Book Review: Terrorism: Theirs and Ours by Eqbal Ahmad

 

This publication is part of the special open media pamphlet series edition. The first section includes an edited transcript of a public talk Ahmad delivered at the University of Colorado in 1998. The second section is an edited excerpt from Ahmad’s interviews with David Barsamian published in the book Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire.

Ahmad points out the problem with the definition of terrorism. He says that he examined twenty official documents on terrorism, but none of them offered a definition. Moreover, he says that we approve the terrorism of those groups whom officials do approve. Eqbal Ahmad advises America to avoid double standards. He says that a superpower cannot promote terror in one place and expect to discourage terrorism in another place. Ahmad says that there is a fundamental principle of politics, which is that when power has no countervailing forces balancing and checking it, it is always abused. He discusses the issue to Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir and other conflicts in which international powers were involved. This brief publication is a glimpse of Ahmad’s near prophetic sense.