[Reader-list] Brooding on Eid by Irfan Hussain(in Dawn)

[rashneek kher]

ON Tuesday I got a call from this newspaper, informing me that as Eid would
be celebrated on Thursday, there would be no issue of Dawn on Saturday and I
did not therefore need to send a column this week.

So I slept late the next morning in the belief that I had a day off.
However, my cellphone soon informed me that the mullahs had changed their
minds, and Eid was now on Wednesday, so a column was required after all.
Another Eid, another round of confusion. Ever since I can remember, we have
not been able to resolve this relatively simple problem. Year in and year
out, the members of the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee (or 'moon-men', according to
the long-defunct Sun) have one straightforward task to perform, and each
year they goof up. You'd think that with just one useful thing to do in 365
days, they would occasionally get it right. And yet, even Saudi Arabia
announces ahead of time when Eid will be celebrated, so it can't be rocket
science.

Across the Muslim world, Eid is being celebrated on three different days.
This is fine, but at least these other Islamic countries have one Eid
internally. In Pakistan, on the other hand, we have often marked the
festival on different days in different places. So when people talk of the
unity of the Ummah, I can only roll my eyes in disbelief.

While scrolling through Dawn's Internet edition, I learned that our sports
minister was very upset over the Australian decision to cancel its cricket
tour of Pakistan because of security concerns. The minister complained that
although bombs were going off in India too, the Australians were going ahead
with their visit to our neighbour. Well, the truth is that there are bombs,
and there are bombs: the devices that have taken such a tragic toll in
Indian cities were locally made, and did not involve suicide bombers. Above
all, they did not target foreigners.

In Pakistan, given half a chance, our home-grown heroes would happily kill
as many foreigners as they could. The suicide attack at the Islamabad
Marriott appeared intended to slaughter as many westerners as possible. The
other difference is that the terrorist attacks in India were universally
condemned. In Pakistan, there is much more ambivalence in people's attitudes
towards these killers, with many in the media coming up with the "Yes, but
…" argument to somehow equate terrorism with western policies.

We in Pakistan have lost touch with reality to the extent that we do not
realise how out of step we are with the rest of the world. Even before
Pakistan became a no-go land for foreigners, it was not a particularly
attractive destination. When Ian Botham famously declared that Pakistan was
a country he would like to send his mother-in-law to, there was an explosion
of indignation in our media. But look at it from a touring cricketer's point
of view: after a day of competitive sport, he would like to get to explore
and shop, like any other tourist. In Pakistan, however, security
considerations keep him a virtual prisoner in his hotel.

In other countries, visiting sportsmen go off to pubs, clubs and parties;
they shop for presents; and when they are at the seaside, they go to the
beach. None of these normal activities are possible in Pakistan. So
unsurprisingly, many tours are now routinely cancelled on security grounds,
and the players probably heave a sigh of relief.

One result of this sporting isolation is that our standards are falling
sharply. And rather than playing tough matches against visiting teams, our
players are embroiled in endless inquiries into their conduct. In fact, I
doubt if there's another cricket team in the world with greater disciplinary
issues than ours. In a way, this is a reflection on the general environment
of decline and lawlessness that has come to characterise us.

We constantly complain that Muslims are discriminated against by the rest of
the world, but we refuse to see what a laughing stock we have reduced
ourselves to by our own actions. Recently, a publisher's house was
firebombed in London because he was about to print a novel called Jewel of
Medina. This book has still not seen the light of day, so the attackers
could not have possibly read it. And yet they were willing to kill or wound
a person for daring to agree to print it. I have little doubt that when the
book does appear, it will offend many Muslims.

By rioting, raving and ranting against material deemed to be offensive,
Muslims do not do themselves any favours. The entire Rushdie episode, for
instance, was far more damaging to Muslims than it was to the author or his
publishers. The manner of protest over the Danish cartoons did not harm
either the offending newspaper or the cartoonist.

Any day of the week, it is easy to watch a TV show or a stand-up comedy act
in England that people belonging to, say, the Christian faith may find
offensive but nobody gets worked up and threatens the artists involved.
Occasionally, Ofcom, the watchdog for the media, gets a complaint from a
Christian group, and it investigates to see if its guidelines have been
breached. But the Vatican or the Church of England do not issue fatwas
demanding that somebody should be murdered for a work of literature.

More and more, Muslim societies are being seen as intolerant, violent and
irrational. And more and more, Muslims around the world seem determined to
prove their detractors right. Instead of introspection and self-analysis, we
are forever condemning the rest of the world for our plight, our isolation
and our image. This paranoia feeds our perpetual state of self-righteous
indignation.

Re-reading this column, I can see that it is not entirely appropriate for
Eid. But that's what the mullahs get for depriving me of my day off. And
Happy Eid, no matter when or where you celebrated it.


http://www.dawn.com/weekly/mazdak/mazdak.htm

-- 
Rashneek Kher
Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com