America: Threat to Pakistan

It has emerged from Pakistan that its people see America, its brazen interference especially, as a bigger threat than the Taliban against whom their army has been waging a relentless war for over a month. This public opinion has developed in Pakistan despite massive US aid to the country. When analysed objectively, the opinion of the Pakistanis seems to be absolutely right.

The question before the Pakistanis is not whether Taliban’s outlook and approach to life and society are right or wrong. Taliban’s ideology is no doubt extremist which most Pakistanis would not approve of. Moreover, they would have sorted out their ideological aberrations as well as extremism by arguing with them with a more balanced view of Islam. The unfortunate development is that Taliban have become a military problem. In fact, the short-righted American policies have converted Taliban’s ideological extremism into a big military and strategic headache.

Taliban, whether in Pakistan or Afghanistan, are a by-product of wrong American-Pakistani policies. A bit of exploration into the modern history of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s North-Western Frontier Province is essential to understand this point.

Compelled by its need and desire to have access to the warm waters, Soviet Union began to increase its influence in the Middle East that included Afghanistan also. To their dismay, they discovered that the Americans were alert everywhere except in Afghanistan. Capitalising on the American absence, they first overthrew the monarchy and installed a communist government. And when their stooges failed they occupied the country to rule with guns, tanks and fighter planes.

In response to the Russian occupation of Afghanistan the Americans raised the army of the Mujahideen with Pakistani and Sandi help. Ultimately the Americans emerged victorious in this proxy battle of the cold war era. But they committed a blunder when they swiftly ‘left’ Afghanistan immediately after the disgraceful Russian withdrawal from there.

Devastated by the war, Afghanistan needed a stable government and generous help to rebuild itself. The American blunder or selfishness deprived them of any such opportunity. Infighting erupted among the victorious Mujahideen shattering people’s hope of political stability and economic development. Meanwhile there arose Taliban with Pakistan’s help. The Taliban were also helped by the Arab-Islamic Mujahideen who had refused to leave Afghanistan fearing operation from the authorities of their respective countries. Many such Arab-Islamic Mujahideen had joined the Afghanistan’s Jihad at American invitation and persuasion. They felt betrayed by the Americans and as result decided to punish it. Thus happened the 9/11.

Apparently Afghanistan is the last victim of the cold war era. They had not done any wrong to Russia and yet it attacked and ravaged their country. The ongoing war on terror has further destroyed the already ravaged country. Instead of learning a lesson from the Russian defeat, the Americans set out to occupy the unconquerable and, as a result, are facing the music today.

The problem with the Americans is that they think that they are better than all others and far more intelligent than any individual or group of people. This erroneous self-perception prompted them to force Pakistan to pursue a hot policy in its North Western Frontier Province. Thus the Pakistan army is today involved in fighting against its own people. The sad aspect of the whole affair is that they have not chosen this war, rather America has imposed it on them. Thus what Pakistan had created as an asset for itself has been converted in to a big headache by the US.

The people of Pakistan have seen these developments with their naked eyes. They have seen how the Americans have arm twisted their rulers to adopt a policy which is harmful to Pakistan. This is the reason that they see the US, not only as the main culprit, but also as the greatest threat to their country.

People of a country are the main source of its strength. The Pakistanis, therefore, need to realize that only they can solve their multiple problems including the one called America. Meanwhile New Delhi should draw satisfaction from the fact that the Pakistanis no longer think that India was a major threat to their country. India occupies third place in their threat perception. This relegation to third position deserves to be welcome and appreciated.

[November, 2009]

How to Regenerate Knowledge?

An acute problem of the academia in our time is that most outsiders, who have shallow knowledge of a thing or distant connection with a subject, presume that they are more knowledgeable than the men who matter. For these pretentious outsiders the men on the spot, the trained teachers, the experienced researchers and intellectually far more superior authors carry no weight. So, one thinks that his diplomatic assignment in Saudi Arabia has made him an expert of the country as well as the region. The journalists are not far behind; they feel that their short-term posting in West Asia entitles them to write on any aspect of the region without acquiring any training in the concerned subject. The problem becomes very grave indeed when such outsiders begin to behave as expert of Islam, its history, civilization and culture.

