Will & Skill: Mowahid Shah’s Perspective on Palestine, Pakistan & Muslims
By Dr Asif Javed
Williamsport, PA
“The ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr,” Mowahid Hussain Shah writes, quoting the Holy Prophet. He goes on to remind his readers that it is the moral idea that prevails. “But the moral idea does not automatically prevail. Meeting the challenge requires constant striving. It is a matter of will and skill.”
Will & Skill was published in 2012. It is a selection of his articles published over a period of 25 years. Although not a biography, going through it, one begins to get a feel of the author’s life: born in Pakistan, schooling in Indonesia, time in FC College, Lahore and then law degree from Georgetown. His late father, Col AmjadHussain a patriot to the core, had had the unique privilege of having met the Quaid-i-Azam as well as Allama Iqbal. MHS has also inherited his father’s patriotism. His life journey has taken him through student politics, law practice, teaching, and a stint as provincial minister in Punjab. One of the founding members of PTI, he is well read, has travelled widely, and is a writer of uncanny foresight.
MHS has addressed numerous issues in his articles. But the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the one that he has addressed the most. There are at least 23 references to Palestine in his book. Here are some excerpts:
Make no mistake; through its continued and unquestioning support for Israel, the US is deeply implicated in the present violence, and that violence now threatens to spiral out of control at any moment….As for Palestinian fervor, it is simply getting out of range for Arafat, Israel, the US, and the Arab establishment, even if they desire to rein it in. (written two weeks before 9/11.)….While the West keeps asking, why do they hate us, Muslims around the globe, keep querying why there is so much indifference to Muslim sufferings….Pat Buchanan once characterized the US Congress as an “Israel-occupied territory.”… Israel is not building security for its people but rather a future full of hate, loathing and revenge. At the heart of the cycle of violence, as always, lies the cancer that is the occupation of Palestine….The paramount interest of the pro-Israel lobby is Israel first, and Israel alone. The vital interests of US don’t even come close…Israel receives $ 15 billion worth of US aid—all of it without discussion, debate, or argument.
MHS reminds the reader of the contradictions and double standards of US policy: In 1989 an Iranian civilian plane was shot down by the US Navy on flimsy grounds; 290 innocent passengers died while the weapon’s officer who fired the missile was awarded Legion of Merit. But when Pan Am flight crashed at Lockerbie Scotland in 1988, Libya faced sanctions almost immediately.
As for US foreign policy, MHS is also forthright in his assessment:
For years, US foreign policy has been flawed by a tendency to link American fortunes and interests to unrepresentative ruling elites, while concurrently treating the ruled as if they did not exist and their interests did not matter…When Pres Cater visited Iran in 1977, he proclaimed that, “Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the most troubled areas of the world.” “Some stability,” MHS notes. “Hardly more than a year later, the Shah was out of Tehran and Khomeini was in.”
The religious bigotry has not escaped MHS’s pen:
It is fine when a White House padre assails Islam, a la Franklin Graham. But not the converse. Remember the storm over Farrakhan’s remarks over Judaism several years ago when everyone and his brother were frothing.
The Holy Prophet’s cartoon issue, that raised its ugly head again recently, was addressed by MHS back in 2008:
The cartoon issue is not freedom of speech but the freedom to insult and injure. The issue itself is enwrapped in hypocrisy. For example, in Germany, France and Austria, it is a crime to deny the Nazi perpetrated Holocaust of the Jewish people. British historian David Irving spent a prison term in Austria for doing precisely that.
MHS has also addressed the Muslim inertia. The pathetic state of Muslim elite and masses has been analyzed repeatedly:
A decade after 9/11, Muslims have reached the crossroads of choice. Either they choose to seize the day and aspire to be pilots of their own destiny, or they remain seated as passive passengers in a bus hurtling towards an uncertain destination…Muslims in the West still have a few options: shun isolation, be intellectually prepared, and reach out to build alliances….To fight against the odds, one needs will and skill. This is a message for Muslims to remember…Muslims worldwide ought to strengthen their presence in “thinking” and influential professions such as law, media, academia and film-making…Not enough Muslims realize that there are enough Americans who share their concern about the direction of Washington’s policies. The hands of these Americans are seldom strengthened because of the Muslim’s own ineptness to reach out, connect, and build alliances, and their incapacity to convert their massive economic potential into effective political clout….too much togetherness which results in being mired in a narrow social base, a timid mindset, the self-limiting divisions Muslims make among themselves along sectarian and ethno-national lines…There is over-emphasis on externals such as attire, appearance, and rigid rituals.
