It's not War between Islam and West

Prof. Dr Tahir ul Qadri speaks openly on current developments in his latest exclusive interview with Pakwatan.com

Prof. Dr. Tahir ul Qadri is a known religious scholar as well as a famous Pakistani politician. He is the founder of Minhaj ul Quran and is also the leader of Pakistan Awami Tehreek(PAT). Below are the excerpts of his recent interview with Pakwatan.com

P.W (Pakwatan.com). You have been supportive of the present military regime of President Gen. Parvez Musharraf since the very first day. Now since most of the religious parties of our country have opposed the government’s support given to the US. in the strikes against Taliban. How do you justify your support to the government?

T.Q- (Dr. Tahir ul Qadri). Your question is related to the act of terrorism conducted on 11th of September on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon and the Taleban-American conflict is a result of that. Our point of view is very clear. We don’t consider it as an issue of Muslims and Kaafirs. This is just the matter of terrorism. Those were terrorist attacks and these kinds of attacks have nothing to do with Islam, Islamic propagation or Islamic service. So after that the government of Pakistan was asked by the USA to cooperate with global alliance against terrorism and eliminate the terrorist activities. The Government of Pakistan had two options at that time. In case of saying ‘no’ to the request of cooperating with the global community against terrorism, we would have imposed a war on ourselves.

And by doing so the entire West, America and the Security Council would have bracketed Pakistan with Afghanistan and they would have declared Pakistan a state which harbours or protects terrorism. Rightly or wrongly but this was the given situation and we had no other option. India and Israel were also trying and they were wishing that Pakistan should respond by saying ‘no’. We would have risked our nuclear capabilities also. So saying ‘no’ could have been dangerous for Pakistan and its integrity. On the other hand, there was no benefit of responding in this way to Afghanistan either, because we were not in a position to save them from the war. We were not in position to stop America from imposing any kind of war. Now what happened when we said ‘yes’. By adopting this stance Pakistan has saved itself from global isolation and has foiled the plans of India and Israel.

So in a way, Pakistan has upgraded its status and it is because of these reasons that we supported the government of Pakistan. I think Pakistan has also saved the six million Pakistanis living overseas who would have been at the mercy of others.

P.W. You are considered as an authority on Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic law. The Bush administration is contemplating on the ban the US Congress had imposed on US security agencies to assassinate somebody. Perhaps it is being done so for Osama Bin Laden. How do you see that in the light of Islamic law?

T.Q. I have already made it clear that this is not a war between Islam and Kufar. This is just a war against terrorism. Assassination of common people, I think, who are not linked to terrorist activities can never be consider as Islamic. So I don’t think there would be any justification of lifting of this kind on ban. Killing is lawful only of those people who are involved in terrorism but for that proofs are required.

P.W. The entire West and the United States in particular, are extremely unpopular in the Islamic world inherently because of their dominating role in the global politics. As an Islamic scholar, how would you convince the majority in the Islamic world that it is really not a war between Islam and West?

T.Q. This war cannot be considered as between Islam and Kufar. As far as the unpopularity of America in the Muslim world is concerned, I agree with this point. No doubt America has made itself highly unpopular among the Muslims all over the world. And the reason behind this is the foreign policy of the United States.

Another basic complaint is the question of Palestine. The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in 1947 and it decided that 53 per cent of the land was allocated for the Palestinian state and 47 per cent territory for Israel. But in spite of the Resolution, the land was not given to the Palestinians. Israel has been violating the UN Resolution for the last 54 years and finally Palestinians lost their territory. This indicates the dual standards. Same ios the case of Kashmir where India has been violating and ignoring the UN Security Council Resolution.

Pakistan has always been a friend and an ally of America while India was a friend of Russia in the days of the cold war. But Pakistan was never given a positive response of friendship. Now the cold war is over, America has changed it priorities. Now many people say that India has become more important than Pakistan. These are the general feelings of Muslims and Pakistanis that America never proved itself as a good friend of the Muslim world. It is a reality that always on Western media, terrorism is bracketed with Islam. Muslim feels that terrorism has no religion. It is a barbaric act. There should be a uniform formula for the Islamic and un-Islamic world.

P.W. Do you tend to agree with a British Muslim cleric who only a few days ago gave a fatwah that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair is wajib-ul-qatal? How far do you think its right?

T.Q. I really don’t know about this British Muslim cleric who has given this kind of Fatwah. He certainly is a jahil. He is an ignorant and an illiterate person and he cannot be treated as a competent authority on Islam, Quran, Sunnah, and Shariah. He seems to be an emotional person having fanatic and extremist tendencies. It is because of these kind of people that many in the West are against Islam. I condemn this kind of fatwah.

P.W. Even if one agrees with Osama Ben Laden that it is a battle between the forces of west and Islam but don’t you think that this battle should be fought in all fields like education, science, technology, etc., instead of fighting it our through terrorism?

T.Q. Well, talking about Osama Bin Laden I must say that the Taliban should have handed him over to the OIC, European Union or to China and should have asked them to guarantee impartial investigation with a fair trial. You know that Umar Abdur Rehman is under trial for the last 8 or 9 years and he has not been hanged. So, America or any Western country is not going to hang Osama in one night. It will take 10 to 20 years before the case is finalized.

The demand for Osama is not only on the bases of September 11 events. This demand is according to the resolution of UNO No. 1267 of 1999, which was passed in connection with the bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Tanzania. I agree with you one hundred per cent that if we feel the need to compete with other nations of the West, we should do fight the battle in the fields of education and science and above all, peacefully.

P.W. It is more than a decade now that you formed your own political party but it is also true that Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) has never done well in any general election? What reasons do you attribute to PAT’s failure?

T.Q. We never participated in the elections of 1993 and 1997. We participated in 1990 but we boycotted during the process of polling because we were convinced that the elections were not being held fairly. The first election in which we have decided to participate fully will be the elections of 2002. We have only participated in the local bodies elections and we have done good in the local bodies elections. We hope PAT will be in a position to make a government in future. We have suspended our political activities now we are concentrating on social-welfare and human rights programmes. We are in the process of establishing 27,000 education centres and libraries all over the country and not only on religion but also relating science and IT.

P.W. Do you also believe that the leaders of the major political parties - Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto are out of Pakistan’s politics forever and if so, do you think there is any hope of a fresh leadership emerging in near future?

T.Q. Let me correct you. These two parties now are not the leading political parties any more. You can say they are two major parties no doubt but they do not have the monopoly status any more. PAT has filled the vacuum and now you can say that there are three major political parties in the country. And this gives the scope for emergence of fresh leadership in near future.

P.W. Is it likely that the present military set-up will pave way for genuine democracy in future that the people are hoping for the last so many decades?

T.Q. We hope that the present military set-up will pave the way for genuine democracy. We believe that Gen. Musharraf and his team will revive true democracy, a true democratic culture. We really are in need of the true democratic culture, system and behaviour at every level. Our present political system cannot pave the way for genuine democracy. This is a feudalist system. There is a political monopolistic division in constituencies among various people. There is no chance for the common man. I would suggest that elections should be held under the proportional representation.

PW: You must have visited the Pakwatan website. Do you have any message for internet users?

TQ: I think the overseas Pakistanis living in different countries are part and parcel of Pakistani society and community. They are contributing a lot for Pakistani economy. They should be given the right of vote in Pakistani elections. I appreciate their activities and enthusiasm for Pakistan. At the same way I appreciate pakwatan.com because they are doing a great service to Pakistan. They are promoting the mission and ideology of Pakistan. They are encouraging the citizens of Pakistan in various fields, and activities. And I congratulate them and pray for their success.

The Revival 2001