By: Tashbih Sayyed
Indications are that by 2005 all the Muslim countries will recognize the state of Israel. According to a news item in the Pakistani media, the Quartet members claim that the Islamic World including Pakistan would accord recognition to Israel and Palestine accepting their sovereign and independent status by 2005, the culmination phase of the Road map. "In 2004, there will be a phase when Islamic countries will be faced with a narrow choice-Palestine's inclusion to the UN as a full member or a denial of the existence of the State of Israel", a Quartet official is quoted as saying.
The same news item stresses that the Quartet rules out the possibility of any Islamic country not according recognition to Israel. "There is no question of any UN member state not recognizing both Israel and Palestine once the implementation of the Road map is completed", the official said, adding, "You cannot strain at gnat and swallow a camel".
I wonder if the Quartet understands that before a Palestinian state can be created, Arabs will have to give up on their unrealistic demand of the "right to return" and the status of Jerusalem. They can do it if they truly accept the rights of Jewish people to their homeland. Until then, neither will there be any Palestinian state nor any recognition by short sighted Muslim countries.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, it has to chose between rationality and emotionalism. If Pakistan has to progress, it has to democratize its institutions. And democratization of Pakistan is not possible so long it stays with radical Islamists, allows Wahhabis to continue with their killing rampage and refuses to see reason. Pakistan has to free itself from the clutches of Arab emotionalism and Saudi Wahhabism.
I am not pessimistic about Pakistan, if it has to survive as a forward looking, progressive and pluralistic society it has to be part of a civilization that is modern. And Israel is that forward looking democratic society. Pakistan's decision to bring the madrasas into the mainstream of education are all proofs that removal of a mind of mass destruction in Baghdad was necessary to encourage a change in the thinking of Muslim leadership.
There is one thing that general Musharraf must do. When talking about democratic values, he should appear a little more convincing. All Muslim governments who claim that they are against Islamist terrorism, will have to launch a campaign to make their masses understand that the needed reformation is not being carried out because they are coerced, bullied or forced by the United States of America but because they are valid and just things to do. It should not be like when in the aftermath of September 11, President Bush called President Musharraf to see if he is willing to join in the war on terrorism, General Musharraf, on the one hand accepted to join and on the other, went before his nation telling them that he had no choice and by going along with US demand, he in fact saved Pakistan.
Such an explanation served only one end. The Pakistani street controlled by radical Islamists took it as a humiliation and disgrace. My conversations with many Pakistanis tells me that the grass roots perception in Pakistan is that if Musharraf would not have gone along the US, Washington would have punished Islamabad by encouraging India to take out Pakistan's nuclear facilities. And Israel and India have some kind of a secret plan to destroy Pakistan. Because of this perception, if Washington is considered a great Satan in Iran, it is a big bully in Pakistan.
Musharraf should not have appeared before his people as if he joined the war against terror under duress. If he sincerely believed in the free world's cause, he should not have appeared apologetic and ashamed of his decision. He should have explained his decision to join the coalition forces by defending the philosophy of going after terrorists. He should have educated his countrymen as to the necessity of destroying the scourge of radical Islam as represented by Osama bin Laden.
In the same spirit, now when after the removal of the mind of mass destruction in Baghdad, there seems to be a change in certain foreign policy foundations in Pakistan and the "I" word has been spoken. Musharraf should not make the recognition of Israel (I) contingent upon the establishment of the state of Palestine. He should not tie Pakistan's national interest with the Arab complexes. He should educate the masses that by not recognizing Israel so long, Pakistan in reality has ignored the truth and has hurt its own national interests. Pakistan should not appear to be a follower of an emotional and sentimental mob who are suffering from a historical bias and culture based on anti-Semitism.
Pakistan should distance itself from the un-Islamic Wahhabism that is inherently anti-Semite and obscurantist. General Musharraf should accept that the spread of radical Islam in Pakistan could not have been possible without the covert and overt support of Pakistan's intelligence agencies and the Islamist elements in the Islamabad administration. Wahhabism has brought nothing but grief to Pakistanis. Every day killings of minorities in the "Islamic Pakistan" is not the doing of a "foreign hand" but the unrealistic internal and external policies of the country which are based on jihadism.
This is no secret that ever since Islamist fundamentalist Ziaul Haq handed over Pakistan to Wahhabi zealots, militant Islamists have been running amuck in the country. They were allowed to mount a unilateral terror campaign, they killed and pillaged with impunity. They targeted not only Americans, Jews, Hindus and Christians but also women, secular advocates and even Muslims-Ahmadis, dissenting Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims.
A political analyst wrote in a Pakistani newspaper, "The gruesome cycle of violence against Pakistan's minority citizens could not have occurred without the complicity of the Pakistani government. Consider the example of Azam Tariq, a religious cleric and former leader of the radical, Saudi Arabia-inspired Sipah-i-Sahaba. In an interview with the BBC in 1995, Tariq openly praised the Taliban and endorsed attacks on Shiites in Pakistan. Instead being brought to justice, Tariq was rewarded. Today he is a member of Pakistan's National Assembly."
President Musharraf cannot hope to earn the respect of the free world without proving beyond any doubt - not just verbally but by actions - that he is different from the past Pakistani rulers who exploited Washington's fear of Communism in the past and the dread of radical Islam now, to enrich themselves and their families without trying to create any goodwill for Washington at the grass roots level.
Islamabad should realize that recognition of Israel only because the Arab countries did it, will deprive the country of self respect and dignity among the comity of nations. The people of Pakistan should be told that all the historical and traditional interpretations of the holy book (Quraa'n) spreading hatred of Christians and Jews are the work of those who did not understand the true spirit of their faith. In the words of Malaysia's Nakhaie Ahmad, "Wrong and deviated interpretations must be rectified by refuting it."
It should be accepted that the curse of sectarianism and anti-Semitism will not go just because madrasas have started teaching modern sciences and information technology. It will only go when the cleric teachers will stop using the institution of the "word of mouth" to spread hatred against Jews, Christians and Hindus.
Next time when General Musharraf should face the nation, he should appear like a believer in what he is doing and not someone who has a gun to his head. He can find encouragement in recent statements made at the three-day conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital, where Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi considered by many to be the Muslim world's highest religious authority condemned books authored by extremist leaders with "radical ideas that have no logic behind them.'' He said, "I do not subscribe to the idea of a clash among civilizations, . . . People of different beliefs should cooperate and not get into senseless conflicts and animosity.'' He did not give specific examples of texts that should be banned, but referred to books authored by extremist leaders with "radical ideas that have no logic behind them.''
Another sign of the good that has come out of Iraq's liberation was that the delegates at the Malaysia conference freely discussed issues such as disunity, terrorism and misconceptions about their religion in the Muslim societies. The religion's reputation was being marred by "extremists that hide under the slogans of Islam in deceit and propagate ideas that have no relation whatsoever to Islam,'' said Sheik Husam Qaraqirah, who heads an Islamic charity association in Lebanon. "We have to block them from channels that are meant to spread Islam", Qaraqirah said in a discussion paper distributed to delegates. "Their books must be banned and lifted off the shelves of mosques, schools, universities and libraries.''
Baghdad has fallen many times in the past but never to the power that believes in Islam (submission to the will of Allah) - the United States of America.
