been running a story about terror groups possibly accosting ‘highly educated’ Indian Muslims in Europe in an attempt to win them over to their cause. While the media can be quite notorious for blowing matters out of proportion, my well-meaning parents nevertheless asked me to “keep away from all Muslims.” How the heck can that be the answer? Some of the people I work with on a daily basis and some of my good friends are Muslims.

If being an Indian, originating from a Muslim minority country, has forced me into the above, I’m sure the issue can only be more pertinent to my colleagues from Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, etc. The issue of terrorism has so far remained a taboo topic; it’s an issue that we may have concerns about, but prefer not to address. Fact is more lives are lost to natural disasters than to terrorism. Yet, the latter seems to be excellent material for the media, because it sells a lot better. Nevertheless, this issue stinks far too much to continue ignoring beyond this point.

I would ask the TU to pool a selected group of their best strategists to work out guidelines for TU-students to adopt into their everyday lives to counter the spread of terrorism and its related propaganda. Maybe the TU should even set up a hotline for students to anonymously report concerns. I don’t know the solution. But I’m hoping that the TU can facilitate the formulation of one. With a huge number of students enrolling from nations that make them potential targets for extremist proselytization, the administration can no longer look the other way and pretend that the problem does not matter!

Ramesh Chidambaram is from India. He is a recent MSc micro-electronics graduate of TU Delft and until recently worked for NXP Semiconductors in Nijmegen.