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Shariah Laws in Modern Times

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Muslims. 0 Comments
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No one was ever made a good Muslim by mere diktat. Let there be no doubt about that.
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Given a choice, the people of Pakistan have been historically displaying an acute sense of political wisdom. Since the creation of Pakistan, they have been continuously drubbing the “religious Right” at the ballot box elections after elections.

The people of Pakistan have categorically been rejecting a second conversion to Islam at the hands of people who recite Allah’s name before slaughtering a chicken yet kill fellow Muslims, prostate in prayers to the same Allah, without a thought.

The bull-in-a-china-shop aka George W. Bush changed all that in a single stroke. His passion for oil and unquestioning loyalty to Jews alienated the Muslim world like never before. The emergence of the mainly pro-Taliban alliance of the Pakistani religious parties as the ‘third force’ in Pakistani politics is a direct outcome of George Bush’s so called war on terror. Not in their wildest dreams could these political parties imagine themselves actually ruling the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan, a huge over 60 percent of Pakistan’s geographic land mass.

With the women-flogging Taliban smirking from surrounding hill tops, the ruling MMA (Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal) law makers began to unfold their political agenda in the NWFP less than a year back. For starters, all music on public transport has been banned, women have been barred from being treated by male doctors, men have been urged to grow beards, trousers have been abolished and shalwar kameez made the standard school uniform. Furthermore, male coaches have been barred for women athletes and male journalists from covering women’s sports. Civil servants have been ordered to pray five times a day. Sale of music and videos has been curbed, the destruction of posters featuring women and advertising Western products having already been conducted.

On the agenda is segregation of women’s universities and laws to persuade youngsters to obey their parents. The assembly is also considering another legislation called Hasba Bill to establish a new Department of Vice and Virtue to supervise implementation of the Islamic code. Simply put, a vice and virtue squad a la Taliban to “preach to people to adopt good things and give up bad things.”

To enforce the same on the whole country was MMA’s bargaining chip with President Musharraf. Enforce Shariah as interpreted by the leading stalwarts of MMA and continue to wear the Khaki.

Pakistan has always been a hot seat of this sometime vicious debate about the Shariah. One side of the argument says that if the majority of a country constitutes of Muslims, then the Muslims have a right to enact Shariah law. It is argued that if they believe in the Holy Quran then it is only a logical conclusion to endorse Shariah and make it the only law valid for the country.

The counter-argument points out the many difficulties that will be thrown up if Shariah is endorsed in its entirety on a Muslim country in the shrinking global village of today. Minority rights, economic, legislative and constitutional problems are just some of the very serious problems that will surface with the full enactment of Shariah. These arguments are fit for a dialogue between the specialists. But how about us ordinary Muslims whose lives are to be governed by the proposed Laws? Let us hear us too.

To begin with, most of us are far from being ideal Muslims as individuals, but are Muslims nonetheless. Ironically, in areas where we are free to practice Islam as we like e.g. the five daily prayers, we fall way short of the model. If we freely cannot exercise Islam, how could we be expected to do it by force and decree? And if we are somehow made to do it, would it be acceptable to the Almighty as His worship? Are these half-baked Ulema somehow privy to a divine secret that our will does not matter and the mere motions of going through the rituals are sufficient to get us into heavens en mass? Is it of no importance that Allah says in the Holy Quran?

“Let there be no compulsion in religion. Verily the right path has become distinct from the wrong path.” (ch. 2 : 256)

“And say: the truth is from your lord: Then whosoever wills, let him believe; and whosoever wills, let him disbelieve.”(ch. 18 : 29)

“Say O mankind! Now truth has come to you from your lord. So whosoever receives guidance, he does so for the good of his own self; and whosoever goes astray does so to his own loss. I am not set over you as a disposer of affairs to obligate you” (ch. 10 : 108)

Now let us examine some issues that are intrinsically attached to the subject. For instance, if a Muslim country has a right to dictate the laws of the religion of the majority then, by a natural corollary, every other country should have the same right. Imagine if the Hindutva enthusiasts are allowed to implement in India the laws of the Hindu religion as they see it. The fate of Indian Muslims and other minorities of India are sealed. Likewise, imagine Israel enacting the laws from Talmud? The non-Jews probably will be debarred from even entering the state of Israel. Moreover, if Muslim law is imposed in a country, all the rest of the people who are inhabitants of the same land would have no say in its legislation and have to be considered as second rate citizens.

Now let us come to the problem of many interpretations of Islam as forwarded by various Imams, scholars and leaders. A large number of these gentlemen have been using and twisting it to serve their own agendas. Islam has become an excuse for committing acts that have nothing to do with its spirit. The Islam that the West sees today is not the one that was intended for the whole world; a religion offering a message of love, peace, tolerance, equality and compassion to all without distinction. A religion that is anything but harsh and inhumane.

But that is not all. The entire problem is further complicated within Islam itself. Like other leading religions, there are countless sects, opinions, beliefs within the overall religious parameters of Islam. It’s not just a question of Sunni Islam and Shia Islam and how they interpret the Shariah. There are at least 70 sects within these two main offshoots whose interpretation of Shariah differs with each other. Aren’t we witness to leaders of one sect declaring the murder of the followers of another sect as not only religiously legal but also divinely rewarding?

To compound the problem further, the qualifications of the interpreters too have been routinely challenged by the progressive mindset over the years. In Pakistan’s case, for example, the educational qualifications of MMA legislators already stand challenged in the Supreme Court. It has been alleged that a great majority of these gentlemen do not even possess requisite bachelor qualification to be even members of provincial parliament let alone to interpret the divine and legislate on fundamental laws impinging upon every sphere of ordinary Muslims’ lives.

It has been prayed that the MMA members “were neither educated nor developed enough to understand Islam and the contemporary issues of the modern world and have narrow view of the religion.” And that “they belong to a particular school of thought and sect as they are trained in orthodox and outdated system of Madrassas.”

With that said, let us now go on to another fundamental question…How to define a Muslim? The Munir Inquiry Commission, when appointed to investigate into the reasons of the anti-Qadiani riots in Lahore in 1953, tried to tackle the issue. No less than twenty-two leading lights on Islam were invited to define a Muslim. Ironically, no two given definitions coincided with each other. Yet, all these leaders were vociferously adamant as to the validity of their definition of a Muslim and the imposition of their brand of Shariah given a chance.

Shariah interpretation of one sect, therefore, would not only strip the non-Muslims of their fundamental right to legislate in the country of their birth, but within Islam too there would be many sects who would stand divested of this entitlement.

What passed for Shariah Law as seen in some countries has trivialized the good things about it and given it an expression of a harsh and inflexible tenet. The ruling elites in these countries used, and still use it, to enslave women and to turn the death of, sometimes innocent individuals, into communal display. Public squares of Saudi Arabia and Kabul stadium have become legacies of horrendous treatments to ordinary criminals. The killing of people was turned into a patent pleasure for a people deprived of all other entertainment in the name of Shariah.

It seems that the Law has been manipulated, abused, and turned into an instrument of suppression for those who dare to speak out, an excuse to keep the status quo of women, stifle progressive thoughts and choke the sense of inquiry. It has been, more or less, turned into a whip of convenience with which to flog the dissenting views, political or modernistic, whenever required. Narrow mindedness, rigid thoughts, biased interpretations and bigotry is what gave Islam its present harsh outlook while taking away its marvelous values, instructions, and love for mankind and benevolence for the weak and defenseless. No wonder then that in the last couple of centuries we have produced hundreds of suicide bombers but not a single Newton or Einstein.

Shariah Law, as it is used in some Muslim countries or as is proposed by the MMA in Pakistan, contends as if only women are sinners. The whole religion has been laser beamed onto women. While men, with all their multi-marriages, infidelities and cruelty to women are given a clean break. Women cannot drive, cannot go out (without the presence of a male relative) cannot play or work freely, cannot be treated by male doctors even if they are dying, have to be covered from head to toe at all times regardless of weather. They are urged, instead, to live within the confines of their houses and continue to bear children conceived in the pleasure of their men. They are, therefore, made to look very powerless and dependent on the goodwill of their male relations.

There is a difference, a massive one, between Shariah Law as seen in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, and Shariah Law as forced on millions of Muslims by a heartless, brutal clergy-cum-ruling-elite combo. The ideal one is always promised and the adulterated one always imposed by these vested interests. Wherever it is imposed as the law of the land in the Muslim World, it is made to focus on its penal side. Flogging, amputations and jail-terms are made the central theme of the law. It boils down to one fact, there is a large gap between what Shariah stands for in theory and what it is made to look in practice.

Why a whopping majority of Pakistanis have always rejected being governed by the clergy…is a question that often titillates the mind. Is it because no one is sure how far this law can be changed into legislation for running a political government or is it because of the duplicitous conduct of its champions? We ordinary Muslims recall a few attributes of the Almighty every time we seek His guidance from the Holy Quran. These are;

1. Allah does not forget. If a subject has not been clearly dealt with in the Book, it could not be a divine oversight.

2. Allah is not shy of His creatures. He can, and He does, talk to them directly, openly and without giving twists and turns in His Ayahs.

3. Allah is the creator of all languages and, therefore, is not in want of words to say what He wants to say to His creations.

Therefore, would He leave His commandments on these vital matters ambiguous and open to the interpretation of some semi-literate Ulema? He does not forget nor is He ever in want of words to make clear His orders. Why then are their no clear injunctions on governance of an Islamic country? Was it difficult for Him to set out clear rules and regulations for the rulers how to legislate right down to the nth decimal? And for the Muslims how to elect their rulers? Would it then be wrong to surmise that He left it out on purpose because:

1. He wants the Muslims to be an integral part of a living, breathing, sprouting world.

2. He wants the Islamic Umma to be dynamic, progressive and ever-evolving; ultimately becoming an example for the rest of the world of the faith that they represent i.e. His faith.

3. He is a Seer of all times, He did not want to bind the Muslims to centuries old rules that were once valid but no more because of a fundamentally different world.

