Mumbai Attacks: Analysis by Michael Shank Al Jazeera [WEBSITE VERSION] December 3, 2008
Michael Shank, a conflict analyst at George Mason University's
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, examines the shootings
in Mumbai, India, stressing the inefficacy of counter-terrorism
responses that target the agent only without concurrently addressing
the conflict environment in which violence takes roots. Shank suggests
that national, regional and global conflicts are responsible for the
shootings - specifically, socio-economic and political marginalization
of Muslims in India; nuclear and Kashmir conflicts between
India-Pakistan and America's preferential nuclear treatment of India;
and finally, Muslim-West relations exacerbated by Obama's distancing
from his Muslim identity and plans to attack another sovereign Islamic
republic, Pakistan. The interview was conducted in Arabic by Al Jazeera
on December 3, 2008.