What Intifada? Islamabad has its own future to make

Had the primacy of jihad as a force of reform and not a combat been recognised when it was put forth by the saints and scholars of the time a hundred or more years ago, the Muslims of the subcontinent would have been spared the psychological and economic damage they have since suffered. They sank into sullen isolation or wasted time and talent in schism while the other communities forged ahead acquiring knowledge and skills of the new age.

It is a measure of the blinkered vision of the theologians and political leaders in awe of them that Islamism, terrorism and backwardness are now mentioned in one breath as a combined force threatening the security of mankind. Islam from a religion of peace has thus been transformed into a force of terror. So widespread is the alarm that even the scholars of Saudi Arabia, the home of militant Wahabism, have been persuaded to declare that those who ‘‘hold sabotage, bombing and murder as jihad are ignorant and misguided’’ and sheltering them is the greatest of sins. The Saudi authorities in recent months have dismissed or silenced 2200 clerics for dissenting with this decree. The tremors caused by militancy has now shaken its home ground. The leaders of Islam loathed by their adversaries but admired by others are not its oil kings or military presidents but Osama and Amrozi.

Pakistan’s jihad in Afghanistan degenerated into a civil war and then sank into anarchy and, in the second phase, out of its rubble rose a puritan rabble militia, later driven out by the Americans with its remnants are now sniping at the occupation forces. Pakistan’s jihad in Kashmir too is dissipating into a factional strife with its local leadership exhausted by bloodshed, hopelessness, divisions and Pakistan’s lost lustre as their suzerain instead of India. In the evolution of jihad into terror over the last fifteen years Pakistan thus has played a pivotal role.

Ironically, when Pakistan gloated over its successes America stood by it and now that it rues its consequences America again stands by it. And where Pakistan still supports, half-heartedly though, the struggle in Kashmir, America looks the other way. The time however is fast running out for Pakistan to make a clean break from its jihadi past for the ring of forces around it which feel threatened by its militancy and nuclear missiles is fast tightening.

Internally, the danger that Pakistan faces is that from a limited political creed. Jihad is tending to become a mass culture, a passion and its occasional gang terror is seeping down to become rampant individual crime. The latest and most worrying development in the threat from abroad is Israel’s plan to equip and train Indian forces to fight terror and provide fences and electronic gadgetry to stop infiltration. That should send waves of fear through the Kashmir Valley. The precision in targeted murders and brutality of Israel in dealing with the Palestinian Intifada is legendary. The coordination between its intelligence and striking force is so remarkable that every Hamas leader has to change his position a number of times in a day to avoid missiles, and no explosion can take place in its territory or in settlements on the West Bank except by a suicide bomber.

Israel’s deputy prime minister, Yosef Lepid, accompanying Sharon to India said Israel had no ill-will towards Pakistan. It is Pakistan that closes doors on Israel. Pakistan denounces the Jewish state because it has usurped the land of the Palestinians. Israel has done Pakistan no bad turn nor, ironically, have the Palestinians ever reciprocated Pakistan’s warmth and devotion to their cause. In fact, the Palestinian leadership is much closer to India than it is to Pakistan.

It is an unenviable situation for Pakistan where India and Israel are allies in arms, Palestinians are friends of India and indifferent to Pakistan and yet Pakistan loaths Israel and refuses to recognise its existence. Here too as in many of its other doings Pakistan looks at a political problem through an Islamic prism. The Palestinians — Christians and Muslims alike — are fighting for their national sovereignty and human rights. They are reconciled to the existence of the state of Israel and no longer seek expulsion of the Jews from their land. At best it is an Arab cause. Pakistan must stand by the Palestinians but not become the arbiter of their destiny which they know better through years of exile, death and deprivation.

Pakistan, putting an end to its estrangement of Israel would help the Palestinians and also, the Kashmiris. Prime Minister Jamali should try his hand at it where president Musharraf has balked. The Palestinians should welcome his overtures to Israel for Pakistan’s special position in the war on terror can win them back some of the American support they recently lost. The trouble is that Musharraf, Jamali, Shujaat all have been made to believe that the lifeline of their government is held by the clerics who will pull the plug on them if they were ever to talk to Israel even if it is in the interest if the Palestinians, Kashmiris and Pakistan itself. To fight this fear, the government may send a delegation of the heads of some religious groups to see Yasser Arafat and Abu Ala to ascertain how best can Pakistan help shorten their agony and fulfil their aspiration. The hard reality which our clerics also cannot overlook is that the world at large is no longer prepared to condone violence even in pursuit of most just of causes. Palestine and Kashmir are two of them. (Dawn)