Is There Room for Compassion in Politics?
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
Tyranny is a fire that is not extinguished by more tyranny; only justice modulated by compassion does. Hate does not conquer hatred; only love does.
Yes, Moammar Qadafi is dead, dragged, humiliated and lynched by a mob. Adding insult to the God given spirit of a dead man, his body is put on display for days in an abandoned meat store with thousands taking pictures of a bruised torso. Yes, I am revolted.
And yes, I am aware of published reports of torture under his rule and his participation in a global network of renditions where torture is outsourced to distant shores. In the eyes of many Libyans he was a confirmed despot, no doubt, and for years I have heard stories of his strong arm rule from expatriate Libyans.
But even in the face of tyranny, justice must hold sway. The Qur’an teaches us: “O you who have certainty of faith! Be upholders of justice, even if it be against your own Selves, or your parents, or those near to you, whether it be rich or poor, for Allah wills goodness for both. And follow not your desires, if you are just. And if you hold back your tongue or excuse yourself, then (know that) Allah is indeed aware of what you do” (4:135). Justice is the norm for a civilized society. This was as true of ancient Greeks as it ought to be for our times.
As we record his misdeeds, we must also record the good that the man did. He increased the living standards of his people seven-fold, made housing available to everyone, provided free education, built hospitals, offered a cash bonus to young couples when they got married and scholarships to bright students when they studied abroad. The crowning achievement of his despotic rule was a veritable river connecting the major towns in Libya wherein water extracted from underground aquifers was made available to the people. He gave freely to his poor neighbors and was an ardent champion of African rights. He supported Nelson Mandela in his struggle against apartheid. His cardinal error was to poke his nose into other people’s business as he did in supporting the IRA. I don’t think the British ever forgave him for meddling in their backyard. And he was implicated in the Lockerbie fiasco.
No, I have no use for tyrants. The man was a tyrant. But even a tyrant must have his day in court. And even a tyrant must face the final justice before God.
I remember a few years ago when I was visiting Bangalore I saw a full sized picture of Saddam Hossain in the Hindu, one of India’s respected national dailies. It showed a shackled Saddam, his hands and his feet bound in heavy chains. The caption read: “Iraq in chains”. Yes, I am aware of what the man did to his own people. My own daughter travelled to Iraq in 2003 immediately after the war. As a medical doctor she visited hospitals in Basra and other cities, interviewed doctors and nurses, brought back horror stories of the tyranny under Saddam and published them in the Journal of the American Medical Association under the title, “I bear witness”. Yes, Saddam was a tyrant. But should tyranny beget tyranny?
Lest we point fingers at other people, let us not forget the hanging of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The readers have to decide for themselves whether he was hanged for a crime or it was a political vendetta.
In a broader sense, I must raise the issue of political succession in Muslim countries. While the world has moved on and has evolved processes for hard fought yet peaceful processes for transition, so much of the Islamic world is mired in convulsions of hatred, vengeance, coups and mayhem.
Let me share with our readers a personal episode. In February 1978, after spending seventeen years in the US, I returned to India and successfully contested for the Legislative Assembly from the 57 th constituency of Karnataka, India. It was a sprawling constituency, with one major town and more than a hundred villages with a total population of more than three hundred thousand.
We rented three cars and went from village to village for campaigning. One hot, sultry day, as we approached one of the villages, we noticed that vehicles belonging to the opposition Jana Sangh (the precursor of BJP) candidate were parked outside and his men was already in the village, campaigning. Our people parked our cars under a mango tree, waited patiently until the opposition had finished campaigning. On their way out, pleasantries were exchanged between our people and the opposition, then salutations. Only when they had departed did we enter the village to convince the thirty-two villagers to vote for us rather than “them”.
That is how transfer of power takes place in a democratic society. Yes, the opposition was in power in India that year. But we won the election. And they quit, peacefully, and sat in the opposition benches.
Why is it that the Muslim Middle East has not evolved the processes for a peaceful transfer of power? Democracy involves give and take, the ability to disagree and not be disagreeable, and support an elected government even while you disagree with its policies. It is like navigating a ship through muddy water. The Middle East has yet to learn these lessons. Strongmen come and go on the stage like Julius Caesar in a Shakespearean drama. The more power they get the more power they want. Gaddafi, Saddam Hossain, Mubarak, Assad, the list goes on. The paradigm for their rule appears to be more like that of the Pharaohs of Egypt than that of the great Caliph Omar (r) who laid down the explicit rule even as he lay mortally wounded that his son must not be the one to succeed him.
It is not enough to blame intervention from the East or the West for how we are. Meddling and intervention there definitely are. What else can we expect when we are at each other’s throats? We must hold a mirror before us and see ourselves as we are. Self-awareness is a prerequisite to progress. And there must be awareness before there is change. “Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves” (The Qur’an).
The laws for the rise and fall of civilizations are explicitly laid down in the Qur’an, which declares: “By (the Sign that is the passage of) time, Verily, humankind is at indeed at a loss, except such as those as have certainty of faith, engage in good deeds, and work with one another to establish justice, and support each other with patience and perseverance.” How do Muslim societies measure up to these ideals?
Justice is the fulcrum for the rise and fall of civilizations. However, justice must be tempered with compassion and mercy. Otherwise it cuts; it does not heal. Gaddafi should have had his day in court. His lynching, execution and the dishonor of his dead body violate the norms of justice. Let it be said that we raised our voice in protest and spoke up for justice, however distant and feeble our voice might be.
