INDIA & PAKISTAN TENSION: SOME REFLECTIONS:

-BY DR SLM RIFAI: UK -

Kashmir problem in brief: I do not want to repeat here the historical account of Kashmir problem. Since British handed over it to Indian government, it has been a major contentious problem between India & Pakistan. It is alleged that Britain deliberately did this to create a long conflict between Muslims and Hindus in sub-continent. Kashmir was ruled by Maharajas. It is estimated that 77% of Kashmir population were Muslims prior to independence from Britain. 20% of Hindu and 3% of sheikhs were living prior to Indian independence. It was reported by many Muslims groups that Muslims were racially and religiously discriminated in Kashmir for a long-time during Maharaja’s rule in Kashmir. Muslim businessmen were taxed many times more than Hindus. Muslims were discriminated in employment too. Soon after intemperance, India, Pakistan and China gained some territorial control in Kashmir. Since then, people of Kashmir have been fighting for freedom and their democratic rights. Neither Indians nor Pakistani people have right to intervene or involves in Kashmir. It was British government that handed over the lands of Kashmir to India despite of the fact, most of its inhabitants were Muslims.  People of Kashmir should have freedom to determine their future. UN must conduct a referendum to decide the future of Kashmir.  People have been suffering for a long time in Kashmir. Many insurgent groups operate in Kashmir valley. People want to live in peace with self-determination and freedom. All these three countries have involved in Kashmir without any legitimate right to do so. It is all against international norms and law to let any community to suffer like this. Since 1948 people of Kashmir have been suffering. Like people of Palestine, people in Kashmir have been suffering due to incorrectness of politics. They have been victimised by British and Indian wrong politics. People of Kashmir have been neglected by international community for a long time. UN has done nothing to free Kashmir people from the grip of Indian brutality and barbarism. What crimes children, women, and young and old in Kashmir have done to suffer like this. So called civilised world intentionally discriminates, victimises, and neglects people of Kashmir. Women are raped, children are killed, elderly people are jailed, academics, Imams, politicians, community leaders are jailed daily. Suffering of people of Kashmir is unimaginable in this so-called modern world of civilization and humanism. Yet, UN and western countries do not have courage to question Indian military or bring Indian politicians into book. One leading journalists and writers from India describes the atrocities of Indian forces in Kashmir in the following way. “Since 1990, more than seventy thousand people have been killed in the conflict, thousands have ‘disappeared” tens of thousands have been tortured and hundreds of young people maimed and blinded by pellet guns. The death toll over the last twelve months has been highest since 2009, associated press reports that almost 570 people have lost lives, 260 of them militants, 160 civilians and 150 Indian armed personals who died in the line of duty (Arundhati. Roy, HuffPost, 1/3/19. 

Kashmir and international community. In this materialistic world of secular power domination there is no protection for poor communities. Weak and poor are exploited, victimised, sometime punished in this so-called civilised world. Pet animals in western countries have more rights and more dignity than human beings in third world countries.  We have seen this in many times in recent human history. So, called civilised world do nothing as and when poor people are being killed. Take for instance, in central Africa more than one million innocent people were killed in tribal fighting with Hutus and Tutsi. Yet, so called civilised world did nothing to stop genocide. Likewise, take all other conflicts in recent times. In Syria alone more than 500.000 thousand people died and 7 million displaced.  Yet, so called UN or civilised world could do nothing to stop as there is no oil or gas in there. This is exactly what happens to people of Kashmir. They are poor Muslims and they do not have oil or gas to protect them. Moreover, today, India is a powerful country with population of more than 1.2 billion, so, many western powers do not like to interfere on this Kashmir issue. Sometime, many of them support India in UN. So, in this world of economic interest, mightily is always right. So, poor people of Kashmir do not have any one to speak for them at all. So, they are destined to live as slaves under Indian occupation against the will of people. It is a duty of each human being to speak out against this Indian aggression. I have seen many Indians speak about this aggression. An injustice is an injustice even if it is done by powerful or by super powers in the world. Today, more human right violations have been done by many so called supper powers than many poor countries.  So called super powers inflict more harm and rights violations than many poor countries. While we all condemn all sorts of extremism and terrorism, international community must condemn state terrorism. What India does in Kashmir is nothing but a form state terrorism on innocent indigenous people of Kashmir. As Zionists do in Palestine, Indians do in Kashmir. There is no difference between state terrorism we see in Palestine and what we see in Kashmir. Israel & India both are killing innocent people with or without approval of international community and more importantly with a silent approval of many western countries. This double standard of western nations must be stopped if they want to see peace and harmony in Middle East and sub-continents. Justice is unconditional in this world. There is no one sort of justice for Jews and other for people of Palestine, there is no one kind of justice for Indians and another for people of Kashmir. Yet, western world has created a conditional justice system. With the so-called notion of geopolitical interest, they have been dividing humanity in terms of their national interest. knowingly or unknowingly they have supported tyrants in humanity. People of Kashmir & Palestine have been suffering for more than 7 decades and yet, western consciousness did not move or show any remorse when Indian and Israel forces are butchering innocent children and women in their home lands. When geopolitical interest of western countries is at risk, they do not dare to speak for innocent people at all. This is the so-called civilised world of self -contradiction that humanity lives right now. in fact, humanity is in peril due to bias and discriminative foreign policies of some developed nations. Today, in the world of politics everything changes and yet, we do not see any reformation for the outdated structure of United Nations. It was created with outdated strategic policies in 1945 soon after the WWII. Even today, the old outdated structure of UN is maintained to protect geopolitical interests of some Vito powers. That is why many resolutions on Kashmir and Palestine problem are turned down or dismissed by so called defenders of democracy. India and Israel use their political influence to fool international community on this issue of Kashmir and Palestine.

