Obama’s pronouncements and IS

President Obama was spot-on when he promised during the anti terrorism summit at the White House recently that ‘we are not at war with Islam, we are against those who have perverted Islam’. Visualize the kind of anger that would have ensued had the president suggested that there was something basic and inherently structural about Islam that promotes extremism and violence. As it is that even a cursory look at the Muslim world would reveal that Muslims are at war with themselves and others and that the prime reason behind this attitude and hostile disposition is ascribed to the Western civilization led by the United States. The ideals of democracy fundamental human rights and pluralism are considered to be the products of the West and therefore antithetical and detrimental to the Muslim faith.
The surest way to antagonize the Muslim world and societies and curb the prospects of introspection within the Islamic world is for the West to allege that the problem is not only with the extremists and terrorists, but also with the faith that they profess and allege.
In Syria and Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, a wave of violence has been set in to revert to the old order and past glory of Islam, notwithstanding the heinous and perverted means that are being resorted to achieve the needful.
Coming back to President Obama’s statement regarding counterterrorism at the White House, while Obama has aptly put across that the US fight is against the distorted version of Islam and extremism, what is missing in Obama’s counterterrorism approach, is what Robert Fisk mentions in his write ups and articles.
It is the lack of recognition of the real issues behind the rise of extremism and violence in the Middle East. It pertains to the usurpation and deprivation of the rights of Palestinians. One may recall that back in June 2009, Obama took an enormously bold initiative in Cairo and talked about the plight of the Palestinian. He grieved about the absence of their homeland and emphatically mentioned the atrocities inflicted on them.
Obama’s disposition vis-a-vis the Palestinian issue won him enormous respect and laurels especially in the Muslim world. His emphasis on the Palestinian aspirations hiked up the expectations that he would prospectively play a powerful role in the resolution of the perennial problem, but all that now appears to be history.
The promise of peace in the Middle East heartland never came about. What we witnessed instead was a bloody escalation of atrocities against the Palestinian populace, sparing not even the children, the old and the handicapped. The Israelis have, since the Cairo speech, established new settlements, evicting the Palestinians from their homes. The silence of the West on this cardinal and central issue has given rise to fundamentalism in their region. The IS certainly is an enormous problem and needs to be countered collectively, but one must nevertheless sit back in retrospection and study the reasons behind the meteoric rise of the IS. It essentially came about because of the invasion of Iraq by the US which propelled the former Iraqi soldiers to join the Jihadis and IS.
In the same vein the bona fide and genuine struggle against Basher Al Asad’s Govt in Syria was hijacked by the Jihadi elements abetted and aided by the West and their allies in the Middle East. The same Jihadis subsequently coalesced and formed into IS, giving rise to Shia-Sunni schism in fighting across the Middle East. Libya is another case in point where American intervention in order to dethrone Qaddafi resulted in complete chaos. The ongoing civil war between the two parallel governments gave space to the IS to strengthen its foothold.
The story doesn’t end here, the Muslim governments in the Middle East share equal responsibility for creating the condition that breeds violence and extremism. Many Muslim States are either absolute monarchies or sham democracies which disallow the people their political and social rights. Thus when forces — including violent Islamists — challenge autocratic rulers, they find support within the populace. Also when the Western states support Muslim dictators who crush internal dissent, Muslim population’s mistrust of the West grows. For efforts against militancy to succeed some principles and prerequisites must be acknowledged, and that are: proxies must not be used against political rivals and that autocrats in Muslim countries must not be aided in their efforts to counter popular calls and dissent.
Back home post-Peshawar APS, in Pakistan we need to debate and define Pakistan’s worldview and its ambition in today’s world. Will our state be facilitator of religion to help each citizen practice his or her belief freely without impinging on those of others or an enforcer endorsing and imposing a certain belief system? This is the central question which needs to be sorted out immediately without any loss of time.