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Jan-29-2009
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Pakistan and the Root of Terrorism
For many pundits and ruling elites in South Asia
. Practical politics consists in ignoring facts or
. Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.
. There"s no trick to being a terrorist when the infallible privileged class is guiding gullible and ignorant dupes.
Simply put, the 2008 Mumbai mayhem, the 2001 attacks on India"s parliament, train bombings in London and Spain (2004 and 2005), steadily spreading terrorist attacks from tribal areas to urban Pakistan (2006 to present), the 2008 attack on Indian Consulate in Afghanistan and the 9/11 attacks on America kind of murderous violence may stop when all the good people in Pakistan, including the community elders and spiritual leaders who want a decent future for their country declare, as a collective that those who carry out such murders are shameful unbelievers who will not dance with virgins in heaven but burn in hell. And they do it with the same vehemence with which they had denounced Danish cartoons on Feb. 6, 2006.
It will take a separate article to show that practices of the privileged South Asian Muslims engaged in jihad have parallels with pyramid scams operated to fleece ignorant and gullible. A pyramid scam is like a house of cards that stays up as long as managers" control and benefit from the scam and participants remain gullible and ignorant. Once the scam is exposed, managers lose control and the house of card crumbles.
Political opportunists promote jihad using gullible dupes who serve as terrorists. Terrorists lose their most precious possession - their life - and beneficiaries of terrorism are political opportunists. The actions of terrorists may be explained by psychological factors: situation, cognition, personality and emotion.
Like it or not, in spite of more than fourteen centuries of trying to destroy non-Islamic believers Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Hindus are still around, some in numbers comparable to or better than global Muslim population. Unlike a vast majority of Muslims masses most of non-Muslims, 78% or more than 5.2 of 6.7 billion global populations enjoy a materially better life and a decent future, especially the skilled knowledge workers globally in demand.
Islamic and Secular Pakistan
Many Pakistani clerics and pundits promote regressive Islam wedded to medieval Arab tribal norms, not the progressive Islam such as Ahmadiya or Barelvi wedded to South Asian social, cultural, political and economic norms. Dr. Iqbal in an Op-ed, "Islamic or secular Pakistan?" made a case for the Islamic state of Pakistan. Just as others are so is Dr. Iqbal expected to incur a responsibility -- a moral and intellectual responsibility -- in expressing his opinions.
Brevity of assertions is mind boggling; I quote, "There is no deity except Allah, and Muhammad is Allah"s Messenger."
Are there unique attributes to deity called Allah relative to God worshiped by followers of other faiths? If Dr. Iqbal knows it, he isn"t sharing with readers. Such assertions are common to several monotheistic religions, each honoring a different messenger. For fundamentalist, radical Muslims -- terrorist and self-righteous, narrow-minded privileged class of feudal clerics, warlords and pundits who believe they are infallible -- the stated beliefs form a basis for hate and intolerance against non-Islamic believers. Graveyards are full of messengers and radical fundamentalist.
We have distortions of religion by combining religion with absolute conformity to any given belief system. Religion is made complicated and politicized by insisting on infallibility of the clerics - Pope, Imam or Brahmin.
There is no unanimity on the Muslim messengers or Imams. Sunni"s consider Muhammad to be last Imam and Shia"s pray for reappearance of Imam Mahdi. In recent times (1889 onwards) Ahmadiya or Qadiani sect was established at Qadian (now in Pakistan) by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad who as Imam is regarded co-messenger with Muhammad. Ahmadiya sect has split into two and it is spread to 190 countries.
Four Islamic sects are Sunni (Salafi, Ahle Hadith or Wahabi, Hanafi, Deobandi, Barelvi, etc), Shia or Shiite (Twelver, Ismaili and Zaidi), Sufi (Dervish and Barelvi) and Ahmadiya; each sect has many sub sects. Barelvi is a Sunni Sufi sect. Politically motivated Pakistani establishment elected to imitate Sunni Arab tribal norms instead of following a South Asia norms based Islam (Ahmadiya and Barelvi, for example) with unique connections to South Asian cultural and society. Ahmadiya sect was declared non-Muslim in 1970s when Mr. Z. A. Bhutto was prime minister. The Pakistan state sponsorship of the radical Islam may be responsible for an identity crisis, not to mention a culture of jihad, which has now deteriorated into global scale terrorism originating from the epicenter.
