Saturday, February 04, 2012

5/28/10, Opinion-Editorial, Finger Lakes Times



Pakistan Politics, Culture Are To Blame
By: Sardar Anees Ahmad

Why did Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square Bomber – who like me is a Muslim, an American citizen of Pakistani descent and well past his teenage years – commit this heinous act?

Shahzad, and others like him, fail to grasp the religious and political concept of citizenship. The Quran (4:60) orders obedience to the rule of law. Moreover, Prophet Muhammad identified obedience to the rule of law to be a religious tenet, “He who obeys his authority obeys me; he who disobeys his authority disobeys me”. Skeptics rightly argue that such statements are irrelevant if ignored. Remember, however, that today estimates state there are as many as 7 million Muslims living in America today whose example demonstrates that they are loyal and productive citizens. Moreover, there are a striking number of religiously motivated non-Muslim attacks on American soil.

Anti-abortionists have at times committed heinous acts, most notably with the Army of God’s Eric Robert Rudolph perpetrating the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. Roman Catholic Andrew Kehoe is responsible for the Bath School disaster, the deadliest mass murder in a school in American history. Prior to 9/11, Timothy McVeigh (a David Koresh sympathizer) committed the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil. The FBI notes that the Jewish Defense League attempted 15 terrorist attacks from 1980-1985 alone. It would be absurd to issue a blanket condemnation of Christianity and Judaism because of the acts of these individuals.

But if Islam is not to blame, why did Shahzad ignore these facts and become a terrorist?

The answer is Pakistan.

Benefitting from the services of one’s nation mandates loyalty. Aside from being perverse, Shahzad’s actions ooze hypocrisy. Pakistan’s education system is notorious for pandering to cronyism, one of the main reasons for the country’s current brain drain. Shahzad knows full well the liberties America affords its citizens, which compelled him to migrate to America despite his limited English. While he became an American citizen, sadly, he brought along his ungrateful tendencies.

Moreover, Pakistan has, for decades, pandered to extremist factions within its borders, most notably under the dictatorship of General Zia-ul Haq. Pakistan in the 1980s began a transformation towards extremism, unparalleled in the world today. To date, it is the only country which legislates who is and who is not a Muslim and incurs punishment as severe as death for anyone ‘posing’ as a Muslim. Similar treatment is meted out to non-Muslim minorities.

As an example, Pakistan has declared its first and only Nobel Laureate, Dr. Abdus Salaam, as a non-Muslim and Western crony whose contributions to science are inconsequential. Why this attitude? It is simply because Salaam’s religious beliefs contradicted those of extremists. The situation does not call for pity as much as for reflection. What, other than a dogmatic worldview, can compel a people to expel its most precious resource – its intellectual capital? In contrast, why have Shahzad’s not come out of Bangladesh – another predominantly-Muslim country whose GDP is just over half that of Pakistan? Or from the predominantly-Muslim Burkina Faso, whose literacy rate is the lowest in the world?

In the late 1940s, four countries won their independence. Today, China, India, and Israel, despite having futures that were precarious to say the least, have all succeeded where Pakistan has failed. But solving this problem requires addressing the root problem – Pakistan’s increasingly monolithic culture. Stopping Shahzad, and others like him, is a matter of national, nay global security. Thus, assistance of any kind must be given on the condition that Pakistan repeal its blasphemy laws and forbid the spread of extremist ideology in madrassas. Pakistan, in public discourse, must also underscore how its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, shared the very values extremists hate. We, Muslim or otherwise, must appreciate the severity of Pakistan’s plight.

Like it or not, our future is linked to Pakistan’s.

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