One does not require any law to say five times prayers, behave honestly, speak truthfully, treat others fairly and be morally upright. A society where there is turmoil, disarray, violation of others’ rights, state injustice, where there is no decorum left in human behavior, what would one expect Shariah to do? Should we not first create the right climate by educating the citizenry? Every Prophet, as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), first set an example of personal conduct then created that healthy climate for the divine laws to be imposed in. Only thus the society was readied for absorbing the law of religion willingly and without compulsion.

Shariah is supposed to be a general guide of how Muslim shall live their lives as a whole. It guides their private, public, societal, spiritual, matrimonial and mutual affairs. The people on whom Shariah will govern must be well informed, educated and enlightened about the Shariah and their responsibility under the Shariah. What information is available to a common man regarding Shariah laws other than amputation of limbs, stoning to death, flogging and jail terms for even minor offences? Other societal and economic factors such as illiteracy, poverty and discrimination that could lead to criminal inducement too must be eliminated first.

A climate conducive for the Shariah to flourish in has to be created. And please….it is not a chicken-first-or-egg-first impasse. Both the chicken and the egg will perish in burning fire or Arctic winter, conditions not being exactly favorable to their growth. After all the example of Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan nearer to home, are before us where Shariah was implemented without the necessary ground work.

Let the people observe for themselves the leaders who with dedication, resolve, honesty, foresight and personal example bring about these changes. Only then would the people have tangible faith in their leadership. Only then would they entrust such a leadership with the task of passing such profoundly impacting laws. Only then would the society be finally ready to hazard the interpretation of the divine by these leaders.

No one was ever made a good Muslim by mere diktat. Let there be no doubt about that.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

Pitiable Plight of Pakistani Women

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Muslims. 0 Comments
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In the name of God and in the name of honor the Pakistani women have been harried long enough. It is time they are restored to the venerated place they actually have in Islam.
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THERE IS a species of Homo sapiens found in large numbers in Pakistan whose plight is worse than animals. Amazingly, the male of the species hunts its own female counterpart in a deadly blood sport. The females are killed, maimed and their spirits broken by their males in a variety of ways.

They are burnt, electrocuted, tortured till death, doused with acid, starved, sentenced to life confinement, humiliated privately, paraded and dragged naked in town squares publicly. They are punched, kicked and slapped into submission. Once broken in body and spirit, some are sold like cattle and some exchanged like property items to settle old disputes.

Last year 631 of this species was killed in the first eight months as reported by an independent Rights Commission. No statistics were available from remote areas in Pakistan where this blood sport is a favorite pastime. Like in the past, some of the favorite methods of killing remained stabbing, shooting, burning, hacking to pieces, strangulating and slitting open their throats with sharp weapons. Indications are that the customary figure of 1000 honor killings a year must have been beaten by a comfortable margin in the year 2003.

This species is none other than the hapless Pakistani woman. The proud recipients of last year’s badge of honor were 247 husbands, 112 brothers, 54 fathers, 25 sons and two uncles. In other cases, as there is no mention of who carried out the killing, the badge of honor can safely be awarded to the whole family. Ironically, all this while these women continued to be called as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.

In 1998 alone, 54 cases of women being stripped and dragged through the streets of Punjab in ‘revenge’ attacks were recorded. Between 1994 and 1999, almost 4,000 cases of women being badly burned were documented in the tiny twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi alone. An abysmally low percentage survives. The rest go on to a permanently disfigured existence. It is believed to be only the tip of the iceberg.

After General Zia’s Hudood Ordinance, women have routinely become convicts in their own rapes for lack of evidence. Unable to produce four ‘pious’ male witnesses who have observed the act from close quarters, scores are now languishing in Pakistani jails with no hope of escape from their captors. Others have been publicly lashed and fined for their own rapes.

The judges alone are not having the fun. In one instance, even the village elders joined the spree. They condemned a woman on frivolous charges to be gang-raped by beastly men with the whole village in attendance. The ghastly sentence was carried out in letter and spirit. Incredibly, last year two six years old children too were found fit to be killed by their relations in the name of honor in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh. The disaster was averted only by timely intervention of local influential persons.

To escape death by hanging, four men from Mianwali district agreed to pay $130,000 and give eight of their daughters away in marriage to the victims’ families. One angel-faced child named Iqra was only 5 years old. Fourteen years old Tasleem Khan was betrothed to a 55-year-old farmer.

The Pakistani male has two expedient modes to validate all this horror. Islam and/or prevalent culture in parts of Pakistan. He conveniently switches between these modes to justify all the suffering heaped upon the luckless women. When attention is drawn to the plight of women in Pakistan, ideologues are quick to refute such charges by painting a lofty picture of the high status of women in Islam. When Quranic Ayahs dealing with the subject of women are quoted exactly to women’s benefit, the culturists are quick to come up with Pathan, Sindhi, Punjabi or Balochi culture as their second line of defense.

Every law, from God’s to man’s, grants men and women equal rights. Woman is recognized by Islam as a full and equal partner of man in the procreation of humankind. By this partnership she has an equal contribution in every facet of this process. She undertakes equal responsibilities and is, therefore, entitled to equal rights. In her are as many qualities and as much humanity as there are in her partner. God says:

And their Lord has accepted (their prayers) and answered them (saying): ‘Never will I cause to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female; you are members, one of another…(3:195)

The status of woman is clearly given in the following Quranic injunction;

………And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable; but men have a degree (of advantage as in some cases of inheritance) over them (2:228).

This degree is not a license of superiority or an authorization of brutal governance over her. It is to match with the extra responsibilities of man and give him some compensation for his many responsibilities. It is these extra responsibilities that give man a degree over woman in some economic aspects. It is not a higher degree in humanity or in character. Nor is it a dominance of one over the other or suppression of one by the other.

Consider the following momentous verse, addressing men and women equally - as believers, as members of the community, with equal access to God’s “Forgiveness and great reward”:

“For Muslim men and women, For believing men and women, For devout men and women, For men and women who are patient and constant, For men and women who humble themselves, For men and women who give in charity, For men and women who fast (and deny themselves), For men and women who guard their chastity, and For men and women who engage much in God’s praise, For them has God prepared forgiveness and great reward.” (33:35)

Remarkably, all verses pertaining to Hijaab, Zina and Talaaq are almost memorized by heart by the Pakistani Muslim males. While this one, so profoundly dealing with the equality of Muslim males and females is perhaps one of the lesser known. Therefore, most Muslim men, and even women, grow up believing that their religious laws place women below men and more importantly, that this is an indisputable and absolute fact.

Well, it is not. From the Quran, it is abundantly clear that both men and women are promised the same reward for good deeds and the same punishment for misconduct. The Prophet (PBUH) necessitated the pursuit of knowledge for both Muslim men and women equally. To sum it up, in Islam there is indeed absolutely no difference between men and women as far as their relationship to Allah is concerned.

Man made laws too guarantee equality of both sexes. Both the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Pakistani constitution clearly, emphatically and unambiguously guarantee equality on grounds of sex.

On the governmental level, no whole hearted attempt has ever been made to translate these into honest legislation and ensure its strict enforcement, legally and socially, to eradicate the evil root and branch. As a people, we conveniently switch between the divine and the man made laws, throwing in culture for good measures, allowing no escape to these unfortunate creatures. Vis-à-vis Pakistani male, it’s a heads-you-lose-tails-I-win situation for the Pakistani female.

To give just two examples of this convenient, but contradictory, arrangement consider the following:

There are clear injunctions in the Quran regarding women’s share in their parent’s property. A huge majority of Pathans, Sindhis, Balochis and even Punjabis in rural areas distribute their properties only among their male off-springs. The women inherit nothing. Reason given: Culture.

Yet, when Islam enjoins Hijaab on women, these very males are more than willing to even exceed the manner prescribed by God. They wrap them up in thick suffocating bolts of cloth with just two slits left open to peep out from. In parts of Muslim world, even a horse-like contraption is enforced on these women in public. Reason given: Islam.

Ironically, even while employing culture as the standard excuse, the Pakistani males are unabashedly selective. If killing has to carried out, why is there honor killing of women only? Why can’t men be killed to vindicate the same honor? Is it because the men can retaliate and the women are weak and defenseless? Some men, some honor, some sense of fairness, some double bloody standards.

Perhaps time has come to call a spade a spade. Violence against the women of Pakistan has to be addressed forcefully and finally. The Government of Pakistan must actually honor its obligations under International law to protect women. All reports of honor killings and domestic abuse should be doggedly investigated and persistently prosecuted. Wide-ranging and sustained public awareness programs should be carried out on the state-run media to inform all Pakistanis of women’s equal rights.

The people of Pakistan too need to carry out an honest hypocrisy check. The bigots must be effectively discouraged from negative portrayals of women and prejudices against them. In the name of God and in the name of honor the Pakistani women have been harried long enough. It is time they are restored to the venerated place they actually have in Islam.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

The Naked Truth of the Pakistani Mullahs

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Muslims. 1 Comment
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His chief weapons remain an outright incitement of his followers to kill his opponents for divine rewards, promoting senseless hate, intimidating and declaring his opponents as apostates and blasphemers and twisting quotations from the Quran towards that end.
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THE MULLAH now holds the Pakistani society by the throat. His version of Islam has plunged Pakistan into an epidemic of honor killings, hate murders and mob executions of fellow Muslims and minorities alike. The society is paying the price for allowing the Mullah to propagate extremism and intolerance from the pulpit.

There is no ordained priesthood in Islam. Every Muslim can be an Imam and can deliver a sermon. No ceremonial attire is needed for the Imam or any special dress for the congregation. Who then is this Mullah and from where did he creep into our religion?

It obviously could not have been through trade and commerce interaction with earlier Christianity. Islam rather attracted large numbers of its early conversions from the ranks of Catholic Christianity who wanted to escape the straitjacket of the Church and its priesthood to a priest-free religion.

