The View from Pakistan

The war in Lebanon has forged a new unity between secular and religious political forces in Pakistan against Israel and the United States, reports Irfan Husain

The current conflict in the middle east is, as all wars do, producing some unexpected results far from the frontline. In Pakistan, at least, Hizbollah's stiff resistance has made the guerrillas heroes, and has forced the majority Sunni to view Shi'a in a new light. For the last decade, militant wings of the two Muslim sects have indulged in tit-for-tat killings across the country, but the fighting in Lebanon has produced a temporary ceasefire.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of the Sunni Jamaat-e-Islami, blasted Pervez Musharraf's government in the national assembly for sitting back and watching "Muslims being slaughtered" in Lebanon without lifting a finger.
The leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt came in for similar flak in the same parliamentary debate by Islamic and secular MPs alike. Indeed, the fifteen-point declaration issued on 3 August by the Organisation of the Islamic conference (OIC) at its Kuala Lumpur summit demanding an immediate ceasefire was seen across Pakistan's political spectrum as being too wishy-washy.

A current of unity

Just as Shi'a and Sunni have put their differences aside for the moment, the secular opposition represented by the Association for the Restoration of Democracy (Ard) and the alliance of the Islamic parties under the banner of the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) – of which the Jamaat-e-Islami is part – have joined hands. Even Benazir Bhutto's normally pro-American Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has come out strongly against the Israelis and the Americans. At a rally in Lahore on 4 August, speaker after speaker denounced the atrocities being committed against the people of Lebanon.

The crisis has united secular and religious parties, as well as the left and right. There is virtual unanimity against the ceaseless attacks being carried out by Israel across Lebanon. In fact, in the parliamentary debate, the assembly issued an all-but-unanimous declaration condemning Israel. The only dissenting voice was that of Bhandara, a Parsee member of parliament who demanded that Hizbollah too should be condemned for firing rockets at Israeli civilian centres.

But such an even-handed approach is rare in Pakistan where the Israeli narrative has long been blurred by the sight of hundreds of killed and wounded Lebanese women and children whose images crowd Pakistan's many TV channels. Indeed, with hours of footage from al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya news channels jostling for the attention of Pakistani viewers, it is understandable that people should be so emotionally charged over the issue.

The fact that Sunni Muslims are a relatively small part of the Lebanese population mix has become irrelevant to Sunni in Pakistan, where the sight of Israeli planes hammering defenceless civilians at will has obliterated sectarian differences. Leading articles and op-ed pieces in the newspapers are full of what is seen as "the complicit silence" of the rulers of Muslim countries. Many writers and politicians have argued that Pakistan should send volunteers to fight alongside Hizbollah (the chances of Pakistani troops being invited to send peacekeeping forces may be marginally higher).

All this is bad news for the Pakistani president who is already facing an Islamic and nationalist backlash for his efforts to crush elements of the Taliban and al-Qaida in the badlands of Pakistan's tribal areas. Both right and left in Pakistan have long accused General Musharraf of being Bush's puppet for his pro-American stance over Afghanistan. Although his attempts to block cross-border movement of local, Afghan, Arab and central Asian fighters have not been very successful, the fact is that hundreds of Pakistani soldiers as well as Pashtun civilians have died in heavy fighting.

These fierce actions have led to demonstrations in Peshawar and elsewhere, as well as increasing hostility among the clergy and the religious parties. With the 2007 elections looming, Musharraf is looking increasingly isolated. The ruling party will not find the contest plain sailing, despite the enormous (and notorious) benefits of incumbency that are a feature of elections in Pakistan.

An arc of anger

Meanwhile, American foot-dragging on the diplomatic path – only now, almost four weeks into the war, is it playing an active part at the United Nations Security Council to bring the catastrophic destruction to a halt – is widely viewed as a deliberate act of collusion with Israel in its efforts to smash Hizbollah and demolish Lebanon's infrastructure. The sight of Israelis flying American-supplied planes and helicopters, and dropping American-made bombs on civilian targets, has made the United States even less popular, if such a thing were possible.

Even before this latest crisis America's reputation in Pakistan was at rock-bottom. The unending news and images of mayhem from Afghanistan and Iraq had demonised Bush and his neo-conservative allies beyond redemption. And Tony Blair's pro-Washington, pro-Israel stance has won him no friends in Pakistan either. This latest round of bloodletting has confirmed the view that fundamentally, the west is against Islam.

Another possible casualty of the war is General Musharraf's opening to Israel. For the last two years, he has tried to forge a consensus on the Jewish state's recognition. Ever since Israel came into being, Pakistan has shared the view of almost all Arab states that it is an illegal entity. Even when Egypt and Jordan formally established ties with their new neighbour, Pakistan maintained its hard line.

Although there have been covert contacts, especially during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Islamabad has refused to consider diplomatic ties as long as Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. But under Musharraf, a more pragmatic attitude has developed, reflecting Islamabad recognition of Tel Aviv's close relationship with Washington and growing ties with India.

A signal of this shift of perspective came with two events in September 2005. First, Musharraf sent the Pakistani foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, to meet his Israeli counterpart in Istanbul, and urged a national debate on the subject of Israel. Second, the president himself addressed a gathering of American Jews at the World Jewish Congress in New York. The current round of violence in Lebanon is likely to derail this gradual process.

The intense anti-American, anti-western sentiments in Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world should be a cause of concern to George W Bush, Tony Blair and even to other western leaders who have been less forthright in their support for Israel's campaign. This is precisely the kind of rage that has brought young Muslims around the world flocking to the extremist banner. Conveniently, Bush & co have tried to separate the Palestinian cause from the rise of Muslim militancy. But the connection cannot be wished away, especially when western support for Israeli actions is so blatant.

The arc of anger currently stretches from Indonesia through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria to Lebanon and Palestine. In Europe and the United States itself, it infects Muslims born and brought up in Birmingham, Boston and Barcelona. Impotent in their rage, these young men feel they cannot make themselves heard through peaceful political means. Thus, some of them succumb to the siren call of jihad. For those who remain sceptical, a litany of dates – 9/11 (New York) and 11/3 (Madrid), 7/7 (London) and 11/7 (Mumbai) – exists to remind them that like it or not, there is a link between injustice and violence directed at Muslims, and terrorism.

Irfan Husain

This article was previously published on openDemocracy

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