Dr. Iqbal added, "This testimony of faith makes them Muslim, that is, those who believe in the five pillars of Islam (the testimony of faith, obligatory prayers, fasting, zakah, and Haj), as well as the set of tenets associated with belief (Iman): the Unicity of the Creator, Allah, belief in angels, in Allah"s prophets, on the Day of Reckoning, and on qadr. These are non-negotiable and irreducible beliefs of every Muslim."
Dr. Iqbal"s non-negotiable and irreducible beliefs are nothing more than Koranic laws or assertions that the privileged Muslims promote for political and personal gains. Viability of the uncertainty principle makes the assertions untenable. Islam appeared only about 14 centuries ago and morphed into many sects and sub-sects. Some other belief systems have existed for more than 30,000 years.
There is no quarrel with Dr. Iqbal or any other Muslim holding views on faith as long as the views are not misconstrued to instigate a global cultural war sanctioned by faith. Islam does not entitle the clerics, pundits and most of all warlord army generals to wage jihad for extraterritorial imperial expansion by violating other nation"s sovereignty and hiding behind its WMD to blackmail global powers pretending Pakistan is immune from attacks.
Pakistan is a creation of those seeking a place in history book. Hindus and Muslims behaved differently - for example, there was practically no communal conflict and peace prevailed for 90 years - in British India. The seeds of conflict were sowed by claiming that Hindu and Muslim culture were different and the political excuse was acceptable to departing colonizers of the British India. So they partitioned India as a parting gift to South Asia. Pakistan is a man made entity, some say an artificial state like Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria carved out of Ottoman Empire after WWII. Given time, as has been the case with the Ottoman Empire and four Caliphates, Pakistan can and so can the assertions of Dr. Iqbal be undone by future generations.
What"s in the News?
Look at recent headlines:
1. More than 30 terrorist outfits operating in Pakistan
2. According to the Edhi Foundation "Terror attacks and suicides increased by 50% in Pakistan"
3. Preaching Moderate Islam and Becoming a TV Star for Youths in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
4. PBS (Public Broadcasting System, Channel 8 in Houston, TX) broadcast of an interesting TV documentary, The Story of India, on Mondays Jan 5, 12 and 19, from 9 to 11 PM (ET); total 6 hours.
What do the news stories tell? "Terrorism stories describe", the Edhi Foundation maintains, "a self-destructive nature of jobless and unskilled Pakistani youth." The terrorist are select few who are promised virgins to dance with in heaven if they die for causes promoted by the privileged class of clerics, warlords and pundits. The brains behind terrorism are not the uneducated and unskilled youth referred to by the Edhi Foundation but the political opportunists among the privileged ruling elites of Pakistan.
Unlike fundamentalist radical South Asian Muslims, Mr. Shugairi is a rising star in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and he has no reason to suffer an identity crisis exhibited by South Asian Muslims. Mr. Shugairi is an M.B.A. from USA and a new generation of "satellite sheiks" presenting religion-themed television shows on one of 30 religious TV Channels of Saudi Arabia.
Recently, Mr. Shugairi on his TV show spoke against sectarianism. He made pleas for women to be treated as equals. He talked about his own life - his years in California, his divorce, his children - and gently satirized Arab mores. The shows have helped fuel a religious revival across the Arab world. Mr. Shugairi effortlessly mixes deep religious commitment with hip, playful humor. He sometimes refers to Islam as "an excellent product that needs better packaging." His message of sincere religious moderation is tremendously powerful. For young Arabs, he offers a way to reconcile a world painfully divided between East and West, pleasure and duty, the rigor of the mosque and the baffling freedoms of the Internet.
Islam like any other religion is a product to be packaged and marketed. Taken together the messages by above two educated Muslims it is easy to see who has a better chance of resonating with non-Muslims.
The Story of India
The PBS documentary presents historically how India has survived upheavals. The 6-hour PBS documentary offers timeline of last 70,000 years and details of global interests. See WSJ for a review, "A Story of India" or log on to pbs.org.