A majority of the historians agree on Zoroastrianism to be the genesis of Mullaism. Zoroastrians, a semi-migratory people from the fourth to the third millennium BC, forged a religious tradition, latter known as Zoroastrianism. This is considered as the oldest of the revealed world religions and has directly and indirectly influenced the other religions in the area, i.e. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and a host of other faiths.

Under the Abbasid and the Umayyad, Islam took root and flourished in Iran. A nagging problem remained though. Some verses in the Quran clearly disallow obedience to any man-made laws that are in conflict with the Quran. Consider the following;

“No human being – even though Allah may have given him a code of laws (Kitab) or the power to enforce (Hukmah) it or even Prophethood (Nubuwwah) – has the right to say to others: “You should obey me rather than Allah”. He should rather say: “Become people of your Lord because you keep reading and teaching His book” (3:79)

As Islam in Iran had steadily grown more Zoroastrianized, to solve “this problem” the kings borrowed its priesthood which our Prophet (PBUH) had abolished. The new priesthood, consisting of scholars and muftis, obliged the kings by changing the core belief of Islam from “obedience to Allah” to “worship of Allah.” This mutually convenient combination of kingship and priesthood worked very well for the benefit of both the kings and the priests: the priests blessed the kings for exercising earthly powers; while the kings let the priests exercise divine authority over the people.

When Persian culture influenced the surrounding region, priesthood too moved into these areas. Iran, to this day, remains the hotbed of Mullaism. Towards West, it blossomed during the Ottoman Empire, where even an office of Sheikh-ul-Islam existed. Many historians cite this religio-political mix to have greatly contributed to the fall of that empire. Eventually, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk’s Cultural Revolution brought it to a bitter end in the later day Turkey.
Towards East, Mullaism crept into the sub-continent at the heels of Sufis and invaders from Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. It stayed in the background until the British wrested India from its Muslim rulers. The Mullah then sprang to the pulpit to sooth the bruised ego of a vanquished people with convenient doctrines. He convinced them that God always subdued people who allowed their souls to be tainted by the lust of worldly desires e.g. ruling dominions and empires. He implored them to remain prostate on their prayer mats and use this respite from the grueling task of ruling for cleansing their souls.

The Muslims flocked to the thousands of mosques scattered all over India straight into the welcoming arms of the Mullah. He gave numerous references from the Quran to obey God, His Prophet and the established authority. He promptly deleted the references to Muslim kings from his Friday sermons and instead recited the name of the Queen-Empress of British Empire. He bitterly opposed the creation of Pakistan where, if formed, he would have to work anew on its newborn constituencies. But when the Quaid-e-Azam flew into Karachi on his Dakota, the Mullah grumblingly followed him on his bullock cart.

Once here, in partnership with some indigenous like-minded interests, he went into his old vocation with a renewed gusto. His counter-part that he left behind in India, though, got swallowed up in the wave of secularism that overtook India after partition. Since then, the convention of Islamic orthodoxy survived and thrived in greater depth and conviction in Pakistan than anywhere else in the Islamic world. The Pakistani Mullah became the personification of this ritualistic orthodoxy.

How does the Pakistani Mullah operate?

He asks a simple question from his flock. Would they prefer the Word of God and that of the Holy Prophet of Islam or would they rather have western educated men under a godless society to guide and shape their nation? This question is extremely difficult for a common Pakistani to tackle. Pakistani masses adore Islam. Pakistani politicians and the educated elites, however, despite knowing the truth of Mullah seem to be divided and indecisive. Some even exploits this situation by siding with the Mullah and patronizing him. The Pakistani Mullah, in the meanwhile, rules supreme.

He of course does not tell his congregation the whole truth. He does not tell them who would interpret the divine for them. If the authority for legislation lies with God, whom a Muslim cannot deny, then as a natural corollary, it would be none other than the Mullah himself who would define and interpret the divine law for them. He blurs, or purposely does not draw, the line between himself and scholars (Aalims) well versed in worldly and religious disciplines.

He does not tell them that such scholars will need to be guided by the essential basic rules requiring a scholar to have thorough knowledge of religious text as well as the prevailing conditions in the world and his community. He remains quiet on the fact that it is only through such twin knowledge that a scholar can apply Islamic jurisprudence and principles to meet people’s needs.

He of course does not tell them that, unlike him, the theologians or the learned scholars who would engage in this exercise must be intellectually gifted and unremittingly consistent so as to arrive at a healthy symmetry between the basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence and the realistic conditions in our modern-day world.

He also does not tell them that both the Quran and the Prophet (PBUH) ordered Muslims to seek all forms of knowledge. He does not inform them that due to his closing the door on interpreting the Quran in the light of modern events and sciences, Muslims have stood still while their cohabitants of planet earth have even escaped gravity and launched deep into the universe in their quest for knowledge.

He promotes the style of the Prophet (PBUH) by supporting a beard, putting surma in his eyes, an Arabic scarf on his shoulders and tying his shalwar above his ankles yet does not inform his congregation of the other sterling qualities of the Prophet (PBUH). The Prophet (PBUH) was not just an old man leading prayers in the mosque. He established an empire by uniting the various warring tribes, sent emissaries to other empires, received dignitaries in his court, signed at least one historic treaty (Hudaibya, A.D. 630), led armies in the battlefields, experienced numerous victories and also a defeat (at Ohad, A.D. 624), was a devoted father and a husband. The momentum that he built eventually landed the Muslims in Spain in the west and India in the east.

The Mullah himself is mainly responsible for dividing the Muslims into Sunni, Shia, Ahle-Hadith, Ahle-Fiqah, Ahle-Quran, Hanfi, Shafi, Malki, Hanbli, Deobandi, Barailwi and propagating mindless hate between these sects. He, therefore, never tells his followers God’s injunctions on sectarianism where He says;

“As for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou has no part in them in the least….” (6:159)

To keep his hold on his followers’ minds, he professes that the Quran is an extremely difficult piece of divine literature to understand and to interpret by ordinary Muslims. He knows that most Pakistanis do not know Arabic and even if they did their skill in the language is not enough to literally interpret the language of Quran. He also knows fully well that most Pakistanis do not have the patience, time or the resources for learning Arabic. He, therefore, insists so much on the mastery of the Arabic language and culture.

He takes advantage of people’s ignorance and pretends to be the sole agent of the Quran and its interpretations. He does not explain to these Pakistanis that the Quran was meant for every one. That they don’t require a Mullah or any one to intercede on their behalf. That Allah does not make his words so difficult that ordinary people have difficulty in understanding them. That they only have to make an effort and there are numerous ways to seek the truth themselves. Regrettably, the majority of Pakistanis either cannot, or would not, seek these answers on their own.

A glance at the contemporary world shows that the Buddhist monk is verifiably dormant. Some Christian neocons and Hindu religious bigots have, of late, begun to participate in the framing of political agendas. Yet, by and large, a vast majority of the Christian and Hindu societies remain unaffected by their militant fundamentalists. Because most Christians and Hindus do not consider their religious priests as their political leaders or even correlate these religious individuals with any state system. Two facts are noteworthy; the stupendous rise of the west since it broke free from the priestly hold of the Church and the horrendous decline of the Muslim world since the entry of priesthood into Islam.

On the Pakistani scene too there is a change in the wind, however faint. With the modern age of computers, internet and information a phantom has begun to haunt the Mullah. The truth is slowly, but surely being sought by enlightened minds young and old alike. Pakistani Muslims are increasingly expressing their disgust and disdain for the irrationalities and backwardness of the Mullah. His grip is fading but he is not likely to give up just yet.

To his good luck, a faith system that is so deeply embedded into the minds of the believers is hard to wish away. Still harder is the task to disrupt the unholy alliance between hypocrite Pakistani elites and the Mullah. In his final throes, he too is putting up a brave fight. He continues to issue endless fatwas and thinks that the fear of death sentence and the declaration of jihad would silence the voices of reason, logic and progress. In his desperation he is counter-attacking with every possible means. His chief weapons remain an outright incitement of his followers to kill his opponents for divine rewards, promoting senseless hate, intimidating and declaring his opponents as apostates and blasphemers and twisting quotations from the Quran towards that end.

For common Pakistanis to join the universal quest for progress, efforts have to be made to seek the truth themselves rather than having to rely on the word of Mullah. They have to make a clean break from the past by disallowing and disowning the Mullah from being the de-facto leader of their communities.

There is a race for progress among all nations. The world is busy in development of human resource, mental enlightenment, sound technological growth and tangible prosperity for all. The Pakistanis have to wake up from their self-imposed slumber and join the global race. The alternate will surely condemn them to crawl on all fours eating the dust of the beaten path trailing leaders who are even now well past the horizons.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

The Silence of the Lambs

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Muslims. 0 Comments
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The prescient Martin Luther King was spot on the dot when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
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The demons of sectarianism are stalking the fatherland. These monsters come clothed as messiahs yet bear gifts steeped in poison. Nurtured on a diet of hate, these are now out of control. Rejuvenating in each bloodbath, they are consuming innocent humans at will. And while these demons have taken our nation on a guided tour of hell, the good men wallow in a deafening silence of the lambs.

Full statistics are not available but more than 3,600 cases of sectarian killings were registered nation-wide in the past 10 years. If to this is added the number of those maimed, one gets a frightening picture of these atrocities. What have we come to fellow countrymen? Is there enough Islam in us to hurl us into this frenzy of killing but not enough to love fellow human beings?

The indifference of the good men created this evil in the first place. While the wicked ones were openly converting the seats of learning into nurseries of hate, the good men chose to remain silent, see nothing and do nothing. Hatred is evil in itself. Their indifference was what allowed the evil to be strong, what gave it power. It is the silence that they maintained that is now silently destroying the society. This silence, this indifference of the good people, the bystanders, in face of rampant atrocities committed against fellow citizens is what has brought about a more devastating damage to the fabric of our society than any other single factor.

The appalling dispassion of the good people is alive and festering in all corners of our society today. In our mosques, schools, businesses, organizations and in all our communities, we are encountering enormous and widespread unconcern. Why so many people have abandoned their God by not expressing loudly and vociferously their disgust of the propagation of this vicious and raw hate?

