WASHINGTON, Sept 12: UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Asma Jehangir has said that Muslims will have to decide whether they want to continue to live in the past or be a part of the 21st century.

“If they want to live in today’s world, they will have to give up many of their practices that have become archaic,” she emphasized.

Ms Jehangir, the former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, discussed political and ideological problems confronting the Muslims today with Dawn during a recent visit to the United States.

Asked who was holding back the Muslims, she said there was no simple answer to this question but one could try to learn from patterns and trends.

“Where there’s democracy, for instance Malaysia, society is improving. Where there’s a political vacuum, religious forces will fill that vacuum.”

She said most Muslim countries would have to realize that they could not have it both ways. “We want to be part of the modern system and also uphold very orthodox social values; that cannot happen.”

Elaborating, she said this practice had generated many contradictions. For instance, she added, it was stated that Islam was compatible with internationally recognized human rights but at the same time people refused to acknowledge that karokari was a violation of human rights.

The UN rapporteur said the West, particularly the US, had a responsibility too and added that Western powers supported tinpot dictators which sent a wrong message. They should stop backing military regimes and unpopular rulers, she added.

She emphasized that only a political process could bring about a political change. Only liberal political parties could beat religious parties. President Pervez Musharraf tried to win over the masses but it did not work. Very few voted for him in last year’s referendum, she said and rejected the idea that Muslim governments could also make laws to prevent religious groups from participating in politics, saying such a policy would backfire.

“Repression increases their popularity. It has happened in Iran, in Egypt and up to some extent in Pakistan too, although religious forces in Pakistan also had support from inside the establishment,” she said.

In reply to a question about banning religious parties from taking part in politics, Ms Jehangir said she would rather have religious parties defeated through a political process. She said religious parties had no answer to today’s complex political and economic problems.

Ms Jehangir said there was no alternative to democracy and Muslims would have to realize this and added that the West could expedite this process by supporting the right forces.