Advice for Young Muslims By M Ziauddin: New Age Islam's Selection, 30 December 2017
New Age Islam Edit Bureau
30 December 2017
• Advice for Young Muslims
By M Ziauddin
• Musharraf Can’t Help It
By Abbas Nasir
• Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
By Ashraf Jehangir Qazi
• Pakistan’s Need for Volatility
By Shahzaib Khan
• Central And West Asia In 2017
By Dr Naazir Mahmood
Compiled By New Age Islam Edit Bureau
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Advice for Young Muslims
By M Ziauddin
December 30, 2017
Internationally the subject of Islamic extremism and militancy has attracted the attention of numerous scholars both from the Muslim as well as non-Muslim worlds. As a result, a massive volume of work in the form of books and literature is freely available for anyone seeking informed knowledge on the subject.
Earlier this year a well-informed and analytical essay on the subject ‘Advice for Young Muslims — How to Survive in an Age of Extremism and Islamophobia’ by Omar Saif Ghobash, UAE’s ambassador to France, appeared in the Foreign Affairs magazine (January/February 2017) in the form of letters to his son. This highly enlightening essay is worth a careful and thorough reading.
What follows, however, is just a quick snapshot of the more than 3,000-word-long essay which though certainly does not do justice to the scholarly work still provides enough food for thought. The author’s intention in writing these letters to his son, he claims, was to open his son’s eyes to some of the questions he is likely to face as he grows up and to a range of possible answers.
“I want my sons and their generation of Muslims to understand how to be faithful to Islam and its deepest values while charting a course through a complex world. I want them to understand that even in matters of religion there are many choices that we must make. I want my sons’ generation of Muslims to realise that they have the right—and the obligation—to think about and to decide what is Islamic and what is peripheral to the faith.”
Although he loathes what the terrorists do, the author realises that according to the minimal entry requirements for Islam, they are Muslims. What worries him, however, is that as the extremists’ ideas have spread, the circle of Muslims clinging to other conceptions of Islam has begun to shrink. And as it has shrunk, it has become quieter and quieter, until only the extremists seem to speak and act in the name of Islam.
He says that another reading of Islam is possible and necessary. “And we need to act in ways that make clear how we understand Islam and its operation in our lives.
“Today, some of our fellow Muslims demand that we accept only ideas that are Muslim in origin. Meanwhile, we must reject foreign ideas such as democracy, they maintain. Some extremists are even willing to kill in defence of that position.”
But do such people even know what democracy is? I don’t think so, says the author. In fact, from reading many of their statements, it is clear that they have little understanding of how people can come together to make communal decisions. The government that he says he represents is a monarchy, “but I feel no need to condemn proponents of democratic reform as heretics. I might not always agree with them, but their ideas are not necessarily un-Islamic.”
Another ‘foreign’ practice that causes a great deal of concern to Muslims is the mixing of the sexes. “There is nothing written in stone that places Muslim women [are] below Muslim men. Islam calls on women to be modest in their appearance, but veiling is actually a pre-Islamic tradition.”
“Islam Is the Solution,” is a brilliant slogan, he says. Lots of people believe in it. “The slogan is a shorthand for the argument that all the most glorious achievements in Islamic history — the conquests, the empires, the knowledge production, the wealth — occurred under some system of religious rule.
“Therefore, if we want to revive this past glory in the modern era, we must re-impose such a system. But the only way we can improve the lot of the Muslim world is to educate ourselves and work hard and engage with life’s difficult questions rather than retreat into religious obscurantism.
“In the seventh century the concept of Ummah made sense. But today this concept has allowed self-appointed religious authorities to speak in the name of all Muslims without ever asking the rest of us what we think. Again this concept makes it easier for extremists to depict Islam—and all of the world’s Muslims — as standing in opposition to any number of other things.”
