Under the Cover of Human Rights
By: Syed Soharwardy
Amnesty International,
United Nations Human Rights Commission, most of the Western Governments, Western Media and the NGOs of the west seems to be the
protectors of human rights around the world. These organizations and
governments have created such a huge and complex network (human and technology)
around the world that a small incident in a remote part of an under developed
country can easily be traced and reported. Local organizations in most of the
countries work with them and in some cases get funding and support from these
agencies. These international human rights organizations have recruited
hundreds of people from the Muslim world as well. No one can deny the value and
importance of such organizations. But, are these agencies (Amnesty
International, United Nations Human Rights Commission, most of the western
governments, Western Media and NGOs) truly
defend the human rights of all human beings OR these agencies have a very
selective criteria? OR these agencies want to achieve something else under the cover
of Human Rights?
When we carefully review
these agencies and their work we find that these agencies do not defend or
raise their voices for all types of human rights. These agencies ONLY report,
defend and work for some very specific types of human rights. These agencies
search the daily affairs of the Muslim world with microscopic eyes in order to
find some thing, which apparently seems to be in conflict with the western
culture and policies. These agencies would even exploit small incidents, which
helps them to project their image as the champions of human freedom. These
agencies will stay quiet and normally go to hibernation when someone from the
West abuses the human rights of the Muslims. But if a small incident occurs in
anywhere in the world in which a Muslim person can be blamed, these agencies
will create huge outcry against Islam and the Muslims.
Let's review some of the
examples from the recent memories. Please see whether these agencies (Amnesty
International, United Nations Human Rights Commission, most of the western
governments, Western Media and NGOs) do really
care for the human rights in Muslim countries or their objectives are something
else?
Selective Human
Rights
During January 2001,
Amnesty International, Amnesty International Canada and many other NGOs were
very actively involved in the Nigerian woman, Bariya Ibrahim Magazu's case. She
was sentenced by the Sharia court in Zamfara
State, Nigeria,
to 180 lashes for illicit sexual activity. The Amnesty International Canada and
several other NGOs were driving signature campaigns and almost daily media
interviews in order to put pressure on the Canadian and the other western
governments as well as on Nigerian government to save this poor woman's life.
Thousands of emails were sent daily to create awareness about this case.
No one is disagreeing with
that campaign but what surprised some of the Muslims most that at the same time
hundreds of Muslim women were getting raped, tortured and sentenced to death by
Russian soldiers in Chechnya everyday. Neither Amnesty International Canada nor
other NGOs drove any signature campaign against Russian atrocities in Chechnya. In
fact, during January 2001 when the campaign for a woman in Nigeria was fought hard by the NGOs at the same
time CBC showed a report about Chechnya.
In that report some Chechan women told the reporter that they were forced to
have sex with Russian soldiers in order to get the bodies of their dead family
members so that they could bury them properly. Imagine many women are forced to
have sex with the killers of their family members in order to get dead bodies
from those killers. For Amnesty International and the western NGOs fighting to
save the life of one woman was important but saving the lives of thousands of
women in Chechnya
was not even worth fighting for. It is obvious that the Amnesty International
and the western NGOs will "strongly" support any cause which is, in
their opinion, goes against Islam and the Muslims. And provide only "lip
service" to those causes, which support Islam and the Muslims. These
agencies are very good at converting a small issue which is in their opinion
reflects negative image of Islam / Muslims into a big issue. But a big issue,
which reflects a negative image of the non-Muslim culture is kept so low
profiled that the most of the people do not even, know about it.
The western NGOs including
Amnesty International always accuse Muslim governments for violating the human
rights when these governments try to enforce the Islamic laws (Shari'a) in their
own countries. For example, in Saudi Arabia Muslim women are required to wear
Hijab (head covering). In western NGO's opinion this is against the will of a
women. "Muslim women in Saudi
Arabia should not be required to wear
Hijab". According to the western standards, "the state has no right
to interfere in a person's life". The person should be able to choose his
/ her life style. The Amnesty International and the NGOs will always standup
for a women if she is forced against her will to wear Hijab. But if a women is
forced not to wear Hijab against her will, neither Amnesty
International nor UN Human Rights Commission nor NGOs nor western media or the
governments would standup for this women. These NGOs are very quick in
condemning Saudi Arabia for
requiring women to wear Hijab but have these agencies ever condemned Turkey's
secular government for forcing women not to wear Hijab? Where was Amnesty
International when one of the lady member of Parliament in Turkey wanted
to wear Hijab in the Parliament and the secular Prime Minister of Turkey and
the armed forces wanted to dismiss her from the elected position of the
parliament? Why Amnesty International did not run campaign to help this Hijab
wearing lady? Why there was no outcry in the western media for this elected
Member of Parliament? Turkey's
secular government has banned girls wearing Hijab in schools. Is this not human
right's violation? Why there is no movement against this action of Turkey's
secular government. During early 1990s Muslim girls were banned from some of
the French schools because they were wearing Hijab. No one heard Amnesty
International and the UN Human Rights Commission to raise voice for these young
Muslim girls.
