KARACHI: Queen’s aide wants troops withdrawn from Iraq
By Our Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 20: The visiting first Muslim counsel of the British Queen, Sibghatullah Kadri, on Tuesday called for withdrawal of American and British forces from Iraq and claimed that suicide bombings in Iraq were the direct result of the policies of Washington and London.
He called for leaving it to the Iraqi people to decide about their future. He expressed these views while speaking on curtailment of human rights and civil liberties in the UK and European Union after 7/7 at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.
Mr Kadri also accused the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, of turning the country into a police state but was hopeful that the British people would not let him succeed.
In this context, he referred to various laws Mr Blair was trying to introduce and claimed that soon the British premier would be deporting people on mere suspicion.
He said it was difficult for Mr Blair to get anti-terrorism laws announced in the wake of July 7 incidents, approved by the Council of Europe as the UK was signatory to European Human Rights Convention.
“I would be surprised if British courts do not strike down these laws as they were against human rights. However, in case terrorist acts continued, it could create a state of emergency and situation will be different,” he observed.
Mr Kadri called for removing the root cause of anger of Muslim youth by creating an independent state of Palestine and adopting a policy of co-existence.
He was of the view that in desperate situation, actions like suicide attacks in Iraq and Palestine were resorted to. Unless the root causes of extremism and terrorism were removed, Iraq would remain a breeding ground for youngsters.
He said that because of the policies of the US and the UK, terrorism had become a greater evil and expressed concern over curtailment of human rights in Britain.
He regretted that the US President, George Bush, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had not publicly apologized for killing Iraqi people, although Muslims in the UK had regretted the July 7 incidents in London.
“Only a minority in the UK was involved in terror incidents.”
Answering a question, Mr Kadri who is also convener of Muslim Lawyers Forum UK said British police had adopted a policy of shoot to kill suspects before July 7 incidents. He felt this policy has to change.
Asked where were the human rights when a Brazalian was shot point blank by the British police, Mr Kadri said much before 7/7 British police got training in Israel, which had the tradition of such killings.
He also slammed the double standards in the American and British policies and said that Iran was being pushed to the wall to give up its right to enrich uranium and develop nuclear expertise for peaceful purposes but the world powers and the international agency were least pushed on the nuclear capability of Israel.
Responding to another question, Mr Kadri said it was difficult for Muslims living in the UK to integrate with the British society.
There was an imperative need for co-existence, he emphasized. But at the same time, he criticized President Bush and likes for ridiculing the way of life of others and said it was apartheid and racist.
