Lynch mobs and assassins are on a rampage across South Asia. Days after a Muslim man was murdered in India, for allegedly eating beef, a Baptist pastor was stabbed in Bangladesh. It isn't just religious minorities that are under assault. In recent months, bloggers, atheists and rationalist intellectuals have been assassinated.
In India, three activists and scholars have been shot dead amid a Hindu supremacist campaign against "Hindu-baiters." In their homicidal quest for blasphemers and dissenters, fanatics balk at no ethical limits. In Pakistan last December, the Taliban shot schoolchildren in the face at close range.
As always, the temptation to blame religious fundamentalists is strong. And it seems well-founded: Self-proclaimed Hindu and Muslim chauvinists, after all, lead and cheerlead the violence. (In Myanmar, even Buddhist monks have fallen victim to the contagion of hate and violence.)