Asia Times: Musharraf draws flak from Arab world


	January 16, 2002	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Musharraf draws flak from Arab world
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - President General Pervez Musharraf has backed down over Kashmir in an attempt to avoid a war with India, but Indian feedback as well as Pakistani intelligence reports confirm that Indian troops remain massed at the border and are prepared for a limited conventional war.

Under United States pressure, Pakistan has put the Kashmiri struggle into reverse gear, and Musharraf has attempted to strike at the root causes, such as imposing restrictions on Islamic seminaries that nurture the spirit of jihadi.

Musharraf's landmark speech at the weekend was a brave attempt to change the traditional dynamics of Pakistani society overnight by turing it into a progressive and pluralistic country, which was the vision of Pakistan's founder, Muhammed Ali Jinnah. The success of this will be measured by social scientists in time, but unfortunately, despite taking such bold steps in a traditional society like Pakistan, what Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said on Monday shows that the US has exerted one-sided pressure and left Musharraf at the possible mercy of extremists.

Fernandes said that India's heightened military presence along the border with Pakistan will not be scaled down until Pakistan ends what he called cross-border terrorism. Mobilization is complete, he said, and any effort at de-escalation could only come if and when cross-border terrorism was effectively stopped Fernandes told journalists that he welcomed the commitment by Musharraf to crack down on militants, but he is waiting to see if Musharraf can translate words into real action.

In the past few days more than 1,500 militants have been arrested in Pakistan, and even the administration of Pakistani Kashmir has followed Islamabad's lead by closing down the offices of all jihadi organizations.

Speaking to Asia Times Online, former Pakistani diplomat, political analyst and advisor to many former premiers and head of states, Hussain Haqqani said that Pakistan had taken a U-turn in its policies, seemingly under US pressure.

According to sources, Musharraf ignored the most important US demand, that 60 prominent Koranic seminaries across the country be closed. The president did not mention this issue in his speech, and afterwards he resisted further pressure to make an announcement, arguing that he did not want to put himself in conflict with the schools until he saw the effects of what he had already announced in his speech.

Sources say that Musharraf's latest decision has not been greeted with respect in the Islamic world. In fact, countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have been big sponsors of Islamic seminaries in Pakistan. One of the recently banned militant organizations, Laskhar-i-Taiba, hails from the Sunni Wahabi school of thought and is the recipient of heavy Saudi donations.

Arab countries supported these organizations at Pakistan's insistence, as in the case of the Taliban where Islamabad urged Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to recognize the regime, yet it subsequently let them down by denouncing the Taliban. Now it is doing the same with the militant organizations, by cutting down on them after spending so much time and effort in building them up.

Sensing the dismay of many Arab countries over Pakistan's wayward approach in recent times, especially as Arab countries have been less then enthusiastic about the US war on terrorism and the resultant escalation of Israeli action in Palestine, Musharraf has sent a delegation to rally their support. The delegation included the Minister of Communications, retired lieutenant-general Javed Qazi, and Ejazul Haq, a former minister and son of former dictator, General Zia ul-Haq. General Zia, interestingly, laid the foundations of Islamic jihad in Afghanistan and Qazi was the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) when the Taliban movement emerged in the mid-1990s with the ISI's support.

Ironically, the men are now on a mission to undo the work of Ejaz's father and the ventures of Javed Qazi himself, which until just a few months ago were considered heroic.

Even Iran views the latest developments in Pakistan with concern. This despite the fact that Pakistani extremists have targeted many Iranian diplomats, students and nationals on sectarian grounds, something that has caused tension between the two countries.

The government-controlled Tehran Times ran an editorial showing Iran's reservations on the situation. "Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf addressed his nation on Saturday night in a televised speech that has received much publicity, and has been described as 'very significant'. However, although Musharraf's address was expected to deal with exploring possible ways to defuse tension with neighboring India, he mostly focused on new government policies to suppress activities at theological schools and mosques and separating politics from religious instruction.

"Immediately after Musharraf's address, US President Bush, British Prime Minister Blair and other influential figures of Western diplomacy praised the Pakistani president for his new policies. Almost a month ago, some Western media reported that Washington is going to extend US$100 million to Islamabad annually to be spent on the management of theological schools and supervising religious instruction, theology students and their teachers, in cooperation with the United States. Other reports have said that a central control system has been installed at Islamabad Airport, which transmits information via satellite to CIA headquarters.

"Even before that, during its attacks on Afghanistan, the United States promised to cancel Pakistan's debts, extend more financial assistance and remove any limitations on Islamabad's nuclear programs. Considering this, it is unlikely that there is no connection between the US interventionist policy and Musharraf's remarks on Saturday night.

"Officials in Islamabad know better than anyone that Iran has suffered most from terrorist and extremist groups in Pakistan, which have assassinated Iranian diplomats, cultural officials and students on several occasions. Besides this, ever since the radical and reactionary thinking of the Taliban was transferred to Afghanistan from some religious schools in Pakistan, and ever since this Stone-Age militia took power in Kabul with the full support of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), it was the Islamic Republic that never recognized the reactionary militia for their oppression of the innocent Afghans.

"Pakistan and other Islamic nations should realize that the Zionist-conceived plan to undermine religious instruction in the Islamic world is high on the US agenda. Attempts are also being made by some Zionist circles to misrepresent and misinterpret Islamic tenets and principles.

"Among divine religions, Islam has the greatest respect for other religions, and a considerable portion of the Holy Koran deals with Christianity and the Prophet Jesus Christ. In other words, Islam is a religion of dialogue and promotes peaceful co-existence among followers of all religions.

"However, the rulers of Islamic countries should also realize that even if there is a need for reform in religious instruction, the task should be carried out by Islamic scholars, not Zionist circles and US strategists!

"Considering the remarks recently made by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who stressed the need to Westernize the world by imposing Western values on other nations, it seems that there is a carefully meditated plot behind US attempts to take control of religious schools in Pakistan, which aims to devoid Islam of its basic principles like jihad.

"Although jihad, a cornerstone of our religion, means legitimate resistance against aggression, by equaling it with terrorism these Western religious instructors aim to deprive the Islamic world of one of its major defenses against foreign aggression.

"Those Islamic countries who have invited aliens to take control of their religious schools should bear in mind that if they lose their religious and national identity, they will no longer have anything to be proud of."

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