Compounded Waste

Marketplace Sad’r City
at the busy intersection
the mother in black chador
clasping the hands of a child
with baleful eyes and shy smile
a ragged doll pressed to her bosom
cacophony of the bazaar
a car, like any other car
one moment and a cascading
inferno raining mayhem next
people

shouting, cursing His name
running in every direction
stunned, felt something hit my foot
it was a small hand clasping
another hand very tightly

_____________________________________________ __________________


21,447 And Climbing

Alarmed, apprehensive, disgusted, shocked, puzzled are some of the feelings evoked by the daily headlines we read removed from the scenes of violence in Iraq and elsewhere.

Let me make something clear at the outset. While the killing of Iraqi civilians at the hands of occupation forces is reprehensible and condemnable I will discuss them at another time. This is to focus on the Iraqi suicide bombers taking civilian tolls and the questions it raises in my mind.

While the modern resurgence of suicide attacks is attributed to the Israeli-Palestinian imbroglio, it is really an old phenomenon.

Hara-kiri and seppuku long accepted in Japanese and Chinese cultures evolved in to kami-kaze mission in the second world war.


The Recent Past

The current historical detour would include the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the Balfour Declaration, the League Mandate after the collapse of the Ottomans, the second World War’s aftermath, creation of the state of Israel, scores of Deir Yassins, (don’t look for the maps the towns and villages have been bulldozed and their original names changed), displacement of the Palestinians from their homeland, return of the Jews, and the denial of the same right of return to the exiled Palestinians.

Enough?

There is more. Arab impotency, both at individual and state levels, successful Zionist political and military campaigns and lip service of the Muslim and Arab governments, within their countries, at international level and to the Palestinians. This leads to the unsettled cauldron miscued as the Palestinian problem.

On one side the best and the latest F-16s and Apache gun-ships and patriot missiles and other sophisticated armaments supplied by an increasingly haughty uni-power and on the other side stones and rifles. David and Goliath. Let the show begin. Hang on to your television sets.

No Justification

In a Memo to Americans Dr. M. Khan writes:

Islam specifically forbids suicide (Quran 4:29) and the killing of civilians, women and children (Bukhari: Book of Jihad).

The theory of Jihad (Struggle in the path of God) forbids violence except when 1) Muslims are not allowed to practice their faith (freedom of religion is threatened) 2) when people are oppressed and subjugated (in pursuit of freedom) and 3) when people’s land is forcibly taken from them.

Islam allows a range of responses. One can forgive the oppressor or one can respond in kind. There are Quranic sources encouraging both positions.

And slay them wherever you find them, and drive them out of the places from where they drove you out, for persecution is worse than killing (2:191).

Tell those who disbelieve that if they cease persecution of believers that which is past will be forgiven them (8:38).

While war in search of justice and to escape persecution is permissible in Islam, what happened on Sept. 11th certainly is not. I wonder how those Muslims responsible for the slaughter of American civilians would rationalize their actions in the light of this Quranic verse:

He who has killed one innocent soul, it is as if he has killed all humanity. And he who has saved one soul, is as if he has saved all humanity (Quran 5:32).


Not all suicide bombings have Palestinian roots

Witness the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Or what happens in Russia’s Palestine, Chechenya. The Basques in Spain. The Kashmiris and Naxalites. The Baluchis and the Shias of Gilgit. The Moros.

We know that some folks have their genuine or not so genuine claims against what they may deem an occupying power. This grievance can also result in discontent that can be capitalized by others from within and without. And when democratic and peaceful outlets are not an available recourse they may end up adopting violent tactics to drive in their point.

And the innocent civilian is caught in the cross fire.


Rumsfeld’s offer to Saddam

Some local TO papers had carried a news item quoting an Arab Daily out of London Al Quds Al Araby

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld paid a secret visit to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and offered him freedom and possible return to public life if he made a televised request to armed groups for a cease fire with allied forces.

Saddam promptly rejected the report

I have not seen this reported in any major media out of the west.

It is obvious that the US occupation forces have failed to stem the ravages of suicide bombings in Iraq. As an occupation power under the Geneva Conventions the onus of maintaining law and order is upon them. Instead they appear bogged down without a viable exit strategy.

The innocent Iraqi civilians continue to pay the debts of an imposed war with their blood twice over. They continue to suffer at the hands of the occupation forces as well as the home grown suicide attackers. This is no Masada.

Osama and his lieutenants continue to wreck havoc upon the civilians in the name of Islam without any justification.

And the yahoos and cuckoos in the Muslim fold continue their double speak.
Islam is a religion of peace. Come brother let’s kill!

As a Muslim I cannot decide what is worse the US intransigence or Osama’s arrogance. Or the reverse. And what makes a person part with their life.

Emergence of the human body as a weapon of choice

Some months ago live on C-SPAN Pakistani print and media journalist Hamid Mir gave a talk in Washington, D.C. He is the host of a hard hitting program on Geo TV and reportedly the last person to have interviewed Osama Bin Laden.

In the speech he mentioned that he asked Osama to quote one justification in the Qur’an supporting suicide bombings. Hamid said Osama held forth the court for three and a half hours but was not able to satisfy him convincingly. How could he? There is no justification for suicide bombings in Qur’an be they aggressive, defensive or any other kind.

Finally an exasperated and visibly tired Osama turned the question over to his aide Ayman al Zawahri, who also could not come up with a satisfactory answer.

Qur’an being a written document, backed by codified Sunnah in the forms of Hadiths and related body of commentaries that made Mohammed (saw) the most well documented prophet has not made the job easier for scholars.

Craftily sifting through the vast body of works a deviant group can find that which backs their point of view and ignore or hide that which opposes it.

But the ultimate sanction and arbiter of good and bad behaviour is Qur’an itself. And if it specifically allows or forbids a certain act no amount of back pedaling will work.

Hence the intriguing questions in my mind. Who are these suicide bombers? Who backs them? Who supports their families? And who gains?

While these are important and valid questions, I am also troubled by this: how can a person play with his/her life in such a reckless manner and take the lives of a few more innocent civilians?

What ticks? What makes them give up life - a beautiful gift from God, so callously? How are they recruited? Who pays for their families? Are foreign governments involved? Saudis? Mossad? CIA? Hamas? The Brotherhood?

While some of these queries may be rhetorical or outlandish, one fact remains indisputable. The majority of moderate Muslims are not above blame. By not questioning, by not debating, by not probing they are being squeezed by the misguided activist minority from within and by the rest of the non-Muslim world from without.