My grandfather's family has to flee the genocide in Eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during Partition. Few of my family members were killed by the Suhrawardy's Muslim League barbarians during the genocide. My grandfather and his family crossed over to India as paupers with only their clothes on them and had to spend days without food or water.
My Grandfather (died three years back) had first hand experiance of Muslim barbarity and he knew the "Muslim psyche" like no other. He would always say "NEVER EVER trust your Muslim neighbours no matter how good they are. Only one day they will turn on you....... and your women and childern."
He hated the Muslims till his last days.
The Kashmiri Pandits are refugees in their own country and this has been going on for the last 15 years.
If you want to look at the history of terrorism in Kashmir, it started with the JKLF a group of misguided Kashmiris who wanted independence from both India and Pakistan. They want the part of Kashmir which Pakistan occupies also to form an independent country called Jammu and Kashmir. They were (I repeat were) secular and wanted support from all parts of the Kashmir population.
Pakistan tried to use them but could not sway their leadership and decided they were more a liability than an asset so ISI (Pakistans secret agency) started the Hizbul Mujaheeden drawing from the Taliban types in Afghanistan to wage jihad in Kashmir.
Now these new terrorists groups, systematically wiped out the top leadership of JKLF which was strong and had political support. THen they started the Islamization of Kashmir by specifically targetting the Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) and between 1992 - 1997 hordes of Pandits fled Kashmir and had to live in refugee camps in Delhi.
I guess the Western media has found this story 8 years too late now. But the reason I am trying to draw this line between extremists and moderates is that I do no think all Muslims are bad.
I know people who have suffered the Partition will never trust each other Hindus and Muslims. That was black mark while Hindus fled from Pakistan and were killed, there were lots of Muslims who were killed in India. So I know this might be a sore point for some one who has a personal experience in Partition but I blame both communities and the British for that.
However, there are plenty of moderate Muslims who really dont want to do anything else except get on with their lives and they are not able to do it because of these extremists.
For example, Hizbul Mujaheeden and the other jihadists do not consider the Indian Muslim to be a true Muslim as he/she is less likely to blow themselves us for jihad. Why is that... Infact Hizbul Mujaheedeen tries to blow up Hazratbal which was the sacred shrine to Kashmiri Muslims who they dont consider good muslims.
Why is some one from Turkey more likely to be a moderate than someone from Saudi Arabia or from Malaysia more moderate than lets say from Iran.
Take a look at the form of government they have and take a look the level of extremism.
Just like it is wrong to look at Christians and say they are all alike, Islam is not a huge monolith but is divided into many groups.
There is one group which is currently spawning a lot of terrorists is the strict orthodox Wahabi sect. However, the Imam the founding school of Wahabism which is in India issued a statement quite a long time back (much before sept 11) saying that this is not what Wahabism teaches and condemned the acts of violence.
So for those of you who say Islam --> Terrorists, I say it is more Dictatorship --> Terrorists.
I think extremism in any form is bad whether it be in any religion Hindu, Christian , Islam or Jewish.
Sadly enough i dont think many people agree with me.