Extremist forces are now running the show in our society. The hush, impotence and disappearance of moderate forces from across the national scene have contributed massively to the malaise. The past two decades have witnessed Pakistan steering a course strewn with blood, bones, and bodies of innocent victims - all of which can be attributed solely to religious bigotry. Sectarian killings are the most blasphemous and evil of actions where a man or woman is condemned to death simply because of their religious identity. For too many tragic years sectarian attitudes have been simmering in our communities right under the gloomy shadows of the silence of the good men.

One must confess that over the years the huge mass of silent Pakistanis has been greatly disappointing. One is tempted to reach the regrettable conclusion that the stumbling block in the struggle towards national enlightenment, harmony and prosperity is the moderate himself who, spurred on by vested interests, is more devoted to a silence of indifference than to the effort of the journey. One is now fed up with the fence sitters who constantly say “We agree with you in the goal you seek, but we cannot be seen to be a part of your effort.” Tepid acceptance is much more demoralizing than a blunt rejection.

One had hoped that the silent majority would understand that the present times are crying out for their wilful intervention. That they would help in bringing to the surface the hidden, and not so hidden, festering wounds in our society the gangrene in which is alive and spreading fast. That like boils that can never be cured as long as these are covered up, these now must be opened with all their puss flowing ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light. That the silent majority will finally help expose the full evil of those whose beliefs have plunged our societies into a realm of malevolence where reason is fast being subdued by the ranting of the mad men.

That the state systems too are not delivering is endlessly articulated in evidence of these mindless killings, social unrest, deteriorating law and order situation, cultural conflicts and religious polarization. To blame it any further would be a repetition ad nauseam. The condition has fast approached a trap-like situation. A trap is nothing but a manifestation of the character of those trapped. The whole nation is slowly caging itself into an obscenity of horror, pushed by the hands of decent men who remain quiet when they should speak.

Ignorance cannot be blamed. But they are not ignorant. The good people, the religious people, the academies, the parents, the pillars of our society, the thinking ones, they are all silent and with their eyes shut wide open. Surely, they pray for the lost souls, but as long as they take no action those delirious atrocities will go on and on and flourish. The frenzy will pitch up to a fever and the carnage will taint every soul. No one will remain untouched. The idea that a people could somehow be ordained by heaven to commit unspeakable acts in the name of God is insane beyond belief. Yet, our recent past is full of heartless acts by religious leaders, and their followers, in the name of their creed and their holy wars. These massacres are the end results of activities going on for a long time, unchecked and uncondemned, all around us.

Who was it that said…? “First they came for the Communists; I did not speak because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, I did not speak because I was not a Jew. Then they came to fetch the workers, I did not speak because I was not a worker. Afterwards, they came for the Catholics; I did not say anything because I was a Protestant. Eventually they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.” Is there any one left to speak? Have we become a nation of the mute?

We should be challenging and criticizing these extremist forces at every turn. Where are the good people’s voices hiding? Are they hiding behind the disastrous misconception that somehow time itself will cure these sores of our society? Has their indifference made them silent towards God and all of God’s creations in this country? This widespread appalling silence of the so-called good people leads one to believe that they have rather turned their backs on God, our country and our fellow citizens.

If each of us followed our courage and humanity, the bigots could be brought to a screeching halt in their sick campaigns. We are endowed with a mouth to speak, a heart to feel, and a mind to think, but we rarely use them to challenge the fanatics. We are just too self-absorbed with ourselves even though we know that hate is being spread in our communities as surely as we breathe.

We merely pray to God to end our miseries and feel satisfied that we are doing our bit. We know fully well that God made the world in such a way that each man must find his own path to peace within himself and within his community. Do we think that prayers alone will change our condition? Why would God root our prejudices through prayers alone when He has already given us eyes with which to see the good in all men, if we would only use them rightly? Why would God end our despair by prayers alone, when He has already given us the power to stem the roots of despair and to give hope, if we would only use our power justly? The only prayer of practical men should be for strength, determination and will power, to do what we can, to do what we must, to do instead of just to pray, to become instead of merely to wish.

Thousands have paid for our apathy with their lives and thousands more will if we do not speak. Let us not waver any more. If we have souls that don’t vanish like fleeting curls of smoke in the face of evil, then let us re-consecrate what has been desecrated. Rather than having to reap a harvest of hate season after season, let us use the memories of the innocent victims as rich and blessed ground in which to plant new seeds for a better future. Let us wake up.

Let us begin with each of us as individuals. Let us take ourselves into the world as examples for others to follow. Not as leaders. Not as preachers. Not as demagogues. But as our everyday selves as examples for others to see - in the workplace, on the streets, in our places of worship, with our friends and our families. Let us never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Let us confront the intolerant whom we have permitted to grow larger than life. And then only will we see the enormity of the smallness of the enemy whom we have allowed to destroy our society. We are sure to find that what we thought to be an invincible giant riding high on his divine decrees is a rat only too eager to scurry for cover at the first sound of the steps of rational humans. Let us rediscover that love is not served by violence nor life fed by loathing. Let us squarely face the extremists who sell their dark dogmas as superior to enlightened reason. The time has come for us to see through the naked, twisted, mindless logic of the bigot.

Let us avail the option of reclaiming our minds, our lives and our sanity from the brutal clutches of the hate mongers. The alternative is sure to see the wolves of evil, abhorrence, anger, arrogance, intolerance, and bigotry devouring the lambs that are good, peaceful, loving, tolerant, humble and kind but silent. Any further indifference will push us ever more into the neutrality of the dead and the attended silence of a graveyard. Let us not remain silent any more.

The prescient Martin Luther King was spot on the dot when he said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

The Americans Should Have Known

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Middle East. 0 Comments
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They should have known that the wages of war were high for all and not just for the victims.
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The Americans should have known that there is no stopping a man who believes he is right and is willing to die for that belief. Like the critical mass theory, if this belief is shared by a sufficient number then no amount of firepower brought to bear on such men is enough to snuff out their spirit. This is the gravest miscalculation made by the head honchos ruling the roost in the great United States of America. Like fools they have rushed in where angels fear to tread.

Even if the Americans were unwilling to listen to voices of sanity from across the world asking for caution and prudence, for their own interest they should have fed bits of historic facts into their super computers and asked for an answer.

First Afghanistan. Afghan Pathans make up nearly half the population of Afghanistan, are the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan and the chief targets for the American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. To be sure, the Pathans have been subdued for brief spans of history but have invariably bounced back on their enemies with renewed vigor and venom.

They wear their weapons as clothing accessories, and are renowned as equally for their fierce blood feuds and hatred of enemies as for their loyalty to friends. In their blood feuds only, their patience is known to be as great as their mighty Hindukush. Proud warriors and one of the most resistant tribal peoples on earth, the Pathans have withstood the military might of Alexander the Great, Mogul Emperors, the Soviets and the British in the past. “He is no Pathan who does not give a blow for a punch,” maintains one of their proverbs. The Americans should have known.

Pathan society revolves around a strict code of ethics, known as Pukhtunwali (“the way of the Pathan”). This unwritten code includes hospitality and protection of one’s guests; extending refuge to a fugitive; the right of blood feuds or revenge; bravery, single-mindedness, justice, and persistence; defense of one’s property and honor; and defense of one’s women. Above all, the ability to defend his property and household is vital to a Pathan’s honor. And according to their culture, death is not too high a price to pay for one’s honor. Before occupying the Afghan’s land, the Americans should have known.

Though their loyalty to Islam is fierce, but Pathan culture often seems to supercede Islamic orthodoxy. The rise and fall of Taliban is but one brief twist of history in this rugged part of the world. Taliban or no Taliban, resisting foreign occupation of their lands is a way of life for them. After the exit of the Soviets from Afghanistan, the Taliban phenomenon could hold their interest for only as long. If there were no foreign occupiers soon enough, the Pathans would have had to invent some to go on with their way of life. Their tussle with the Northern Alliance was nothing but a poor substitute of this fact. The Americans should have known.

The Americans should have known too what was known to Europeans since the days of Alexander. Afghanistan is a land of mountains, ferocious warriors, uncompromising Islam, vicious tribal rivalries and a political complexity that entwines bloodlines, chivalry, religion and history into a mix as unfathomable to the outsider today as it has ever been. In the early 19th century it was a land of great mystery, at the dawn of twenty-first it remains only more so. It should have been left alone to find its own natural equilibrium.

Iraqi nationalism is no different. In Iraq today there is a very strong element of national pride of the Iraqi people, who do not want to be victims of what amounts to a brazen colonial domination by the US led forces. Whether the Shias or Sunnis, no significant faction in Iraq wants to be dominated by a foreign imperialist power. In the historical memory of the Iraqis, like that of the Afghan people, Britain and America feature not as kind, friendly, democratic patrons, but as bloodthirsty tormenters and exploiters.

To their horror, in Iraq too the Americans have discovered that their enemies want to fight them. Gone are the days of raining fat bombs on a helpless bunch of human beings strung out in the coverless Iraqi desert. No more Bunker-Busters and Daisy Cutters. There are no targets for such weapons. Like mirages, the Iraqis now disappear and reappear at will from the same deserts and collect American scalps like so many war trophies. Ironically the so called “War on Terror” has turned out to be “War of Terror” for the Americans. That deceit and subterfuge has a limit, the Americans should have known.

They should have known too that the wages of war were high for all and not just for the victims. All wars have unintended consequences….more so when political leaders, having personal axes to grind, set in motion events that end up wounding the pride of an already aggrieved nation. Someone should have told the Americans that morally wrong aggressive military actions surely earn a violent reaction.

They should have known that the so called “war on terrorism,” will stir anti-American sentiments in a vicious way. Indiscriminate bombings, death of innocent bystanders and unjustifiable tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan will inflame the tinderbox of even ordinary Muslim’s sentiments. Invading Iraq and Afghanistan in quick succession, turning a blind eye to the doings of the state of Israel and now threatening Iran and Syria in no ambiguous terms, only confirm their worst suspicions. That is, that Washington is intent upon destroying not just terrorists, but a way of life in Muslim societies. The number of Muslims having such beliefs is increasing at an alarming rate across the Muslim world. If not done already, this number may be about to cross that critical mass. Americans need to know.

