With Friends
Like Him …
By Dr. Syed Amir
Bethesda, MD
The
sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks
was barely thirty-six hours away when his face
appeared splashed across major American news papers
and TV screens in this country, silhouetted against
a blank background, looking well, and wearing
a trim, dense, black beard. He exhorted Americans
to reject their democratic system and convert
to Islam. Uncharacteristically, he denounced Western
capitalism as well, mixing socialism with the
religion.
Osama bin Laden’s appearance in the tape,
healthy and fit, made some people skeptical whether
it was really him, but the Government Intelligence
Agencies expressed confidence that they had no
reasons to believe otherwise. The last time the
world had seen Osama bin Laden, it was three years
ago, on the eve of 2004 American presidential
elections, when he had threatened Americans with
fresh attacks. Appearing gaunt and haggard with
a graying beard, much like a ghost emerging from
shadows of years gone by, he refreshed in the
public mind the 9/11 tragedy, and the fact that
he remained very much a peril. Many political
analysts believe that the Bin Laden tape surfacing
so close to the election date helped President
Bush, as the electorate feeling embattled rallied
to the president’s side, sealing his victory
in a close election.
In his recent 25-minute tape, Bin Laden made no
threats, but upbraided Americans for failing to
persuade the Bush administration to stop the war
in Iraq. Some of the references in the tape --
election of new leaders in Germany, France and
England -- suggested that it was recent, that
he was not hiding in some mountain cave and either
he or someone on his behalf was keeping abreast
of the unfolding world events. However, somewhat
comical in the whole episode was the invitation
from Bin Laden to Americans to embrace Islam,
since it came from a person least likely to be
persuasive and most likely to drive them away
from Islam.
His organization, Al Qaeda, has managed to link
the image of Muslims in the eyes of the world
with extremism, wanton acts of terror and the
loss of thousands of innocent lives through suicide
bombings and mass murders. The nearly three thousand
people incinerated in New York in the twin towers
in 2001 were ordinary working people who had no
control over US Government policies, foreign or
domestic. They were there merely to make a living
for themselves and their families and did not
deserve the gruesome fate that befell them. Included
among the victims were members of all religions,
Muslims, Christians, Jews and Hindus. No amount
of grievance against American Government policies,
real or perceived, could ever justify the atrocities
committed on the innocent in the name of Islam.
The truth is that by these acts an inherently
peaceful and noble religion, Islam, became just
at much a victim as those who died at the hand
of Al Qaeda.
The 9/11 attacks triggered a series of cascading
events that culminated in the American invasion
of Afghanistan, followed by the war in Iraq and
the violent destabilization of the Middle East.
At least one hundred thousand Iraqis and thousand
of Afghans have lost their lives as a consequence
of American invasion and communal, fratricidal
conflicts. A conflagration was unleashed when
extremist allied with Al Qaeda in a calculated
move bombed and destroyed the Golden Samarra mosque
in Baghdad in February 2006, igniting vicious
Shia-Sunni clashes. Pakistan itself has suffered
grievous terrorist attacks, and according to a
UN report the tribal belt has been transformed
into a sanctuary for Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists,
beyond the effective control of the national Government.
The report states that more than 80 percent suicide
bombers, mostly poor and uneducated young Afghans,
are recruited and trained in Pakistan and sent
to their fiery deaths. A culture of violence and
self-destruction has taken root in a society which
was relatively peaceful only a few decades ago.
It is a mystery how Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant,
Ayman Al-Zawahiri (an Egyptian doctor), and a
handful of Middle Eastern radicals have been successful
in planting and cultivating seeds of extremism,
fanaticism and hatred in a population of South
Asian Muslims who are the proud inheritors of
the glorious, and sublime traditions of inclusiveness
set by the Sufi Saints of Islam, Nizam uddin Awlia,
Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti, Data Gunj Buksh and
countless others in India. The Sufis preached
a message of tolerance and universal love for
mankind and dispensed blessings without distinction,
rooted in the teachings of the Prophet himself.
Even today when they have been dead for centuries,
their gravesites attract people of all religions
and races who come in droves to seek peace and
solace and return home spiritually enriched. Islam
in India came not through endeavors of mighty
kings nor through firebrand extremists threatening
people with bloodshed and annihilation; instead,
it was preached by those who set a personal example
of piety and righteousness.
Perhaps, the two Sufi-saints, Nizamuddin Awlia
and Moinuddin Chisti, in particular, have become
the embodiment of the traditions of Islamic tolerance
in the subcontinent. Hazrat Nizamuddin Awlia (1238-1325
AD) pursued a life-long mission of peace. It is
said that his mentor Baba Farid had advised him
to “be like a big tree, so that God’s
creations, the human being in their vast multitudes,
may find rest and solace under your shadow.”
Nizamuddin Awlia never deviated from this creed,
devoting his entire life to service to others.
Today, no one has to seek evidence of miracles
or metaphysical occurrences to appreciate his
greatness. According to a popular legend, Sultan
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, who ruled the Sultanate of
Delhi from 1321-1324 AD, had long carried a one-sided
feud with Nizamuddin Awlia. Returning from some
campaign, the Sultan sent a message to the Shaikh
to leave Delhi before his arrival at the capital.
Nizamuddin Awlia expressed neither anger nor concern,
calmly uttering his immortal words, Delhi is still
far away. Of course, Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq never
made it back to the city; he was killed in an
accident just a short distance from Delhi, an
act most probably orchestrated by his own son.
Khawaja Moinuddin Chisti is perhaps one of the
most celebrated Sufi Saints of India from the
Middle Ages. He arrived in India around 1190 AD,
when Islam had not yet taken firm root, and settled
in the capital city of Prithvi Raj Chauhan’s
kingdom, Ajmeer. There were no Muslims around,
but that did not seem to have made any difference.
His reputation for righteousness spread far and
wide, and whoever came to him, as many did, received
his blessings and prayers. Centuries after Moinuddin
Chisti’s death, Emperor Akbar walked barefoot
from Agra to Ajmeer to visit his grave in search
of spiritual enrichment. To this day, thousands
of people converge at Ajmeer every year seeking
rejuvenation of their faith.
Of late, there are unmistakable signs that the
Islamic world is increasingly repelled by the
culture of gratuitous violence and the politics
of extremism and is searching for a moderate and
enlightened course in keeping with the imperatives
of the 21st century. Recently, the people of Turkey
overwhelmingly elected a Government that has roots
in moderate Islam, is proud of its heritage, but
is also forwarding looking, wedded to the secular
constitution and thoroughly at ease with the dictates
of modern times. The country has achieved a high
growth rate and the benefits of prosperity are
filtering down to the middle and poorer classes.
The Turkish armed forces, used to meddling in
politics, have accepted the democratic verdict
and have stayed in their barracks.
These trends have been noted in various recent
opinion polls as well. According to a survey report
published in the Washington Post (Sept. 16), in
Egypt, Indonesia and Morocco, vast majorities
reject violence perpetrated against innocent by
Al Qaeda operatives and their attempt to distort
the face of Islam. In Turkey, according to a survey
conducted two years ago, 86 percent Turks thought
that the attacks on 9/11 by Al Qaeda were unjustified.
In Pakistan, the favorable rating of Al Qaeda
has plummeted from 75 percent five years ago to
34 percent now. Interludes of radicalism and strife
are not unique in the history of the Islamic world,
it has witnessed similar episodes in the past;
however, it has always emerged stronger and revitalized
in the end. The current situation will prove to
be no exception.
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