Separating Fact From Fiction
As individuals we need to face upto the truth. One of the great contradictions of life is how knowing the truth we pretend it to be otherwise. Sooner or later this failure to recognize facts as they are creates problems of some magnitude. Regretfully, even academics of good knowledge and standing tend to have their judgment coloured by emotions on major issues. How can we then blame the masses for being blind to the obvious? We have a collective propensity as a nation to follow individual inclinations to look a fact in the eye and than blithely deny its existence. In the present world environment where we are held culpable for our words and deeds, particularly after 9/11, this can have dangerous consequences.
Most Pakistanis were (and are) sympathetic to the Taliban. While the Taliban were not terrorists, the “guests” they harboured in the form of Al-Qaeda certainly were (and are). And Osama Bin Laden (OBL) was no ordinary guest, he built up a rogue State within a State on the goodwill of the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, and was engaged in world-wide terrorism. Even those senior Taliban leaders who opposed the presence of OBL in Afghanistan could not show their guest the door because of culture and tradition. When the Taliban refused to hand him over, or evict him at the very least, they became accessories to OBL’s terrorism by association. Our sympathy for the Taliban should have been tempered by that knowledge. How many of us were (or are) willing to change our society into that resembling the Taliban’s in Afghanistan? More importantly, can we accept murder and mayhem as preached and practiced by Al-Qaeda to become the guiding philosophy of our society? And what about those poor misguided Pakistanis who rushed to Afghanistan for “Jihad” at the behest and exhortation of their religious leaders and being left to hold the fort when the Taliban melted into the darkness at the approach of the Northern Alliance were taken into captivity? The Taliban commander in Konduz one-legged Mullah Dadullah bartered the freedom of Pakistani volunteers against that of his Afghans in a deal with Rashid Dostum, who promptly buried alive thousands of Pakistanis in containers in Shebergan, many suffocating to death during the month of Ramzan? How many of them were relatives of the religious leaders who sent them to their fate?
While we are the champions of all “Islamic” causes, great and small, how many champion our causes? Who really helped us in 1965 and 1971 other than China, the Chinese support to us always being unstinting and not stemming from any “Islamic togetherness”? And how did we repay them, by supporting the revolt among the Uighurs of Sinkiang Province? Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been extremely generous, and while in 1965 Indonesia went to the extent of sending four submarines, Turkey and to some extent Iran, were of material help as well as being conduits for vital defence shipments. While one does sympathize with the plight of the Palestinians, their present predicament could have been avoided if their leadership had exercised greater maturity. Except for the 1967 war which started with a pre-emptive strike by the Israelis after the Egyptians had moved most of their army into the Sinai into offensive posture and Syria had massed its armour on the Golan Heights, all three wars (1948, 1956 and 1973) were started by the Arabs. Given that the Palestinians had been evicted from their ancestral lands by the Israelis one can say that this was for good reason, but let’s not kid ourselves with the fiction that the Israelis were the aggressors in all these wars. Israelis thus had a reasonable excuse to acquire territory by the force of arms. Those who do so seldom give the lands they occupy back, yet most of the real estate occupied by the Israelis have been handed back to the Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinians.
The settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, though illegal, had a permanency that was (and is) unacceptable to the rest of the world. The fact that Sharon bit the bullet to withdraw from Gaza and four West bank settlements is therefore a significant milestone, the anguish of the Israeli soldiers in evicting the settlers from their houses was on primetime media display for everyone to see, a clear marker that Israel was serious in searching for peace. While Hamas may claim credit for having given the Israelis pain and discomfort, it has been at great human cost to the Palestinians. They were a long way from forcing the Israelis out. Should we believe Hamas that the gun is the only solution or should we believe the Palestine President Mahmood Abbas alias “Abu Mazen” that negotiations are the way to peace? When we can separate this fact from fiction, we shall have our answer.
There is a very strong feeling in Pakistan against recognizing Israel, it is such an emotional issue – that those who support having diplomatic relations are loath to mention it publicly for fear of not only being ostracized but even attacked by extremists. Arab countries like Egypt, Morocco and Qatar already recognize Israel, so does Turkey, which also has a well developed military cooperation especially in defence production. And what about the Palestinians themselves, the Palestinian leadership regularly meets with Israelis on any number of issues that is de facto recognition. Both condemn “suicide bombing” as a terrorist act. Would we condone bombing of our mosques, public places, vehicles, etc, given that not only that suicide is considered anathema in Islam but most bombing victims are innocents, mostly women and children?
President Pervez Musharraf has been invited by the Council of World Jewish Congress to address them in New York this month. This is one of the most important developments for the country, the President’s “enlightened moderation” will face a not-too-friendly an audience (to Islam and Pakistan in that order), that by itself is a great success by itself. Pakistan’s moderate image is not recognized by the world, only the radical, fanatical elements have their say in world media coverage. The Jewish Congress must be commended for having the courage for giving Pervez Musharraf this singular honour, it is a great tribute to their sagacity. To invite a major muslim leader, and that also from Pakistan, a country that does not recognize Israel, must not have been easy. On his part Pervez Musharraf has to fulfill this responsibility with maturity and sincerity of purpose. His recurring theme has been that ignorance, poverty and bigotry are common enemies of all the peoples in this world, who has faced more hardship over the centuries on this count than muslims and jews?
While the President can hardly recognize Israel without due diplomatic process, by being invited and accepting the invitation thereof he has already kicked off the process that will lead to this eventuality. Pakistan and Israel are the only two countries in the world created solely on the basis of religious ideology, it is in the interest of both muslims and jews that inter-faith dialogue being initiated must reach its natural conclusion, sooner rather than later.
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