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1596262/1-advice-young-muslims/
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Musharraf Can’t Help It
By Abbas Nasir
December 30, 2017
HE can’t help it, can he? He has to put his foot in it every few days. After his abortive attempt to forge an alliance of 23, mostly non-existent, reluctant parties, Musharraf has spoken again without thinking.
Stung by the PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s slogans dubbing him a murderer , the former military leader responded by attacking BBZ for “Aurton Ki Tarah Naaray Lagwa Raha Thaa [raising slogans like women]” and dared him to behave like a “Mard [man]”. BBZ was addressing a gathering of charged party supporters on the 10th anniversary commemoration of his mother’s assassination and was visibly emotional and provocative. That though was enough to get the former military ruler going.
Musharraf is a bitter man whose desire for spending his retirement at his grand estate in Islamabad’s ultra-green suburb of Chak Shahzad, playing bridge with his friends and pursuing other activities close to his heart, was thwarted by the treason case against him.
Having remained at the centre of attention for his nearly nine years’ tenure, strolling with US presidents through the White House Rose Garden and Camp David’s green expanses among other grand state occasions elsewhere, he is now confined to the narrow balcony of his Dubai apartment with only occasional forays into the dance floor be it at weddings or discotheques.
So, he does not shy away from stirring controversies. Perhaps, he feels this gives him relevance as, one can be sure, like many expats who have retired but retain an interest in Pakistani politics, a major part of his day is spent in front of the idiot box watching farcical talk shows from home.
The former dictator does not shy away from stirring controversies.
It does not need an Einstein to figure out that regardless of the context, when his statements trigger dozens of mentions on TV news channels, his ego inflates and his commando chest expands.
His latest statement has drawn the wrath of all decent people in sync with this century’s norms and demands and he has been slammed for his dives into misogyny every so often for he can create waves without demeaning himself like that if that is what he wants to do.
The appetite of the TV news channels and of the many a dunce (honourable exceptions notwithstanding) in charge of filling hour after hour of air time with heavily made-up faces and ill-fitting suits is such that any word out of the former dictator’s mouth will be lapped up with pleasure.
Musharraf does not have to show disdain for women to make TV news. But he does. Who can forget even during his heyday he made that odious statement about Pakistani women wanting to get raped in order to obtain a foreign passport?
Now his desperation knows no bounds. His defenders mention his decision to greatly enhance women’s representation in parliament to discount that he is a misogynist. But then us ‘bloody civilians’ will hardly ever know what makes military rulers tick. He got what he had coming after his latest display of misogyny. But another equally damning statement somehow did not get the sort of attention it warranted as he conceded to the BBC that “rogue elements” of the military establishment could have been involved in Benazir Bhutto’s murder.
This admission was explosive coming from a man who was head of state when the former prime minister was assassinated. Having said adieu to his uniform a decade back, Musharraf never tires of claiming that any criticism directed towards him is actually aimed at the army.
Therefore, it is a paradox that one of the most abrasively aggressive DGs ISPR (who is currently in office) fails to take any questions related to Musharraf’s remarks no matter how outlandish those are, inevitably redirecting the questioners to the former general himself.
Is it reverence for the former chief or in reality Musharraf’s utter irrelevance in the scene today as well as the emerging scenario that the army declines to comment on his verbal indiscretions? Whatever the case, no such quarter is given to members of the elected government.
Every statement deemed as even a shade short of a length is hooked like it were a bouncer. Not just that. Where everyone else, most notably his own institution, is seen understandably through the softest of lenses, ministers are routinely decried for ‘deliberately’ doing things they shouldn’t be doing.
One can’t tire of saying that once the security establishment is done encouraging all MQM factions to unite under one — preferably with a non-MQM nomenclature — banner in Sindh, after facilitating agreements which seem to grant the upper hand to foul-mouthed extremists in Punjab and the federal capital, and after riding roughshod over peaceful dissidents, it will focus fulltime on its job of defending the motherland.