Kashmir and the Muslim world. The problem of Kashmir and Palestine has been one of the unsolved problems of Muslim world since 1948. Ineptitude Muslim political leaders have repeatedly failed on the people of Kashmir and Palestine. More importantly Arab leaders have been used like curry leaves by western powers. Despite of the fact, there are 53 Muslim countries with population of more than 1.6 billion people, the Muslim world can do nothing to stop aggression and atrocities of innocent people in Kashmir and Palestine. Our so called inept Arab political leaders are fooled by these so called democratic western political leaders. Arab political leaders are treated cheaply by many western political leaders. They do not have any influence on any regional or international affairs. Western powers are only interested in getting oil and gas from gulf regions. There are no any other ideological or political bonds between Arab leaders and western political leaders except those material interest or geopolitical interests.   Recent political history of Middle East tells us Arab leaders have been used by western powers cheaply in many occasions. In short, modern world order does not allow people of Palestine and Kashmir to get justice. In fact, these so-called developed nations stand between justice and people of Kashmir. They pervert the course of justice. People of Kashmir and Palestine cannot get justice because these western powers do not like them getting justice. In fact, all these countries are directly and indirectly contributing for the suffering of people of Palestine and Kashmir. It is true that Indian and Israel forces do all these brutalities. Millions of historically documented evidences are available today to testify atrocities of Indian and Israel forces. Yet, UN and ICC do not have power to bring India and Israel into book. Western nations must take some responsibilities for all these crimes. Having said this, I would argue that our Muslim and Arab political leaders can not put the blame on the shoulders of western counterparts, Arab and Muslim leaders have been fooled by all international political leaders for a long time. They too must take a lion share of responsibility on the issues of Kashmir and Palestine.  This is a high time that 1.6 billion Muslim population around the world show their solidarity with victimised people of Kashmir and Palestine. 

Islamic law and Nuclear disarmament:  

          The general philosophy of Islamic law dictates that the human lives must be protected at all cost. Islam takes all measures to protect human lives. In fact, the doctrines of the general philosophy of Islamic law is instituted by classical Islamic scholars to protect the entire humanity: It does not discriminate between lives of Muslim and Non-Muslims in humanity. All humanity is creation of one and only God. The classical Islamic scholars have constructed the legal doctrines of the general philosophy of Islamic law to illustrate that God revealed the final message of Islam to protect humanity from all kinds of harms and promote welfare of humanity. So, protection of humanity from any kinds of genocides, weapons of mass destruction and nuclear wars are primary objective of Islamic message in this world. God sent His final divine message as a Mercy to Humanity. Islam aims at enhancing prosperity of entire humanity. It aims at building a strong human civilization on earth. Islam does not encourage destruction and obliteration of human culture, traditions and civilization of people as some radical Muslims do. Islam encourages sustainable development in the world. It stands for peace and human prosperity. Islam does not encourage human hatred and enmity between humanity. Islam in fact, discourages wars between humanity.