MUSLIM WORLD
The Economist, London on Living with Islam
Islam at its most ferocious is cutting a bloodstained path to the front of the world's attention. The world is justly alarmed. But if Western governments are to think intelligently about their relations with the Islamic world, that alarm needs qualifying. It would be wrong to see the current upsurge in Islamic militancy as a single malevolent trend. It is far from that. The Islamist movement is diverse, with almost as many manifestations as there are interpretations of the Koran. At its best, radical Islam is a force for good, offering a moral underpinning for a world that surely needs one. But the benign aspects, as so often, are eclipsed by the malign.
Outsiders' relations with the Islamist movement are murky, crisscrossed with contradictions.
Clearer thinking calls for another fact to be recognized: the non-Islamic world is hamstrung in its response to fundamentalism. The upsurge in violence cannot be fought head-on: anything that smacks of a crusade would be counter-productive. The West should be ultra-cautious at involving itself in a bid for a military solution.
Islamists can be cowed at least for a time if a regime strikes early and ruthlessly. These are not models to emulate. The West should back the political alternative of absorbing dissident movements into the burly politic. This too carries risks. But the riskiest course of all is when a country first tries to reach an accommodation with militant Islam and then, on second thoughts, tries to destroy what it once tolerated. Islamist leaders, out of power in Algeria or in power in Iran, profess an attachment to economic liberalism and to the people's will. The first can be believed; the second is unproven.
Even so, unless an Islamist regime breaks the loosely defined rules of international behavior - not grabbing any neighbor’s land, not promoting terrorism and not grossly abusing the rights of its own people - the West should be prepared to deal with it in the same way as it does with raany another unprepossessing regime. Sending a country, Islamist or secular, to Coventry is seldom a useful procedure and nowadays seldom used: witness the decision to keep on track with China despite its treatment of its dissidents. But a wide range of sanctions, from diplomatic to economic, can be applied for specific reasons, and to achieve a specific result.
Besides Saudi Arabia, Iran is still the only full-blown example of an Islamist regime, though Sudan is close. The West has never quite decided how to treat Iran. This is a pattern not to be repeated with, say, Algeria.
Islamist leaders want trade. but the West should not necessarily oblige. Iran’s evident ambition to acquire nuclear weapons should be brought to a full stop, with a careful eye on technology that may have sinister as well as benign uses. The regime protests that it has no territorial ambitions, beyond a speck or two in the Gulf. Nevertheless, the concept of fundamentalist Iran armed to the teeth is intolerable. So is its promotion of terrorism: witness its call, still unreversed, to Muslims to murder at British author, Salman Rushdie.
Is there a general principle to adopt? Islamic fundamentalism is certainly not like communism, snitching to be resisted tooth and nail. It may be more like socialism, an -ism with many facets, some entirely compatible with liberal democracy, some more hostile to it, some perhaps wholly at odds with it. Living with Islam involves discrimination, as well as vigilance.
(Source: The Economist, 18 March, 1995)
Teheran Declaration on Afghanistan (Extracts)
The Conference expressed concern at the escalation of armed hostilities in Afghanistan.
The Conference deplored recent flagrant violations of human rights in Afghanistan, particularly the rights of women... The Conference underlined the imperative of respect for sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Afghanistan, and emphasized the necessity of cessation of foreign interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.
The Conference called upon conflicting Afghan parties to refrain from resorting to force and to settle their differences by peaceful means through inter- Afghan negotiations for a durable political solution and the establishment of a broad-based government.
(Source: The Hindu, 31 October, 1996)
ATTENTION
ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS
● Most Subscriptions are expiring in December, 1996
● For continuity of supply, please RENEW your subscription immediately.