The executive will have to rise to the occasion and deliver exceptional governance, so other, ever-ready institutions can’t contemplate a saviour role for themselves as many such altruistic interventions have led to not-in-the-least altruistic outcomes in the past. And let’s also not forget that after ensuring that the quality of healthcare and water supplied to the citizens of the major metropolises of Karachi and Lahore is satisfactory, the honourable justices of our superior judiciary will also focus on provision of justice in their own courts and more so in their subordinate judiciary.
The Constitution has laid down specific roles for every institution and also clearly demarcated the area of responsibility of each. As we struggle to learn to walk down the democratic path, we must be mindful that failures and transgressions cannot be sustained over the long term.
The Musharrafs of this world can provide occasional distractions, even comic relief, but the issues confronting the common man are way too many and critical to be left unaddressed. Not many jostling for prime positions in the intense power play we see today seem to realise that they fear each other more than what they should actually fear: the wrath of a people, neglected and let down.
Source: dawn.com/news/1379653/musharraf-cant-help-it
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Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
By Ashraf Jehangir Qazi
December 30, 2017
FOREIGN policy is an aspect of national policy. If national governance is dysfunctional foreign policy cannot deliver. This is because no coherent political framework for a successful foreign policy will be available. This is the norm in Pakistan.
As long as Pakistan’s military-intelligence complex (the ‘deep state’) overwhelms civil and political society in terms of per-capita resource allocations, strategic perceptions, and policy influence, the national perspective will remain distorted. This negatively impacts on foreign policy.
Those who see this state of affairs as a given that cannot be changed are wrong. Those who regard mere national survival as national resilience are equally wrong. Low expectations are a national curse. The prevalence of institutional agendas over national agendas has ensured national humiliation and isolation.
Elections alone can never transform bad governance into good governance. Without the rule of law, political accountability, and a sufficiently informed and minimally educated public opinion there can be no working democracy, including a credible foreign policy. Talking strategy becomes meaningless.
The importance of Pakistan is a function of its size, potential and location. The success of its foreign policy is a function of how it utilises these assets. Pakistan has a population of over 200 million which makes it a significant country. But its economy is externally dependent and its social indices are woeful.
Accordingly, Pakistan is a less than sovereign country. This excludes the possibility of an independent foreign policy whatever postures are adopted. The blame game substitutes for policy while extremism threatens to capture an increasingly soft state. India has a field day!
The success of the country’s foreign policy is a function of how it utilises its assets.
The potential of Pakistan is enormous. But it has been consistently wasted and is becoming irrelevant. Similarly, Pakistan’s location is strategically important. But if this is not made an asset it becomes a liability.
Pakistan has five neighbours: China, India, Iran, Afghanistan and the US which is a global neighbour. Except for China, Pakistan has relations ranging from unsatisfactory to dangerous with the other four. This places an enormous burden on the China-Pakistan relationship — a burden that, unless addressed, a globally emerging China could find too distracting, onerous and risky to sustain.
Pakistan is an important strategic partner for China. But an ungovernable Pakistan will not be able to maintain this partnership. CPEC is seen as a ‘soft option’ to industrialise and modernise without the leadership having to provide good governance, human resource development, political reform and capacity building.
India is the perennial enemy. But Pakistan seems to believe that merely blaming a blameworthy India, instead of maximising its longer-term foreign policy options through development, is good enough policy. Both India and Kashmir are inherently longer-term challenges for Pakistan. There are no short-term solutions. Moreover, there are no zero-sum solutions that favour Pakistan.
However, a corrupt and dishonest leadership will never speak this truth because it has not got the moral standing to inform the people about diplomatic, economic and military realities. It prefers to deceive them rather than develop the country to a point where it can negotiate with India and solicit international support for its stand on a more equal and effective basis. Should India remain arrogant and obdurate towards a more internationally credible Pakistan the world would increasingly take note of it.
But this requires an order of commitment and confidence that the leadership of Pakistan does not have. Next year being an election year a decrepit political system is unlikely to produce any leadership or policy improvement.
