I have heard you for years now. There are thousands who just take your word for granted. You are not an ordinary person but an acknowledged scholar and opinion leader. When you say anything, it acquires authority. Thus, you carry a huge responsibility on your shoulders.
The other day, I was listening to your talk on Indus TV. This time you surprised me no ends. If someone with lesser credentials said what you did, I wouldn't give it a thought. Because your views bear a stamp of authority, with utmost respect I must point out that you must refrain from saying anything that lacks credentials. In your interview, you offered all sorts of explanations why the Taliban adopted militancy.
The reality is that a crime does not change its definition, whatever shape, and form or circumstance it may manifest itself. How could you justify violence and murder? Do destruction and killing have anything to do with justice? The Talibans’ action led only to one conclusion that their purported call for “Nizam e Adl” (justice) was just a facade to establish their own hegemony. How could you justify blowing up schools that were built over a period of hundred years.
Now who is going to undo the damage? Who is going to rebuild? Sufi Mohammed, once interviewed on Waqt News -- the channel that gives much time and space to such people – said that his job was to blow up buildings and it was the government’s job to build them. Upon hearing it, one could only feel angry. In your Indus TV talk, Israr Sahib, you have somehow sided with such ignorant characters. I could not stop wondering, was it the same scholar that we have known for so long?
In these times of gloom, scholars like you are our last hope. Please don't disappoint us like that. The only thing against the military operation is that it was delayed by a full year and a half that gave enough time for the terrorists (you call them extremists, militants or Taliban to lessen to their crimes) to re-organise, re-group, re-arm and be as ruthless and deadly as possible. How else could you handle them if not with a military operation? Latoun kay bhooth batoun sey nahi man’tay. (Devils, who only understand force, will not listen to reasoning.)
Did you want another Lal Masjid like fiasco where armed thugs inside the Masjid/Madrassa complex were fighting the Pakistan Army? The Lal Masjid issue got out of hand because there was no timely and decisive action. The prolonged negotiations process only led to a sorry state of affairs. Any more delay in Swat would have only further emboldened the terrorists. The military operation may not be perfect particularly with respect to IDPs but what choice did we have? You must come out with guns blazing against lawlessness and terrorism and not give space to them at all. Israr Sahab, this is what the silent majority wants from you.
In conclusion of your interview, you aired some conspiracy theories. The reality is that those who use crutches cannot walk on their own legs. Similarly when one does not understand issues and fails to analyse any further, he or she attributes it to a conspiracy theory. The moment one alludes to a conspiracy theory, we must simply count him out because he has proved that he is unable to observe, think and analyse.
Sir, you said 9/11 was done by the Americans themselves and blamed on the Muslims. Do you have a proof for advancing such a claim? Two wrongs do not make a right. Now let us examine what you mean by “we” or “us”? Are you one with Osama Binladin? He does not even consider you as a Muslim. You are not in the reckoning at all. I wonder why we Muslims should find common cause with him. We are not part of him. He landed in Afghanistan after having been driven out of Saudi Arabia and then the Sudan. None of us knows what his arrangements were with the CIA when he fought the Soviets.
Here is someone who has no understanding of the issues. His only virtue is his wealth and arrogance compounded with his ignorance. He is not a state and he wants to solve problems. When all 52 Muslim countries put together cannot even design a screw, how this de-naturalised citizen of Saudi Arabia can to take on the sole superpower.
When quixotic ideas, such as Osama Binladin’s, are floated around, the results are as catastrophic as they have been. We lost Afghanistan and then Iraq. We solved none of our problems. On the contrary, we compounded them. Neither the Palestine, and nor the Kashmir issues were solved. These two problems are at the core of Muslim problems. His actions have hurt both causes. Can you deny it?
Who created Israel? Was it the Jews? Yes, partly. But who played the critical role in weakening the Muslim ummah? There is no denying that it was the Arabs themselves. During the Khilafat, the British offered Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey, the choicest areas of its empire for one little concession which was to let Jews settle in Palestine. The Sultan said "over my dead body". Similarly, the Sultan was unmoved when Rothschild offered him all the wealth in the world. Then the Jews and British set about dismantling the Sultanat e Osmania. They said "we will have you dead".
They sent T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia fame) to conspire and oust the Turks with the help of the Arab chieftains on the west and propped up Abdul Aziz from East to conquer the Arabian Peninsula. In the process, the British mandate helped Jews to settle in Palestine. It is also a fact that due to lack of education and sophistication, some Palestinians sold land to Jews; and even agreed to move to America but were actually dumped in South America (where their progeny still survive). Yes, some Palestinians were expelled by force. The Turks were defeated with the help of the local Arabs themselves, and as a result they got a cruel master - Israel.
So who made Israel? The Arabs. Had they not conspired against themselves - the Muslims, today the scene would have been entirely different. The Arab regimes were always stooges and tools in the hands of the West. Even today the scenario has not changed. Isn’t it Hosni Mubarak who is blocking essential supplies to Gaza? Isn’t King Abdullah of Jordan playing partner to Israel? Didn’t Saddam attack Iran to destroy the Islamic Revolution? So does it help Binladin to go and do what they did? The right thing for the Arabs is to first free themselves from the yolk of these corrupt Arab regimes, develop themselves truly and then take on their enemies, America or whatever.
Your suggestion that 9/11 was an insider job is highly erroneous. People are lead to believe what you say and in the end we as Pakistanis and young Pakistanis who to West for studies etc. have to pay a very high price. They are questioned at the airports made to sit for hours on end etc. etc. Thank God the neocons are not in the White House but see what our younger generation had to endure. This figment of imagination has our next generations no ends.
On few other occasions again you went grossly wrong . You have time again said 91,000 Muslim force never laid down arms in history and that it was a matter of great shame for the Muslim World History that we did it. India had bloated up the number for obvious reasons. You swallowed it hook line and sinker without going into details. You should have at least read A.A.K.Naiazi's Betrayal of East Pakistan where he has given full details of fighting forces and civilians.
They were no more than 34,000 and for that huge area the numbers were pathetic. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to malign the army for political scenario then, had also bought the Indian figure. You talk of Allah and the Rasool MPBH you cannot tell anything without being 100% sure factually. It does not matter what you think. There is always a huge gap between fact, fiction and POV (point of view).
Then you started this prophecy of Mehdi Akhir Uzzama. Every thing came to a naught. Asrar Saheb you are a serious scholar and must stick to your speciality? I know you are medical doctor but you took on religion. If it is religion, so be it. Stick to it. Why dabble into areas you are not too familiar with? Least of all you must not get into justifying terrorism one way or the other. Aiding and abetting is as much a crime. They have killed people by thousands, blown up schools and police stations and what not? Do not side with them.
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In all these years, international affairs have changed immensely. You have many means now of fighting the enemy. But do we do that? Do we even know what the new tools are?
You are supposedly an educated man why do you side with the shortsighted terrorists? We do not expect this from you Sir.
Rest later, time permitting.
We shall presently discuss that threadbare. Soon Inshallah. I shall continue. Keep watching this. It will get very interesting. I promise.
The diplomats never did their job, just enjoyed postings and perks...
