In Kashmir, working for Le Figaro and other newspapers, I noticed four similarities between the Muslims of Gaza and the Muslims of the Valley of Kashmir ( don’t forget that Ladhak is mostly Buddhist and Jammu still has a thin majority of Hindus).
The first one is that the so called silent ‘moderate’ Muslim majority is generally pro-Islamic terrorism, because the Koran teaches hate of Jews and Infidels (in Kashmir’s case - Hindus). During my various sojourns in the Valley of Kashmir, I have met university professors, High Court retired judges, housewives, etc, who would tell me after some time (because I'm a white man and a journalist) that their sympathy goes to the militants “because they are fighting for a just cause & because Muslims are persecuted, whether it is in Kashmir, in Palestine, in Chechnya or in France”... We witnessed the same thing in Gaza, when thousands of their inhabitants came out to cheer the returning Hamas terrorists, some of them carrying the dead raped bodies of young girls on the back of their trucks. Later it came out that most of Hamas tunnels, headquarters, arms depots, were built under hospitals, schools, private homes, which means that it was done with the full knowledge and approval of the local population.
The second is that Muslims of the valley of Kashmir always told me (again after some time and because I was a western journalist) that “Islam is our first nationality, our first allegiance”. I remember these people asking me “So, you are coming from India” !!! whereas they live in India and have Indian passports! When it suits them, however, they might say they are Indians, as the Indian government gives them quotas, rations and Indian tourism brings untold riches to almost all of them. You also probably know that Kashmir is - & has been - the most subsidized state in India ! This is true too in Gaza: we know that those Palestine people who worked in Israel and even became friends with Israeli families, who sometimes treated them like their own, informed the Hamas terrorists about locations and targets.
The third is Taqya. “We dissimulate our true beliefs, especially if we live in countries where we are in minority”. Or: “OK with you, you're a white man, we might tell you - but to Indians, to the government, to Mr. Modi, to the BJP, to the Congress, we will hide our convictions”. Because in the Quran itself, Taqya, dissimulation, hiding your true identity, hiding your conviction is preached. We see also in Gaza, that the Palestinians and even Hamas, gained the sympathy of NGO’s like Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), who closed their eyes on the fact that tunnels were built below the hospitals where they worked.
The fourth is: “We are martyrs, persecuted, victims of human rights abuses”… In Kashmir, I saw with my own eyes that the insurrection, the militancy was started in the name of Islam, against the Indian government, without any provocation. The first militants of the JKLF started killing Hindu leaders, surgeons, journalists, prominent personalities and attacking the army. Ultimately, it led to the violent chasing out the 350.000 Hindus who still lived in the Kashmir valley, one of the biggest ethnic cleansing of the 20th century. But today, thanks to social media, Kashmiri Muslims are able to pose themselves as martyrs, being victims of human rights abuses by the Indian army or the Indian government. The same is true in Gaza : its people have so much sympathy in the media, in the NGO's, even with the United Nations, because they twist facts, increase casualties, post fake photos, so that people forget the terrible, unforgivable, inhuman atrocities they committed on 7th October of this year.
Therefore we see great similarities between the Muslims of Kashmir and the Muslims of Gaza, which can be then applied to Muslims of other countries: 1. Silent support of the “moderate” majority to terrorism. 2. “I am first and overall a Muslim”. 3. Taqya, hide your true convictions when in minority. 4. Pose as martyrs, so as to get sympathies of gullible NGO’s & Media
Finally the Indian Government of the BJP is sadly mistaken if it thinks that because tourism is at the moment booming in the Valley of Kashmir, & it is again pouring crores and crores of subsidies to the state, terrorism is over and the Muslims of Kashmir want peace. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made the same mistake and Israel was taken by surprise by one of the worst Jewish pogroms ever, one whose barbarism, cruelty and scope is unparalleled in modern history. Pakistan is always ready to get back at India by sponsoring terrorism, whether it is the Khalistani one or the Kashmiri separatism and India should be ready and prepared for any eventuality.
Francois Gautier
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