Afghanistan is a foreign policy embarrassment. President Ashraf Ghani made a courageous and even visionary attempt in 2014 to reorient Pak-Afghan relations in a positive direction. He was vulnerable at home. He needed a sustained positive response from Pakistan to overcome deep domestic opposition to Pakistan. India — a long-standing friend of the Kabul regime — was appalled at Ghani’s initiative towards Pakistan, which included initiating security and political cooperation.
But Pakistan was unable or unwilling to fulfil its promises to Ghani leaving him totally exposed to the fierce criticism of his bitter rivals who are in an unstable political and governmental alliance with him. He has never forgiven Pakistan for his humiliation, and a full-blown blame game now rages between Kabul and Islamabad. Th prime beneficiary is India which is now more firmly entrenched in Kabul than ever.
Pakistan seems completely unable or unwilling to learn that the Afghan Taliban can never be a policy asset for it. Or maybe power centres have become too involved with them to allow a realistic Afghanistan policy. Today, there is an alliance of the US, Afghanistan and India against Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan’s standing throughout Afghanistan is at its lowest ebb ever. Pakistan, whatever its reservations, has no option but to substantially improve its relations with Kabul for peace in Afghanistan.
The stand-off with Trump’s America is also pretty much the worst ever. The Modi-Trump joint statement of last June, the Trump Afghanistan and South Asia policy statement in August and his December National Security Strategy specifically target Pakistan and elevate India in the strategic calculus of the US. There is no countervailing pro-Pakistan constituency in the US. A viable non-strategic relationship with the US is an imperative. Rhetorical defiance is mere deception.
Pakistan’s fragile economy, the falling rupee and rising external debt will require it to stand again, cap in hand, at the doors of US-dominated international financial institutions. Can CPEC deliver Pakistan from this beggary? It can help to a great extent provided Pakistan can help itself through decent governance and an independent and balanced foreign policy.
Iran sees Pakistan as directly and indirectly under the thumb of its enemies: Saudi Arabia and the US. It views Pakistan as an untrustworthy neighbour and a rival in Afghanistan. Accordingly, it is providing India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan. Developing confidence and cooperation between Iran and Pakistan is essential.
Saudi Arabia is more master than friend. It has both helped and harmed Pakistan.
Source: dawn.com/news/1379649/pakistans-foreign-policy
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Pakistan’s Need For Volatility
By Shahzaib Khan
December 30, 2017
What’s peculiar about Pakistan? Way too many things of course, Pakistan’s a particularly peculiar country. A recent addition amongst them though is the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
The previously best performing stock exchange in Asia has fallen almost 28 per cent, wiping off billions of dollars in value, since hitting its peak only seven months ago, to become the worst performing market in Asia this year.
The question is why? The answer is volatility. The question then is, why, the volatility? The volatility exists because Pakistani investors think the federal government is too weak to survive and will cease to exist at any second, clearing the way for anarchy and near-apocalyptic destruction, at least of the stocks they’re holding. Hence, they sell. Why do these investors think so?
“The government is about to go.” On a list of things Pakistanis say, this is right up there with “the match is fixed” and “Pakistan is at an important crossroads in its history.” Pakistani drawing rooms, tea shops, public and private offices alike, and perhaps most importantly the nation’s television screens are occupied 24/7 with talk of the government ‘going’. The government has been ‘going’ since May 2013, basically since the day it was sworn in. And while the cabinet and the PM may have changed, by ‘the government going’ Pakistanis really only mean one thing, the dreaded, and, equally welcomed, coup, or a takeover by the military. So, is the military taking over?
No.
That should calm their nerves, the stockholders, the drawing room analysts, the rickshaw drivers who will use the ‘government is going’ as a topic for small talk to get you to tip better. But it doesn’t. Knowing, that the military is not likely to take over, that the federal government is likely to survive till the next election cycle, that Pakistani democracy may just drag its battered body over the finish line, it doesn’t calm the nerves of Pakistanis. In fact, it makes us uncomfortable.
