Investigating
the Desecration of the Holy Book
By Siddique Malik
President
www.spreadfreedom.com
US
In “Desecration of the
Holy Book (Opinion, May 27, 2005), Mr. Riaz Jafri
of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, suggests that Pakistan
and ‘Ummah’ should be allowed to send
representatives to join the team that the US has
pledged to form for investigating the alleged
desecration of the holy book at Guantanamo Bay.
He attempts to substantiate his suggestion by
stating “the USA invariably either asks
for the deportation of the suspect terrorists
to the USA or sends its FBI personnel to interrogate
them” in Pakistan. He concludes with a question:
“Why can't we do the same?” His suggestion
lacks merit, and far from adding transparency
to the findings, it will actually make these look
murky.
First, there is no country called “Ummah”
in this world. A person claiming to be a citizen
of this fictitious country will not be able to
get a visa to the USA, as a country that does
not exist cannot issue a passport. This leaves
only Pakistan and other countries with Muslim
majority in the domain of Mr. Jafri’s suggestion.
Can Mr. Jafri honestly state that the inclusion
of a Pakistani member in the investigating team
add to the integrity of its findings? He knows
the techniques generally used by Pakistani investigators:
beat the living daylight out of a person until
he/she admits to the crime whether or not he/she
has committed it. With this technique the real
criminal lives happily thereafter while an innocent
person ends up in prison or even on the gallows.
Would Mr. Jafri want the same unfair outcome on
an issue as sensitive and important as the alleged
desecration of the Qur’an?
The record of other Muslim countries in the area
of respect of basic human rights is also similarly
dismal, if not more. In Morocco, the late King
Hasan personally supervised the execution of his
political foes tried and sentenced for baseless
crimes by kangaroo courts. In Saudi Arabia, if
a foreigner (including ‘miskeen’ Muslim
Pakistanis) is involved in at traffic accident
with a Saudi, it is always the foreigner’s
fault, even if the accident is caused by a drunk
Saudi (note: drinking is illegal in Saudi Arabia).
Recently, Saudi Arabia arrested 40 Pakistani Christians
for the ‘crime’ of reading Bible.
If it cannot respect Bible, a religious book,
how would one expect it to be able to respect
another such book? How can some people be sensitive
towards their own religion but be extremely insensitive
towards another religion? May I mention the Qur’anic
injunction that expects Muslims to respect other
religions, their followers and their holy books?
As far as Malaysia and Turkey are concerned, their
constitutions define these two countries as secular,
not Muslim. If Mr. Jafri is willing to accept
a secular country to look into this matter, America
tops the list. Even Turkey and Malaysia leave
much to be desired in the area of investigations.
No one can claim for sure that the menace of torture
has been eradicated in these two countries. This
heinous tool, when used, reduces the possibility
of the truth being reached because the victims
of this tool sometimes confess to the crime just
to end their torturous agony.
America demands deportation of suspects to its
jurisdiction and sends FBI agents to join interrogations
in Pakistan because it is America that first gives
Pakistan tips about the suspects’ hideouts.
After tracing terrorists with a great deal of
hard work, it is natural for American agencies
to try to get as much out of the detainees as
possible, and their eagerness to be in proximity
of these detainees should be understandable.
True, America does it for the sake of its own
security but don’t forget, if all those
terrorists that have been arrested from Pakistani
soil were still at large, by now, they would have
played havoc with the law and order situation
in Pakistan. Terrorist attacks that Pakistan has
experienced nonetheless constitute just a tip
of the averted iceberg. For this, Pakistanis must
thank America. I am glad that the tax that I pay
in America is helping secure Pakistan.
Let me assure my fellow Muslims that one of the
great values entrenched in the American psyche
is utmost respect for all religions, all religious
books and people’s right to practice their
respective faith freely. This does not mean that
an incident like the alleged desecration of the
Qur’an can never take place. However, if
it is proved that such an incident indeed took
place, the perpetrators of this outrageous act
will be identified, tried and if found guilty
given stiffest punishment under the law. America
knows that it owes this to itself.
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