RECENTLY, 66 US lawmakers urged Secretary of State Antony Blinken to use all possible ‘diplomatic tools’ to ‘pressure’ Pakistani government to ensure democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The lawmakers perhaps forgot the simple fact that neither they nor Blinken happened to be in a position to criticise any country when the matter in question involves human rights. Their country, the United States, is the biggest culprit on that particular count.

Washington knows well that it is the biggest human rights violator. One wonders how US Congress members and the secretary of state had the gall to talk about human rights when the US was founded on savage colonialism and equally savage slavery.

Muslims living in the US are five times more likely to experience police harassment because of their religion. Mosques and sermons are monitored by police and even undercover policemen pretending to be converts sit and observe Muslims in mosques, and at times even provoke them by asking them about jihad. There are other Muslims who have completely assimilated into the American way of life, but they, too, are monitored and harassed.

Racism is on the rise in the so-called land of opportunities, once also known as the melting pot of races, religions and cultures. Black African-Americans are more likely to be murdered by Israeli-trained police than the native whites. In 2022, a record 1,239 people died as a result of police violence in the US, according to the Mapping Police Violence website.

On June 27, 2022, police in Akron, Ohio, fatally shot Jayland Walker, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American, more than 46 times and even handcuffed him later. American ally Israel does the same to unarmed Palestinians all the time.

If that comparison is not enough, even American prisons resemble Israeli prisons. Prisoners are kept in appalling conditions. They are kept in dark cells without lights or clean water. Some prisons are infested with rats, rotten food is served there, and raw sewage is made to flowing into common areas.

Like Palestinians, who are prisoned for no reason other than being Palestinians, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani prisoned for no reason, has been abused in American prisons to the extent that she is said to have hearing difficulty due to a head injury she received there.

Heavily dependent on America’s handout, Israel has hundreds of children locked up, like Ahmad Manasra, who was 13 at the time of his arrest, in solitary confinement for no reason.

The US preferred to ignore human rights violations by Israelis when they killed Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, American rights activist Rachel Corrie, and many more Americans. The US lawmakers never bothered about human rights violations in all such cases.

The Guantanamo Bay prison is known internationally for human rights violations committed by the US. Innocent Muslims remained in confinement for decades without trial, and were subjected to inhuman torture and ill treatment.

On the other hand, the US continues to give military aid to the occupiers of Palestine to kill the indigenous people, including women and children. The apartheid regime is protected by the US and provided technical knowhow on how and when to carry out attacks on Arabs.

Also, let us not forget America’s love for abuse of power and sanctions that have created humanitarian disasters around the world. The US has carried out military operations in more than 85 countries in the name of ‘war on terror’, which claimed millions of civilian lives, and displaced 38 million people.

US sanctions placed on Iraq in the 1990s had a devastating effect on the Arabs in the peninsula. It is only because of China’s efforts regarding détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which has brought peace in the region. The US, with the help of Israel, has only caused death and destruction, and animosity between neighbouring countries in the Middle East to its advantage.

With peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia in place, where will the American weapons be sold? That dilemma must be giving sleepless nights to the warmongers.

So, before the US preaches human rights, it must take a deep look within. Blinken or his colleagues in the Congress should not be concerned about the state of democracy or human rights in Pakistan or, for that matter, anywhere else in the world. It is time for soul-searching and reviewing US foreign policy that has made the world a mess.

Angabeen Ahmad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023