Patterns of a resurgence in cooperation between Islamic extremists and radical communists -- faint in some places, more pronounced in others -- are emerging. While much of the current focus is on parts of Europe, South Asia could emerge as the principal arena for a communist-jihadist alliance. Depending on whom you talk to, an alliance between Islamic extremists and radical communists is either more sinister war-on-terror hyperbole or a clear and present danger. At the most basic level, the two groups are divided by their outlook on the supreme being. For Islamist extremists, killing in the name of and dying for God is an investment in the hereafter. But the communist's variety of death and destruction is motivated by a worldview rooted in materialism. Yet the two philosophies clearly have much in common. Both profess a disdain for the excesses of Western capitalism packaged as globalization. Like Marx and Lenin of the last century, today's jihadists have a utopian vision of a chaste internationalism. Their glorification of death is an act of piety.
Islamist-Communist Alliance in South Asia: Hyperbole or Hazard?
