Page 26 - Pakistan Link - November 15, 2019

P26 – PAKISTAN LINK – NOVEMBER 15, 2019 COMMENTARY
Pakistan Lost More Th an Just T20 Matches in Australia

n By Kumail Zaidi
performing skipper instead of a
non-performing one. It practi-
et’s be honest. When Paki- cally opens up an extra slot when
stan boarded the Aus- compared to Sarfraz Ahmed’s
Ltralia-bound plane late time.
last month, no one was think- As far as leadership is con-
ing that they would beat their cerned, let’s give Azam a fair
hosts. crack of the whip. Th e start to his
Th e so-called most unpre- reign has been disastrous but it
dictable side of world cricket is hasn’t been his fault. Th ere is no
actually becoming pretty predict- reason he cannot become a half
able — especially when expected decent captain, which is all we
to lose against far stronger oppo- would want from him if he keeps
sitions — and so everyone knew on piling up runs.
that they would lose pretty much Some would point out
everything. that Ift ikhar Ahmed has also
And exactly as expected, emerged as a stud but then his
Australia wiped the fl oor with ability was evident from the se-
Babar Azam’s men, beating them ries against Sri Lanka.
in two lopsided aff airs, which We knew Mohammad Riz-
would have been three had rain wan was more safe than extrava-
not played the savior in the series gant, and the series proved that
opener. exactly. With Shadab Khan doing
So, the developments have the bare minimum to keep his
pretty much followed the script. place in all three matches, new-
Th e only problem is that while comer Usman Qadir did what so
winning wasn’t on the agenda at many before him have done: do
all, stock-taking certainly was. things about the team members. Irfan had one horrendous outing size of the six overs he bowled is nothing on a foreign tour except
Th e three-match T20I series, Much to the team’s dismay, too limited to assess whether he carry the water bottles.
which came roughly 11 months the rotten T20I series did not It’s perhaps fi tting that should be given more chances. It’s perhaps fi tting that Paki-
before the World T20 is to be even do that. Pakistan get to end their Th e teenage Mohammad stan get to end their T20I as-
played on the same land, was Th e twin failures did not tell Hasnain and Mohammad Musa signments of 2019 on the lowest
supposed to show the manage- us that Fakhar Zaman had been T20I assignments of 2019 Khan were expected to be way- of notes. Th is has been an abso-
ment where everyone stood. horrible this year. We had long on the lowest of notes. ward, and they were in the only lute nightmare of a year for the
Surely, winning something known that, even if head coach match they played. Haris Sohail world’s top-ranked side in the
is out of question Down Un- Misbah-ul-Haq hadn’t. Asif Ali Th is has been an absolute and Imad Wasim did not deliver format, with just one win all year.
der but promising players can failed, too, but again there was nightmare of a year for the but then who does in Australia. With the Test matches ap-
still off er glimpses of their tal- nothing new there. He, too, has world’s top-ranked side in Th e only clarity we got were proaching, they will and should
ent at individual level. Or at the an entire calendar year’s worth of on two issues: new captain Azam be overtaken by a side that did
very least, the bad eggs can get failures to his name, so two more the format, with just one proved that the leadership will not lose once the entire year.
exposed. Th is way, despite not in Australia don’t add anything win all year prove no burden on his batting, Pakistan, meanwhile, still need
gaining anything at a superfi cial to his CV, or should we say, rap even if the jury is out on his lead- to fi gure out which players to
level, Pakistan were supposed to sheet. ership skills alone. Aft er quite keep and who to ditch.
expand their horizons and learn Th e 37-year-old Mohammad and one decent one. Th e sample some time, Pakistan have a top - Dawn