It is not our case that the outsiders have no right to speak on Islamic Studies. But we do demand that they must study a discipline thoroughly and deeply, for this is the only way to become the expert of a subject. Knowledge acquired by reading a book or two would not work.

A saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has made it obligatory on Muslims to acquire knowledge. The Prophet is also reported to have said that “wisdom is the lost property of believing Muslims” and has urged them “to get hold of it wherever they find it”. On one occasion the Prophet (PBUH) preferred the knowledgeable believer over the worshipper (Aabid) with little knowledge.

The Holy Quran has also highlighted the importance of Knowledge in various ways. It has asserted that the knowledgeable and illiterate can never be equal. In another verse the Quran says that, “God raises the status of believers and men of letter”. Similarly the first few verses revealed to the Prophet in the cave of Hira speak volumes about the importance of knowledge.

The key words in these verses are “read”, “pen” and “knowledge” which cover all the activities of the academia. There are several other blessings of God which the Holy Quran has enumerated in its various chapters. However, the fact that God chose to speak first about reading, writing and learning cannot be missed as it shows the high importance that Islam attaches with Knowledge. This message of the Quran was ably grasped by the early followers of Islam. As a result, they launched an intellectual movement which has no parallel in human history.

Take any branch of knowledge from Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh to medicine and natural sciences, the early Muslims worked hard to excel in all of them. They toiled in libraries, undertook difficult journeys and burnt mid-night oil to achieve expertise in their chosen subjects. On the contrary, people of our time, specially the Muslims, lack focus, concentration and commitment and want to become scholars overnight. The sadest aspect is that there exists an army of superficial intellectuals who collect easily available data about universities, Nobel Laureates and other related things and complain that the Muslim Ummah is no where visible on the shining horizon of knowledge.

Well, you are within your right to mourn the demise of Knowledge from the Muslim world. I would just request such people to look within. Why do you ask “others” to excel? Are you really better than the non-performing “others”?

The best approach is to know what one can do instead of asking others to perform this or that. An individual, sincere and humble, knows both his potentials as well as limitations. He is surely better placed to make a realistic assessment of his academic/intellectual prowess and prepare pragmatic programmes accordingly. Such sincere and humble scholars would surely succeed and contribute greatly to their disciplines provided a congenial academic atmosphere is created by the establishment – the government and the university administration.

It would not be proper here to discuss the policies and programmes of the government and university administrations as these are outside the topic under focus here. However we must ask the leaders, intellectuals and activists, who are never tired of complaining about the decline of knowledge in the Muslim world, if they have done any thing to create an academic atmosphere in their areas/zones of influence. If they ask these questions and try to answer them sincerely, they would indeed render yeoman service to the country as well as the Muslim community.

Often we hear that our academics should compete with their counterparts in the West. Occasionally we also hear why our scholars excel in Western universities but not here in the East. The reason is simple. Campuses in the West are not as politicized as they are here. External interference is either non-existent or the minimum. The system, central, regional or local, supports the individual scholars, but it creates all kinds of difficulties for academics here. Above all, the academics in the West are not just provided with the state-of-the-art facilities but are also given the feeling that they are important and that they are capable of delivering what is expected from them. They are also free to work according to their interests, and things are not imposed on them. In our part of the globe, however, the academics, barring some exceptions, are normally given a raw deal. Instead of focusing on research and teaching, they are often compelled to fight for their rights and things which should be automatically available to them in order to enable them to achieve academic excellence. It is, therefore, not surprising why our academics, by and large, fail to perform as effectively as their counter-parts do in the West.

Mourning over the decline of knowledge in the Muslim world would not work; instead we need to fully focus on regeneration of knowledge in a sincere, honest and meaningful manner.

[October, 2009]