‘Did you know that two thousand years ago a Roman citizen could walk across the face of the known world free of the fear of molestation? He could walk across the Earth unharmed, cloaked only in the protection of the words civis Romanus -- I am a Roman citizen. So great was the retribution of Rome, universally understood as certain, should any harm befall even one of its citizens. Where was American Citizen’s protection in Kabul, or anybody else at that airport? Where was the retribution for the families, and where is the warning to the rest of the world that Americans shall walk this Earth unharmed, lest the clenched fist of the most mighty military force in the history of mankind comes crashing down on your house?!’
I have amended the words of the fictional US President in the show the West Wing. But it conveys the feelings of many today.
The cheers of ordinary Pakistanis at the Chief of their Intelligence Agency sipping tea in Kabul is sad as it belies the extremist values of Pakistan, where terrorism is State policy – not by the PM – he is there at the pleasure of the Army and the ISI, but by their military and intelligence agencies.
India is the only secular major democracy left in Asia. Pakistan has been ruled by its military for half of its history. And Afghanistan, which used to be a monarchy, is now completely non-democratic.
Around twenty-one countries in Asia are Muslim or Islamic in their policy. India is the only country in Asia where both Muslims and Hindus have equal rights under the Constitution.
Many Muslims living in Pakistan do not want to live under equal law with non-Muslims; they want to live under Islamic law or Sharia. But this does not mean that this desire will lead them to create their own country where they will live under stricter Islamic law.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, after its independence from Britain, there were two groups of people - the Pashtuns and the Tajiks. The Pashtuns had been living in Afghanistan for hundreds of years while the Tajiks arrived in Afghanistan more recently.
The problem is that although a pure Islamic state has been favoured by Afghans for hundreds of years, the reality is that the Afghan government is actually secular in practice and not really Islamic at all according to its own laws or even according to international laws. So the Afghan people are actually struggling between reality and their desire of having an Islamic country. Just as Islam is struggling with medieval practices the Christians long ago rid themselves of and modern liberal practices where people are free to do as they please as long as they do not cause physical or financial harm to others.
Afghans may well want to create an Islamic state, but they do not want to create a purely Islamic state as it could be led by Islamists who would impose religious dictatorship on the country.
So I think that Afghans will struggle for years to come until they create a system of government that is acceptable to everyone. And this system will most likely be a hybrid of Islamic and democratic systems where Afghan citizens are able to live under their own laws, but where Islamic law plays an important role in the government.
If Afghans want religious freedom, democracy and equality under law, they will have to accept a democratic system. But if they want an Islamic state, it will have to be governed by centralised laws derived from Islam or Sharia.
Afghans are struggling between what they want and what may actually happen. Islam is struggling between what it perceives itself to be and what it’s extreme adherents with guns want to impose on all mankind. And that becomes the West’s problem.
I leave you with this quote, from the same show I mentioned at the start of this article, “You're all frightened... as well you should be. Not since the Protestant-Catholic wars in the 16th Century has Western society known anything remotely comparable to the subcontinent's religious malevolence. Uh, to a lesser observer, the intensity of the emotional frenzy is so illogical as to border on mass psychosis. And I looked and I beheld a pale horse, and the name that sat on him was Death and, Hell followed with him."
