American Campus & Mideast Turmoil
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
The global impact of the spiraling Middle East turmoil is once again subject of an intense spotlight. To address this and scare-mongering about Muslims dominating the 2016 US Presidential race, I was asked to address a forum at the American University in the capital city of Washington, DC. It turned out to be a robust 90-minute interaction touching a broad range of issues.
American University campus was the site of a game-changing event in US politics, when on January 28, 2008, Senator Edward Kennedy, at the behest of his niece, Caroline Kennedy (daughter of the slain President John Kennedy), endorsed Barack Obama for the Democrat Presidential nomination.
It is easier to deal with foreign devils, but what about the devil inside? Since 2001, in the US, over 150,000 people have been killed by gun violence compared to 3046 killed by terrorist attack. The lopsided focus on atrocities in the Middle East sometimes serves to camouflage the carnage at home.
Washington is cluttered with think-tanks, many of them financially well-endowed. But there is little evidence of them doing critical thinking and providing alternative approaches to the official line. When it mattered, they tanked. It seems they are too beholden to donors who control the purse strings and who, understandably, want their 2 cents worth.
On the buildup to the attack on Iraq in 2003, they too joined the jackals. Having learned nothing from the Iraqi misadventure – whose offshoot was ISIS – the same group of people were beating the war drums about Iran.
During discussion, it struck many when reference was made to Israel’s hefty nuclear arsenal, which is often exempt from Washingtonian scrutiny, leaving thereby a one-sided misperception of matters pertaining to nuclear non-proliferation.
Exactly 42 years ago, in October 1973, an intensely-contested Arab-Israeli War flared up. Now, it was posed: are things any better? The Palestinian problem remains as is, as a volcanic flashpoint despite futile attempts to deep-six it.
Equally mishandled has been Kashmir. It is not going to go away. Embracing Modi now after excluding him from America for 10 years is a stark discrepancy, which sends a message of expedience.
Over 50 years ago, US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her sister, Lee Radziwill, could openly traipse across Pakistan. When President Ayub Khan arrived in America in July 1961, he was personally received at Andrews Air Force Base by President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. Even today, in Washington’s social circles, the benchmark of a grand reception remains that given to Ayub by Kennedy at Mount Vernon, the home of the first US President, George Washington.
It was posited that, while the young frequently carp at the status quo, it is their own docility and slumber, often mired in sameness, which, in effect, upholds harmful policies and which puts the inattentive youth in the firing line, as evidenced in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Similar to it has been underachievement of the US Muslim community, which has to date yet to make its mark on the American national scene, thereby making them easy targets. That can change but only if hope is followed up with direct action.
