A student of the International Relations Department of the University of Imam Reza (AS) in Iran asked me a very lively and timely question in order to understand the current affairs: When the people of all Muslim countries are at least angry with Israel and some countries even feel a military threat, then why don’t Muslim countries jointly take up shovels and axes to block Israeli aggression?
I was invited by this university to give a lecture to the students of the International Relations Department on the International relations among the Islamic countries. Israel has been a constant headache for Muslim and Arab countries for the past century, and in recent times, they are busy repeating the history of Hulaku Khan with regard to unarmed Arab people.Then the question arises: why are Muslim countries so helpless and why is their strategy so ineffectual?Responding to the students’ question, I submitted that we should understand that in the last century, in fact, all these Muslim countries either became free from the oppression of the colonial era or were created by the great powers to fulfill their needs by breaking up parts of the Ottoman Empire.Now in this situation, two types of Muslim countries come before us.
There is a need to make the D-8 organization more active and Saudi Arabia should be included in it immediately
First, those who made independence possible through political or armed struggle and second, those countries that were made independent countries after the Ottoman Empire.Now, the countries that got independence after the Ottoman Empire, due to its partition, were not given this independence out of any fear of God, but through it, there was a passion to control the Arab world in particular and all Muslim countries in general, and if we think about it, Israel was also established during this time in order to achieve the goal of controlling it.Now, how is it possible for the countries whose independence is dependent on this Great Game to step outside of this game and take any step? It is not that the current leadership there does not understand this situation, but when there are meetings with Arab diplomats, it is clearly felt that they want to change this situation, but no way is being shown to them.Now the next question was what is the remedy for this situation.
While being safe from any conflict, those organizations that have already been established by Muslim countries should be made more active. I further submitted that in this regard, there is a need to make the D-8 organization more active and Saudi Arabia should be included in it immediately and the status of this organization should not be limited to economic matters only but it should also play its political role.I am not talking about the OIC because despite its existence for such a long time, it has been unable to play any significant role and due to this, the perception of it as a weak organization has been firmly established in the minds of the Muslim people and now it is very difficult to change this perception.When Professor Dawoodi asked about the nature of Pakistan-Iran relations, I said that relations are good, but these good relations are based on neighborliness and we have not been able to establish the stakes of both countries in each other. Now further improvement is being seen as military officers of both countries have been posted to each other.Terrorists have also been handed over to each other, but until the stakes are permanently established, relations will remain at the current level. There was a conference on the topic of “The Concept of Human Rights in the East” at Baqir-ul-Uloom University in Iran.
While speaking at this conference, I said that we should understand that what are human rights according to the West, which has become the champion of human rights at present?It is clear that the West has created the concept of human rights keeping in mind its cultural and social life and needs, and it talks about human rights only keeping in mind its own set standards because this alone provides a safe front for its cultural invasion.But when we present the concept of human rights in the East, we should not repeat the mistake of the West, which is that we consider imposing our concepts as human rights. The hot topic in this conference was Gaza, and Pakistan was also mentioned in it.
The Palestinian and Lebanese speakers, in their speeches and later in private conversations with me, specifically talked about Pakistan. The Palestinian said that we have Pakistan standing with us, but we have more expectations from Pakistan. Later, I asked what other expectations you have, and he said that if Pakistan invites our people and arranges a meeting and briefing at the Pakistani Foreign Office, this initiative will have an extraordinary impact.The Lebanese said that Pakistan is a very big country, a nuclear power, and thanks to its regional politics, it has deep ties with China. If Pakistan establishes a group on this, and the Foreign Minister talks about the fact that Israel has penetrated Lebanon, then the world cannot ignore this, and the world includes America.
The writer is a freelance columnist.