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The brutal killing of 26 civilians in April this year in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, is being described as part of a larger international trend of Islamist extremist-driven ideological violence, say global experts. The massacre, they contend, was not an isolated act but part of a disturbing trend of violence against a particular community in the name of political sloganeering and religious rationale. In a shared opinion editorial in Newsweek, David Cohen, a former US administrator, and Avatans Kumar, a journalist and linguist, caution that the ideology of violence underlying the Pahalgam attack has already crossed American borders. In their piece, entitled "The Intifada Is Already Globalised. Its Victims Must Unite," they draw parallels between the Kashmir killings and recent attacks on Jewish communities in the United States.

Cohen and Kumar cite numerous recent attacks in the US, such as a shooting in Colorado in which a man who shouted "Free Palestine!" torched elderly Jewish people and a shooting in Washington, D.C., in which a couple was murdered after attending a Jewish festival. In Colorado, a 45-year-old man hurled Molotov cocktails into a group of people attending a gathering to support Israeli hostages in downtown Boulder on Sunday afternoon, injuring at least six. According to the FBI, the suspect, Mohamed Soliman, allegedly yelled "Free Palestine" slogans before throwing glass bottles containing an incendiary liquid at the crowd on Pearl Street Mall.

Kashmir Attack Sparked Flashbacks To Global Terror Victims

The scholars contend that the word "Intifada" is usually narrowly linked with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the violent ideology of the Intifada is against a widespread phenomenon of religious and ethnic groups around the world. The atrocities committed in India in April, when 26 Hindus and a Christian were killed by Islamists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, gave many Jews flashbacks to October 7, 2023," Cohen and Kumar said, describing the Hamas-led attacks in Israel.

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india pakistan warThe authors trace the roots of this violence to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the late 20th century, noting one of numerous such atrocities as the gruesome killing of schoolteacher Girija Tickoo, who was raped and slain with a power saw. “October 7 triggered Hindus with flashbacks to the sadistic butchery in Kashmir over three decades ago. Same ideology, same playbook,” they wrote.

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The article calls for the creation of a joint front against extremist violence, an axis they refer to as a "Coalition of the Ignored" of Jews, Hindus, Christians, Yazidis, Sikhs, Baha'is, and other marginalized groups targeted by radical Islamist violence. “Jews have the world’s attention but not the numbers. The Coalition of the Ignored has the numbers but not the world’s attention,” they assert. “The solution is for us all to come together, to amplify one another’s stories.” They also made it clear that this is not a protest or war against Islam or any religion, but against any ideology that condones the killing of civilians for religious or political reasons.

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