The Pakistani Spectator

It is quite fashionable to use the term “Islamic Militants” even by local print media to identify “Muslims” who perpetrate acts of terror in the country and around the world. Of course, people responsible for such acts need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms, but, heedless use of the expression “Islamic Militants” has far reaching negative implications. The use of such phrase reflects the influence of thinking and writings of Bernard Lewis who studied interaction between Islam and West for around sixty years. He presented a broad thesis, that, “Islamic civilization is profoundly ill at its heart” and coined the famous phrase “the clash of civilizations”. The axiom was borrowed and made popular by Samuel Huntington. The disseminator of Lewis’s thinking propagate that violence is caused by Muslim due to their own “sick” socio-psychological formation and has got nothing to do with the atrocities committed by the West.

Lewis proclaims that the present militancy against the West is Muslims’ pathological nostalgia for old grandeur and a reaction to their defeat in the battle field and at market place. For the same reason they hate USA as it represents the highest achievement of the western civilization. Moreover, Islamic fundamentalism teaches violence against Jews and Christians. They does not recognize that Muslims are angry over increasing Jewish settlements in Palestine, invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, denying the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir, drone attacks in Pakistan, theft of their natural resources, and intervention in Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and other Muslim countries denying them the right to determine their own political future.

More than anybody else this propaganda is directed towards their own population and is aimed at distorting their views about Islam and conditioning them to support the atrocities committed by their governments against Muslims. Building on the fact that Jihad is one of the five basic pillars of Islam and incorrectly translating it as “Holy War” they implicitly want to suggest that Islam advocates use of force as a religious belief. This myopic interpretation of Jihad is totally misleading. It has much wider meanings, which would be “to ask others to do good, to desist others from doing evil, truthfulness on all occasions and detestation of the vicious”. The term Jihad is applied to all forms of striving for the betterment of humanity. It includes recognizing the creator and loving him most, resisting pressure of parents, peers and society, staying on the right path steadfastly, striving for righteous deeds, defending the community, removing treacherous people from power, gaining freedom to information, education and expression including religious beliefs in an open and free environment, freeing people from tyranny etc. It totally foils the impression that Islam spread through the force of swords, in fact Qur’an declares, “Let there be no compulsion (or coercion) in the religion (Islam). The right direction is distinctly clear from error” (2:256).

It clearly underlines the error of their thesis and unveils their nefarious objectives. They even suggest that “Muslim militants are likely to use weapons of mass destruction”. The purpose is obvious, that is to build global consensus around non-provision of nuclear technology to the Muslim world. They even go a step further and propose denuclearization or at least putting nuclear facilities under tight international safe guards. By adopting any of these options their purpose of having complete control on the development of Muslim countries in this field will be served. Evidently, to keep Muslims militarily subjugated for times to come.

They propose a proactive aggression to crush Muslim organizations and nations that support militancy against Israel and United States. From their point of view the best option is to engage Muslim militants in wars fought in Muslim lands and to dismantle regimes that support militancy. US invasion of Iraq under the garb of neutralizing weapons of mass destruction and invasion of Afghanistan to dismantle Al-Qaeda can also be viewed from this prospective. But what we have observed is unabated plunder of Iraqi oil resources and an effort to sow the seeds of sectarian divide possibly leading to the breakup of the country. Thanks to the wisdom of Sunni and Shia communities, they saved the country from disintegrating into smaller and less viable states. The episode has rather democratized the country and the present government represents all segments of society reflecting their aspirations. The collective wisdom will always stand for the betterment of the society and may not serve US interests in the long run.

Bernard Lewis and the propagators of his ideas have distorted the complete environment so very essential to view Muslims - West conflict in a more objective way. History of militancy and terrorism is not new. It always started due to social injustice and economic deprivations and seldom has to do any thing directly with any religion. The effort to malign Islam of militancy is in fact an attempt to justify continues aggression against Muslim population and States. The process will keep Muslim populations under developed.To counter such covert designs the basic requirement would be to clearly understand the hidden philosophy the west is following. We must understand how west is creating dissonance and conflict in the minds of the Muslims leading to the change in perception of an individual. To contest this ideological on slot, it will be important to peep into our own selves and to put our institutions and values back in place. Industrialization and jobs creation will add to the prosperity of the people, will reduce their discontent and will fasten the faith of the people in their own capabilities, values and creed. If a nation is strong from within it can’t be coerced and manipulated. Instead of looking outward we must concentrate on capitalizing on our strengths to be the masters of our own destiny.