That doesn’t make any sense. Does it?
Pakistanis have a quirky knack for, what is best termed, self-deprecating volatility. It’s this recurring need for the upheaval of systems. The upheaval of democracy by dictatorships, and vice versa. It’s like the ‘grass is always greener’ metaphor, only that in this case the metaphor is, personified by a nation of 280 million people, resulting in billions of dollars being lost, and often quite bloody. Addicted to the adrenaline rush of instability that has characterised its short history, the nation is now dependent on a steady stream of revolutions, and counter-revolutions, and coups, of all three kinds, military, democratic and Pakistan’s local favourite, the hybrid technocrat coup.
Consider the last 17 years of federal government in Pakistan. As the new millennium dawned, most Pakistanis welcomed the ouster of a troubled Nawaz regime by the military dictator, Pervez Musharraf. To those who say, the military coup was not welcomed, but opposed, the deafening silence of a nation of hundreds of millions on the night of 12th October 1999 shall prove otherwise. The Musharraf regime, then, initially accepted and welcomed, quickly fell prey to Pakistan’s cyclical system of counter-revolutions, this time in the form of the lawyer’s movement in 2007. Musharraf is out, the People Party forms the government in 2008 and in the next five years Pakistan experiences two long marches to the capital which render the federal government ineffective. Enter the PML-N, which wins the elections in 2013 and takes the baton from a PPP that is more than willing to pass it on. During Musharraf’s government, they were called ‘movements’, under the PPP they were called ‘long marches’, and as the PML-N takes the helm, Pakistan’s unquenchable need for upheaval takes the form of two massive dharnas (sit-ins) by opposition leader Imran Khan. And it’s not just the last 17 years, not even the last few decades. Pakistan’s history is consistently rigged with instances of massive upheavals and discontinuation of political establishments, whether democratic or not, on the back of mass appeal. Now I’m not saying these movements were uncalled for; of course, each of them were distinct in character and perhaps the need of the hour, considering most were noble causes. The point here is not that. The point is the people’s willingness to be part of it, every single time. The point is that once you experience such volatility, whether for right or wrong, you ultimately come to anticipate it. Even when it may not be there.
The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) is the usual suspect when it comes to threats to the ‘democratic order’ in Pakistan, considering the variety of coups in the country’s history. The current COAS is, however, going to significant lengths to assure his countrymen, that the current democratic government faces no threat of takeover from him or his institution. Symbolising this position of the chief is his recent appearance before the Senate committee of the whole, and his candid assurance that the military wants the preservation of the democratic system. This is uncharacteristic of an army chief. His claim is uncharacteristic too. It was uncanny when as the chief made these remarks, political analysts sensed a veiled threat to democracy, in the chief’s insistence that there was no threat to democracy.
So the stock market has crashed. Expectedly so. It crashed because there was volatility. There was volatility because Pakistan constantly anticipates volatility, even when it’s not reasonable to do so. This habitual anticipation of volatility creates actual volatility and the stock market crashes, even though nothing much has really happened. It’s like Chinese whispers, you get the picture.
Source: tribune.com.pk/story/1596267/1-pakistans-need-volatility/
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Central and West Asia in 2017
By Dr Naazir Mahmood
December 30, 2017
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the five countries of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan – had their own dictatorships.
All of them have been ruled by one or the other dictator during the past quarter of a century. For example, in Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled since 1989, first as head of the communist party and then, since 1991, as the first and to date the last president. In terms of population, the largest country of Central Asia is Uzbekistan with Tashkent as its capital where Islam Karimov ruled from 1989 to 2016.
In 2017, Uzbekistan was perhaps the only Central Asian country that saw some changes. The new president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has released many political prisoners and has promised to put the country on the road to democracy. Only time will show to what extent these promises materialise, but at least for now he has taken many positive steps. He has relatively freed the media, has launched a campaign against corruption and reduced forced labour for potato picking, a relic from the Soviet times. In the other Central Asian countries, the situation remained the same.
