Muslim
Youth & Kashmir in America
A little while back,
I was asked to give a keynote address
on Kashmir at a national conference
for young leaders at the Embassy of
Pakistan in Washington, attended by
students and young professionals from
all over the US. The conference was
at the initiative of the Embassy’s
DCM, Mohammed Sadiq. The audience was
young, determined, and eager to know
how to project the Kashmir cause in
America. They were mostly American-born.
Writing for The Washington Post of November
21, author Peter Bergen scrutinized
the 9/11 Commission report, and was
puzzled to find that there was little
or no mention about the core grievances
that fuel Muslim unrest around the globe,
such as Kashmir, Chechnya, and the Palestinian
conflict. To quote, verbatim, Bergen:
“On these issues, the otherwise
eloquent 9/11 report is strangely silent.”
It is a silence of the lambs.
The overall negativity against Islam
and the agenda to depict and paint genuine
Muslim resistance movements against
occupied oppressors in terrorist colors
and hues adds to the challenges surrounding
the Kashmir cause. It is forgotten that
if George Washington had been captured,
he would have been hung by the British.
History is written often by the victors
and by those who control the context.
While attention is focused on the pro-Israeli
lobby and right-wing Christian evangelicals,
scant attention is paid to the emergence
in power centers of Hindu Americans
with a preexisting reservoir of ill-will
against Islam and Pakistan. If the Muslim
Americans are slow to take cognizance
of this phenomenon, they may be sidelined
even more. Where Muslims have failed,
it has been due mainly to their own
failings. One is lack of homework and
teamwork. Another is not being loyal
to the objective.
There are plenty of leaders, but precious
little leadership.
Kashmir has been a great cause but,
at the same time, it has been a poorly
managed cause. The crux of the Kashmir
cause is that the people were promised
the right to self-determination through
a fair and free plebiscite under UN
auspices and that promise has been broken
and that right has been denied. This
message has not gone out loud enough
or clear enough.
Along with the issue of the message
is, perhaps even more importantly, the
problem with the messengers. For too
long, they have been too many, too inept,
and too unappealing. The challenge is
to make the message appealing and the
messengers appealing. If Helen of Troy
was the face which launched a thousand
ships, Kashmir may have been the cause
which launched a thousand junkets. Shop-till-you-drop
agendas hardly convey the desired message.
In the marketplace of public opinion,
if the messengers are marginalized,
so too will be the message.
It is a time to rethink. Perhaps the
time also to shift gears and re-examine
strategy. Energizing the Muslim youth
in America could be the key.
In the post 9/11 world, the key challenge
before the Pakistani-American youth
is to develop the equipment and the
commitment to project their heritage,
concerns, and most notably, the Kashmir
cause.
Then, there is the problem of duality.
Instead of focusing on doing the right
thing, some elders of the community
tell the youth to relate to mainstream
American society in inoffensive terms
while keeping their legitimate aspirations
cloaked. Such mixed signals may put
the youth on a self-defeating track,
making them unable to click when it
matters.
Many Americans have been led to believe
that they are hated in the Muslim world
merely because they are Americans. But
just as many Americans suspect that
it is US policies and actions –
particularly in its uncritical embrace
of the Israeli agenda – which
may be a significant contributory factor.
The recent best-seller book, Imperial
Hubris, written by Michael Scheuer,
a top CIA operative, spotlights US missteps
in the Muslim world and makes the foregoing
point.
There is a huge audience in the United
States with a genuine hunger to know
about a motivating cause such as Kashmir,
which combines the 4 elements to pique
the curiosity of US public opinion:
nuclear flashpoint, humanitarian catastrophe,
an open mockery of international law,
and the fueling of global Muslim unrest.
Innovative initiatives on Kashmir may
inspire the Muslim youth in the US to
reach out, build alliances, and never
give up the moral fight for equity in
Indian-occupied Kashmir.
