| November 26, 2003 | Wednesday | Shawwal 1, 1424 |
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Positive peace moves
THE congregational prayers and expressions of brotherhood, coupled with the distribution of poor dues (Fitra) marking the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr, should not be seen merely as rituals but need to be understood and appreciated with reference to their wider significance, especially at this juncture. It is time to realize the urgency of fraternal bonding and the concept of Millat that demand meeting of hearts and minds to weld the Ummah as a cohesive and dynamic force. In the present context, when Muslims are being widely portrayed as terrorists by their detractors, the need to highlight Islam’s stress on universal brotherhood binding mankind together into one entity and its image as the promoter of peace and harmony demand exemplary behaviour by its followers. The Quran says, “O Mankind, lo! We have created you male and female and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo, the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware (XLIX-13) The Prophet’s farewell address further illustrates this concept; “O People verily your Lord is one and your father is one. There is no superiority for an Arab to a non-Arab and for a non-Arab to an Arab, for a white to a black, for a black to a white except in piety. Verily the noblest among you with Allah is the most dutiful of you.”
Today when we are troubled by serious problems and challenges, the Quran and Sunnah should be the ultimate source of guidance and inspiration for Muslims all over the world. The Quran says: “Hold fast all of you together to the cable of Allah and do not separate.” Since we often ignore this exhortation we are getting divided. But the same passage in the Quran offers hope. It says, “And remember Allah’s favour unto you: how you were enemies and He made friendship between your hearts so that you became brother by (His) grace and how you were on the brink of an abyss of fire and He did save you from it.” With this clear guidance at hand, those who divide the religion into conflicting schools of thought and believers into antagonistic sects preaching hatred against some of them deserve to be denounced. The Quran says whoever kills a person unless it be for manslaughter and mischief in the land, it is as though he has killed all mankind. These clear warnings should be forcefully brought home to every Muslim at a time when sectarian killings and terrorism against innocent men, women and children in the name of religion are growing.
In the wider context, as members of the Millat, Muslims are bound by indissoluble bonds of faith, sharing each other’s joys and happiness as also their sorrows and sufferings. The greetings of Eid give expression to the unity of Faith and fraternal feelings for each other. We cannot be an Ummah unless the whole body feels the pain when any of the limbs, aches. Unfortunately, aside from verbal assertions of the virtue of unity and collective striving for common good from the platforms of the OIC and some other Arab and Islamic organizations, a matching response to the formidable challenges facing the Muslim world at this critical time is not forthcoming. The vast resources and manpower of the Muslim countries, which could have been a mighty instrument of power, prosperity and peace lie largely unharnessed. The Quranic observation in Surah Al-Anfal to meet and match the enemy must be recalled on this day: “Make ready for them all thou can of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others beside them whom you know not. Allah knoweth them. Whatsoever you spend in the way of Allah it will be repaid to you in full.” These words of Allah should be remembered when reflecting on the message and rejoicing on this day after Ramazan.
AT what appears to be an incredible pace of diplomatic communication, Pakistan and India have responded positively to each other’s peace moves. On Sunday, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali offered a unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir with effect from Eid. At the same time, he made some new proposals. On Monday, India not only accepted the truce offer, it also hoped the ceasefire would extend to Siachin. The very same day, Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmud Kasuri confirmed that Pakistan’s truce offer extended to the Line of Actual Control in that barren wilderness. He also reiterated Pakistan’s position on Siachin, saying Islamabad always believed in a demilitarization of the glacier. Another major shift in Islamabad’s position is on air links. Mr Kasuri said Pakistan wanted to revive the air link “instantly.” More important, he said, Islamabad had dropped the condition about India giving a guarantee against a unilateral disruption of air traffic.
A full Indian response to the set of Jamali proposals will obviously take time. But the initial reaction has been positive. Even though the Indian spokesman attached the usual condition for peace between Pakistan and India, he avoided the shibboleth of “cross-border terrorism” and, instead, used the word “infiltration.” Given this pace of positive exchanges, one can be cautiously optimistic on this score in spite of the accident-prone nature of the Indo-Pakistan relationship. One hopes that what happened on Monday and Tuesday will turn out to be an irreversible process and that the two countries will continue to move forward toward full normalization of relations. The directors-general of military operations from both sides have already got in touch with eath other on the telephone to effect a ceasefire. If all went well, guns would have fallen silent last night along the 800-kilometre LoC. The artillery exchanges across the LoC have killed as many civilians as soldiers, turned many villages into ghost hamlets and have disrupted economic activity, specially farming, on both sides. Thus the first to gain from the ceasefire will be the Kashmiris living on both sides of the LoC.
Siachin now seems to be getting the attention it deserves. For nearly two decades, this icy wasteland has been the world’s highest battleground. Its harsh climate has inflicted more casualties on the combatants than military action. The cost of maintaining troops and hardware at that height is exorbitant. While the area may be of importance to both from a strategic point of view, there is no possibility of large-scale military action. It is thus in India’s interests — as much as in Pakistan’s — that the area be demilitarized. So far, both sides have agreed only to the ceasefire; it is in the fitness of things that this is followed by a demilitarization of the entire glacier. Given the history of suspicion on both sides, a monitoring mechanism could be worked out with the UN’s help to ensure that no one is intruding back into the demilitarized zone.
After a long time, there is hope that Pakistan and India may after all normalize their troubled relations. Normalization here basically means relations as they existed before December 2001. Last year, the two sides had come close to a devastating war. Against this background, the current peace drive by both sides provides a breath of fresh air. One hopes that both sides will also maintain a diplomatic ceasefire and refrain from exchanging barbed statements that serve no purpose save that of vitiating the atmosphere.