Muslim Heretics Conference

Obama’s overtures: Approach to win Muslims flawed

Kashmir Watch, Aug 3
By Balraj Puri
Recent developments in Iraq, Iran and Af-Pak provide enough evidence to measure the success of Barack Hussain Obama (he specifically used his middle name in his Cairo speech) friendship offensive on the Muslim world and to reflect on its inadequacies.
His most radical departure from the policy of his predecessor George Bush was on Iraq. American attack on Iraq, in retaliation of Al Qaeda-sponsored attack on New York, in retrospect, has proved to be a monumental blunder. As Iraq was being ruled by Saddam Hussain, who claimed to be a socialist, it could not even remotely be connected with Islamic extremist Al Qaeda.
Another excuse for the attack on Iraq was the assumption that it possessed weapons of mass destruction, which was later proved to be false by American intelligence agencies themselves.

It was a costly gamble. An estimated 100,000 Iraq civilians were killed in Operation Iraq. From American point of view, what mattered was that a trillion dollars of taxpayers’ money was spent and 4000 American soldiers were killed. The way Guantanamo and Abu Garib interrogation centres were run undermined American standards of democracy and human rights.
Obama reversed this policy and announced withdrawal of American army from Iraq. By June 30, it had withdrawn from Baghdad and other cities of Iraq. It was celebrated by the Iraqi government headed by Nouri al-Maliki, during American occupation.
However, it also exposed fissures in Iraqi society, which were kept under check by Saddam Hussain, though he used authoritarian methods. Baghdad city is now completely divided between Shia and Sunni parts. Most symbols of Iraq’s glory and its precious common heritage have been destroyed. The occupying power did not attempt to make constitutional or institutional arrangement to facilitate living together of the two main religious denominations.

Nor could an arrangement be made for the satisfaction of the aspirations of the ethnic minority of Kurds, who have raised a banner of revolt. In no case, Shia-Sunni differences and Kurdish revolt are covered by Obama’s appeal for friendship with Muslims.
Obama also extended his hand to Iran and appealed to it to unclench its fist. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded positively to his appeal. But the June election not only divided Iran but also strained the Iranian government’s relations with the West, which had sympathies with the opposition candidate Mir Hossian Mousavi considered as liberal and modern. It also believed that the election was rigged in favour of the present president.
The orthodox opinion in Iran and Muslims elsewhere was further alienated. The spiritual head of Iran Ali Khamani declared election to be valid and threatened American and its Western allies of united action against them for their interference in the internal affairs of Iran.
It is not the question of fairness of election or supporting one party or the other. The real question is of legitimate interests of Iran, which should be respected. In this context, reported permission by Saudi Arabia, a close ally of America, to permit passage to Israel for nuclear attack on nuclear installations of Iran is ominous. Iran’s right for having nuclear energy for purely peaceful purposes and protection against threats should be considered.

Iran is a predominantly Shia country and is unlikely to he influenced by Afghanistan-based Al Qaeda who are Sunni extremists. The recent killing of 14 Sunnis belonging to the Balochi ethnic minority in Iran shows degree of intolerance between the two sects of Islam.
Instead of encouraging Iran’s relations with a moderate country like India, America discouraged it to build a gas pipeline with Iran. India has the largest Shia population after Iran and both had close interaction in the field of literature and philosophy ever since pre-Islamic days.
Obama is concentrating his entire attention in crushing terrorism in Afghanistan, which extends to Pakistan. The principal terrorist outfit is Taliban, which consists of Pushtoon community in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The effectiveness of all the military might and money that Obama intends to use to eliminate the nucleus of terrorism in the world would be multiplied if ethnic urges of Pushtoons divided between Afghanistan and Pakistan by Durand Line are satisfied.

Instead of a centralised Afghanistan, a federal and decentralised system recognising Pushtoon as well as other ethnic communities, which are roughly half and half, is more feasible. Similarly, the promise that Benazir Bhuttoo made during election campaign to give NWFP and Balochistan autonomy should be implemented and freer movement of Pushtoons across Durand Line should be considered.
In the rest of Pakistan also non-religious ethnic identities need to be recognised. Otherwise, Islam, in a more and more extremist form, may be the only unifying factor in the country. Federalism can be a more effective and less divisive way to do so. If Bengali urge for autonomy had been recognised, Bangladesh may not have seceded in 1971. Sub-national identities of Pakistan share common cultural heritage with their counterparts in India and are the best guarantee of Indo-Pak friendship.

Many Pakistani intellectuals have raised their voice against Arabisation of Islam in their country. For instance, the Urdu (as also Persian) phrase Khuda Hafiz (God be with you) is being replaced by Arabia phrase Allah Hafiz.
Salafi or Wahabi Islam is the greatest export of Saudi Islam, backed with money power, under the patronage of America. It is trying to replace Sufisim which originated in Iran or Central Asia and incorporated local religious thoughts and cultures of South Asia. Other schools of Islamic thought, in the subcontinent like that of Deoband are more tolerant of other religions. Alama Iqbal, the greatest influence on Muslims of Pakistan, had declared that Islam in India (undivided) had an Aryan soul and Semitic body the growth of which “was stunted by Arab imperialism”.
Arabs are a tiny fraction of the Muslim world. All schools of Islam must recognise indigenous traditions of Islam. Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, is not noticed by American policymakers. With a long tradition of living together of different religious communities, Indonesia has become the target of Islamic terrorism in the recent years.