The digital technology has made it very difficult if not impossible for politically inclined pundits to distort facts and for independent observers to present a coherent picture of developments in South Asia. In the documentary a sensible journalist is celebrating human spirit. A theory of migrations (that occurred more than 2,000 years ago) into ancient India is at odds with recently available archeological evidence. Unlike the privileged South Asian Muslims he stays away from demagoguery; separation of politics from the beliefs inhibits exploitation of the beliefs for political and personal gains.
Monotheism and Judaism
Basically Judaism is original monotheism. Monotheistic religious coin has two sides. One is God of "laws, rewards and punishment" that privileged class follows and other side is God of "love, mercy and forgiveness" that masses - disadvantaged class - prefer.
Judaism encourages rational thinking as opposed to dogmatic Roman Catholic and Christianity guided teachings prior to renaissance era of 14th century and regressive medieval Arab tribal norms dominated Islam. In spite of repeated onslaught by Roman Catholic, other Christian and Islamic warlords for 2,000 years, Jews have prevailed and they continued to flourish on the inner strength.
A scholarly presentation of philosophy of Judaism is found in a monogram, "God in Search of Man" by Abraham Joshua Heschel (1955). Judaism in general has cultivated and promoted rational thinking for more than 5,000 years. By internalizing rationality, empirical research and analysis, in recent times many prominent Jews, for example, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Milton Friedman to name a few, have contributed with scientific and objective scholarships to our understandings of the material universe (called Prakruti in Hindu philosophy), psychology, political science and economy.
The essence of scientific enquiry lies in curiosity about how the world works, how matter was formed, and how life came into being. Perhaps curiosity about the universe is what sets mankind apart from the animal kingdom.
The Ideology
All religions incorporate certain social, cultural, political and economic norms. After conversion, Roman Catholics continued with Roman practice of extraterritorial expansion for economic prosperity. Arabs adopted monotheism and combined it with Arab tribal norms to pursue global domination through medieval times. Both Roman Catholics and Muslims unleashed death and destruction on non-believers and both so far have failed to totally dominate globe.
The ideology of Pakistan is stated in "the Objective Resolution" adopted by its constitutional assembly in 1949. Pakistan"s constitution was formulated in 1973. Following Arab norms politicians adopted "the Objective Resolution" that deprives sovereign right to citizens and it allows ruling elites to dictate citizens to suits political agenda of the day. Pakistan is in a political and economic mess due to actions of ruling elites for past 61 years. Until this is voided and discarded, the country will be doomed to intolerance, bigotry, hypocrisy and all that go with these three vices.
Unlike South Asian Muslims who practice medieval Arab norms and suffer from an identity crisis, Arabs have preserved their identity by incorporating Arab norms in Islam. Unlike Arabs of sand dunes and deserts, South Asian Muslims are from tropical lands. Each geographical area is associated with local social and cultural norms. In formative years, the norms of geographical areas get imbedded in the population. Ignoring South Asian norms (see the story of India) and politically forcing state sponsorship of medieval Arab tribal norms has created an identity crisis for South Asian Muslims.
A clash of civilization ensues when political forces wedded to different norms try to impose their values on those not mentally prepared for a change. That was the case for 900 years from 950 to 1857 during Muslim colonization of India. Just as Muslims have failed to dominate most non-Muslim majority lands, America in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan may fail unless it is able to cultivate desired cultural changes in Islamic nations. For a lasting legacy the changes in norms have to come from within.
Medieval vs 21st Century Norms
In medieval practices privileged few enjoy luxuries on earth; masses continue to toil and live a materially miserable life. A select few are promised virgins to dance with in heaven if they die for causes promoted by the infallible class.
In 21st century, in the developed democracies with free market economy as in America or a semi-socialist political environment as in Western Europe a vast majority has an opportunity to generate wealth, live a better material life and enjoy a decent future through knowledge and skills globally in demand.
People in all societies follow a faith. In multi-ethnic, multi-religious democratic society people of different faiths learn to accept and respect each others beliefs for most part. Unlike Islamic nations, secular states are tolerant of people of different faiths. Unlike the states practicing a narrow-minded definition of Islam, secular states offer to each citizen freedoms to choose a faith they are comfortable with. Politically the state is secular; population is devout and religious that worships God or Allah. Politically in a secular state a rule of law and equality for all citizens is enshrined in a publicly voted constitution and from time to time the legislature of elected representatives pass new laws to meet challenges presented by new realities. Unlike states that are repressive, regressive and wedded to past, secular states are dynamic with a build in mechanism to accept with time publicly supported desired changes.
