ISLAM, PAKISTAN AND AMERICA….

Prayers at Eid Gah Karachi

(Written for a Pakistani colleague to be presented at an American Church locally)

Islam and Pakistan are intimately intertwined such that one cannot be mentioned without the other.

Paksitani flag: 99% muslim, 1% other faiths

Immigrants to America fleeing religious persecution in Europe

Like America, where immigrants who were the victims of religious persecution such as those who fled the Spanish Inquisition, the French Huguenots and the Pilgrims, Pakistani immigrants also were the target of religious persecution in undivided India by the Hindu majority, despite being under British rule.

Muslim refugees fleeing religious persecution in India, boarding the train to Pakistan, 1947

Both sets of Immigrants, those to America and those to Pakistan settled in their respective countries to seek a sanctuary to practice their Abrahamic religion in peace and tranquility.

Unlike America Pakistan is not an island and has a 1000-mile border with a hostile country that has had its eye on its abundant crop and water sources from day one.

Like Nebraska, the Punjab or the land of five rivers has been the breadbasket and the fruit basket of not only Pakistan but of the entire South Asian world.

Unlike Nebraska its fertile soil and produce is eyed by India and Afghanistan with the intent of taking it by force rather than trading for it.

Like Americans, Pakistanis when transplanted any where in the world are entrepreneurial, diligent, and ambitious and have a great work ethic.

America who has demonstrated its friendship with Israel though thick and thin, has neither respected nor supported the political work nor the silent, steady and unswerving, continuous support and friendship of the Pakistani people despite the tumultuous politics they have faced in the subcontinent of India and Pakistan in the past sixty years.

There are three major ways that Pakistan has enhanced the status of America in the world:

Agha Hilaly of Pakistan & Kissinger off to China

1.   Pakistan opened the gates of China for America by being a bridge through complex and highly confidential negotiations to bring them together via a secret meeting between Nixon, Kissinger and the Chinese elite.

Agha Hilaly of Pakistan meeting with Nixon & Kissinger on the China mission

2.    It opened the gates to Afghanistan for the supply of soldiers and arms to fight the Russians, which broke the back of Communism and shattered the iron curtain forever.

3.    It opened the gates to Pakistan and Afghanistan to allow America to find and apprehend the perpetrators of the violence of 911

In return it is a sad fact what the American people and the American Government has given to the people of Pakistan:

The beauty of Pakistani cotton

1.    After the deal with China, The World Bank at the instigation of a few American partners pulled the rug from under the cotton industry of Pakistan, which at that time was the largest business industry in Pakistan. The World Bank demanded that the billions of dollar in loan be paid in three days, resulting in a total collapse of the cotton industry.

Following this economic debacle, Pakistanis slowly but surely bounced back through their innate optimism and their trust in God and grew and traded cotton with the other side of the world, the south Asia rim and tried to recover from the economic blow that America had given Pakistan thus discounting its friendship.

2.    Succeeding that America placed sanctions on Pakistan because it had a nuclear bomb, whereas its neighbor India was not placed under similar sanctions, this further squeezed the economics of the population of Pakistan, significantly, widening the economic gap between the well to do and the poor and thinned the middle class, which used to be the back bone of the country (unlike its neighbor India which was teeming with the extreme poor or the few very rich)

An afghan refugee girl receives bread from a restaurant owner in Karachi

3.    Pakistan absorbed three million refugee children and women (men were dead) from Afghanistan after the US supported war on Russia.

Pakistan was left with no support to assist in the economic rehabilitation of these orphans and widows that flooded the border cities and trickled down to the seaport of Karachi, 1000 miles away creating serious social issues.

4.    America supported a military dictator instead of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, and gave millions of dollars in military aid that never left the United States except in the form of arms or military training of officers brought here to be trained. Meanwhile the people of Pakistan were reeling from the sanctions, the endless stream of refugees and the crash of their cotton trade.

Afghan Refugees fleeing to Pakistan

5.    Into this scenario came 911 and Pakistan’s assistance in the war on terror became for them a war of terror, as the incessant bombing of Afghanistan brought three million more women and children in to Pakistan, again with no help in sight to date.

Why has America used Pakistan in this manner?

In my humble opinion it comes from a basic tenet of judging the world of people by size.

In the eyes of some American policy makers, if one is large like India, one is likely to be more powerful and useful and vice versa.

What has escaped the attention of most strategists and foreign policy makers in the United States is that in the region of the subcontinent of India and Pakistan, size has never mattered.

History has borne witness that a small tribe of the Mughals conquered almost all of India and ruled it for several hundred years. Later a small country located on an island in Europe named ‘Great Britain’ ruled all of India for 150 years. Thus size does not matter, at least not in the complex mix of the sub continent of India and Pakistan.

What matters most in this exchange between nations of basically honorable god fearing people is integrity, loyalty and a sense of honesty and respect for each other’s values, and an attention to the retention of memory of deeds done for friendship and perhaps a vibrantly alive conscience to repay the favor in a similar form.

Pakistani’s have always admired the American people for their work ethic, their sense of fairplay and most of all for their lack of stuffiness.

Salaat where ever you are

American’s on the other hand have admired the Pakistani’s who have migrated to the United States for their integrity, their work ethic, their industriousness and their moral values, all of which stem from their faith Islam.

Islam is the faith of 99% of Pakistanis and it is an integral part of their life and thinking, no matter where they live.

Islam is reflected in their humility of demeanor which is sometimes misconstrued as weakness, in their hospitality which is sometimes misconstrued as excessive and overdone, it is reflected in their soft manner of speech, which is sometimes judged as insecurity, it is reflected in their generosity which has sometimes been commented on as foolishness and it is reflected in their sensitivity to  wastefulness which had sometimes been thought of as stinginess.

All these attributes observed in Pakistanis are the key social elements in the practice of our religion Islam. We have learned these at the knees of our elders who have learned them from the etiquette of our Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon Him.

In summary I would like to say that in so many ways Pakistanis and Americans are intrinsically alike in their values and beliefs, even though their religion and their countries have different names.

In the final analysis we are at a crucial crossroad and we must evaluate what is the role of Americans in their own future?

The world has suddenly become transparent by being “connected” the borders have melted and the cyber roads have no impediments in spreading the actions of people of every nation.

Thus Americans now find themselves in a position where they have to cast their vote for a foreign policy.

Since America is no longer an island and the actions of the Americans are visible to all and asunder, it is urgent that each American cast his or her vote on foreign policy based on what they would want for themselves and therfore must want the same for their friends and neighbors. The Quran and the Bible both instruct you and me to “treat others as I wish to be treated”.

It all boils down to:  Do we want friends who have integrity, ethics and are reliable in their consistency of support or do we want predatory avaricious partners who are blind to ethics? Can we treat other differently from us?

A conscious decision must be made for us to be transparently honest with our children, and ourselves.

We stand at the brink of a global world where the borders of this island have been breached making the quality of our friends, of renewed and vital importance in our future lives.