Nazarbayev is still going strong in Kazakhstan and trying to make his new capital, Astana, the new Dubai. His country has tremendous natural resources, and oil and gas flow like anything. All this makes Astana look like a capital city of any modern Western country. The situation in the previous capital, Alma Ata, has deteriorated and civic facilities are on the decline. Nazarbayev does not seem to have any intention of quitting his power anytime soon, and he may continue exploiting his people right till his own end.
In West Asia, from Iran to Lebanon, the entire region has witnessed blood and gore during the past 15 years. Only Iran appears to be relatively better than others and at peace with itself. The US has been trying its best to use Arab countries to push Iran too into the abyss of war but Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been taking each step cautiously. He is attempting to salvage the nuclear agreement his government has concluded with the Western powers, since the uninterrupted supply of foreign exchange depends on the survival of this agreement.
US President Trump has, since assuming power, repeatedly issued threats to dismantle the nuclear accord with Iran. Iran is also accused of fomenting civil wars in Syria and Yemen thorough proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries fear increasing Shia influence in their countries. The other two big countries of West Asia – Iraq and Syria – continued to suffer from internecine wars this year. Though it has been over 15 years since Saddam Husain was toppled after the American invasion of Iraq, the security situation is much worse than what it used to be before the American intervention.
Saddam Husain was accused of killing a few thousand people, but after the American occupation the number of causalities has reached hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Almost the same is the situation in Syria, where in 2017 too, all sorts of belligerent groups have been at each other’s throats. America and Russia have made Syria their own battleground, and the people of Syria continued to remain their cannon fodder. At the end of 2017, there appears to be no end in sight for the Syrian civil war.
Though, the Islamic State (IS) has been routed from most of Syria, there is still a chance of their resurgence. The Arabian Peninsula includes in its fold – in addition to Saudi Arabia – the UAE, Qatar, Oman, and Yemen. In 2017, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) witnessed unprecedented changes. First, the appointment of a new crown prince unleashed a plethora of reforms – both economic and social. These far-reaching changes, brought about by the 32-year-old son of the incumbent king, have endeared him to common people especially to young women.
The crown prince initiated the process of liberalisation of society by allowing Saudi women to drive. The next step was the opening of stadiums to women, and the establishment of cinemas and theatres for films and musical concerts. All this has enhanced the public standing of the crown prince. Then he initiated a crackdown on ‘corruption’ by targeting dozens of rich princes whose wealth amounts to billions of dollars. These ‘corrupt’ princes’ have been confined to a luxurious hotel where the terms of their release are being negotiated. The crown prince is demanding that they pay the money accumulated through ‘corruption’ or else.
So, in a way these kidnapped princes must pay ransom to secure their release, failing which they are likely to remain under confinement. Some of them have already started paying up the extortion money and have been released. One exception is perhaps the richest prince, Al-Waleed bin Talal, who has been conspicuous by his absence in the news by the end of 2017. On another front in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen in 2017 remained a soft target for the Saudi forces. Repeated air raids on Yemen have rendered air and sea ports dysfunctional, resulting in acute shortages of food and medicines. Cholera and other epidemics are spreading and taking their toll in the thousands.
Interestingly, some Muslim countries that shed a tear or two for the plight of the Muslims in Myanmar and the Philippines are not even ready to say a couple of words for the people of Yemen. The so-called Islamic alliance of over 40 Muslim countries led by Pakistan’s former army chief, General Raheel Sharif, is in deep slumber over Yemen. It is neither bothered about Yemen nor perturbed at the First Qibla for Muslims in Jerusalem.
This brings us to the last big news about West Asia: the American recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. In 2018, there will likely be more anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans.
Source: thenews.com.pk/print/262185-central-and-west-asia-in-2017
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