India has the second largest Muslim population. Its contribution to Islamic thought is second to none. Why Obama failed to take notice of Islam in India and Indonesia? India’s Minister for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid specifically pointed out India’s omission.
Well-intentioned polices of Obama to befriend Muslim world tries to homogenise Islam and fails to recognise its diversities and ethnic dimension. It is for this reason that revolt of Uigher Muslims in Xinjiang is being dismissed as an extension of Al Qaeda whereas it is mainly due to suppression of their Turkic identity. While trying to reject Huntington’s theory of “Clash of Civilisation,” Obama’s approach still recognises religion as an exclusive basis of identity, which is far from the reality.
The author can be reached at: institute.jk.affairs@gmail.com

Kashmir Watch :: In-depth coverage on Kashmir conflict

By Joshua Partlow

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 3, 2009

GOJRA, Pakistan, Aug. 2 — They do not want to bury the Christians. They want the nation to see them.

By nightfall Sunday, hundreds of residents of the Christian enclave here stood in defiant vigil around seven particleboard coffins neatly aligned on the train tracks that run through town. They had demands: Until the government investigates the killings and finds those responsible, they will not remove the bodies.

Police waited warily in the street. A man on a loudspeaker bellowed the villagers’ sentiments, which included anger at provincial authorities for not stopping the killings.

“Death to the Punjab government!”

A spasm of religious violence came to this rural town in the shape of an angry Muslim mob Saturday morning. The Muslims marched to avenge what they believed was the desecration of a Koran one week earlier. When it was over, dozens of houses were torched and Faith Bible Pentecostal Church lay in ruins. Two villagers were shot dead, residents said. Five others, including two children, burned alive.

Killing has become commonplace in Pakistan. But this attack startled the country both for its ferocity and for its stark message to religious minorities. Many saw the violence as further evidence of the growing power of the Taliban and allied Islamist militant groups in Punjab province, home to about half of Pakistan’s population.

“They have made up their minds to crush Christianity. They always call us dogs of America, agents of America,” said Romar Sardar, an English teacher from the area. “There has been no protection by the police. Nothing.”

 

The conflict apparently began with a wedding. On the evening of July 25, a wedding procession for a Christian couple passed through the nearby village of Korian, according to a police report. Revelers danced and threw money in the air, as is local custom. In the morning, a resident told police he had picked up scraps of paper on the ground and found Arabic writing. “We examined them, and it was the pages from the holy Koran,” the man said in the report.

Four days later, the accused, a member of the wedding party named Talib Masih, faced a meeting of local elders, who demanded that he be punished. Instead of repenting, the report said, he denied the desecration, and as a result, “the whole Muslim population was enraged.” The house burning began that night and then quieted down until Saturday morning.

That day, Riaz Masih, 68, a retired teacher, grew increasingly worried as a crowd gathered, chanting anti-Christian slogans and cursing Americans. He locked his house and rushed with his wife and children to the home of a Muslim friend nearby. The crowd, some wearing black veils and carrying guns, turned down Masih’s narrow brick alley near the train tracks and into the Christian Colony, according to several witnesses. Residents and marchers threw rocks at each other, and gunfire broke out. Using what residents described as gasoline and other flammable chemicals, the mob torched Masih’s house.

“We have nothing left,” he said, standing in the charred remains of his living room, his daughter’s empty jewelry box at his feet. “We are trying to face this in the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says you cannot take revenge.”

On Sunday, the scenes of wreckage and dismay played out in house after house. Residents tossed burned blankets and clothing, broken televisions, and charred beds into heaps on the street. Fruit seller Iqbal Masih, 49, stepped over his mangled carts on his patio and tried to assess what was left of his daughter’s dowry. The armoire, a refrigerator, the bedding were burned; the $675 for furniture had disappeared.

“I am out of my mind. I can’t look,” he said. “They have subjected us to severe cruelties. May God show them the right path.”

At least four of the dead came from a single house. As the mob approached, a bullet struck Hamid Masih, a builder, in the head as he stood in his doorway, said his son, Min Has. Has heaved his father onto a motorcycle and drove him to a hospital, while the rest of the family members crowded in a back bedroom. The house began burning, and smoked billowed into the rooms. At least three other relatives, including 5- and 8-year-old siblings, died in the flames, according to residents. “There was fire everywhere, and it was impossible for them to get out,” Has said.

“I know one thing. They want to destroy Christians,” said Atiq Masih, 22, a janitor who was shot in the right knee. “They were attacking everything.”

Christians, who make up about 2 percent of the Punjab population, have been targeted in other recent cases. In June, a mob attacked Christian homes in the Kasur district of Punjab for allegedly dishonoring the prophet Mohammed. In Pakistan, which has strict laws against blasphemy, people can be imprisoned for life or put to death for insulting Islam.

Residents in Gojra said that this was the first incident of its kind in the town and that Christians and Muslims have long lived alongside one another without serious problems. They blamed Muslim clerics for inciting anger over the Koran incident in mosque sermons and accused the Taliban and the militant group Sipah-e-Sahaba of involvement in the attack.

“The provincial government is not accepting that a large part of Punjab is suffering from religious intolerance due to the Taliban and religious outfits,” said Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace, which issues an annual report on religious minorities in Pakistan. “They have been very negligent. This conflict was brewing for three days, and they were not receptive. They were not taking it seriously.”

Pakistan’s president and prime minister have called for investigations into the violence. By Sunday, police and paramilitary troops had taken up positions in the town. Provincial authorities said they have already made arrests and registered cases against 800 people. Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti denied that any Koran had been desecrated.

Police in Gojra said the violence Saturday was beyond their control.

“It happened all of a sudden. The police that were here were too few in number to stop it,” said policeman Kashif Sadiq. “It’s not fair to assume they let this happen intentionally.”

Special correspondents Shaiq Hussain and Aoun Sahi contributed to this report.

Spasm of Religious Violence Leaves a Pakistani Minority in Mourning, Frustration - washingtonpost.com