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Different Jihad (October 27) We wonder if the US government employed an advertising agency to come up with the names of its operations in its war against terrorism. Names that can leave lasting images such as "crusade", "infinite justice" and now "enduring freedom", unmistakably had the marketing and definitely would have made the creative department of any advertising agency anywhere in the world strut with an overflow of the eureka feeling. However, much as we acknowledge the shine in the names, as many commentators have already pointed out, their allusion to, as well as jabs at Islam, even if unintended, is unfortunate. Perhaps it has to do with the Freudian slip -- an unconscious acknowledgement of Samuel P Huntington's controversial theory of the convergence of world politics towards a clash of civilization, an idea that he articulated in a 1993 essay. The essay, which has been analyzed, dissected, praised and ridiculed enough already, has suddenly come to be of interest again, if not relevant, in the wake of the ongoing war. To return to the point, the term "crusade" evokes images of medieval, feudal Europe waging a religious war against its eastern neighbors that follow Islam. "Infinite justice" as it has been pointed out is also the meaning of Allah. "Enduring Freedom", in this sense may be secular but overflows with an arrogance that seems to suggest that only the Western (American) values can guarantee freedom. As a retired brigadier of the Pakistan Army, Saukat Kadir, whom BBC interfaced with a panel in London to discuss America's war on Afghanistan said, President George W Bush might as well have named his operation a "Jihad". Unwittingly there did seem at one point that a shift of the war against terrorism towards Huntington's clash of civilization was taking place. The war did seem definitely like a war between the West and the Islamic countries, and it was also more than visible that many vested interests were actually wishing it evolved this way. Huntington's analysis of the current trends of world politics is chilling. We would not dismiss his theory as mere rhetoric as many have, but we do notice a strong element of the assumption of prescience in it. History's course, and consequently human behavior and destiny, seems to be charted to its very conclusion. It is suffocating and no less frightening than the crystal gazing of Nostradamus. And even if they were right, we would still like to believe that despite destiny's grand plan, the primacy is with the individual. In such a midst, voices that reaffirmed the belief in oneness of mankind, both from the West and the East, came as manna from Heaven. We like to believe history and human destiny are uncharted territory. We still believe that the individual's effort matter in the navigation of this vast ocean. We still believe that the aggregate of individual wills is the energy that shapes history. We still believe that love, friendship, tolerance, understanding, humanity. can transcend ethnic divides as easily as civilizational fault lines. Afghans or Americans, Christians or Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists, life is magical. No fundamentalism or reductionism can change this. (Courtesy: The Imphal Free Press) FrontPage Manipur Profiles Features Potpourri Opinions Editorials Books Photos Links Archives Contact Policy/Disclaimer |