ANDALUSIA FROM P4 How did the prince see the pleted. During the interview he KASHMIRIS FROM P8 “Hindu worship at Ramchabutra,
was determined to create a similar condition of the Muslim world to- was relaxed, thoughtful and cour- of his comment was this: if India Sita Rasoi and at other religious places
city outside Baghdad. Now, like the day, I asked. Is it as simple a divi- teous. We both understood that the gives away Kashmir to comply with including the setting up of a Bhandar
original, it lay in ruins. Th e irony sion as suggested by the binary be- answer to my fi nal question was in the two-nation theory, should Indian clearly indicated their open, exclusive
was that while Mongols destroyed tween Rumi and Ibn Taymiyyah? fact a matter of immediate con- Muslims not be put in trains to Paki- and unimpeded possession of the outer
Muslim cities in the East, the An- Th e prince in reply stretched out cern to Muslims and non-Muslims stan? courtyard. Th e Muslims have not been
dalusian Madinat al-Zahra was re- his hands to indicate that the ideo- everywhere. What lessons could A diff erent answer to the in possession of the outer courtyard. De-
duced to rubble by Muslim tribes logical movements today are like Muslims and non-Muslims learn question came from a senior lead- spite the construction of the wall in 1858
from North Africa, which over- so many fi ngers fl owing in parallel from Andalusia? er of the Jammu and Kashmir Lib- by the British and the setting up of the
threw the dynasty in Cordoba and but diff erent lines. “To be more humble,” he said. eration Front in 1992. Javed Mir Ramchabutra in close-proximity of the
were expressing their contempt for Prince Turki’s passion for An- “Not to think that they have all the had dodged the security dragnet inner dome, Hindus continued to as-
the Andalusian way of life. dalusia is neither idiosyncratic nor answers.” when practically every Hurriyat sert their right to pray inside the three-
Th ere were two distinct Mus- restricted to his generation. He told Th e prince urged both Mus- leader was put behind the bars. domed structure.”
lim responses which emerged from me the story of his famous father lims and non-Muslims “to be in- I asked Mir to comment on the To break this down into simpler
that time and would cast their visiting Spain as a guest of Gen- clusive. You don’t have a monopoly demolition of the Babri Masjid language, the scenario that emerged is
shadows on the present. Both Ja- eral Franco. When Franco asked on what is right.” He emphasized in Ayodhya, which had just taken this: Hindus had total control of the outer
laluddin Rumi and Ibn Taymiyyah him how he could accommodate the idea of ilm, the need “to con- place. He said he couldn’t care less courtyard from which Muslims were ex-
lived at the time of the destruction his royal guest, King Faisal said he tinue learning till we die,” never what became of it or the dispute, cluded. But there was continuing dispute
of the Arab world. Rumi was alive would pay for the construction for to abandon “the search for knowl- because it concerned Indian Mus- over the inner courtyard where the three-
when Baghdad was sacked. Ibn the most magnifi cent cathedral in edge.” Th e lesson of Andalusia, lims who had shown scant interest domed mosque stood. Hindus through
Taymiyyah was born fi ve years af- Europe if the general could give above all, appears to be that history in the struggles of the Kashmiris. centuries tried to access this land and of-
ter its destruction. Th e impact of him the Grand Mosque of Cordo- does have lessons to teach us. An- – Dawn fer worship. Th is means they were trying
that time is clear in the way these ba. Franco said the building meant dalusia was about a common “hu- to wrest it from the Muslims.
two looked at the world. Rumi re- nothing to him and he had no ob- manity.” MUSLIMS FROM P11 While the court concedes that since
sponded by consciously rejecting jection. He could hand it over the Spain has much to teach a civil trial.” 1857, Muslims had been off ering prayers
barriers and diff erences between next morning. But if he did so, he people about how those of diff er- Second, it refers to copious records at the mosque and did not abandon it
people and reaching out to ev- would be lynched by the people of ent religions and cultures can live of literary and offi cial nature to show that until 1949 when idols of Ram Lalla were
eryone with love. Ibn Taymiyyah Spain. As an alternative he off ered together in harmony and thrive. It Hindus have always worshiped at the dis- placed illegally under the dome of the
responded in exactly the opposite the king the best piece of land in can remind us of the Spanish con- puted site on which the mosque stood. mosque, this made no diff erence to their
way by underlining the threat to Madrid itself, atop a hill overlook- cept of La Convivencia. Both Mus- Th is, the court says, was unimpeded in claim. In fact, for some years aft er the
Islam and advocating for the draw- ing the city. King Faisal accepted lims and non-Muslims will benefi t nature, though it qualifi es that these re- railing was built in 1857, they might have
ing of rigid boundaries around the the land and built what is now the from being reminded of Andalusia. cords should be handled with circum- actually had exclusive possession, borne
faith. He famously issued a fatwa Islamic Center there. Th ey will also know that Andalusia spection. out by the fact that the Hindus worshiped
against the Mongol rulers, even I was able to interview the at its height shows us clearly that Since neither the Hindu nor the the sanctum from the outer yard. How-
those who claimed to have convert- prince at the Ditchley Conference associating a group like ISIS with Muslim side were able to show direct ever, the Muslims’ failure was that they
ed to Islam because they did not on Islam in March 2015. We spent Islam and calling its leader a “ca- and concrete evidence to establish title, were not able to show exclusive posses-
adhere strictly to the sharia. He de- several days together at the historic liph” is a travesty. And there is no the court moves to the question of pos- sion of the inner courtyard before 1857,
clared a jihad against them which estate -- famous as the country re- lesson greater for everyone than to session, which is decided on the basis of a burden that is not placed on the Hindu
was compulsory for all Muslims. treat of Churchill during the Sec- recall that there was a time, how- patterns of worship. side as the court itself concedes that the
Th e notion of Islam in danger may ond World War and located next ever brief, when people of diff erent Th e contradiction in the court’s Hindus’ exclusive possession was con-
be traced to Ibn Taymiyyah. Both to his ancestral home, Blenheim cultures and faiths lived together, fi ndings on this subject is stark. It chose fi ned only to the outer courtyard.
men continue to infl uence Mus- Palace. I requested the prince for a worked together and prospered to decide the entire dispute on one factor: Th is is an illogical leap. A Mughal
lim thinking in our time. Mystics one-on-one interview in the con- together. that the Muslims were unable to show ev- emperor built a mosque in 1528. His de-
throughout the world are inspired text of my study of Islam in Eu- (Akbar Ahmed is the Ibn idence of exclusive possession of the site scendants ruled the region in which the
by Rumi, groups like the Wahhabis rope. He was enthusiastic about the Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies between 1528 and 1857, because there mosque stood for more than three cen-
and the Salafi s draw their inspira- project and invited me to his center at American University in Wash- is evidence for Hindu worship in outer turies. Th e mosque structure existed all
tion from Ibn Taymiyyah. to present the fi ndings when com- ington, DC) courtyard. It said: MUSLIMS, P28
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