LAHORE, April 13: The invasion of Iraq by US-led coalition forces was the result of the ‘clash of interests’ and has no connection with Samuel Huntington’s hypothesis of the ‘clash of civilizations’.
This was the consensus of speakers at the first Dr Tanveer memorial dialogue on Sunday. It was organized by the Journalists Resource Centre at the Nisar Osmani Auditorium of the Lahore Press Club.
Former foreign minister Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali said that the war was waged by two countries and not by two civilizations. The world was divided in two blocks; five big powers who are permanent members of the UN and other non-permanent members.
The former possessed the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) but the latter did not, with the exception of Israel which has the largest stockpile of WMD after the US.
National Workers Party president Abid Hassan Minto said that the war on Iraq was a clash of interests for economic and political purposes. He said that the US and the UK joined hands to have their hegemony over the world and to save their currencies from crisis.
He said that civilizations cannot be divided on the basis of religion. Indian civilization had a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims but the country had a secular constitution.
PPP leader Dr Ijazul Hassan said that the war on Iraq was the war of interests and not clash of civilizations.
He said that the Muslims all over the world must learn a lesson from what had happened with Iraq and it was high time they should unite.
Pakistan Labour Party general secretary Farooq Tariq lashed out at the MMA and said that they were making plans to send people to fight on the presumption that it was a holy war.
He said that the ‘religious fanatics’ had claimed that they had held million-man marches at different places. The fact was that only a few thousands people had participated in these marches.
Iranian Cultural Centre director Syed Moizuddin said that there was no question of any clash of civilizations. The US attack on Iraq was aimed at capturing oil resources of the country and to give large contracts to its multinational companies for rebuilding Iraq. All such companies were controlled by the Jews.
The idea of the clash of civilizations had been put forward by Huntington as a suggestion for the US policy makers. But this idea had been refuted by the people all over the world. No single culture could dominate the entire world.
“We want culture of peace, hope, democracy, justice and not clash of civilizations. The world had become global village with different cultures and influences.”
He said that human rights had been misunderstood and not taken in the right sense.
Begum Tahira Mazhar Ali said that there was no clash of civilizations but it was a clash of haves against have-nots. She said that war on Iraq was not a religious war nor was it against Muslims.
She said that hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims had held rallies all over world against the war. She said that the policy of sending militants to Kashmir was wrong.
The militants had spoiled the struggle of the people of occupied Kashmir with their militancy.
Similarly, Taliban were trained in Pakistan and sent to Afghanistan to fight against Soviet Union.
Ms Engklia Koester, a former member of German Bundestag, said that after the 9/11 incident the danger of terrorism and state terrorism had increased.
She said that terrorist trends were developed among children right from the school days. This should be discouraged. She said that in such circumstances a dialogue among the people was not possible.
Lashing out at the policies of the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO, she said that they caused more harm to the poor nations than good.
She said that fundamentalism, whether among Christians, Jews or Muslims, was dangerous. She also criticized the role of media and said that it had failed to address the problem of the people. She said that media must ensure that no more terrorist activity took place after the Iraqi war.
A resolution was also passed on the occasion, denouncing the theory of the clash of civilizations of Samuel Huntington and condemned the war on Iraq. It demanded withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq as early as possible.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Taimur Rahman, Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign’s UK chairperson Ms Della Clyne, Muhammad Tahseen and Irfan Mufti of the South Asia Partnership, Pakistan, Dr Ajmal Niazi, labour leader Tariq Latif, Aziz Mazhar, Dr Iftikhar Ilahi of the British Council and PFUJ president I.H. Raashed.