DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI analyses the Feb. 21 Qur’ān burning incident in Afghanistan and comments on the weak, light-worded and incoherent explanations, and no regrets extended by the Obama administration.
Did, rather do, the Commanders of the US forces as well as the Commanders of the US allied forces not know what the Qur’ān is and what importance the Afghans rather the Muslims the world over attach to the Holy Book?
Have they read and can they confidently pinpoint chapters or verses they feel inculcate hate and terror in the minds of its readers?
Can they point out an instance, just an instance, of Muslims desecrating any divine or non-divine scripture like the Bible or the Torah, the Talmud, the Gita or the Guru Granth Sahib?
Was the making of a bonfire of a few copies of the Last Word of Allah, a faux pas or a calculated and deliberate step by the occupiers of Afghanistan?
The incident took place on Feb. 21 and now we are in the first week of March. Has, in the intervening two-week period, any punitive action been taken or even contemplated by the US President, who, besides being Muslim from his mother’s side, is Commander-in-Chief of the US forces as well?
DEFENCE OF INDEFENCIBLE
These are the unanswered questions that have kept the Muslim mind upset the world over during the last few weeks.
What has not gone unnoticed by the Muslims is the defenceless defence of the indefencible as well as use of lighter language for the heinous offence.
The US President, Mr. Barack Obama, first in a telephonic conversation with Mr. Hamid Karzai, followed by a letter, has maintained that the incident was “unintentioned” and he is “sorry” for that. From Muslim point of view it was not unintentioned but manifestly deliberate. As far as his “sorry” is concerned, now this is a commonplace, an expression devoid of any shred of sincerity. It was a political formality that Mr. Obama fulfilled. Muslims have rejected it with the contempt it deserves.
The US Defence Secretary, Mr. Leon E. Panetta described the sacrilege as “inappropriate”. We ask: Is burning of the Qur’ān just inappropriate?
A senior US official, who like a seasoned morally coward, preferred to remain behind the scenes and told Reuters that “they (the volumes of Qur’ān) were taken out of the library ‘for good reason’ but they were being dumped in a bad way.”
Here is an unambiguous, too-obvious and clear-cut defence of the burning of the Divine Book. To the General it was the “manner” in which it was executed. Otherwise it was “for good reason”. Then the General added: “It was just breakdown of values.” One fails to understand how pulverising the foundation of an international ideology can be described as just breakdown of values. Commonsense runs into the face of the General. Does he know?
According to the Taliban sources in Kabul, the Feb. 21 outrage is 10th in its series in Afghanistan. Till now over 30 persons, including Americans, have died in the anti-US violence. Some allied soldiers were also killed. About 200 have received injuries.
By 2014, the US and its partners-in-crime have to leave Afghanistan. But if the Taliban and Afghans in general, we feel, continue their protests, Mr. Obama would have to rethink and use his discretion. By the way, it is thus that US provokes its victims. According to Muslim observes, this provocation, which is deliberate, is likely to prolong the stay of the armed guests, who have overstayed hospitality.
Muslims are not prepared to believe that it was a foolish act of an ignorant soldier. Each and every US soldier and those of the Allied forces are given a workable knowledge of Islamic tenets. Therefore, we are inclined to believe it was a conscious, well-planned act, aiming at a longer stay on the foreign soil. As pointed out earlier, this is how they ignite fire and shift the blame on the Muslim shoulders. They invent lies as they did in Iraq, to provoke Muslims, used as cannon fodder at the end of the day. It goes without saying that Mr. George W. Bush has yet to give the world a cogent explanation with regard to the weapons of mass destruction, the late Mr. Saddam Hussein they say had kept in his basement.
Suppose the moony, the ignorant, the innocent US soldier who had desecrated the Qur’ān, was really an idiot. What was the moral and political obligation of his educated colleagues and wise bosses? Instead of dousing the flames, they justified the mad act and tendered weak, light-worded and incoherent explanations, while expressing no regrets.
Maybe, the Bible, the Torah and the Talmud are irrelevant now for our Christian and Jew brethren. But the Qur’ān ISN’T so for Muslims. It is Islam’s bedrock; it is Islam’s sheet-anchor. It is Islam’s very lifeblood.
And, should we remind our tormentors that Muslims have never ignored, and do not ignore or insult the divine prophets that the Christians and Jews think had come exclusively for them. Muslims have never afforded, and cannot ever afford to reject them. All the divine prophets and the Books revealed on them constitute a part and parcel of the Islamic faith. The world Muslims expect the world Christians and the world Jews to re-read their unedited scriptures if they are available anywhere, and we believe they are. This reading would definitely enlighten them. We are not asking them for the moon. We are expecting large-heartedness. We are expecting catholicity. We are expecting accommodation. Would they mind being told that the Qur’ān is the Last Word of Allah? It is the Last Word on decent living and the Last Word on dignified living?