MHS recalls a gathering of educated and professionally accomplished Muslims in Wash area. It was supposed to be a bold initiative to brainstorm ideas. When asked how many had read the newspaper that day, six hands were raised out of a gathering of nearly one hundred. “The minimal heavy-lifting required to get the job done is not yet there,” he admits.
For cricket fans, there is the author’s meeting with Fazal Mahmood, the blue-eyed handsome pace bowler, who single-handedly, brought victory to our young nation back in 1954. Fazal, a retired DIG of police, had come to see MHS on a motor cycle. The Oval hero breathed his last in his modest house in GarhiShahoo, Lahore, a blue collar locality. And then, there is the author’s meeting with the great batsman Hanif, who, stretching modesty to its limits, describes himself a ‘player of average ability’. Such were our heroes back then; Salim Maliks (match-fixing fame) and ShoaibAkhtars (more style than substance) of this world would dwarf in front of Kardar’s boys.
For history and movie buffs, there is an analogy of the current state of Muslims with those of State of Awad, as depicted by Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece Chess Players:
While the Muslim aristocracy is engrossed in chess play, the social order around them crumbles and the British continue to advance and take over.
The lack of punctuality has not escaped the author’s pen:
The punctual are punished and the late-comers rewarded…For a nation and people to progress, an indispensable feature is respect for time. It implies consideration, discipline, self-respect and character. An individual has the choice between being unpunctual and being punctual. It is a choice between progress and decay.
The ‘Urge to Sermonize’ is the heading given by MHS to a piece that is hilarious:
Sir Zafarullah, while ambassador of Pakistan to UN, used to deliver marathon speeches to his half asleep audience in the UN…In US, the number one fear is public speaking. We need not despair on this accord. We have defeated this widespread phobia by the margin of an innings and a lot of runs.
MHS then drops a hint about some luminaries who were known to listen to the recordings of their own speeches. Although he does not name any, PitrasBokhari was rumored to do this.
There are some thought-provoking analogies produced by the author of Will & Skill: “What kind of a socio-political set-up will incarcerate Faiz and coronate Zardari?” MHS applauds FW De Klerk’s decision to free Mandela and to end apartheid. Charles de Gaulle’s courageous decision to quit Algeria, in the face of assassination attempts, is described as “giving a vision of greatness to his people”.
MHS remembers late poet MunirNiazi with affection: “He often bemoaned the paucity of creativity and the difficulty of finding someone with whom a quality conversation could be held…His core apprehension was of succumbing to ‘them’ and ending up like ‘everyone else.’ He “took the road less travelled,” MHS reminds us, quoting Robert Frost.
At two points in his book, MHS has come up with the idea of a permanent seat for a Muslim country in the UN’s Security Council; he suggests Indonesia. Alas, years after he wrote this, the Muslim countries remain divided as ever with no effective voice in world affairs. The permanent membership of the Security Council for a Muslim country remains an elusive dream.
Less than three months before 9/11, MHS visited Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and discovered the name Nazir Mohammad. Though not certain, he concludes that Nazirhad probably immigrated to US from Punjab. He was sent to Vietnam and fell just a few months before the US pulled out. The irony is not lost on MHS: while the future Presidents -- Clinton, Bush, and Trump — all born US citizens, dodged the draft, Nazir made the ultimate sacrifice. Nazir, the forgotten soldier, did not live to see the day when the patriotism of immigrants like him will be questioned in the US.
In the foreword to MHS’s book, late Majid Nizami commended this book to the youth, “who shall gain from it guidance and strategic direction.” This scribe begs to differ: Will & Skill deserves to be read by, Muslims in general, and Pakistanis - of all ages - in particular. It identifies, and suggests, remedies for the maladies that have long afflicted us.
(The writer is a physician in Williamsport, PA and may be reached at asifjaved@comcast.net)
