(by Shaukat Qadir) Since when has an entire nation, or people, or religion been presumed guilty until they can prove their innocence because of the guilt of a few? If one considers how far civilization has regressed, the terrorists have already won
I have never been very religious. I was a product of the times when patriotism was a sentiment one was proud of and nationalist feelings were strong. Post-retirement, when I attempted to join the scholarly world, though with indifferent success, I was dumbfounded when I was exposed to the concept of global citizenship first of all by Ms. Arundhati Roy, an Indian by birth. I began to understand and relate to being a citizen of the globe and equal rights for the peoples of the globe. I was aware that the dream is too idealistic to ever be realized but so are the ideals of freedom and equality anywhere. Dreams may be elusive but they are worth striving for. The recent war against terrorism has given the state a new lease on life and has strengthened it, as it had not been for many decades. All states are now free, under the umbrella of the war against terrorism, to enact laws violating basic human rights. Human rights activists have not been able to do anything about it so far. The USA, the flag-bearer of democracy and civil rights of the people, has enacted laws like the Patriot Act which give unusual powers to its law enforcement agencies. This has not met with any resistance; in fact it has been encouraged by the very citizens who took pride in their civil liberties. The US is also enacting farcical trials at Guantanamo Bay and other places, which are well publicized. There has been no resistance to this either, in a country which brought the LBJ administration to its knees for the indiscriminate killings of North Vietnamese! The UK is not far behind. It is now public knowledge that instances of torture by British troops have not been few and far between though they have been effectively covered up. The British police have shot and killed an innocent Brazilian in the streets and the police chief has said that this accident will not change their policy of shoot to the head to kill. Undoubtedly there is logic to this policy. It is the only method of preventing a suicide bomber from killing innocent people, but there must, at least, be sufficient grounds for suspecting that an individual is a suicide bomber! Otherwise there is likely to be a drastic reduction in the world population, if anyone who ran away in fear of police persecution were to be shot dead. I would still like to be a citizen of the world, but there is little scope for most people to play such a role and least of all for a Muslim that too a Pakistani Muslim! We are now so special that even the suicide bombers in Egypt were initially said to be of Pakistani origin! Those suspected of the bombings in London might be second or even third generation Brits but their origins are Pakistani and their genes are Pakistani. When these Pakistani-Brits come here, they seldom feel comfortable. But after 9/11 it doesn't matter that they have been citizens of another country for years, even generations; they are now Pakistani and, therefore, suspect! Therefore, I am now a proud Pakistani Muslim. I no longer desire to visit any country unless I am certain I will be treated like other visiting foreigners and not be singled out for being a Pakistani. But if for some reason I do visit another country and am harassed because of my origins, I will accept the humiliation but never return. No one can condone the killing of innocent people anywhere and I, like any other citizen of the globe, condemn the killings of innocent people. I condemn the killing and humiliation of the citizens of the world as much as I condemn the deaths of those killed in London and New York, those being killed daily by American and British troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere; and those being killed by the Israelis in Palestine. I am not condemning Jews or Christians, or the Israeli, American, or British nations, but the people sanctioning and executing these killings. But I condemn the US for protecting Israel. I feel sick when no less than the British prime minister attempts to dissociate these terrorist acts from his and his allies' reprehensible acts. I condemn terrorism outright without any qualifying clauses. I do not expect this to make any difference to any country of the world, or their policies, but I want to tell the world that their policies have reconverted me from a global citizen to an arrogant citizen of Pakistan and an arrogant Muslim. And those of you who choose to point out that there are extremist elements in Pakistan who need to be punished; those who are spreading hate who should be stopped and punished; I say to them: you are right, we need to do that and desperately. But what about those among you who are spreading hate against Muslims and Pakistanis? Did you start targeting Christians after the Oklahoma bomber? Or after incidents of serial killings? Since when has an entire nation, or people, or religion been presumed guilty until they can prove their innocence because of the guilt of a few? If one considers how far civilization has regressed, the terrorists have already won. The author is a retired brigadier. He is also former vice president and founder of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) (by Shaukat Qadir) Courtsey: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-8-2005_pg3_6 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Asalam o Alaikum, You Are Receiving This Message, Because You Are A Member Of FOCUS ON ISLAM, A Google Group [..:: The Best Group For Nice Islamic Mails ::..] \/<<<<>>>>\/<<<<>>>>\/<<<<>>>>\/<<<<>>>>\/<<<<>>>>\/<<<<>>>>\/<>\/ You can Post Your Comments and Suggestions to Me [Moderator of this Group] on this email address: [email protected] To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.google.com/group/focusonislam/ To post messages/mails to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Please forward our Mails to Your friends, and convence them to join our Group. 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