Author: Husain Haqqani
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 7, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/22701.html
The world's 1.4 billion Muslims seem overwhelmingly
enraged by the war in Iraq and the suffering caused by US military intervention.
But there appears to be little outrage against the sectarian bloodletting
that has led to more Iraqi casualties than war directly involving American
troops.
Muslim leaders and intellectuals find it easier
to criticise outsiders for the harm inflicted on fellow Muslims. When it comes
to recognising the suffering caused by fellow believers, there is a tendency
to fudge the issue.
The lack of democratic space in much of the
Muslim world has prevented the emergence of mass non-violent protest movements,
especially aimed at the conduct of other Muslims. It is common for demonstrators
in Muslim countries to protest against the actions of Israel or the US. But
one seldom hears of protests against the wrongs committed by Muslim regimes
or, in Iraq's case, sectarian militias. The violence perpetrated by Sudan's
regime in Darfur, for example, has gone by and large unprotested in much of
the Muslim world.
Muslim thinkers and leaders have been preoccupied
with the question of "how to reverse Muslim decline, especially in relation
to the west." There is still little effort to recognise the real reasons
for Muslim humiliation and backwardness.
Islam's early generations produced knowledge
and wealth that enabled Muslim empires to dominate much of the world. But
now almost half the world's Muslim population is illiterate and the combined
GDP of the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) hovers
near the GDP of France alone. More books are translated every year from other
languages into Spanish than have been translated into Arabic over the last
century.
In the year 2000, according to the World Bank,
the average income in the advanced countries (at purchasing price parity)
was $27,450, with the US income averaging $34,260. Last year, the US income
went up to $37,500. Israel's income per head stood at $19,320 in 2000 and
was $19,200 last year. The average income of the Muslim world, however, stood
at $3,700. The per capita income on PPP basis in 2003 of the only nuclear-armed
Muslim majority country, Pakistan, was a meagre $2,060. Excluding the oil
exporting countries, none of the Muslim countries had per head incomes above
the world average of $7,350.
National pride in the Muslim world is derived
from the rhetoric of "destroying the enemy" and "making the
nation invulnerable." Such rhetoric sets the stage for the clash of civilisations
as much as specific western policies. It also serves as an opiate that keeps
Muslims riled against external enemies with little attention paid to the internal
causes of intellectual and economic decline.
The Muslim world needs a broad movement to
review the material and moral issues confronting the Umma (the community of
believers) and an introspection of Muslims' own collective mistakes.
Muslims must peacefully mobilise against sectarianism
and the violence and destruction in, say, Iraq. But for that, Muslim discourse
would have to shift away from the focus on Muslim victimhood and towards taking
responsibility, as a community, for our own situation.
The Quran describes Prophet Muhammad as the
prophet of Mercy. Muslims begin all their acts, including worship, with the
words, 'In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful.' The Quran also
says 'To you, your faith and to me, mine,' which removes any theological basis
for sectarian violence. But unfortunately these mercy-focused and peacemaking
ideas are lost in the overall discourse in the Muslim world about reviving
lost glory and setting right the injustice of western domination.
Once Muslims convince themselves that the
sectarian violence is a Zionist or American conspiracy or that it is the result
of American occupation, their rage gets diverted. There is little rage and
resentment against fellow Muslims who are actually engaged in that meaningless
violence and little room for a Muslim Martin Luther King to stand up and say
"We are responsible for this and we need to put an end to it."
The writer is director of Boston University's
Centre for International Relations
- haqqani@bu.edu