PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf in his address on Wednesday at the OIC summit held in Makkah Mukarramah called upon the Muslim nations to shun path of violence. He observed that the Ummah had option of either a confrontational course or a conciliatory one to move forward in the comity of nations. Despite rich natural wealth and vast human resource, the Muslim world generally presented a spectacle of pervasive poverty, deprivation, disease, dismal life standards and illiteracy. He rightly emphasized the true spirit of Islam which is faith of peace and tolerance. He called upon the extremists in various Muslim societies to see reason and shun militancy which offers no solution to our problems and leads only to more pain and greater misery.
President Musharrars appeal for renaissance through reformation of OIC and pooling of resources of Muslim world for advancement of the Ummah is timely given the Western attitude towards Islam in the wake of Nine Eleven tragedy. We need to dedicate ourselves to the cause of promotion of education and science and technology. Without mastering the modern sciences, the Muslim world can under no circumstances move forward in this highly competitive world. We must come out of the past and prepare our young generation for the leadership of the future world. No doubt, in the Middle Ages, the Europeans looked up to the Muslim world for guidance in the fields of science. Over time, the other nations devoted themselves to industrial, scientific and educational advancement. We were victims of stagnation. Gradually, the Europeans and other nations assumed the leadership of the world through mastery of science and technology. The Muslim countries remained backward through sheer neglect.
Most of the Muslim states are struggling to evolve stable institutions for governance and remained far removed from expanding frontiers of knowledge, education, science and technology. As we are essentially agricultural economies and providers of raw material, the developed world exploits our backwardness in science and technology. The entire world economy is under control of the non-Muslim world which guides our destinies. Even the rich amongst us are consumers of fruits of modernization and innovations of other developed states. The President’s appeal for mandatory contribution to the proposed OIC fund for education, science and technology if followed by the Ummah will help develop our societies expeditiously. Once the Muslim world catches up with the fast developing economies, the oppression of Muslims the world over shall stop.
At present we are amongst the poorest. Despite the fact the Muslims constitute one-fifth of mankind, we are generally backward and poor. In fact, 17 out of 57 Muslim countries are rated as the poorest nations. President Musharraf’s call for Islamic renaissance will be adequately responded if the recommendations of the Commission of Eminent Persons appointed by the OIC earlier are followed in letter and spirit. To begin with, on the one hand violence shall have to be discarded and on the other sincere efforts are made with a sense of commitment to advance in the fields of education, science and technology. The Muslims have formulated over the years various programmes to break the shackles of illiteracy and backwardness. No time should be lost to go ahead with their implementation.

9/11 mindset

IN A scathing report, the US Commission that probed the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington has warned that the US is dangerously unprepared for a major terror strike even four years after 9/11. The former commission members, five Republican and five Democrat, have given grade ‘F’ (on a scale of A, B, C) for America’s security preparedness or the lack of it. Criticising the anti-terror measures of the US authorities, the commission says the Bush administration is ‘moving at a crawl’ against nimble terrorists leaving the country vulnerable to more attacks in the future.
The commission findings are surprising, to say the least. It’s not clear what prompted the commission members to conclude that the US has not taken adequate measures to deal with the security threat. In fact, following the September 11 attacks, not only the US has taken unprecedented steps to beef up security in the country but it has put extremely tough, — some would say draconian — anti-terror measures and security checks in place to pre-empt and deal with an attack of 9/11 magnitude. Across the country, every exit and entry point is strictly monitored. Multi-layered security checks and frisking at airports, railway stations, and all public places have become commonplace. There are security cameras everywhere and nothing misses the attention of the ever-watchful Big Brother. There are routine crackdowns on immigration violations with a strict tab on foreign students and tourists who earlier routinely entered the country never to leave.
This is not the case with US alone. Most Western countries are emulating the US example to have tougher and stringent laws and security measures in place to deal with terror threat. Even Britain, easily the most liberal country in the Western world, has taken a leaf out of America’s book after July 7 bombings. It has taken its security vigil to extraordinary levels, not witnessed even during the World War II, with unprecedented checks and 24/7 monitoring of public places and transport through security cameras. If despite these extraordinary measures, the 9/11 commission feels the US is unprepared for terror attacks, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the whole approach to fighting terror or this commission is being unreasonably paranoid.
What we know for sure is the fact that nothing more can be done on the security front. The constant frisking and checking has touched unreasonable levels around the world including in the US. The tough anti-terror laws and measures in several countries including the US are already seen by human rights groups as severely undermining civil liberties. So little can be done to improve things on security front. What governments can do is examine the causes that drive ordinary individuals to extraordinary measures and solutions. It may be a hackneyed argument but nonetheless remains true. Dealing with the factors that fuel extremism may be the only and sensible way to fight terror.

-Khaleej Times