Muslim grievances center on the perception that America exerts its power without a thought for the value of Muslim lives, whether for Palestinians in their desperate refugee camps, Iraqis gunned down in the “turkey shoot” of Desert Storm, or innocent Afghans sniped off the plains of Afghanistan. The clumsy American actions have almost ensured that Bin Laden becomes a legend to tens of millions of victimized Muslims and a model for further action against the West.

The results of endless attempts to impose America’s will by force upon a resentful and hostile people are becoming clearer by the day. It is naïve if the Americans have still not grasped the facts on the ground. It is high time to sit up and take note of the diversity of the opposition forces and the depth of their popular support.

Both the Iraqi and Afghan resistance is waging the type of campaign that has been waged historically by people battling against foreign occupation. Unable to match the overwhelming superiority of US firepower, the resistance fighters rely on one vital strategic advantage: it is their country. Their aim is to make it intractable for the occupiers.

It’s a guerilla war on in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Someone needs to tell the Americans that rooting guerrilla fighters involves the use of intense violence and draconian measures against the population wherefrom it springs. In the ensuing chaos it is hard to distinguish between friend and foe. Mass sweeps and arrests, the use of spies and informers, torturing of suspects to extract information and hair-trigger responses to non-threats invariably leading to loss of innocent lives results in more hatred for the occupation forces. This generates, in turn, an increase in support for the guerrillas, further resistance by the civilian population, intensified tyrannical measures, and a spiral of violence that always spins out of control.

The Americans need to realize before it is too late that the logic of occupation is naturally despotic. That the brutalized and impoverished people of Iraq and Afghanistan need facilitators to help them decide their own fate, not occupiers. It is another matter that the Americans and their side-kicks are not even left with enough credibility needed to act as facilitators.

The Americans must know that the world, having finally taken off the blinds of 9/11, has now seen through their plot. The world now knows that far from benefiting the Iraqi and Afghan peoples this whole operation is an unashamed imperialist robbery of their resources. The Americans call for denouncing as “terrorists” those who fail to greet the US invaders as “liberators” is now increasingly being met with derision. People still remember Vietnam, Algeria, southern Africa, Kashmir, Chechnya and every other part of the globe where oppressed peoples fought, and are fighting, to throw off the bondage of colonialism and foreign occupation. The Nazis too routinely condemned anyone who resisted German occupation in the Second World War as “terrorists” What is the difference?

The Muslim world has a long history of opposing colonial rule that will not be erased by empty rhetoric about democracy and liberation. There is still time for the Americans to go back to their country and put their own house in order first. Otherwise not too far in future, like in Vietnam, they would cross the point of no return. Then they would be giving the world their standard argument that “…we could not possibly leave that part of the world after investing so much of our blood, treasure, and reputation there.” That would inexorably draw American-led forces to the eye of the storm. If America is discredited now, it would be dishonored then. An orderly withdrawal is the only sane policy and the only politically and morally justifiable way to extricate from the deepening quagmire.

It is patently dishonest of the British not to have informed their American cousins of what one of their great countrymen, Rudyard Kipling, had to say about Afghans.

“When you’re wounded and left,
On Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out,
To cut up your remains,
Just roll on your rifle,
And blow out your brains,
And go to your Gawd,
Like a soldier.”

Wish Kipling had visited Iraq too.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain
airdance@hotmail.com

Pakistan…A Saga of Misrule

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Muslims. 0 Comments
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Why does the Pakistan Army intervene in civilian governance? The simplest answer to this question is because it can.
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We are now well into 57th year of our existence. For most nation states, the age of innocence would have long passed by now. Having shed their baby fats by the time they reach this age, nations are supposed to have developed strong limbs, a healthy body and a powerful brain to command the body and limbs into efficient and productive actions. Also around this age, most nation states would have firmly established where they stand and where they are going.

What happened to us along the way? Where are we headed? Why do we frequently find ourselves between a rock and a hard place? If a civilian rule is the norm for most other nations, why does the Khaki intervene so regularly in Pakistani governance? If the Khaki does intervene, why doesn’t it continue for good making it the rule rather than the exception? Why is it that people are, in the end, as fed up with the military rule as its civilian predecessor? If democracy is that universal cure-all medicine for all other contemporary nations, why doesn’t it work in Pakistan?

What exactly is the problem?

Pakistan’s problem, exactly, is: “The military intervenes regularly and interrupts the civilian governance with a disturbing frequency.”

Why does the Pakistan Army intervene in civilian governance? The simplest answer to this question is because it can.

Pakistan Army has neither descended from Mars, nor sent in by the Chinese on loan, nor is raised from men reared in an incubator. It very much comprises of men drawn from a cross-section of Pakistani society cherishing the same ideals, having the same tastes, norms, mores, ethos, and morals.

One can find a banker, a businessman, a doctor, an army officer and, sometimes, even an odd politician in the same family. The Pakistan Army, therefore, values the same ideals, is inspired by the same issues, and in the same way, as the rest of the nation. It is, in short, a chip off the same block.

Furthermore, Pakistan Army is the largest single organization having its own transportation, communications, health, accommodation, and a host of other mini-systems. It is, in a way, a complete sub-society in its own rights. The only unique distinguishing factor is that of military discipline, a woefully lacking feature in the otherwise larger Pakistani society. It, therefore, tends to have a blowback effect on its larger parent body.

Like any other army, Pakistan Army too has been entrusted with the task of guarding its frontiers. This is sometimes taken to mean guarding all geographical and ideological frontiers…a debatable point at best. The thoroughly modern army is seen as the final saviours by the illiterate multitudes that inhabit this country. Over a period of time, the Pak army has not only started to believe in such a role for itself, it has started to relish it too.

Militaries the world over are essentially alarmists in nature. Pakistan Army is no exception. Yet due to the fully-believed final-saviours role, the swiftness with which it reacts to any real or imaginary internal threat to national security is singularly unique. Above all, Pakistan Army has the gun and their civilian counterparts have none.

So in a single sentence it can be said that Pakistan Army is the largest single, well disciplined, armed organization entrusted to guard the somewhat elusive frontiers of a nation whose pains and tribulations are shared by it.

Field Marshal Ayub Khan was the man who led the first intervention of Pakistan Army in the civilian governance of the time. There was a palpable sense of relief in a nation gone sick of the crafty politicians and their intrigues.

In the following four decades of intermittent military rule the Pak Army continued to draw a few lessons for itself. These are:

- All politicians without exception are cunning, greedy and corrupt to the bones. The governance of the country, therefore, could not be left to the politicians alone.

- The people of Pakistan look up to Pakistan Army as the final saviours. As that is the ultimate truth, the world opinion can cool its heels.

- It is good to be the kings.

Let us take a brief look at a typical political-military cycle of governance in Pakistan. The single most frequently cited raison d’être for the military intervention, save for the last time when the civilian rulers were blamed for criminal intent first, has been the ineptitude and corruption of politicians.

Even in this latest intervention, corruption of politicians ultimately came to ride in the forefront of all theories put forward as justifications. In the sporadic civilian rules, the politicians would tend to hit the gravy train with a vengeance. While the Khaki would wrap up its possibly objectionable activities in blankets of national security, there was no such luck for their civilian counterparts.

Devoid of a sacrosanct cover, and not sure of the time the khaki would give them, the in-power politicians would simply dive into the national coffers headlong and go berserk. This would be a frantic and highly visible activity on the otherwise placid national scene. To ward off the intervention of an army that can and will intervene, the politicians should have been focusing their energies on making and sustaining strong sturdy institutions.

Additionally, it is a universal fact that the militaries the world over, Pakistan Army being no exception, are interested only in strengthening their own institution. This reality should have further urged the politicians to, at the minimum, strengthen existing institutions if not model new ones - institutions that could act as bulwarks against military intervention. They, instead, ended up attacking these very institutions in the brief respites that they would give themselves from robbing the nation blind.

Stories of Zardaris and their cronies making sickeningly large fortunes in less time than one can say the word dollar would start doing the rounds in the army mess halls. The nation too would be abuzz with the dizzying tales of unbelievable gluttony and naked nepotism of these politicians. Truth would become a first casualty as usual and perceptions would be all that matter. People would start sending agitated signals to the military. Even the out of power sycophants amongst the politicians would start clamouring for military intervention.

The military, with the all-too-convenient self-drawn lessons etched on its mind, would willingly read much that is not there in these calls. It would watch for a while, let the stew bubble up to a point just below eruption, and then bring down the axe with a loud thud of moral righteousness. The scavengers would be caught with the gravy almost running down their chins. Accountability would become the prime exhortation of the saviours. A lot of fleeing, nabbing, and prosecuting would be seen by the galleries. Soon the dust would settle down. The Allah Dads and Gul Mohammads would once again get busy in search of three square meals. For a while it would be back to normalcy, or whatever its Pakistani equivalent.

Over time, the politicians too drew a few lessons for themselves. These are:

- The military can and will intervene. It is watching their each and every move with malicious intent. It is only a matter of time before they intervene again. So concentrate hard on refining the art of robbery. The institutions, in the meanwhile, can take a walk.

- The military has the biggest gun in the country. Hate it for that and off-set this vital shortfall by wile, cunning, fraud and subterfuge.

- It is good to be the kings but it is oh-so-short.

The military would get down to enjoying the pleasures of the King’s role in real earnest. Along the way, and contrary to what the politicians do, they would add further muscle to their own institution with better arms, permanent placement of own men in strategic appointments, and insertion/deletion of vital clauses in the constitution for longevity of military rule.

Before long the military too would start suffering from a different kind of visibility problem. They would deluge the state machinery with a tidal wave of men in khaki. Railways, WAPDA, communications, transportation, media, sports, education, police, national financial institutions, municipalities, bureaucracy, town planning, various state administrative setups etc. etc. would be overflowing with serving and retired khakis.

