| 04 July 2004 | Sunday | 15 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Abductions in Iraq
The curtain falls
Despite some recent successes in combating terrorism, the task before Pakistan remains formidable. A few arrests here and there and the partial success of the Wana operations do not mean that the battle against terrorism and religious militancy has been won.
The malignancy has become deep and widespread and has adherents who do not necessarily conform to the archetypical terrorists painted by the world media - turbaned tribesmen in baggy trousers with bandoleers slung across their chests.
Now middle-class and city-based professionals and intellectuals are also believed to be among active members of terrorist organizations. They may not fire guns or plant bombs, but they provide "ideological" support to militancy and help enlist recruits to their cause.
The recent arrest of several doctors and scientists goes to show that the fight against terrorism calls for more sophisticated ways than mere military operations and traditional police methods.
From time to time, Pakistan has received accolades from the US for its cooperation in the war on terror. Last week, American Vice-President Dick Cheney said Islamabad's support to the war against Al Qaeda was "critical", and he blamed previous US administrations for not "engaging" Pakistan.
On Friday, the White House spokesman again praised Islamabad for its anti-terrorism efforts and said there was "great progress" in terms of Pakistan's contribution to the war on terror. In Islamabad, talking to two Republican senators, President Musharraf said the elimination of terrorism was in Pakistan's own interest.
He emphasized the fact that there were foreign militants on Pakistan's soil, and pledged that his government would dismantle terrorist networks and "get rid of outsiders trying to misuse our territory". However, one problem countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia face in combating the menace is the tendency in Washington to deviate from the stated goal of the war on terror.
The attack on Iraq, for instance, and its continued occupation of that country have nothing to do with terrorism or Al Qaeda. In fact, Saddam Hussein's policies were secular, and, as subsequent evidence has revealed, he frustrated Osama bin Laden's attempts to use Iraq as a base for Al Qaeda.
For Pakistan, terrorism is a menace. Since 9/11, some of the world's worst acts of terror have taken place in this country - the attack on the US consulate in Karachi, the murder of 11 naval French engineers, the massacre in Quetta on the day of Ashura, and the bomb blasts and assassinations in Karachi in May. For this menace to be rooted out, Pakistan must wage a relentless war on it. For this it needs not only all that the state's law enforcement machinery has; it needs to combat radicalism by persuasion and through political means as well.
Thanks to the US-led anti-Soviet 'jihad' in Afghanistan, madressahs have become a breeding ground for militants. This was not the case before. Traditionally, madressahs have performed a useful function of teaching the essentials of Islam and producing scholars and imams for mosques. Many of them have been radicalized and politically indoctrinated.
The emasculation of the public education sector forces many low-income families to send their children to these institutions. The government must see to it that they revert to their traditional role and it are helped to modernize their syllabi.
Abductions in Iraq
While the release of Amjad Hafeez, a Pakistani national who had earlier been captured by militants in Iraq and threatened with decapitation, is good news, there are few signs that the kidnapping of foreign nationals in that country is on the wane. In fact, the fear is that as long as the American occupation of Iraq continues, foreigners in that country, especially soldiers and civilians with links to various US firms operating there, will be prime targets for militants belonging to Islamic groups.
As abductions are indiscriminate - with the captors unmoved by religious affiliations or the non-combatant status of most of their victims - this trend is bound to pose problems for the new administration, already burdened with the gargantuan task of rebuilding a war-ravaged country and restoring security there. In recent weeks, at least two hostages, including an American and a South Korean, have been beheaded and an Italian shot dead, while yet another execution remains unconfirmed.
Nothing short of a total American pullout - not likely under the present circumstances - would stem the crisis, but the Iraqi administration has to give greater attention to hostage taking. The Iraqis alone are in a position to know the ways of clandestine militant groups that have no qualms about abducting and killing innocent people, blaming them of collaboration with the occupiers.
They must denounce such kidnappings and use their influence to prevail upon the captors to release their victims - especially the non-combatants. Meanwhile, other world governments with nationals based in Iraq should take the chilling message sent out by the abductors seriously. They would do well to advise their nationals to stay away from Iraq in these troubled times.
The curtain falls
Marlon Brando's death has robbed Hollywood of one of its greatest actors. In a career that spanned almost half a century, Brando came to be seen by many as the iconoclastic rebel, as someone whom later generations of actors and performers emulated - from James Dean in the 1950s to contemporary actors like Sean Penn, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
Brando began his legendary career with a role that defined him and a whole new generation of angry young men when he played the amoral, anti-hero Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire' - first on Broadway in 1947 and then in a film four years later.
Some of his better known roles were in 'Viva Zapata', 'The Godfather' and 'Last Tango in Paris.' But it was for playing a boxer who never quite made it in 'On the Waterfront' that he received his first Oscar.
His second Oscar, a rare feat in itself, was for 'The Godfather' but he refused to accept it citing his government's mistreatment of the native Indian population. Although in recent years he had faded out of the public eye and become somewhat of a recluse, his influence as a role model remained undiminished, so much so that aspiring actors everywhere, not just in America, still derive inspiration from Marlon Brando.
He was brilliant at what he did and took his work seriously, often immersing himself completely in preparation for a role. Despite that, and perhaps like the enigmatic characters he played on screen, he tended to be self-deprecating about his profession, once saying that if he was paid as much to sweep a studio's floor as he was for acting, he would much rather choose the sweeper's job.
It is inevitable that an event like this should make us look at the absence in our own ranks of socially conscious actors and film-makers. This is linked with our overall political retardation, and there appears little hope of early improvement.