ISLAMABAD, June 17: A new book Terrorism or Awakening launched here on Thursday carries the message that the rise of terrorism in the post-9/11 world may be an awakening call for the Muslims.

A number of intellectuals and retired officers of armed forces who attended the launch of the book, written by Group Captain Rab Nawaz Chaudhry, underscored the point that terrorism was the result of injustices done by Britain and the USA to the people of Afghanistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine.

They said the perpetrator of the 9/11 incidents is still shrouded in mystery and to blame fundamentalists Muslims for it was “patently unjust”. There was no such thing as fundamentalist Muslim just as the appellation could not be attributed to a Christian or Jew.

Dr S.M. Rahman, secretary-general of Friends think-tank, who was formerly psychiatrist adviser to the GHQ, explained the terms of terrorist and suicide bombers in the parable of the lamb and the lion. The story provided the definition that it is the mighty and the powerful who determine who was a terrorist, he said.

“Muslims have been the victim of western imperialism for the last few centuries. They have been colonized, their economies laid waste and even after the surfeit of independence these countries are being ruled by surrogate puppets. All of the problems faced by the Muslim world today have the machinations of western nation at their roots,” asserted the psychiatrist.

From here the discussion of the subject turned with two strands of thoughts being proffered.

One of them was advanced by a newspaper editor Zahid Malik who found it “manifestly clear” that the war of terrorism was a ploy used by the Americans to aggress on lands, and natural resources as well as change the education system and culture of Muslim peoples.

“But we have done enough breast beating and now it is the time for Muslims to make adequate preparation for emerging out of the helplessness of post 9/11 period”, he said.

Another thinking was led by former MNA Ahmad Raza Kasuri who said that the American people, as opposed to their government, were open people and suggested dispatch of delegation from Pakistan and other Muslim countries to talk to American legislators engaged on Middle and South Asian issues. “The would explain the Muslim position for lobbyists in the Congress and the American administration.

Former MNA Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the Pakistan Muslim League-N said that while the United States was adopting “obvious obnoxious measures” in the name of security of its homeland and system of government it should be equally anxious to uphold democratic system of governments, but was in league with non-democratic system in other lands.

Farid Malik, Chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation, says the answers lay in policy formulation to harness science and technology for the benefit of Muslim peoples. Muslim lands have enormous natural resources and Pakistan a good number of seasoned scientists who could bridge the technological gap and separate the Muslim masses from the people of advanced countries.

A number of speakers congratulated the author for writing a fascinating book on the causes that lead to terrorism.

The book was also praised by Naseem Anwar Beg, who has served at Unesco headquarters at Paris.

He said his colleagues at Unesco would often play games quizzing each other on important issues of the day. One game which was played was who was most hurt by speaking falsehood. The correct answer was that it hurt the speaker as well as the one who had listened to the lie. Another quiz was about the meaning of freedom. Anwar Beg said the reply that was most voted was that freedom is the way to provide education to people

Mr Ghani of the Sultana Foundation laid emphasis on freeing Pakistan from sectarian terrorism.

In his summing up statement the former deputy air chief Air Marshal Ayaz Ahmad Khan who chaired the evening’s proceedings, said terrorism projected by the western media was quite different from what we experience. “One should be clear that justice is the key to stop terrorism”, he said.

In this regard he referred to several chapters of Rab Nawaz’s book dealing with Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir and Chechnya These chapters are full of human rights violations committed by the USA.

“The USA administration not the people of USA has indulged in state terrorism of an intensity which should also jolt the conscience of [our] rulers,” he said.