October 26, 2018
At American University
In a seminar at American University in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, hosted by Professor Akbar Ahmed – maker of the 1998 movie, “Jinnah” – where I was the keynote speaker, issues were raised which roil Western-Muslim relations.
The collapse of the Soviet Union provided the US – as President Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski posited – a brief window of opportunity, but triumphalism frittered this away. 17 years ago was another game changer in 9/11. But the response to it was more to do with the argument of force instead of the force of argument. The resultant militarized overreaction exacerbated flammable elements.
Those who foresaw a conflict in perpetuity are seeing now its scenario fulfillment. Forces, which could have been sensibly deployed to quell alienation, have been misdeployed, sharpening rifts. Kashmir is at an untenable impasse with Indian troops firing pellet guns at protestors, blinding them; Palestine remains a global flashpoint. Yemen is a humanitarian catastrophe, but the tendency is to side with the stronger party.
Two steps, rescinding the word of Washington and violative of international law, were completely unnecessary: the shifting of the US embassy to Jerusalem and the unilateral pulling out from the Iran nuclear deal.
Against this backdrop, the world witnessed the embarrassing spectacle of the US President being greeted with mocking laughter and ridicule during his speech before the UN General Assembly.
While the focus is on symptoms, little attempt is made to dig deep and look at the blowback effects of Western policies. The Afghan quagmire, which is now America’s longest war, is a byproduct and a blowback of Charlie Wilson’s War, as accurately alluded to at the finale of the movie of the same name.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned, examples abound of amity and coexistence. There is a reason Pope Francis picked Albania as the first country for him to visit in Europe in September 2014. It is Mother Teresa’s homeland and her spirit visibly lives on there. It is European; it is white; and its 70 percent Muslim majority lives in friendly tranquility with Catholics and Greek Orthodox. Yet, mainstream media chooses not to highlight this salutary example of harmony.
Japan, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is another example where that humanitarian calamity is being presented as a teaching moment for humanity instead of feeding the taste of vengeance through acrimony or retribution. In his farewell address of January 17, 1961, President Eisenhower gave a prescient warning on the dangers of “unwarranted influence … by the military-industrial complex.”
Overlooked in the polarizing environment is the huge debt that the world owes to Muslim civilization, which informed Western Renaissance. For example, the world’s oldest continuously functioning university, the University of Al-Karaouine, is in Fez, Morocco. It was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, in 859 AD.
So, what is the pathway forward? Passivity can undercut the power of education and youth activism. The key steps I suggested were: build bridges of outreach; press the “pause” button to dig deep and look inward; break the yoke of the comfort zone; and do not be befooled by status quo hiding under the mask of change.
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