Anti-Americanism
& Taliban
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
http://dawn.com/2008/07/01/op.htm
July 1, 2008
THE
recent killing of eleven Pakistani soldiers at Gora Prai by American and Nato
forces across the border in Afghanistan unleashed
an amazing storm.
Prime Minister Gilani declared, "We will take a stand for sovereignty,
integrity and self-respect." The military announced defiantly, "We
reserve the right to protect our citizens and soldiers against aggression,"
while Army chief, Gen Pervez Ashfaq Kayani, called the attack `cowardly'. The
dead became `shaheeds' and large numbers of people turned up to pray at their
funerals.
But had the killers been the Taliban, this would have been a non-event. The
storm we saw was more about cause than consequence. Protecting the sovereignty
of the state, self-respect, citizens and soldiers against aggression, and the
lives of Pakistani soldiers, suddenly all acquired value because the killers
were American and Nato troops.
Compare the response to Gora Prai with the near silence about the recent
kidnapping and slaughter by Baitullah Mehsud's fighters of 28 men near Tank,
some of whom were shot and others had their throats cut. Even this pales before
the hundred or more attacks by suicide bombers over the last year that made
bloody carnage of soldiers and officers, devastated peace jirgas and public
rallies, and killed hundreds praying in mosques and at funerals.
These murders were largely ignored or, when noted, simply shrugged off. The
very different reactions to the casualties of American and Nato violence,
compared to those inflicted by the Taliban, reflect a desperate confusion about
what is happening in Pakistan and how to respond.
Some newspaper and television commentators want Pakistan to withdraw from the
American-led war on Al Qaeda and the Taliban, to stop US fuel and ammunition
supplies into Afghanistan, and hit hard against Afghan troops when provoked.
One far-right commentator even urges turning our guns against the Americans and
Nato, darkly hinting that Pakistan is a nuclear power.
There is, of course, reason for people in Pakistan and across the world to feel
negatively about America. In pursuit of its self-interest, wealth and security,
the United States has for decades waged illegal wars, bribed, bullied and
overthrown governments, supported tyrants, undermined movements for progressive
change, and now feels free to kidnap, torture, imprison, and kill anywhere in
the world with impunity. All this, while talking about supporting democracy and
human rights.
Even Americans — or at least the fair-minded ones among them — admit that there
is a genuine problem. A June 2008 report of the US House Committee on Foreign
Affairs entitled The Decline in America's Reputation: Why? concluded that
contemporary anti-Americanism stemmed from "the perception that the
proclaimed American values of democracy, human rights, tolerance, and the rule
of law have been selectively ignored by successive administrations when American
security or economic considerations are in play".
American hypocrisy has played into the hands of Islamic militants. They have
been vigorously promoting the notion that this is a bipolar conflict of Islam,
which they claim to represent, versus imperialism. Many Pakistanis,
who desperately want someone to stand up to the Americans, buy into this.
This is a fatal mistake. The militants are using America as a smokescreen for
their real agenda. Created by poverty, a war-culture, and the macabre
manipulations of Pakistan's intelligence services, the militants want more than
just to fight an aggressor from across the oceans. Their goal is to establish
their writ over that of the Pakistani state. For this, they have been attacking
and killing people in Pakistan through the 1990s, well before 9/11. Remember
also that the 4,000-plus victims of jihad in Pakistan over the last year have
been Muslims with no connection at all to America. In fact, the Taliban are
waging an armed struggle to remake society. They will keep fighting this war
even if America were to miraculously evaporate into space.
A Taliban victory would transport us into the darkest of dark ages. These
fanatics dream of transforming the country into a religious state where they
will be the law. They stone women to death, cut off limbs, kill doctors for
administering polio shots, force girl-children into burqa, threaten
beard-shaving barbers with death, blow up girls schools at a current average of
two per week, forbid music, punish musicians, destroy 2000-year statues. Even
flying kites is a life-threatening sin.
The Taliban agenda has no place for social justice and economic development.
There is silence from Taliban leaders about poverty, and the need to create
jobs for the unemployed, building homes, providing education, land reform, or
doing away with feudalism and tribalism. They see no need for worldly things
like roads, hospitals and infrastructure.
If the militants of Pakistan ever win it is clear what our future will be like.
Education, bad as it is today, would at best be replaced by the mind-numbing
indoctrination of the madressahs whose gift to society would be an army of suicide bombers. In a society policed by
vice-and-virtue squads, music, art, drama, and cultural expressions would
disappear. Pakistan would re-tribalise and resemble a cross between Fata and
Saudi Arabia (minus the oil).
Pakistanis tolerate these narrow-minded, unforgiving men because they claim to
fight for Islam. But the Baitullahs and Fazlullahs know nothing of the diversity,
and creative richness of Muslims, whether today or in the past. Intellectual
freedom led to science, architecture, medicine, arts and crafts, and literature
that were the hallmark of Islamic civilisation in its golden age. They grew
because of an open-minded, tolerant, cosmopolitan, and multi-cultural
character. Caliphs, such as Haroon-al-Rashid and Al-Mamoun, brought together
scholars of diverse faiths and helped establish a flourishing culture. Today's
self-declared amir-ul-momineen, like Mullah Omar,
would gladly behead great Islamic scholars like Ibn Sina and Al-Razi for heresy
and burn their books.
Pakistan must find the will to fight the Taliban. The state, at both the
national and provincial level, must assert its responsibility to protect life
and law rather than simply make deals. State functionaries, and even the
khasadars, have disappeared from much of the tribal areas. Pakistan is an
Islamic state falling into anarchy and chaos, being rapidly destroyed from
within by those who claim to fight for Islam.
Pakistanis must not be deceived. This is no clash of civilisations. To the
Americans, Pakistan is an instrument to be used for their strategic ends. It is
necessary and possible to say no. But the Taliban seek to capture and bind the
soul and future of Pakistan in the dark prison fashioned by their ignorance. As
they now set their sights on Peshawar and beyond, they must be resisted by all
possible means, including adequate military force.
The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
