To Hell with the Region

                                                                                    And the Umma can go take a walk

The late Kamal Farooqui was no run of the mill scholar. End 1979, as a guest speaker in the Command & Staff College Quetta, he delivered a body blow to Zia’s constituency. On why the Muslims were making such heavy weather of the democratic process, his response made us sit up in our seats. Those who were programmed to unthinkingly believe in One God, One Prophet, and One Book, would naturally be uncomfortable with making choices. Faith in the Divine Right of King or Caliph was not only anathematic to freedom of choice but also a breeding ground for a subservient culture. Collaborating with external powers led to disaffection amongst the peers and repression against the dissenters in the society. It may not be a solely Muslim problem but did result in friction within the largely contiguous Umma. Not easy to find two Muslim neighbours who’re not at each other’s throat.

As an instructor in PMA, I sponsored the leadership series. God knows how many principles were then in vogue but do remember that the list was open-ended. ہَر کِہ آمَد عِمارَتِ نَو ساخْت (almost every expert on the subject added or subtracted one or two). Some like leading by example and accepting responsibility were indeed inviolable. A lesson from Field Marshal Montgomery’s book has remained stuck in my mind for the last over fifty years – “when the time comes, a leader had to be prepared for it”. Never met anyone who singlehandedly thought through all the contingencies. A council of elders, a group of advisors, even a good kitchen cabinet (provided it could give different views) were indispensable. And then we needed some inbuilt safety valves.    

Hameed Gul was one of our better-known and well-read generals. As Zia’s favourite, he once declared democracy un-Islamic. Displeased with Musharraf’s unconditional surrender to the post 9/11 American diktat, he became a convert. NATO ally Turkey refused to provide bases to the US for its 2003 misadventure against Iraq – as the parliament in Ankara had vetoed it.

Unbridled leadership can also violate Islamic edicts – and get away with it. Ijtihad had to be abandoned centuries ago because it was continuing to interpret the Quranic injunctions in keeping with the Zeitgeist. Jihad may have spanned a wide spectrum – could be waged by the pen or the sword; collectively or individually; on practical or ideological grounds – in the reasonable belief that one day it would challenge a tyrant, it became synonymous with the T word. Just in case, one didn’t know who all were in the forefront scuttling the Arab Spring (monarchies; anyone), I could name a few who got scared after the 1990 uprising in Kashmir. Those who remain unmoved by heavenly decrees like care for the neighbour or holding tight to Allah’s rope, were not likely to be impressed by some geopolitical mumbo jumbo like the need for regional harmony.

I’m not sure who invented the concept of national interest – but we all know who defines it in a given system. A one-man rule but manages it better. We all must clap in unison behind the head Qawwal. Qawwali no wonder was patronised by the colonials. Of course, there are exceptions in the Muslim world – tribals for example who refuse to be civilised. But I’m intrigued what makes the Shiites in Iran and the likes of Hezbollah and Houthis so taken in by martyrdom! Soon after 9/11, in a conference on the new forms of terrorism, an Israeli general blurted out that they now had no choice but to get a fatwa from some Sunni ulema that taking one’s life though forbidden in Islam was still being encouraged by the black turbaned mullah. Madder still are the asymmetric warriors who believe that like an infantryman, a human being was a complete weapon system; the best one since created by none less than the Almighty. Little surprise that they win every time.

No problem with any religious or secular ideology but the practitioners of Islam do have one – how to convince their leaders that they were no gods. And that’s where the adherents of this faith woefully fall short.

Didn’t Allah say somewhere that if the followers of this last of the Godly religions were not up to the task, the reins would be handed over to some other of His creation!

Asad Durrani

Lt Gen ®

27 Feb 26