Convivencia:
Muslims occupied parts of Roman Empire - Iberian Peninsula - 8th to mid-12th century. The Muslim Caliphate of Iberian Peninsula was known for progress through coexistence or convivencia of Muslims, Moors, Christians and Jews. Under Islamic caliphate a multicultural population flourished in coexistence.
Intellectual freedom led to developments in science, architecture, medicine, arts and crafts, and literature that were the hallmark of Islamic civilization in this period. They grew because of an open-minded, tolerant, cosmopolitan, and multi-cultural character. Caliphs, such as Haroon-al-Rashid and Al-Mamoun, brought together scholars of diverse faiths and helped establish a flourishing culture. During the convivencia period Muslim, Jew and Christian cultures thrived to bring material and spiritual renaissance of three religions.
Convivencia was broken apart into violent imbalance by attacks from fundamentalist Muslims from North Africa in 1145 and also due to sustained campaigns called reconquista (8th to 15th century) that liberated Spain, Portugal and parts of Roman Empire occupied by Muslim Caliphs.
Jews and South Asian Muslims
The fundamentalists attack Zionist, Hindus, Ahmadias, Zoroastrians and Christians of America and Europe, etc from their comfortable desks in a secure office several thousand miles from war zones. During last ten years I have been regularly reading Pakistan"s English media, I have yet to see a single Pakistani reporter stationed in Palestine or Israel to make an on-the-spot first hand reporting such as major American and European press does. Several Pakistani journalists are present in major Western cities but tell me how many have been posted to troubled spots any where on globe?
For Example, how many Muslim opinion writers have read "The Forever War" by Dexter Filkins, the NYT reporter? It may open eyes on how Muslims of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have reacted to American War on Terrorism.
The biases and closed mindedness of some Pakistani opinion writers are mind boggling. It makes no difference to them that for thousands of years before Islam Jews were in Palestine and Hindus were in India. Just because the loot and plunder brand Islamic Arabs from north and central Eurasia occupied Spain, a part of Southern Europe, Palestine and India for a period, they maintain that "Islam is in danger" when the original owners of the land manages to take it away from the Muslims.
The fundamentalist and orthodox abhor the religious diversity and they lack appreciation for the creative richness recorded in history of Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Christian. Pakistanis ignore that Judaism is the original monotheism and Islam is based on Jewish religious teachings combined with Arab tribal norms.
Unlike South Asian Muslims, Arabs ensured to retain Islam with Arab norms during medieval period. Here are a few questions for South Asian Muslims to ponder:
. Why should Arab practice of hate and intolerance be the behavior guide for South Asian Muslims?
. Just because Arabs do, why should South Asian Muslims blindly follow Arabs?
. Did South Asian Muslims ever ask themselves what right South Asian Muslims have to hate and be intolerant of Jews?
Impact of Regressive Islam on Economy of Pakistan
For a small country Pakistan is a diverse, both ethnically and politically. There may be a democratically elected government, but nobody is fooled; other nations have armies, the army has Pakistan and power to ignore civilian government.
Being a deeply religious country with nearly 50% illiteracy, 20% semiliterate and majority of the rest educated in madrassah that mostly teach one book, the privileged class finds it easy to hijack aspirations of masses by promoting jihad and terrorism. A paltry 4.4% Pakistanis are university graduates, 1.6% have a post graduate degree, 17.3% struggles through ten years of desperately poor quality education to reach matriculation, and 6.3% pass "Intermediate" after twelve years.
Poor suffer from poverty of thought, material resources and attention. An imagined superiority of culture and inferiority of its power has made Pakistan an epicenter of terrorism.
With the biased reporting and comments Pakistanis have managed to brain wash three generations of youth during last 60 years to hate and be intolerant of non-Muslims. Economically Pakistan ranks among the bottom five of about 175 nations in the world. Economically most Pakistanis are poor like poorest Africans and this may be a result of Pakistanis not upholding south Asian norms.
