The US Visit
Objectives, Benefits, Apprehensions and Objections

By Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

Muslims are settled in fairly large numbers in the Western countries, especially in the Northern America (United States and Canada), Britain, Germany, and France. Native people in America and Western Europe, too, are embracing Islam. These people are also organizing themselves. They have established mosques and Islamic centers everywhere in Europe and America. Therefore, Islamic parties from all over the globe have contacts with these organizations, and their leaders keep on visiting these countries, off and on. Today, there are some 10 million Muslims in the United States of America. This makes for two to three percent of the total population of America and this is how Islam has become the second largest religion in America after Christianity. Five percent of the population in Germany and Britain and 10 percent in France is Muslim.

Despite being in so large numbers, the impact of Islam and Muslims has not been as it deserves to be due to the paucity of effective leadership and lack of planning. However, for being the citizens of the most affluent countries, the importance of this Muslim minority in the Western countries cannot be denied. Keeping contact with this Muslim minority, drawing their attention to the basic requirements of Deen (divine teachings), and making them realize their duties in the Western society as emissaries of Islam is an important religious obligation. The conscious and distinguished Muslim citizens of these countries are fully aware of the need, and they wish, that distinguished leaders of the Muslim world visit these countries so that, because of their appeal, they could invite local Muslim population and make them realize the need for political, economic, and social penetration and influence. Now, the Western intellectuals and governments themselves have started realizing that along with ‘Islam and the West’, ‘Islam in the West’ has become the most important subject. The call of the time is to assure the Western society that Islam stands for the good and welfare of humanity, that Muslim Ummah stands for serving the humanity, that Islam is a divine order for God-worship and not nation-worship and stands for the welfare of whole humanity, rather than that of a particular race, color, or region, and that it has a message of peace and prosperity for the Western society as well.

The forces that are hostile towards Islam, especially the Zionist lobby, are trying to block the way of masses looking towards Islam in the Western society (but that goes on because of Islam’s natural attraction and its being the order that is closest to the Nature), by declaring it a religion of terrorism, bloodshed, violence, rigidity, and extremism. Some intellectuals spread the theory of a clash of civilizations that declares confrontation between Islamic and Western civilizations as inevitable. This is how the minds of common people were polluted with prejudices and doubts and misgivings by declaring Islam and Islamic civilization as enemies so as to block the way to understanding Islamic teachings. The need of the hour is to settle this dust that are spread by the adversaries and to remove these misgivings that are there and to make serious efforts at conveying our message to the policy-making Western institutions and intellectuals so that the way to dialogue and understanding is adopted for knowing the Islamic teachings, instead of spreading the theory of conflict.

My visit to America has surprised some detractors for their acute differences with American policies. Some have found it to be indicative of change in policy, while others, considering it an opportunity for leveling allegations have started a smear campaign. But the knowledgeable and the wise know that contact and dialogue between the leadership of groups of differing views is nothing to be surprised about. Even in the battlefield, the embattled groups maintain contact, and keeping contact is part of struggle.

This was also the nature of my US visit. Last year too, I had gone to the United States on the invitation of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and in addition to attending their annual convention, I had participated in congregations in mosques and Islamic centers that are functioning under their auspices in different cities. This year, too, I visited America and Canada to attend different congregations, after having participated in the Convention.

A special feature of the tour this time was the decision with the American and Canadian embassies that I would also meet the intellectuals and the State Department’s officials. These meetings were arranged because these people wished to hear the viewpoint of the Islamic Movement directly from its important leader, and because I wanted to relate to them about the just stand of Islam and Muslims.

Allah gave me the opportunity to present the just stand of the Islamic Movement with sound arguments before the important figures of American policy-making institutions. Important Pakistanis were also present during these sittings. My each and every word defended the just stand of Islam and the Islamic Movement, and I never capitulated at any time from my stand that I keep on expressing in Pakistan. I also derived a satisfaction from these sittings that when someone with faith in Allah gives expression to the truth, his opponent has to keep quiet even if not willing to change his policy for reasons of self-interest.

In different sittings, I talked on Kashmir, Palestine, nuclear program, Pak-India relations, terrorism, Afghanistan, and US sanctions against Pakistan; and said what every champion of the cause of truth should say.

