London attacks

LONDON has now become the third European city after Madrid and Istanbul to have suffered death and destruction at the hands of terrorists. The nearly 50 dead and over 700 injured make it the deadliest ever attack on London since World War II. Who but perverse minds could have thought of such a dastardly attack? As in the case of the events of 9/11, Al Qaeda’s hand is being seen behind Thursday’s attack, too. Officially, Britain has not pointed its finger at any particular group, though Foreign Secretary Jack Straw thought it could be Al Qaeda. Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling the attack “barbaric”, noted that the vast majority of Muslims abhorred terrorism and said that those who mounted the attacks in London acted “in the name of Islam”. Condemnation has poured in from around the Muslim world, President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz both saying that the attacks had vindicated Pakistan’s role in fighting terrorism. Britain’s Muslim associations too have denounced the bombing, though the Islamic Human Rights Commission, fearing reprisals, has advised Muslims to stay home. Also remarkable was the calm and poise displayed by the British people, especially those present on the scene, who refused to be panicked.

By any standards, this is Britain’s 9/11. Notwithstanding the difference which Mr Blair saw between the terrorists and “the vast majority of Muslims”, things are bound to become difficult for Britain’s Muslim community. There may be no visible signs of persecution, but the attacks can set back efforts to preserve Britain’s multi-religious and multi-cultural society. From a narrower angle, Muslim students wishing to study in the UK will find it extremely hard to get a British visa. Which is a pity, because after 9/11, Britain and Australia have become the most favoured destinations for Muslim students. Those who perpetrated Thursday’s deed — and the crimes in New York, Bali, Istanbul and Madrid — must ask themselves what service they have rendered to Muslims and to the cause of Islam. The senseless acts of terrorism have in fact induced a tacit understanding among major powers at the expense of the Islamic world. What the brains behind Al Qaeda should realize is that this callous murder of innocent people is not going to make Britain change its policy on Palestine and Iraq. Britain handed over Palestine to European Jews, and Britain, together with the US, will see to it that Israel not only survives but stays as the Middle East’s strongest military power and acts as their proconsul. All that such criminal acts do is to make things even worse for the Arabs and the Muslims.

It is now for Britain to try to understand the reasons behind what Bernard Lewis calls “the Muslim rage”. Britain has fully lent its firepower to America in Iraq. As a British medical journal pointed out, civilian deaths in Iraq have crossed the 100,000 figure. This is in addition to Washington’s and London’s indifference to the Palestinian people’s genocide and the abuses of rights in the occupied territories. Madrid was also targeted because of Spain’s participation in the Iraq war. There are more civilized ways of registering a protest than murdering Egypt’s ambassador in Baghdad or setting off bombs that kill innocent people, antagonizing the West more and more against the Muslims and Islam. Political methods have to be intensified to end the occupation in Iraq and normlize the situation in Afghanistan besides ensuring justice in Palestine.

Firearms & violence

AS the clock begins to tick ever closer to the hour of local council elections in the country, the spectre of violence has risen, though not quite unexpectedly, over the electoral horizon. Political parties have been among the first to recognize this trend. A few have already publicly expressed their fears of violence and disruption during the polls. One problem is posed by the proliferation of arms in the country, particularly in the province of Sindh. Civilians are believed to be holding up to 10 million illegal weapons, according to the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization. More conservative estimates put the number of unlicensed weapons at 1.2 million – still much too many for anyone’s liking. What is more alarming is that these weapons have been used freely to fuel all kinds of violence across the country. Those brandishing the weapons have not hesitated to target people in their effort to spark religious, sectarian and political violence. In Karachi alone the death toll from gun-related violence exceeded 1,000 every year between 1992 and 1998. The city has lost between 18,000 and 20,000 to gun-related violence. In other parts of the country firearms are particularly used with devastating effect to settle personal or tribal scores. On the whole, the proliferation of arms has created a culture of violence and crime and made provincial governments very uneasy when it comes to law and order.

To its credit, the government of Sindh has imposed a three-month ban on the display of weapons during the period of the polls, but exactly how much control would be exercised by this measure is unclear. After all, it is the eradication of firearms that we must try to achieve, and for that goal it is important to first address public concerns about safety and security. What will also help is effective gun control policies and the creation of a safer environment for all citizens.

Another gang-rape case

THE Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says that a woman is raped every two hours in the country. Given this horrendous statistic, one shouldn’t be surprised to hear of yet another rape incident in Multan. We have come to put up with the senseless logic of how one woman’s honour can only be restored by attacking another woman’s honour. Nonetheless, this doesn’t lessen the sense of outrage at the plight of the 25-year-old married woman who was kidnapped from her home in Chiniot and gang-raped at gunpoint, just because a member of her family had been accused of kidnapping another woman. Six men were arrested on Wednesday for the crime and their case will be tried in an anti-terrorism court. The police’s record in presenting solid cases for the prosecution is generally dismal, which is why few men are ever convicted. One hopes, though, that this case isn’t botched up. It doesn’t help that the police themselves are often charged with rape: on Wednesday a police officer in Sukkur, accused of raping a woman in detention, was arrested.

It is hard to understand why horrendous crimes against women are rising at such alarming rates in the country. It seems that the media’s reporting of such crimes and civil society’s efforts to raise awareness of the issue are falling on deaf ears. Unless top-ranking government officials are alerted about an individual rape case, nothing gets done, but that is hardly a solution for those scores of women whose plight one never gets to know of. All efforts need to be made so that society, by and large, is sensitized on these matters. The same is true of the law-enforcement agencies which must spare no effort in ensuring that justice is done to the aggrieved party in all cases.