According to a report (December 2008) issued by the Center for Research and Security Studies of Islamabad 70% population is living just over, just on or just under, the poverty line; making less than $2 per day and 49% of the population lives in absolute poverty. Already 31% of all children suffer from malnutrition, and infant mortality rate at 78 per 1000 is worse than some of the worst of the failing African states.
Pakistan is now facing (and it is projected to get worst due to annual population growth rate at more than 2%) chronic socio-economic problems, political instability brought on by successive governmental failures to address the needs of the mega population and civil unrest fuelled by famine and/or persistent food insecurity for most of the population both urban and rural.
Unemployment as of Sept 2008 was 25% and may increase as the power crisis continues throwing people out of work and into penury. Poor or non-existent planning and an institutional lack of ability to think further forward than the jihad and terrorism suggest that this situation is unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.
Pakistan"s love-affair with all things military is going to have to end with a shift of budgetary focus from defence to one that is health and education-oriented. Fail to do this and at the end - which may be closer than we like to think of - Pakistan will be left with nothing but a puzzled army guarding an empire of skeletons.
Economically Pakistan is on a sliding slope and awaiting an implosion (compare to USSR of 1980s). Pakistani leadership wrapped with WMDs is mistaken that they are immune from attacks by a global coalition that is a victim of overt and covert wars originating from the epicenter of terrorism and jihad.
Regressive Islam Dominated Pakistan
In economically starved Pakistan many of 25,000 madrassahs are funded by Arab money to promote regressive Islam wedded to medieval Arab tribal norms and not a progressive Islam with South Asian norms. If the madrassah students are not encouraged to think and reason for themselves, how can they discover anything new?
There is not a single world-class university or research institute in Pakistan, as the state has not incorporated progressive Islam to reform its educational system. Prof. Pervez Hoodbhoy) maintains that Pakistan has shown little capacity to fund or plan proper education of its youth. By refusing to accept and internalize the rational empirical research and analysis, many privileged Pakistanis suppress scientific and objective scholarship. A naive and ignorant belief that the rational method of empirical research and analysis is not Islamic dominates the ruling elites. Pakistan"s human resources development is inhibited as it continues to cede scientific research and progress to West, China, India, Japan, Korea, etc - countries that have made tremendous progress by incorporating reason into their education and public discourse.
Present Reality
Pakistani government and media response to Mumbai mayhem and other previous terrorist attacks globally is a smokescreen to divert attention away from Pakistan"s failure to tackle the real issue: it"s nurturing of terrorists.
In last 50 years I have not seen intensity in American media reporting on terrorism in India as they are doing with Mumbai mayhem since Nov. 26-29, 2008. Mumbai mayhem may be an opportunity Americans and NATO were looking for and now that Mr. Barack Obama is the President of USA we should know soon enough what the collateral damage will be.
If war should break out pitting global powers against Pakistan chances are South Asia will be a loser. A cornered Pakistan may suffer second dismemberment after it has a chance to drop one or more nuclear bombs on India. If it happens South Asia as we know it today may not exist for long.
So I ask no matter your faith, are we prepared to let Pakistan be wedded to a narrow-minded ideology. Should we allow continuation of a failed medieval practice of mindless wars? Should global powers take initiative to politically and economically force such Muslims to live in peace with 21st century norms?
President Obama Inauguration
Some media pundits are offering irrelevant lofty comparison of President Obama with MLK and Mahatma Gandhi and certainly, it is like comparing apples to oranges. The preachers of non-violence were facing insurmountable internal problems. Unlike the two esteemed leaders of non-violence, President Obama is facing external problems and he has powers that can dramatically change the political, cultural and economic picture of South Asia, the epicenter of terrorism; he has so indicated in his inaugural speech.
The following comments or policy guidelines by President Obama should be carefully noted positively acted on by the privileged class if the ultimate goal is to provide a better material life and a decent future for all generations to follow ours:
1. We will ......forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.
2. For those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
3. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
President Obama has offered an aid package of $7.5 billions over five years to tribal Pakistan provided Pakistan will continue to cooperate with America to root-out non-state actors in tribal safe heavens responsible for global terrorism. The aid package has a chance to help uplift tribals by providing opportunities for a better material life and a decent future to disadvantaged tribals.
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