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Behind Mumbai's Terrorist Attacks

[Newsweek] Fareed Zakaria - One misconception is the assumption that these attacks were aimed primarily at foreigners. Look at their targets. The two hotels they attacked - the Taj and the Oberoi - are old, iconic Indian hotels. It used to be true that these places were affordable only by Westerners, but today they are filled with Indian businessmen. If the aim was to hit Americans or other Westerners, the big American chains all have hotels there, and there are many more distinctly American targets. One of the untold stories of India is that the Muslim population has not shared in the boom the country has enjoyed over the last ten years. There's enough alienation out there that there are locals who can be drawn in to plots. That tends to be a pattern, from Madrid to Casablanca to Bali - some hard-core jihadis who indoctrinate alienated locals they can seduce. The writer, a Mumbai native, is editor of Newsweek International.
2008-11-28 01:00:00
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