East and west: a dialogue

BS: As to rules of behaviour, I see western behaviour as being largely of love and kindness toward others, while Islamic behaviour as being cold, arrogant, disrespectful and threatening towards their women and anyone who does not believe exactly as they believe about Allah. I see Islamic behaviour as keeping their kids out of school and killing others who will not obey their rules regarding Shariah. I see Islamic behaviour as being childish, as illustrative of kids who simply have never learned how to behave with manners with others, including so-called infidels.

DK: Your observations are apt, but only in so far as they refer to extremists. It is not the norm for everyday Pakistanis. Islamic norms and values are spelled out in detail in the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh). Therefore, Islam is not to blame for all those negatives you have observed. They are the doings of people, often under the misleading claim of being ‘Islamic’. Again, we have to be careful not to generalise. Unfortunately, it is usually the negative aspects that make headlines and are picked up and taken as the norm. But that doesn’t mean that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. People are to blame, not Islam. The Prophet (pbuh) has said: “He who will deprive a non-Muslim of his rights in Muslim lands, I will be the victim’s advocate on the Day of Judgement”.

BS: That sounds like a good ethical code. Unfortunately, I’ve observed a lot of Muslims being unkind to non-Muslims. I see the Taliban cutting off the heads of Pakistanis and stopping school buses to try and kill little girls. I see Muslims killing Shias and burning down neighbourhoods of Christians. I see Pakistan as having run out almost everyone who is not a Muslim! I see a country that is still considering supporting the Taliban’s quest to reacquire Afghanistan and take control of its citizens and children.

DK: As I said above, this is misguided personal or group behaviour, not the teachings of Islam. Unfortunately, those participating in this kind of behaviour are large in number and a solution to the problem is not easily found. All the more so since they are convinced that they have ‘the right form of Islam’. Throughout history there have been extremist groups in every country killing others.

BS: And, I ask, why are men like you not standing up and objecting to the Taliban butchers and trying to protect the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan? Are you cowards? Are you confused? Why don’t you get out there and stand up in front of schools in the tribal areas to try and stop the Taliban butchers?

DK: The whole of the Pakistani nation is united against terrorism. As I alluded before, foreign intervention has compounded the problem. There have been many instances of American agents entering our country, killing innocent civilians and then running away. This has given rise to increased militancy. These attacks, together with our own government collaborating to kill our own citizens, have resulted in many retaliatory acts by those whose kith and kin have been killed. Once foreign interference is withdrawn and our forces no longer use gunships, etc to bomb innocent villages, the whole scenario will change.

It is a well-known fact that before American intervention in this region there was no terrorism in our territories and life on our northern borders was normal and peaceful. We have lost more than 40,000 people (of which 1,000 are army and security personnel) in the fight against terrorism, against the Taliban and other terrorist organisations. I have regularly been writing about this, but war is no solution. See what happened in Northern Ireland. It has to be a negotiated settlement and this will only be possible once US troops leave Afghanistan.

BS: All of us have different morals, manners and ethics. I cannot understand how you can believe that Islam has no great differentiation in theory or practice. Are the Taliban ethics not different than yours? Are the morals of your women not different than those of your men, or even kids like Malala? You have huge differences, as we do! Actually, all seven billion humans on this earth are different, in tens of thousands of ways. But we have common characteristics, and we all descend from common ancestors. Our differences can be our strengths as well as our weaknesses.

DK: I totally agree with you on this point – we have common ancestors yet differ in a million ways – but we have varying approaches to these differences. While in the west this mostly takes the form of personal freedom and the satisfaction of one’s own potentials, in Islam there are rules and regulations dealing with this. This has led to the north/south divide with continuous enrichment of a limited number of people in the west at the cost of humanity at large. Is it not a fact that many of your countries prefer to destroy excess produce rather than feeding the poorest of the poor? Another example, in the all-out goal for financial gain, all the warring factions in Somalia are supplied with arms to kill each other, but little is done to overcome the hunger, famine and disease caused by this war.

Islam is very clear on human obligations being trilateral: to oneself, to society and to humanity as a whole. If there is a conflict between the interests of self and society, the latter should prevail. If there is a conflict between society and humanity, then the latter should prevail. I have excluded ‘family’ from this list of priorities because, from our perspective, an individual is an integral part of his family and family is an extension of self. Since family is of vital importance in Islam, when we say ‘self’ it automatically includes family.

Differences among Muslims arise when they deviate from the well-defined Islamic injunctions. The validity of any act can only be defined in terms of the standards provided in the Quran. In Pakistan, the whole nation condemns the violation of the sanctity, honour and dignity of human life, but successive governments seem unable to handle the situation. The Quran says: “He who kills an innocent human, it is as if he has slain the whole humanity”. The kind of tolerance taught by Islam can be seen from history.

When Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) started preaching in Mecca he was brutally treated by the Meccan chieftans and his small band of faithful followers were persecuted and forced to leave to Medina. Yet when he returned victorious ten years later, he pardoned all those who had prosecuted him. A similar example is that of Salauddin who, after conquering Jerusalem, pardoned all non-combatants and allowed combatants to buy their freedom. Contrast this to what happened when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and 70,000 men, women and children were killed inside Al Aqsa Mosque. Please read ‘Crusades’ by Karen Armstrong. All acts that are contrary to the teachings of Islam are condemned by all Muslims, from Indonesia to Morocco. That is what I mean when I say “there is no differentiation in Islam”. To be continued

Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com