Middle East
Peace & President Musharraf
By Dr. Mohiuddin Waseem
Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi
I commend President Musharraf for getting himself
involved in the Middle East peace process. I agree
with him that the conflict between Israel and
Palestine is the single most important issue plaguing
the relationship between the Muslims and the West
and therefore requires urgent resolution.
But for him to be successful it is important on
his part to realize that so far all secular efforts
in this regard have failed because the conflict
itself has deep religious basis and without the
involvement of different sects in Abrahamic faiths
– Islam, Christianity and Judaism - I will
be a little skeptical about the possibility of
anybody’s success.
We are living in an age when most proponents of
conflict-resolution would discount or even ignore
the role religions can play in generating peaceful
resolution of conflicts but frankly speaking,
religion has never been given a fair chance to
prove itself in this regard. I believe religion
can be used to create bridges, not walls, between
Abraham's children and hopefully by doing that
it will usher a new era of peace for the present
and future generations of Jews and Arabs in the
region.