At every occasion, I openly expressed Pakistan’s principled national stand on Kashmir that it is the legacy of the unfinished agenda of the Partition of India. It had been decided between the British government, the Indian National Congress (that represented the Hindu majority), and the All-India Muslim League (that represented the Muslim minority in India) that contiguous Muslim-majority areas in the subcontinent would go to Pakistan while those with Hindu majority would go to form India. The State of Jammu & Kashmir has 90 percent Muslim majority. Its all valleys open towards Pakistan. It is part of Pakistan naturally, geographically, historically, religiously, and culturally, but India has been occupying it through sheer use of force and fraud. The people of Kashmir are, therefore, deprived of the independence that the rest of the subcontinent had achieved in 1947. Despite its repeated covenants, India has failed to comply with the United Nations’ resolutions. It has been repeating ad nauseam that Kashmir is its integral part, though it was India that had taken the issue to the UN and had promised to act upon the UN resolutions. Until India gives up its litany and declares that Kashmir is a disputed area rather than its integral part, talks on any formula would be meaningless.

During my presence, no other proposal was propped up in any meeting because my stance was quite clear that until India accepts the disputed nature of the Kashmir imbroglio, no meaningful talks are possible on any proposal.

On July 24, when I was preparing for my return journey, I received a call from BBC (London) informing and asking me to give my response to the one-sided cease-fire Mr. Abdul Majid Dar had declared in Sri Nagar. This I could not believe in. I, therefore, refrained from making an immediate comment; but when the Jamaat’s headquarters confirmed the cease-fire announcement, I disowned it while still in New York and declared it to be the outcome of immaturity.

Sadly, some critics of the Jamaat tried, in vain though, to link this announcement with my Washington trip, but, praise be to Allah, they could not succeed in creating doubts and suspicions due to the Jamaat’s clear stance and by now all the ambiguity they had created has been cleared away. Hizbul Mujahideen is once again supporting the stance of the Jamaat-e-Islami with singular devotion and is waging Jihad in the way of Allah to end the Indian obduracy and is firm on that stand to arrange tripartite talks (Pakistan, India, and Kashmiri people) for the solution of the Kashmir dispute according to the UN resolutions.

The Palestine issue has assumed great importance. While I was in Washington, President Clinton was busy in arranging for negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. America and Clinton are trying their best to pressurize Yasser Arafat to get him withdrawn from the stand the whole General Assembly of the United Nations has supported, i.e. Israel be expelled from the territories it occupied in the 1967 war including East Jerusalem, and Palestinian be restored their right to live in the homes of their forefathers from where they had been driven out 50 years ago.

American double standard stands exposed in Palestine. It uses the UN only when to secure its interests and achieve its aims, but has paid no heed to the clear UN resolutions just to negate the Palestinians’ rights. Though the UN itself has not done justice to the Palestinians, Israel does not give two hoots to its advice. America is seen standing audaciously alone with Israel and against the world community. It is exerting pressure on Yasser Arafat for withdrawing from the accepted rights of the Palestinians. We have condemned this brutal American attitude at every forum.

At the time, Pakistan is facing pressure form America on terrorism, though Pakistan itself is the target of terrorism. Those who are at the helm of affairs in India openly admit and say that if Jihad continues in Kashmir then explosions would continue in Pakistan. This is despite the fact that the freedom movement in Kashmir is a struggle that is accepted under the international law and whose ethical support is the duty of all the nations of the world. Until India is compelled to give to Kashmiris their right to self-determination according to the UN resolutions, armed struggle is the only way for Kashmiris. But, terrorism in Pakistan in unjustified. It is done clandestinely, and innocent people become its victims. There is no legal or ethical justification for it. Jihad in the way of Allah is a means to end terrorism. In Jihad, there is no room for harming the innocent and taking them as hostages. But, instead of exerting pressure on India to stop terrorist activities against innocent Pakistanis, US collusion with it against Pakistan and attempts at isolating Pakistan in the region, to the extent of instigating even China, Central Asia, and Russia against Pakistan is an open fraud. In this respect, I said in the policy-making American institutions that Pakistan is ‘the most sanctioned ally of America’.

Besides these issues, I spoke on the following important topics to present Islamic stand on the cultural and civilizational encounter of Islam and the Western world:

