A Tale of Two Countries

With the upsurge in violent (and co-ordinated attacks) across the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of a controversial Internet video mocking the prophet Muhammad (Mohammed, Mehmet, etc.), what has happened in Libya and Pakistan is instructive.  In the former realm of Colonel Gaddafi (Qaddafi, etc.), the American ambassador to the country and three more of his staff were killed by an extremist militia.  Outraged at this assault on ‘guests’, the people of Benghazi – where the atrocity took place – stormed the headquarters of two Islamic militias (one of whom was responsible for the murders) driving them out of the city.  It is a glorious demonstration of people power, one to warm the cockles of anyone who desires a peaceful, democratic system in every country.

The darker side of people power was on the far edge of the Middle East, where the Railways Minister in Pakistan has offered a $100,000 for anyone who kills the person responsible for the offensive film.  This after the Pakistani government, incredibly, sanctioned a day of protest against the movie – an action that led to the death of many in the riots, including an attempt to storm the American embassy in Islamabad.  That the member of a democracy can stand up and issue what is in effect a fatwa is deplorable.  Jinnah would be not just turning but spinning in his grave.   The trouble is Pakistan is one step away from a failed state, but not just any failed state but one encompassing more than 100 million people and possessing nuclear weapons.  The government tries to placate the religious authorities but just encourages them to be even more violent and dogmatic (witness the destruction of cinemas in Peshawar, even though the contentious flick was only released on the Internet).

I don’t agree with those of a so-called realist worldview that these populaces need secular strongmen to keep their ‘raging passions’ in check – in fact, it is distinctly patronising at best, not to mention incorrect.  All bar one of the 9/11 hijackers came from dictatorships.  Many jihadis who travelled to Iraq in the wake of the 2003 American-led invasion originated from Benghazi itself and Gaddafi himself employed fanatical mercenaries who promptly returned home to Mali after his fall and seized half the country (aided by an abortive military coup).  General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq promoted conservative Islam in Pakistan to give an aura of legitimacy to his military rule and General Pervez Musharraf let the radical Islamists flourish.  Bashar al-Assad’s refusal to make a transition to a more open and democratic Syria has caused Islamic terrorism to take root in the country.  Ali Abdullah Saleh was in power in North Yemen since 1978 and a unified Yemen since 1990, yet al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula based itself there and the highest number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay by January 2008 were from Yemen.  These dictators, apart from Zia-ul-Haq who sought to create a hardline Sunni state, all tried to suppress radical tendencies but just inflamed them further through their crackdowns.  Democracy is a useful pressure valve in any society and despite the disturbances and violence in Pakistan, democracy remains its best hope too in the long run.  Libya though seems a state with more promise here and now.