Initially they would serve with a typical military zeal and spirit. Having essentially the same values as the rest of the nation, soon a similar ratio of rogues amongst them would start indulging in the very same activities they once blamed their civilian counterparts for. After a while, despite layers of secrecy, for every Zardari the military would start throwing up its own Mansoor-ul-Haq.

Likewise, the military too would be right on track in practicing the fine art of nepotism. The nation would spot their progeny gorging itself on the ill-gotten fruits in plain sight. Once again a wave of discontent would wash over the nation. International opinion too would start to make distracting noises for democracy.

At this stage the military would get into a standard dilemma. How to, or whether to, get back into the long vacant barracks? The military would start to thrash exit strategies with feverish urgency. It would then start bringing in the discarded, but willing, politicians as a façade for democracy. It would be afraid of dismounting the tiger that it rode because the tiger was not theirs to ride in the first place.

It would take a monumental misfortune like the loss of half a country or a major accident like the mid-air explosion of an airplane carrying the country’s military ruler for it to withdraw. In their hasty and disorderly retreat, the military would leave behind a worse lot of politicians than the ones they booted out.

Each party would get back to its primary role for a short period of time and re-read their lessons. After a brief interval the whole cycle would, once again, start its sickening repetition. This is how a typical political-military governance cycle goes in Pakistan. Ironically, the nation in whose name this tug-of-war goes on is a silent bystander and figures nowhere in the scheme of things.

The root cause of the problem, then, is inept politicians and a heavily armed military that deeply mistrusts civilian governance. In the absence of strong institutions and an intrinsic check on the misrule of the politicians the military finds it only too easy to intervene whenever it wants to. As a matter of fact the Pak army has evolved as an alternate political force and woos the same very nation for approval that the politicians do.

Blame game notwithstanding, both the military and the politicians have contributed in equal measures to the present state of perfidy.

The Solution: No viable solution can be applied to an intractable problem unless the parties to the problem move from their stated positions. The contending parties are the politicians who are supposed to be representing the nation, but we know better than that. The army whose sole job should have been defense of the borders, but again we know better than that. The nation, of course, is a helpless on-looker.

For any solution to click, the prerequisites will have to be present. For an ideal democracy to work we should have politicians whose majority stands tall, upright and capable of delivering. We should also have educated citizenry able to use the power of vote for the societal good at large while spawning high caliber politicians in its womb in the meanwhile. As for upright politicians in our country, the pen wavers while putting two such words together and the present state of national literacy is a story foretold. As both prerequisites are non-existent at the moment, let us forget about the concept of ideal democracy for a while.

On the other hand, we could disband the army, take away their gun or carry out gene therapy on its governance taste buds. We cannot do without an army for the present and none has ever heard of an army minus the guns. While the penchant that the military has developed for governance in the last four decades may wane in time, there is no such hope for the immediate future. History cannot be undone and the old hands are still around. For a workable solution both the military and the politicians will have to move from their avowed position of reciprocal hatred and fixated postures.

A half way measure will have to be accepted as a stop-gap means. The concept of ideal Western style democracy will have to be put on the back-burner for a while. Both parties will have to accept mutual checks and balances; the politicians on their tendency to melt within the general vicinity of state treasuries and the military on its propensity towards intervention…the sole aim being the continuity of civilian governance so that it can formulate and pursue policies without fear of interruption. Policies with the aim of so educating the nation that it can in, let us say, 20 years time throw up a mass of educated electorate who can choose what is good for them and their society. And while that is happening each will have to unlearn, if that can be done, the self-drawn lessons.

The military will have to realize that military interventionism is in fact obsolete. That the present overtures of the world powers are pregnant with self-serving sycophancy. That the George Bushes of this world burst out laughing no sooner they close the doors after seeing off a visiting military tin pot ruler from the gates of the White House. They will have to learn that the ineptitude of politicians, and their love of greenbacks, is a universal phenomenon and not singularly unique to the Pakistani lot.

And that in their own ranks too there are villains who will match if not surpass the greed of these politicians. They will have to wash away the pleasant memories of the heady days of the Khaki Raj and dampen their enthusiasm of using the sledgehammer at the slightest of provocation. They will have to concentrate on the art of soldiery and realize that skills honed in developing housing societies and producing breakfast cereals are worthless in a battlefield.

Likewise, the politicians too will have to smarten up their act and catch up on the fact that the nation they wish to rule has no further patience for their antics. A capable, honest and delivering politician cannot be removed by even the highest caliber guns of the land as was proven not long back in Venezuela. President Chavez was carried on shoulders by his people and put back in his office despite the sole superpower openly backing the Venezuelan military putsch.

The politicians must hit the history books and remember what the French peasantry did to the people with soft hands at the gates of Paris in the French Revolution. They hung them by their necks from the nearest trees for never having put an honest day’s labor with those hands.

No sooner did the life of the father of the nation end in dubious circumstances; we have been bandied about ad nauseam. From sick, debilitated politicians to greedy, power-hungry Generals it has been one nightmare of a journey for this ideological nation state.

In the Pakistani landscape, the dictators emerged in all colors ranging from Khaki to whites and in attires from Generals’ tunics to sherwanis and pinstripe suits. They led this gullible nation down blind alleys waving banners of theocracy, democracy, basic democracy, peoples’ empowerment, housing, clothing, and what you have. Some had no such patience for these verbal mirages and enforced plain despotic rules. We believed in them and their promises. They promised us better tomorrows. Sunny days in flowery gardens free of darkness and misery. Days when our progeny and we would live in a happy present with sights set squarely at a promising future.

In return, they only wanted a little more sacrifice from us. We went along with them. Merrily carrying our impoverished bodies to whatever altar of sacrifice was appointed for us. The promised sacrifices would always be exacted in full and then some more. The promised gardens, however, would be nowhere nor sunshine nor any silver lining on the dark horizons of our wretched existence. The messiahs would disappear into far off lands after having raped our innocence. The nation would lie prone bleeding profusely from wounds inflicted with a careless abandon. Time for other messiahs to appear? Are they here after all? Is there hope? Is any one listening?

Happy 57th year…Pakistan.

Author’s note:

Despite efforts to the contrary, what was attempted as a detached, impersonal analysis of the malaise that inflicts our beloved country ended up as a cry of anguish. I have served with the Khakis for 23 long years and know for sure that the Mansoour-ul-Haqs are an exception rather than the norm. An aberration on the fair name of men whose contract with the nation includes being in the front lines come time to die. And, as has been proven over and over again, they are there in hordes. Likewise, I am equally sure that somewhere in the ranks and files of our politicians, there are men and women who are capable of standing tall, upright, and unyielding. People who can lead this gifted nation to the glory that is its ultimate destiny. It is only a matter of time before they come to the fore. The journey is painful but we have no choice. May God be our companion. Ameen.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

Good Morning America

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Middle East. 0 Comments
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That the trauma they inflicted upon Iraq will live and grow on them too and will feed on their souls like only such demons do. That a sure accompaniment in their duffel sacks on their return journeys will be the mincemeat carcasses of their own innocent selves and certainly some plastic bags containing the remains of the American Dream.
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‘’Good morning Vietnam'’…. in the midst of that grotesque war a supposedly friendly yet mindless greeting from a radio station to a people some of who would not live to see the sunset of the day. In a curious blend of comedy and horror, the Americans went into that country to liberate the Vietnamese and in the process bombed virtually every inch of it. They went in as friends but ended up murdering the hosts, a pattern that the US would continue to follow for decades to come.

The Vietnam War is a good example of how the Post 2nd World War US would create enemies to advance its own agenda. During WW-II, Ho Chi Minh led the struggle on behalf of the Allied Powers against the Japanese with the understanding that Vietnam be given its freedom from French domination after the war ended. Ho Chi Minh kept to his words. On September 2, 1945 a band marched through Hanoi playing the Star Spangled Banner. Soon thereafter, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamese Independence.

The Allied Powers, though, had other plans. They divided the country into North and South Vietnam. To add insult to the injury, South Vietnam was given back to the French. The US betrayed the Vietnamese and endorsed French subjugation. The US reportedly even offered the French nuclear weapons to use against the Vietnamese, an offer that the French fortunately declined. It was only after the betrayal by the US that Ho Chi Minh turned to Russia for the help needed to defeat the French and truly became a ‘communist’. The US had, in effect, turned a friend into an enemy.

The CIA’s infamous Phoenix Operation began soon after the US takeover in 1954. Under the watchful eyes of their American guardians, the South Vietnamese secret police conducted live burnings, garroting, rape, torture, sabotage - much of which was blamed conveniently on the Vietcong. Over 50,000 civilians were tortured and murdered at the hands of the CIA & military intelligence. In all, the US forces annihilated well over a million Vietnamese. The land mines, unexploded ordnance and death from chemical contamination killed and crippled countless more. Good morning Vietnam.

Afghanistan followed a similar pattern. In the 80s, the US turned that country into a battleground to decimate the occupying Russian military juggernaut. For the purpose, Islamic resistance was raised, groomed and nurtured by the US. Love oozed out of American pores then for the religious fervor and sense of sacrifice of these Afghan fighters. Hollywood made their Rambo fight against the Russians as the ally of these Afghans and the American press waxed eloquent.

Washington even courted Taliban, the offspring of that same resistance, for years before indicting them for the crime of harboring Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaida terrorist network. The Clinton administration feigned ignorance to the rise of Taliban from October 1994 onwards. Between 1995 and 1998, especially after the fall of Kabul in September 1996, Clinton administration officials openly lobbied Taliban authorities for Unocal-an American oil company. The links between the Bin Laden and the incumbent US president’s families too are only now coming to the surface.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban in September 1996, the U.S. State Department announced it would establish diplomatic relations with Taliban by sending a diplomat to Kabul. State Department spokesman Glyn Davies said the U.S. found “nothing objectionable” in the steps taken by the Taliban to impose Islamic law. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphael forcefully endorsed the same in a closed-door UN session in November 1996.

