OVER the last week the British government gave very clear signs that it is engaged in a joint strategy with the United States to put pressure on Saddam Hussain to allow UN weapons inspectors into Iraq while preparing public opinion for military action against that country. Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the biggest hint yet during the Commonwealth conference in Australia that Britain would support the US in any military confrontation to depose Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

In an interview Mr Blair said he is determined to provide clear evidence of the enormous threat he and President George Bush believe the Saddam regime represents.

The British media, quoting intelligence sources, has reported that the US is prepared to present the UN with material purporting to show Iraq has converted trucks imported through the UN’s humanitarian programme into mobile rocket launchers and military vehicles.

The document is thought to reveal President Saddam’s attempts to amass rudimentary nuclear capability, including the power to make “dirty” nuclear bombs — basic devices capable of wreaking havoc. In contrast with other European leaders who have signalled they will not back a US military action to depose Mr Saddam, Mr Blair believes that the Iraqi leader is developing weapons of mass destruction and is capable of using them.

Although foreign office sources insist that no decision has been made on military action against Iraq, several Labour back-benchers, including former defence minister Doug Henderson, have raised their objection to any such action and have warned that it could easily go wrong, and would strengthen Mr Saddam’s position. Many also fear that the action could damage the coalition against international terrorism as some Muslim states that are cooperating now may pull out of it.

RELIGION is taken from the Latin word ‘religio’ meaning binding together. It binds its three ingredients; theology, philosophy, and spirituality. Islam accommodated them in equal proportion.

Tracing history of the religions, it becomes apparent that the concept of the spirit emerged over 30,000 years ago, when man lived a solo life as hunter in the caves. This was followed by the concept of godhead, after the appearance of agriculture about 15,000 years ago. Still later, in the second millennium BC, philosophy surfaced with the improvement of man’s mental aptitude.

Religion was introduced to society to uplift the moral and the social values of the individuals. Each ingredient was used for the purpose by the custodians according to the collective psyche of populace. Theology, which deals with the concept of godhead, was applied in the form of ‘fear’ of the unseen in early societies. The propagators of this concept were the rulers who used ‘rituals’ and ‘human sacrifices’ to terrorize people. They projected god as impersonal, harsh, angry, and punishing, and projected themselves as the link between the people and their gods.

With this picture they kept full command and total control over the people. Though the custody changed from the rulers of yester-year to the traditionalists of today, the concept of godhead lingered on unabated till the present time. We find the traditionalists portray god as was portrayed many centuries ago — angry, harsh and punishing.

Spirituality, appeared in the religion when the concept of ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ emerged as external and internal powers respectively. The former as an outer power, linked with the godhead in an indescribable way, and the latter as an inner power, associated with the self in a related way.

It was the evolution and understanding of the soul that made spirituality attractive by highlighting love, humbleness, tolerance and obedience as its desired acts among other noble deeds. It also clarified that good deeds are the pre-requisites for the pursuer of this path towards the world of the unseen. This concept also evinces god as love, kindness and justice, that can be reached through good deeds and not fear or terror. Philosophy was the last ingredient that entered the religious fold. Although we can see glimpses of philosophy in the second millennium BC, but it emerged firmly around 800 BC in India and Greece. Greeks surpassed Indians and made their country as the hub of philosophy in the following centuries. This knowledge is based on doubts and reasoning. When it reaches the boundaries of the world of the unseen, it fails in its objectives, because there is no place for doubt in that world. So philosophical knowledge is used in the world of the seen to improve physical and psychological make-up of man as part of upgrading society.

Thus the three ingredients of the religion improve the morality of mankind and elevate society in three different ways: theology through fear; spirituality through love; and philosophy through logic. It also shows that theology deals with the world of the unseen, philosophy with the world of the seen, and spirituality with both. The last entity plays a vital role of bridging the gap between the two worlds.

Historically, when we study the prophetic religions of Mesopotamia, we find that these three elements are disproportionately present in Judaism and Christianity. The former has more theology less philosophy and minimum spirituality. The latter more spirituality than theology and less philosophy. Islam accommodated them in equal proportions. This balance is reflected in the words and deeds of prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him). After his passing away he left behind the Quran, his Sunnah and his Sayings as the code of Islam. This code became the theme of governance for the first four Caliphs. (Khulafaa-e-Rashideen) upto 661 AD.

After the passing of this era a gap appeared between the caliph and the public. On one side of this division, the caliph was besieged by the aristocrats who influenced him to have Persian and Turkish style of governance. This was tragedy number one. On the other side, public was guided by the traditionalists in the mosque, who concentrated only on the theology of the religion ignoring spirituality and philosophy. He used the fundamentals of Islam as his tools and in the process converted worship into rituals. This was tragedy number two.

A century and a half later, after the introduction of ‘Muzalims’ (judicial courts), schools appeared during the Abbasid dynasty.

These schools became the centre for philosophical knowledge to help the jurists in their erudition, which later became the venue for the sects’ formation. This was tragedy number three.

A complex situation appeared with the emergence of schools, in which the caliph was pushed towards secularism, the traditionalist towards rituals and the cleric towards his own brand of sectarian philosophy. In this disarray, the spirituality of religion was ignored by the custodians of theology. Seeing the distortion of Islam, the spiritualists who until then were introverted ascetics, came out into the open as Sufi movement in the 10th century AD with a conciliatory tone and introduced Khankahi system of tutelage, subdividing the already divided religion into four groups. This was tragedy number four.

Thus we find that though Islam spread rapidly in terms of territory in the first few centuries, it lost the balance between the three components, resulting in divisions that led to strife and so to it’s decline in the second millennium AD. That those continued till the second half of the 20th century AD.