● Kindly send Subscription by MO/Demand Draft to:
MUSLIM INDIA MONTHLY
33, FEROZE SHAH ROAD,
NEW DELHI-110 001
Umar Abd Al Aleem on Muslims in Alaska
In Fairbanks, Alaska, the winter temperatures can reach below -50 F and for almost three months residents live in near total night punctuated by a fuzzy orange-blue twilight for two hours a day. The reasonably warm summertime greets residents with an almost opposite effect. The sun barely skirts underneath the northern horizon for two still-brightly-lit hours after a 22-hour day. A hundred miles below the Arctic Circle, Fairbanks scarcely sees day in February and night in July. So, when is a Muslim supposed to say his or her prayers in such a place? According to (a local Muslim) several different solutions exist for the prayer quandary. One scholar suggested praying according to Seattle's prayer schedule, another suggested using a prayer schedule from Makkah or combing prayers as if they were traveling. Yet another scholar said the three-dozen Muslim families of Fairbanks should pray the local time- meaning it would be difficult if not impossible to follow sunnah instructions on praying Fajr and Isha' in the summer and the other prayers in the winter. Resting at the same latitude as Iceland's capital city Rekjavik, the town of 30,000 is home to what is probably the northern-most group of Muslims in the world brought together by work and study.
They don't have a Masjid of their own, praying in various rooms. Halal meat must be flown in from Seattle if it is to be had at all. But like the gold prospectors who founded (their banks) in 1902, the Muslim pioneers want to create a permanent a community even if they don't stay. Resources are scarce. Recently, the community had to stop the Sunday Arabic and Qur'anic instruction classes for its children after losing its most competent Arabic speaker. However, the Fairbanks Muslims have been working hard to inform the community around them about Islam. Muslims were involved with a coalition of Fairbanks Jews and smaller Christian denominations to both understand each other and inform the wider community about Islam.
The Ramadan fast can also be a problem. While fasting in February presents no problem, a summertime dawn-to-dusk fast is difficult if the sun doesn't really set Again, the Fairbanks Muslims make their own decisions on how long to fast and which time to use, everything from fasting the length of the day in Makkah to fasting the two-hour winter days. The small Muslim community has already had an impact on Fairbanks. "One salat al jumu'ah a young white teenager came in and started praying with us. He said he had learned a little about Islam in school, that he saw us and that he wanted to join us," A.R. Chowdhury said.
(Source: The Islamic Horizons, September/October, 1996)
UN Sub-Commission on Protection of Minorities & Resolution of Minority Situation
The Sub-Commission, at its fortieth session, in resolution 1988/36, invited Ms. Claire Palley to prepare a working paper on possible ways and means to facilitate the peaceful and constructive resolution of situations involving racial, national, religious and linguistic minorities.
At its fourth-first session, the Sub-Commission, in resolution 1989/44, having examined the working paper (E/CN.4/Sub 2/1989/43) prepared by Ms. Palley, decided to entrust Mr. Asbjom Eide with the preparation of a further report on national experience in the protection of minorities, and decided to consider those issues at its forth-second and future sessions under a separate agenda item.
At its forth-fifth session, having considered the final report submitted by Mr. Eide (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/34) and add. 1-4, the Sub-Commission, in its resolution 1993/43, entrusted Mr. Eide with the task of preparing a working paper containing suggestions for a programme for the prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities.
At its forth-sixth session, having examined the working paper submitted by Mr. Eide (E/CN.4/Sub.2/ 1993/36 and Cort. 1), as well as the final report, submitted in 1993, the Sub-Commission, in its resolution 1994/4, requested the Secretary-General to invite Governments and competent intergovernmental and non- governmental bodies to submit their comments on the recommendations contained in addendum 4 to the final report and to make the comments available at the forty- seventh session of the Sub-Commission.
The Sub-Commission also recommended that the Commission on Human Rights request the Economic and Social Council to authorize the establishment of an inter- sessional working group of the Sub-Commission to examine, inter-alia, peaceful and constructive solutions to situations involving minorities.
The Commission, in its resolution 1995/24, decided to authorize the Sub-Commission to establish, initially for a three-year period, an inter-sessional working group. consisting of five of its members, to meet each year for five working days.
The first meeting of this working group took place from 28 August to 1 September 1995. The second session of the working group was held from 29 April to 3 May 1996. At the 48th session, the Sub-Commission had before it the first two reports of the Working Group on Minorities. (E/CN:4/Sub.2/1996/2 and E/CN.4/Sub 2/ 1996/28).
(Document: E/CN.4/Sub2/1996/1/Add.1 (Pages 49-51)