After capturing Kabul, as the Taliban started their military push northward, top U.S. officials continued to pay regular visits to Kabul. They included former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Raphael, her successor Karl Inderfurth, Deputy Secretary for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering, and the U.S. ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson. As late as July 2001, Christina Rocca, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, met Taliban officials in Islamabad and announced $43 million in food and shelter aid, bringing to $124 million the U.S. contribution that year alone. The Taliban were allowed to spend this money without any accountability.

Spurred into a knee-jerk response by 9/11, Washington went to war against a country that was being wooed and used by it for years, to which none of the hijackers belonged and from where the supposed mastermind Bin Laden is yet to be recovered. Their overwhelming rejoinder proved to be a kiss of death to about 8000 to 10000 Afghan civilians. Each innocent twin-towers victim was avenged by a ratio of 4:1 from an equally innocent Afghan populace. Innocence of the victims remained the only common denominator. The highlight of the Afghan war was the very low value put upon Afghan civilian lives by U.S. military planners and the political elite, as clearly revealed by U.S. willingness to hit heavily populated regions with devastating firepower. The fact that a living, breathing people were sacrificed in order to (possibly) protect future American lives, has left an indelible imprint on one of the poorest, most desperate peoples of our world. Good morning Afghanistan.

Likewise in Iraq too the pattern is all too visible. The US involvement goes back several decades and parallels British domination of the country early in the century. In 1958 the CIA is said to have hired Saddam Hussein to assassinate the President of Iraq - Abdel Karim Qassim. By 1963, Hussain and the US were successful in overthrowing the Iraqi government. In the process 5,000 were killed. Immediately after the coup Saddam rounded up and murdered another 800 potential opponents on a list provided by the CIA.

At the same time the US supplied Iraq with tons of chemical and biological weapons to use against Iran and Iraq’s own Kurdish population. Four deadly strains of Anthrax were handed over to Saddam from United States’ military Bio Weapons Lab in Fort Dedtrik. The results, of course, were spectacular. In 1986 Reagan sent Saddam a secret message imploring him to step up his bombing of Iran. Rumsfeld remained the principle courier for delivering messages of this kind. Up until Iraq’s US approved invasion of Kuwait, various US functionaries sang praises of Saddam Hussein, noting how he had vastly improved education, medical care, and the standard of living of his people. His regime was called one of the most enlightened, progressive governments in the region.

As Iraq massed its troops on the Kuwaiti border in preparation for invasion, the US watched on in complete silence. The results of that adventure now bear out that Saddam invaded Kuwait to support the administration of George Bush and provide a cause for long-term military bases in the Middle East.

To further the suffering of the Iraqi people, vicious and pointless sanctions were imposed. At the International Court of Crimes Against Humanity, British, UN officials and US were charged with ‘causing the deaths of more than 1,500,000 people including 750,000 children under five, and injury to the entire population of Iraq by genocidal sanctions.’ Thousands more were obliterated in the First Gulf War. U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright publicly declared the killing of over half a million Iraqi children as a price well worth the effort.

As the world watched from the comforts of their living rooms, the same most enlightened and progressive country in the region was bombed back to Stone Age. A latest Guardian report suggests that at least 10,000 non-combatants may have been killed thus far during the current invasion of Iraq. Three completed studies suggest that between 1,700 and 2,356 civilians died in the battle for Baghdad alone. As these lines are being written, the American ordnance continues unrelentingly to ricochet through the bodies and souls of citizens of Najaf. The final count will come later. Good morning Iraq.

The world has cried itself hoarse but the Americans seem determined to continue sleepwalking ever deeper into this spiraling insanity. It is beyond belief that they do not understand that;

They cannot win this war that was started on lies, damned lies and more of the same.

They cannot win a political and guerilla war by any amount of bombing. They never have and they never will.

They cannot win this kind of war when the American government is largely run by wealthy landowners, oil men and a military elite whose real interests are any thing but the plight of the poor, traumatized and war weary Iraqis.

They cannot save a people who do not want to be saved, who view their liberators as oppressors in new costumes.

They cannot win in this deadly poker game that is devoid of scruples by all sides. Any escalation on their part can be matched by a much smaller, but far deadlier in its psychological impact, escalation on the part of their enemies.

The fundamental questions are: Is Iraq really that an all-important factor in the American scheme of things? Is this truly the final showdown of “wars of national liberation”? Is this Armageddon? Will this really guarantee that the future American generations will live safely thereafter? Does it really mean that in case the Americans lose this war, they will have to fight later this same enemy in Florida, Oklahoma or New England? If the answers to all these questions are “yes,” then they must proceed at all cost to win this war.

But alas the facts are far from that.

The fact is that a ghastly drama is being witnessed by the bleeding, lacerated dawns of Iraq. The fact is that America’s sacred cowboys are once again busy doing a liberation job hoping to ride off into the sunset after a job well done. The fact is that as their jets scream away from the blood drenched Iraqi deserts, their compatriots on ground are kicking their way through the decomposing Iraqi corpses, slashing with their bayonets through the walls of meat that stand in defiance of their masters’ vision for Iraq. The fact is that they are indeed in a hurry to get back home to pursue the American dream yet least worried that they will one day be answerable to the misshapen children of Iraq. The fact is that this is any thing but a war of liberation.

For the moment the liberators don’t care. They seem oblivious to the fact that when they do go back they will be carrying with them the dust and the blood, the fear and the loathing of a brutally maimed people. That the trauma they inflicted upon Iraq will live and grow on them too and will feed on their souls like only such demons do. That a sure accompaniment in their duffel sacks on their return journeys will be the mincemeat carcasses of their own innocent selves and certainly some plastic bags containing the remains of the American Dream.

Good morning America…time to wake up.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

The Crime at Beslan

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and World. 0 Comments
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Is it possible that a people who have lost everything may think they have nothing more to live for, that a parent, who sees his children blown to smithereens, loses love for others’ too? That it is blood revenge, however unpardonable, that governs this mindless violence rather than any thing else? Is it possible?
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Let us state the obvious from the start without mincing any words. The horrifying and tragic death of hundreds of blameless human beings in the Beslan school tragedy, most of whom were innocent children, is barbaric, unparalleled, inhuman and unpardonable. It is a crime of heinous proportions and defies religion as equally as it does logic and rationality.

Nothing, repeat nothing, justifies this despicable act of certain individuals whatever their validation. Nor does it advance whatever cause the militants are fighting for. Like the senseless killings in Iraq, where innocent people - Muslim and non-Muslim - are being murdered without a qualm, the crime at Beslan, too, will be viewed with utter revulsion by the rest of the world. Any man, with even a modicum of humanity, must condemn this horrendous act unconditionally, categorically and unreservedly.

One does wonder though, as any thinking mind should, as to what propelled the perpetrators to inflict a pain such as this? What led them to take this horrendous leave from reason to commit an offence that is as unpardonable as it is unthinkable? Could it be that they themselves have been victims of similar atrocities? Or is it just a one-time malfunction of their thinking faculties? Is it their religion that exhorts them to indulge in some satanic rituals offering human sacrifices to satiate the blood lust of their deity? Or more unbelievably still, killing children is a pleasure pursuit in which the Chechens indulge from time to time? I do not know.

What I do know is that the story of Chechen suffering is a long one. In the early 19th century, independent Chechnya was conquered by Russia after a long and bloody war. The heroic struggle of the Chechen religious leader Imam Shamil and the inhuman conduct of the Russian forces compelled the young Leo Tolstoy, who served in the Russian Imperial Army in Chechnya in the 1840s, to resign in disgust and write stories praising the Chechen leader.

What I do know is that in the 20th century Josef Stalin, the “Great Father of the Nation” sought to purge the scourge in one go with the religious and ethnic cleansing of the Northern Caucasus. He ordered the deportation of an entire people on Feb. 23, 1944. This event is to Chechens what the Holocaust is to the Jews or the genocide is to the Armenians.

What I do know is that on that day, when Stalin packed the Chechen population of 1 million into cattle cars and shipped them to the wastes of Siberia and Central Asia, an indelible mark was forever engraved on the collective memory of the Chechens.

What I do know is that blood-curdling stories of people crowded into cattle cars without food, water, or bathrooms; corpses traveling with children; the killing of protesters at the railway stations by KGB guards, haunt the Chechens to this day. One-third of the population died on the journey. Many others perished under the ruthless conditions of exile.

What I do know is that more recently Chechnya was devastated by the war in 1994-6, which left more than 80,000 dead. It watched in horror as its basic infrastructures were again systematically destroyed. Since September 1999, more than a third of the local population - around 200,000 people - have been forced to flee the fighting and seek a humiliating refuge in neighboring Ingushetia.

What I do know is that the world’s conscience was collectively hibernating when a 12-year-old Chechen girl died of internal injuries after being raped repeatedly by vodka guzzling Russian soldiers; when a young pregnant woman had her body split open by machine gun fire simply to check the effectiveness of that weapon from a certain range, when an 84-year-old man had his throat slashed and was left to die by the roadside, when a one-year old Chechen baby was impaled with an AK-47’s bayonet as his mother was forced to watch on.

What I do know is that Chechnya has been reduced to a wasteland of death and destruction. That the Chechen capital of Grozny does not have a single building left intact after heavy bombing in a campaign Russia dubbed as “the liberation of Grozny.” That human rights violation are tremendous, as evidenced by many television broadcasts that showed grisly footage of Russian soldiers piling mutilated Chechen bodies into mass graves and that this is only the tip of the iceberg.

What I do know is that countless villages in southern Chechnya have been completely razed to the ground and the economy of Chechnya is non-existent, that the Russian army is intent upon ridding Chechnya of all its civilians and completely taking over the land once and for all.

What I do know is that when a people declare its independence, a central state can either let them go or beat them into submission. But in the case of Chechnya, and adjacent Ingushetia, we have seen some of both.