The sixties of this century saw a revival of the global spirituality. The Sufis of Islam got stimulus from this trend and started concentrating on the actuality of Islam. They started creating awareness through print and electronic media both in the West and in the East to spread the message of spirituality in Islam. At the same time the non-political groups and the newly created Jihadi groups (Zealots) which surfaced in the seventies started spreading their message.

So here we are at the crossroads of the 20th and the 21st centuries, looking at Islam in different ways. It is high time for someone or some group to give a wake-up call to the misguided Muslims and show them the actual nature and essence of Islam in the light of the holy Quran and Sunnah. Islam is in dire need of resurrection through a non-sectarian revolution.

MANY hospitals across the country reported Congo fever after Eidul Azha. Deaths of Salma Begum at Bagh, Azad Kashmir, and doctor Farzana Altaf of Holy Family hospital in Rawalpindi were quickly recognized as the Congo virus outbreak. Similar cases were reported from Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad and last week the virus suddenly surfaced in Karachi. Of the three children coming from working-class neighbourhoods of Landhi and Malir, suspected of being struck with Congo fever, one died at the National Institute of Child Health some nine days ago.

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is a severe infectious disease caused by a virus, cruel to its victim with an established mortality rate of up to 30 per cent. The widespread geographical distribution of the virus includes Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The Crimean-Congo Virus infects a wide range of domestic and wild animals. However, the most important source for acquisition of the virus is believed to be infected small vertebrates on which immature Hyalomma ticks feed. The mature tick transmits the infection to large vertebrates, including cattle, sheep and goats.

Human beings infected with C-CHF acquire the virus from direct contact with blood or infected tissues from livestock or a bite from an infected tick. The majority of documented cases have occurred in those involved with tending of livestock, including agricultural workers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians. After the initial human contact the virus has often spread through the families and friends during the course of feeding, holding, or otherwise caring for the patients.

In this region there has been a known problem of Congo fever in Afghanistan. Afghans have been fleeing the bombing in their country, crossing the border mostly into Pakistan. Unfortunately, some refugees and their livestock may have been carrying the Crimean-Congo virus with them. As it is there has been a major outbreak of Congo fever in Pakistan during 1976 and there has been occasional cases including last year.

People concerned with medical profession and refugee problem were worried about a possible Congo fever outbreak in overcrowded Karachi. During this Eid a large number of people must have come in direct contact with infected sacrificial animals that may explain the subsequent outbreak in the country.

But the widespread outbreak in Azad Kashmir, in the capital and thousand miles down south in Karachi is nevertheless distressing. The fact that our cities like Karachi have little or no testing facilities for such an epidemic reflects very poorly on the health establishment of the country. What may be further disconcerting is the fact that there seems to be little knowledge about a disease that may perhaps lurk amongst us for some time.

To begin with there is no proven vaccine against Crimean- Congo virus nor there is any standard treatment for the infection. Although an inactivated, mouse brain-derived vaccine against C-CHF has been developed and used on a small scale in Eastern Europe but that may hardly be considered a safe and effective vaccine widely available for human use.

In our health-care facilities, patients are often cared for without the use of a mask, gown, or gloves, and exposure to the viruses has occurred when health care workers treated infected individuals without wearing these types of protective clothing. In addition, when needles or syringes are used, they may not be of the disposable type, or may not have been sterilized, but only rinsed before re-insertion into multi-use vials of medicine. If needles or syringes become contaminated with virus and are then reused, number of people could become infected.

Onset of symptoms may be sudden, with fever, aching muscles, dizziness, neck pain and stiffness, backache, headache, sore eyes and sensitivity to light. There may be nausea, vomiting and sore throat early on, which may be accompanied by diarrhoea and generalized abdominal pain. Over the next few days, the patient may experience sharp mood swings, and may become confused and aggressive. After two to four days, the agitation may be replaced by sleepiness, depression and lassitude, and the abdominal pain may localize to the right upper quadrant, with detectable liver enlargement.

The severely ill may develop liver, kidney and pulmonary failure after the fifth day of illness. Over the next few days his blood platelets may decrease rendering the blood unable to clot properly. Soon the person begins to bleed profusely, under the skin, from his gums, from his nose, and in his internal organs often resulting in bleeding to death. The fortunate ones generally improve by the ninth or tenth day after the onset of illness.

In suspected cases several laboratory tests should be done promptly including a blood film examination for malaria and a blood culture. If the suspected patient has bloody diarrhoea, a stool culture should also be performed. According to virologists there are many other elaborate tests including ELISA testing, IgG ELISA, Virus isolation, testing for IgM and IgG antibodies and more recently the Polymerase chain reaction a molecular method for detecting the viral genome.

Currently patients receive supportive therapy consisting of balancing of fluids and electrolytes, maintaining their oxygen status and blood pressure, and treating them for any complicating infections. Intensive monitoring to guide volume and blood component replacement is also required. The antiviral drug Ribavirin has been used in treatment of established C-CHF infection.

The prevention of C-CHF in Afro-Asian countries present many challenges, as there are few established primary prevention measures. Let’s face it: the countries of this region don’t have the resources to deal with the ticks by spraying.

As the tick vectors are numerous and widespread, the tick control with chemicals may only be a realistic option for well-managed livestock production facilities.

Yet for the people of Karachi, a mega city that lacks an epidemic control centre or even a dedicated task force to monitor outbreaks like Congo fever, plague or Hepatitis strains and virtually depends upon the private sector for health care the only course of action may be thorough testing and proper caring techniques in case of a suspected outbreak.