1. Man is dependent on divine guidance for adopting the right attitude to all matters. Indifference from the guidance of the One who created the universe and materialistic thought have made man victim of extremes, and the anxiety and tension the Western society finds itself in despite its technological advancement is the result of this materialistic attitude. Though a few intellectuals in the West have become convinced of the importance and use of religious beliefs in collective and individual life, the general thinking is still based on secularism according to which they think that rationalism has outdone skepticism after a struggle of 400 years between rationalism and religious skepticism in the West. To them, Islam and Muslims are undergoing this struggle from which the Jews and Christians have come out, and that modern scientific and technological progress is the result of the independence that they have achieved from religious skepticism. The moral decline making inroads in the Western society and the way their family life is disintegrating has caused a few thinking people to worry. There are people who without being affected by their historical background are ready to listen to the voice of Islam and are trying to understand the features of Islam and Islamic Movement, yet the general trend is still of secularism and materialist. The need of the time is to spread this voice in the West with full force, with prudence and wisdom, that humanity cannot attain peace and satisfaction without divine guidance.
2. Independence is Allah’s gift, but individual’s freedom should not be harmful to the collectivity. Nor should one group’s freedom be provocative or irksome to the other. The concept of basic rights should base on moderation, and the Western world should refrain from imposing Western values and civilization on the whole world and from steps against the religious beliefs of others.
3. Though man and woman are equal in rights, they are not equal in responsibilities and capabilities. They differ in capabilities and responsibilities. In certain respects, the responsibilities of woman are more important for the well-being of humanity, but the capability for certain responsibilities is endowed on man only. To put the burden of men’s responsibilities in disregard to her physical and psychological capabilities is not doing justice to women. Woman is being tricked when sermonized about equality, this has added to her problems. The destruction of the family life and increase in women’s woes in the Western world is the result of its unnatural attempts at undoing the difference between man and woman.
4. Resource distribution at the international level is unjust. 20 percent of the world’s population has accumulated 87 percent of resources, while 80 percent population has only 13 percent of resources. This is further aggravated by the flow of resources that is, even at this time, from the poor countries to the rich ones. Curing this unjust distribution is a must for global peace.
5. Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction are, in their origin, inhuman and un-Islamic. According to the Islamic law of war, harming a non-combatant even during a war is prohibited. But Western countries have arranged for the destruction of humanity by inventing lethal weapons of various kinds. If we do not arrange for our defense to face these weapons, our fate would be as was of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
6. Our nuclear program is for defense, not aggression. If America, Russia, and other nations including India and Israel eliminate all lethal weapons, Muslim countries and Islamic Movement would not then insist on developing these weapons. With us is the message of human welfare and we are sure that humanity would look to the message of love and fraternity of Islam for the solution of problems in the future. But this would be when Muslims are powerful, not weak.

I wish to remove some misgivings that have arisen out of the Press reports:

I did not oppose Taliban during any session. Though I said that we do not want Taliban-like system in Pakistan. In Pakistan, we want implementation on our Constitution that includes the Objectives Resolution and Islamic provisions. We want riba-free economic system in the light of recommendations and decisions of the Council of Islamic Ideology and the Federal Shariat Court. The most responsible Ulema in Pakistan share this stand that enforcement of Islam in this country should be in light of the Constitutional struggle and according to Pakistan’s own conditions. Pakistan’s Constitution, recommendations of the Council of Islamic Ideology, decisions of the Federal Shariat Court, and proposals of different committees provide quite strong and durable foundation for it.

I said everywhere that there is a difference between American administration, American government, and American nation. Islam is the religion of humanity, it does not discriminate on the basis of region, color, race, and language. We are not enemies of people of any part of the world, we are well-wishers of all human kind. Yet, we consider certain policies and attitudes of the American government as unjust and hostile-to-Islam and discriminatory against Muslims. I have opposed the childish avowals of killing the Americans while in Pakistan. The Islamic Shariah also guarantees the safety of a guest who has come on valid visa or a diplomat. It does not behave to a learned person to issue decrees for killing non-Muslim tourists with valid visas, though they may belong to a hostile country.

The future world is the world of exchange of information and mutual contacts. With the revolution in Information Technology, the whole world has become a village where all people are mutually linked. They are being affected by one another. The belief and ideology that is superior, whose followers are sincere and observing, the way that is beneficial; that belief, ideology, and way would long last while the way that is harmful for mankind would be rooted out. This is an irrefutable fact, and would be more clear in modern era, but the condition is that Muslims do not indulge in mere lip-service but try to understand correctly the Quranic beliefs and concepts in the light of the Prophet’s model, and prove their ethical superiority before the world by acting upon them.

"He sends down water from the skies, and the channels flow, each according to its measure: But the torrent bears away the foam that mounts up to the surface. Even so, from that (ore) which they heat in the fire, to make ornaments or utensils therewith, there is a scum likewise. Thus Allah shows forth (by parables) Truth and Vanity. For the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth. Thus Allah sets forth parables."
(al-Ra’ad 13:17)

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Translation and adaptation of the editorial of Tarjuman Ul Quran October 2000.