What I do know is that the Kremlin has done a brilliant job of convincing the world that Chechens are bandits and terrorists despite the fact that Putin’s own predecessors have gone down in history as the biggest mass murderers of their own citizens. Stalin and Lenin together caused the death of more than 30 million Russian citizens in the first half of the 20th century alone.

What I do know is that with the misery it visited upon humanity, the political creed of his forefathers is known as the most dreadful thing ever to have hit the human race, without exception, even worse than both world wars, the slave trade and bubonic plague all put together.

What I do know, and with a sense of ominous foreboding, is that the recent threats that Putin is hurling all around are bringing back ghastly images from the past when horrific concentration camps had been built in Russia aimed at imprisoning all Chechen males between 15-60 years of ages.

What I do know is that an international correspondent Eric Margolis did once write, “We begin the 21st century watching silently as a brutish Russia, which knows neither shame nor mercy crushes the life out of a tiny but heroic people who refuse to bend their knees to Moscow’s tyranny.”

Is it possible that a people who have lost everything may think they have nothing more to live for, that a parent, who sees his children blown to smithereens, loses love for others’ too? That it is blood revenge, however unpardonable, that governs this mindless violence rather than any thing else? Is it possible?

I do not know but I wonder.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

From Kabul to Baghdad

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Middle East. 0 Comments
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That Iraq will plunge into complete chaos is almost a foregone conclusion. With no infusion of money, no central leadership, no overseeing bureaucracy, no firm American commitment for rebuilding, and no self-sustaining industry, Iraq will plunge into an almost certain civil war.
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From Kabul to Baghdad : Dead Men Dancing
ABDUL ALI Mazari, the warlord who commanded the Hizb-i-Wahdat group of Northern Alliance invented the monstrous ritual known as ‘dead men dancing’.

The victims were usually Taliban prisoners but occasionally innocent bystanders caught up in the chaos. First, their heads would be chopped off. Petrol would then be poured down the holes in their necks. A torch would be applied to the fuel-blood mixture. Dancing to the tunes of Rubab (Afghan Guitar), Mazari’s troops would then cheer as the bodies burned and jerked in a macabre dance of death.

Mazari is now dead. Back in 1997, when the Taliban rose to power they avenged themselves by capturing him alive and throwing him out of a helicopter. Abdul Ali Mazari’s Northern Alliance, however, rode on American tanks into Kabul after the recent fall of Taliban. The cycle of vengeance re-started.

To millions of Afghans, the revengeful Northern Alliance is even more frightening than the Taliban. In their previous brief rule from 1992 to 1996, tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children died at their hands in Kabul alone. Women were raped and young girls had their breasts mutilated. By careful estimates, the Northern Alliance troops slaughtered upward of 50,000 Pashto-speaking people before they were driven out of Kabul in 1996.

This time too, blinded by hate and guided by revenge, the Northern Alliance is exacting a terrifying retribution from Pathans. They invented newer and more efficient methods, like the “Container Killing”, of mass slaughter. Mazari’s ghoulish ritual also was revived with additional refinements. For inspiring beats, Rubabs were replaced with drums. Many dead Taliban danced in Qalai Jangi for the pleasure of an enthralled select group of General Rashid Dostum’s troops. Somewhere in the background, American GIs feigned ignorance as the ghastly dramas continued well past midnights.

Human history is replete with grisly reprisals of Hitlers, Pol Pots, Milosovics, Dostums and the likes. Mass murder, rape, mutilation and torture routinely became the favorite instruments of the avengers. The vanquished become the victors and then vanquished again. The rule of the vengeful victors is blotched with the blood of the vanquished. The defeated Germans of the First World War exacted their reprisal in the next one. Muslims in Bosnia were punished for their long forgotten past. Tutsis and Hutus put their machetes to brutal use against each other in deadly cycles in Rwanda. From Sierra Leone to Democratic Republic of Congo to East Timor, the victors have exacted fierce vengeance from the vanquished. From Royalists to Communists to Mujahideen to Northern Alliance to Taliban and then back to Northern Alliance, Afghanistan’s history is packed with gruesome revenge sequences.

Enter Iraq. The United States has gone to war with a country already impoverished by more than 20 years of war and UN-imposed sanctions. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the outcome of which is daylight clear, the traumatized Iraqi society would be without a recognized head of state or a working administration. Well over 70 opposition parties, highly fragmented even now, would be further disjointed. In the north, two organizations, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), fight for the loyalty of the Kurds and are often at loggerheads with each other.

Many of the Shias in the south have no political loyalties. Two political organizations, however, the Al-Da’wa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq function there. Some of the Shias, especially those in Al-Da’wa, are interested in alliance with Iran. Others are not. The Sunnis in the middle of the country (who have supplied the present ruling organization with its members) would not want a government controlled by the Shias, who are the majority group in Iraq.

Whichever homegrown faction/group controls a postwar Iraq will only be able to do that, if at all, with the extensive support of both American arms and money. The US is shying away from a similar promise in Afghanistan. Armed and police forces will have to be formed. That will need time. The war will annihilate the present Iraqi leadership. Saddam Hussein’s inner circle from Tikrit will be eliminated in the aftermath of the war. The real loyalties of the new leadership will not be known. A situation a la Afghanistan will emerge where Hamid Karzai, the leader of the country, cannot even find a loyal Afghan bodyguard, but must rely on Western Forces for his personal safety. More than a year after the U.S. military triumph in Afghanistan, power still flows from the barrel of a gun and the government’s writ barely reaches to the outskirts of Kabul.

Competing tribal factions too would want to pull Iraq apart. The system of law and order will break down. There will be no law enforcement, no justice structure, no civil services, and no answerability. In this confusion, people will be inclined to take justice into their own hands. Other than the murders of whole Kurdish communities with chemical and biological weapons, Saddam’s rule has been responsible for innumerable political killings. His cronies in the ruling Ba’ath Party, who routinely made miserable the lives of fellow citizens right down to the street level, would be the foremost targets for settling of scores. Other brutalized sections of the society, clamoring for revenge, would join the killing spree.

With all these fluid dynamics, the United States would be unable to take complete control of the situation. In the absence of an effective, and recognized, central leadership a fragmented Iraq is likely to emerge. The Kurds would endeavor to form a shadow state in the north to realize their decades old dream. The Shias would strive for the same in the south. The center would struggle to remain under the Sunni influence but with the old leadership decimated, it will be a hard task. Iraq’s bordering countries would be alarmed by this development and are likely to start upping the ante through proxies. In fact, every one of Iraq’s neighbors has an agenda of its own for the country. In the ensuing melee, the avengers will have a field day.

Post-war Iraq would be treacherous, baffling, and complicated for everyone involved. A recent working paper from the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and the James A. Baker Institute at Rice University about summed up the situation when it said: “The United States may lose the peace, even if it wins the war”. According to the report, the immediate aftermath of fighting will find American troops trying to stop “anarchy, revenge, and score-settling”.

None of the Kurd leaders exclude the possibility of “personal revenge, because they (Saddam’s regime) are responsible for the killing of at least a quarter million people.” A “bloodbath” is being threatened when the central government falls. “There will be an explosion in Baghdad. Nobody will be able to control it,” declares a KDP military chief. The leader of a large Kurdish tribe has claimed: “I can tell you that in Tikrit and in a number of places marked by Saddam Hussein’s power, not even the foundations of the houses will remain.” Lists of people deemed responsible for Ba’ath regime’s brutality have already been drawn.

That Iraq will plunge into complete chaos is almost a foregone conclusion. With no infusion of money, no central leadership, no overseeing bureaucracy, no firm American commitment for rebuilding, and no self-sustaining industry, Iraq will plunge into an almost certain civil war. Retribution killings are expected to sweep the country. Settling scores after Saddam’s brutal 33-year rule would be the order of the day.

Soon, another set of Northern Alliance actors will be riding into Baghdad on American tanks. Dead men will dance again in the streets of Baghdad, Tikrit and other Iraqi cities, but with a difference. Not very far away this time, American GIs singing the Star-Spangled Banner will replace the Afghan Rubabs and drums. The dead men, though, will not be able to tell the difference. For dead men may dance but they cannot hear.

Copyrights : Anwaar Hussain

airdance@hotmail.com

This Ramadan

Published by Anwaar Hussain February 9th, 2005 in Present Planet and Muslims. 0 Comments
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Let us pause this Ramadan and ask ourselves a few questions. Who were we? What happened to us along the way? Where do we stand today? Which way are we going?
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THE MONTH of Ramadan is here again. We Muslims will once again launch headlong into starving ourselves every day from dawn to dusk. In all our religious obligations we have become so ritualistic that the substance is almost forgotten and the form has been kindled into worship itself. We have become past masters at missing the woods for the trees.

Like all the Ramadans before, the prices of daily commodities are sure to sky-rocket. One is led to believe as if on a cue the fields have started to yield less, the cows to hide their milk and the hens to lay fewer eggs. The common man is left with just enough skin by the traders to re-grow for the next Ramadan.

Yet the same traders will go back to their Iftaars and prayers with a solemnity the like of which is not seen the year round. After each prayer they will implore Allah for forgiveness and prosperity for self and their brethren. Refreshed from heavy Iftaars, they will get on with renewed vigor to add tap water to milk, used engine oil to edible oil and ground bricks to spices. They will sell what they can without a qualm and hoard the rest to exact a telling price from their customers in the days to come. That leaves them with just enough time to be present for Taraweeh and once again beseech Allah for mercy. Their consciences, of course, look on through the eyes of a dead fish all this while. To be fair, though, the traders are not alone in this.

The rest of us are not much different the year round and in the month of Ramadan? No amount of prayers has been able to instill discipline, harmony, genuine piety and a quest for knowledge in us. We continue to inconvenience others by miss-parking our cars, throwing refuse out in the streets, honking horns at each other, jumping red lights at the traffic signals, slamming doors in peoples faces, telling blatant lies for petty profits, disrobing women by unashamed ogling, spitting huge globs of saliva in a to-whom-it-may-concern fashion, never turning up on time for appointments and keeping taped sermons on the whole night blaring at