The War in Pakistan

I have spent most of my life watching protests. My first memories were of protests in Pakistan against the Indian atrocities in Kashmir. Then against Salman Rushdie. Then against the American invasion of Iraq in 1991. I have been part of protests against the slaughter of thousands in the Balkans. I have condemned the Israeli occupation and oppression of the lands of my Palestinian brothers. I have opposed the war in Iraq, and railed against every excess of the Americans in their unjust war. I have raged against the deaths of innocents in Afghanistan by drone attacks. Yet, I think the time has now come for me to refocus my protests. While I will not modify my moral and ethical compass, I think the time has now come to change whom I oppose the loudest.

Let me be clear about what I am about to say. My faith as a Muslim, and my conviction in Islam and commitment to seeking justice for humanity and my fellow muslims has not and cannot change. My faith is one which relies on the Beneficent and the Merciful. My faith finds inspiration and grounds itself in he who was sent as a Mercy to the entire Universe. Islam and the Prophet Muhammed (May Allah shower him with blessings) have given me a faith which inspires me to love the people around me, and to see justice for those who are near and far. It is through my faith that I am able to find inner peace and a purpose for this often purpose-less seeming life.

Our true enemies today, are no longer those who attack us from outside. They are no longer the easily categorized infidels. They can no longer be just called the West and the Americans. While our challenges and difficulties as a faith and as muslim political entities are legion, it is what is happening inside our faith which is rendering us weak and catatonic.

Our true enemies are those within, who claim to act in the name of Allah, and in the name of Islam. Our true enemies are those who bring nothing but a message of destruction. What began as a message of destruction of enemies, has now become a message of destroy first and ask later. How else does one explain the savage attacks on civilian populations? At various points there were justifications made for the attacks on civilians in non-Muslim countries. Where has that lead us? It has lead us to the suicide bombings in Peshawar and the streets of Iraq. It has lead us to the savage murders and assassinations of ordinary individuals and mid-level functionaries of the state. It has lead to the destruction of shrines in Iraq, markets in Peshawar and mosques. Imam Zaid Shakir in a recent article said "We are the followers of a merciful Prophet, peace upon him, and not the ideological and philosophical children of those who have introduced the idea that the slaughter of an opponent’s civilian population is an acceptable stratagem or consequence of warfare." Now, instead of slaughtering opponents, they are only slaughtering their own.

Of course, it becomes much easier to slaughter our own, when you label them as apostates. Despite the Amman Declaration, takfir continues as a tool to label fellow muslims as outside the fold and liable for death. Despite a long tradition of advocating for conservative change from within, Islam is being hijacked by those who seek not change but to tear down the world around them. They have no plan for the future, no manifesto, no desire to create structures which can provide for us as people and as members of society. Reza Aslan speaks of much of this in his last book, labelling all of this as a Cosmic War. And while I accept his point that the best way to win a Cosmir War is not to fight it, there are ways in which we can structure the way we respond to those who insist on framing our current conflicts as a Cosmic crisis, in which sides have to be picked.

I have picked my side. My side is one which values human life above all else. My side is one which seeks to bring peace to this world, in the here and now. If I can condemn the Israelis for their oppression of Palestinians, I can condemn those who have terrorized Pakistan even more loudly. If I can condemn the American invasion of Iraq as baseless, I can condemn even more vehemently the extremist assault on the homes and lives of the people of Swat and Waziristan. While I will agree with all of those who blame state actors like the Government of Pakistan for bringing the situation to a head, and also those who find the US complicit in creating a problem like the Mujahideen and the Taliban and even Saddam Hussein, I will not condemn them anymore. Enough are doing it, enough have. The bombings in the markets of Peshawar, and the attacks on the GHQ in Rawalpindi were not by Americans. The suicide bombings in Baghdad and the destruction of the Imam Askari shrine were not by Americans. They were by those who call themselves Muslim. They were by those who insist that their faith is more pure than the rest of us. They were by those for whom peace in this world means nothing. They were by those who do not believe that Islam is a faith of mercy and beneficence. They were by those who do not find solace in the fact that while the Prophet Muhammed (May Allah shower him with blessings), did fight with a sword, he did not come with one. While wars may have been fought, it was not destruction they sought, but peace. This may be a one-sided or idealistic view of history, but it is mine.

So, as always, I will seek to glorify Allah in all I do, and to follow the path of the rightly guided. And that path, like that of Ali (May Allah brighten his countenance) shows that sometimes one has to fight those within. There can be no quarter or space in which such ideologies, which justify senseless murder and oppression, can find a home. And so, I will now protest all such senseless killings, all such senseless murders. Those who perpetrate such crimes are evil. They are not my brothers in faith. Those who do not condemn these crimes like they have condemned the Israelis, the American and the Russians, are not my friends and brothers.

This is not ambiguous for me. It is as real as the tears in the eyes of the women who mourned their daughters lost in Peshawar. It is as real as the prayers and fears of mothers of soliders who wait for their sons to return from the battles in Waziristan. I will no longer hear or tolerate explanations and apologetics regarding this. I will no longer listen to justifications and condemnation of the West as being at fault. If you think that somehow, in any way, the murder of thousands of innocents, or anyone for that matter, is defensible, don't talk to me.