Written on February
9th, 2018 in Editor's page Comments Off
By K.N. Pandita
The US is showing no
relent in its reproach of Pakistan for allowing safe haven to terrorists –
individuals as well as organizations – operating in Afghanistan. There are many
individuals involved in raising and transferring funds, and providing logistic
support to terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, Taliban and LeT that are
either based or have their hideouts in Pakistani. Pakistan army and
intelligence circles including some senior bureaucrats are well aware of these
antics. At the end of the day elusive Osama bin Laden was captured in a house
just few kilometres away from the GHQ in Rawalpindi.
Pronouncement of the
Treasury contains details of their connections and the specific support they
were rendering to these terrorist organizations in their bid to disrupt peace
and order in other countries. They are primarily accused of raising funds and
disbursing these among terrorist organizations enabling them to follow their
terror agenda of mayhem and killing of innocent people in different parts of
the world, particularly in the neighbouring Afghanistan and India.
The fact is that
Pakistan-based terrorist organizations have developed a vast network in Asian,
African and European continents mostly through their Diaspora. It is actually a
vast resurgence movement of Islamists. The more radical among them have taken to
gun as the means of establishing supremacy of Islam. They strongly believe that
the Muslims are enjoined by the diktat of their scriptures to wage a jihad for
the promotion and propagation of Islamic faith. In other words, they believe
that only their faith has the sanction for survival and the rest cannot exist
simultaneously and must be wiped off.
However, today what we
call religious extremism and the jihad movement is actually a struggle within
the Islamic fold between the orthodoxy and liberalism. This clash started soon
after the large big conquests made by the Arabs of non-Semitic lands and
peoples in the continent, particularly when Greek science and philosophy
reached the nascent Muslims and they took great interest in logic as the key to
all knowledge. The 11th century ushered in an era of logic which was gall to
the orthodoxy, and hence the clash. With the passage of time and with feudalism
remaining entrenched in Muslim lands in the Asian continent, orthodoxy
maintained the upper hand in Islamic socio-political structures and the clergy
or ecclesiastical chapter became the instrument of political power …
The problem with
Pakistan is that it was created on the premise that Muslims will not live
together with the people of other faiths, especially the Hinds in the Indian
sub-continent because they are governed by a superior socio-political and
economic order. Moreover, they are enjoined by the faith to make that order
prevail in the world because Islam is no less a mission than a faith.
Therefore, Pakistan, coming into being as a sequel to that understanding,
enjoys the privilege of considering itself the champion of bringing that
far-reaching change in the world polity. The meaning of Pakistan having “an
Islamic bomb” has to be understood in that context.
A comprehensive and
in-depth understanding of this line of thinking will make it clear that Kashmir
issue is actually no-issue; it is only a ploy to undertake the execution of the
real agenda of radical Islam.
The fault of the US is
that it inducted the component of politics into its handling of Islam so as to
serve her immediate but unimaginative interests. The US looked at Islam and the
Islamic world from anti-Soviet prism and thereby gave a regrettable proof of
its myopic vision of world outlook. There was a time when the US, particularly
its intelligence agency, grossly interfered in the internal affairs of Iran and
supported the then monarchy against the popular demand for a democratic
arrangement. There was a time when the US considered Pakistan more aligned than
the allies and gave outright support to Pakistani Generals who usurped power
and authority by arbitrarily ousting democratically elected governments.
America’s hegemonic attitude has bred anti-American venom among more sensitive
segments of the Muslim ummah in many parts of the world especially the Khurasan
region which has ultimately turned into a hotbed of bloody clashes and
relentless fighting.
The question is that
previously as well the US designated individuals and organizations. Has that
penalizing changed the ground situation and has that contained regional or
international terrorism? Of course, not. Will new sanctions bring about any
palpable change in ground situation, perhaps not? From 9/11 to present day, the
US has been demanding Pakistan to wind up terrorist structure on her soil. It
cut no ice with Pakistanis. Continuing to issue such warnings is nothing less
than their expression of frustration over debacles in Afghan war and hence
making a mockery of the American super power status. Pakistani authorities
unanimously interpret American pressure tactics as a sequel to the US-led NATO
failure in Afghanistan. Recently Pakistani foreign minister is said to have
accused the world’s largest and the strongest democracies “forming a nexus”
against the Islamists, who, incidentally are no sympathisers of Westminster
type democracy.
The simple question
before the US and the West is this: Do you want democracy to survive the
onslaught of radical Islam or not? This was the very question that world
leaders we obliged to debate before they decided to go for the WW II. Therefore
there is the need of handling radical Islam with new thinking, new
understanding, new vision, new approach, new planning and new strategy. There
is dire need of new alignments – regional as well as global – if Theo-fascism
is to be defeated the way Nazism was. Tabling of a bill in the Congress seeking
a ban on military aid to Pakistan is a reflection of new thinking and new
approach in the US law making body.
The really effective
force that can contain and dispel the blitzkrieg of radical Islam is the
rational, tolerant and humane Islam which wants to be liberated from the siege.
This is the line which India, a country with second largest Muslim population,
is experimenting. If there is a nexus between the US and India along these
parameters, it is a welcome development.
(The writer is the
former Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies at Kashmir University,
India).
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