China
Regarding human rights in China, all the human rights organizations in the
west run their campaigns and create awareness about Tibet and recently, Falun Gong
movement. During the recent visit of Canadian Prime Minister to China the media in Canada, the Amnesty International
Canada and other NGOs ran a major campaign to create awareness about the human
rights of Tibetans and Falun Gong movement. But no media organization or NGO
ever mentioned that there are more than 36 million Muslims in China who are the most oppressed community in China. Chinese
Muslims suffered tremendously under the regime of Mao Zedong and his "Cultural
Revolution." During the communist reign of terror, there was a
violent campaign to eradicate all traces of Islam and of the ethnic identity of
all non-Chinese. The Uygur language,
which had for centuries used Arabic script, was forced to adopt the Latin alphabet. The Uygurs, as with most
believing Muslims, were subjected to forced
labor in the some 30,000 communes set up in the predominantly
Muslim provinces. The imams and akhunds were singled out for humiliating
punishments and tortures....[and were forced to] tend to pig farms, which were
sometimes kept in government-closed mosques. Under the pretext of unification
of national education, Islamic schools were closed and their students
transferred to other schools, which taught only Marxism and Maoism. Other
outrages included the closing of over 29,000 mosques, the widespread torture of
imams, and executions of over 360,000 Muslims. The same abusive behaviour of
Chinese authorities still continues in Muslim areas of China. During
1999 - 2000 several Muslims in Xinjiang
province were sentenced to death just because they were asking for religious
freedom. Have anyone ever heard Amnesty International and the NGOs organizing a
media campaign and pressurizing the western governments to ask China to
respect human rights for Chinese Muslims?
Cambodia
When the civil war in Cambodia took
place during Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, millions of Cambodians were
sentenced to death. Among those millions of Cambodians, thousands of Muslims
were also murdered. Mosques and Islamic schools were destroyed. Many Islamic
institutions were closed. Muslims were forced to step on the Holy Qur'an and
eat pig which is against their religious beliefs. Media organizations in the
West little mentioned the atrocities of Cambodian Muslims. Whenever media
showed any reports of atrocities it reflected as all Cambodians as Buddhist or
followers of some other religions but never a report was televised showing the
genocide against the Cambodian Muslims. Amnesty International and other western
NGOs never raised voice for Cambodian Muslims. Don't they think that they were
human too?
Democracy Vs
Diplomacy
The western governments and
the NGOs are very proud to consider themselves as civilized and rest of the
world .....?. This civility is based upon the values and customs that west
proudly follow. The most important values of the western civilization are
freedom and democracy. But the meanings of "FREEDOM" and
"DEMOCRACY" changes when used by the western governments for the
people of the Muslim World. For example, in Canada
it is an established rule that if the 51% of the Quebecois would decide to
leave Canada and become a
sovereign nation the rest of the Canada
will respect that decision and Canada
can be divided. Similarly, when the people of Czechoslovakia
decided to breakup the country and become two independent nations - Czech and Slovakia, the
entire Western world took pride in it and showed the rest of the world that it
is O.K. to break up a country if the majority of the people of that country
would like to do so. When the people of Estonia,
Lithuania and Slovenia decided to get independence from the USSR, the
entire western world stood-up for the protection of their independence. This is
what the democracy and respect of freedom is all about. This is called people's
choice.
Kashmir
When the similar situation
arises in the Muslim world the meaning of freedom and democracy changes
immediately. The word DEMOCRACY gets replaced by DIPLOMACY and the world
FREEDOM gets replaced by MARTYRDOM. For example, when the people of Kashmir
decided to get separated from India
by using the democratic rules established and practiced by the west, the west
changed the rules and asked the parties involved to use diplomacy instead of
democratic rules. Instead of respecting the people's choice and freedom the
west encouraged the Indian armed forces to slaughter the freedom loving people
of Kashmir. One may say that in the west the
nations in a dispute solve their problems peacefully. In case of Kashmir, India
does not want to respect the voice of the majority of Kashmiris. Therefore,
there is nothing what west can do. This is not a valid reason. In the past,
western governments have forced the (used military and economic power) culprit
governments who tried to undermine the western values of democracy and freedom.
For example, in the case of Iraq
and Kuwait dispute which
resulted in the Gulf War, Serbia
and Kossovo dispute, Indonesia Vs East Timor and many other places, the western
countries used power to enforce their defined freedom and democracy. The high
standards of the west and the claims of civility were completely disappeared in
Kashmir. The reasons could be many but the two
reasons are obvious. The western world does not feel threatened by the Kashmir
dispute and the western governments do not want to jeopardize their billions of
dollars trade with India,
which is a very strong market for the western economy. Therefore, these NGOs do
not run campaigns for Kashmir as they did for the independence of East Timor. What these agencies can do for Kashmir? They can provide some lip service to the
Kashmiris. This should be enough for them. The case of East
Timor was very important for these agencies because it involved
the breakup of a Muslim country.
Palestine
Why the issue of Palestine has not been
resolved yet? The reason is obvious. West does not want to apply their
standards of democracy and freedom towards Palestinians. Why? Because the
majority of the Palestinians are Muslim and they have a dispute with Jewish
community who is very dear to the west. In fact, the western countries moved
most of their Jewish population to Palestine
in order to change the demographics of the region and justify the creation of
the Jewish State. All the western governments, agencies, NGOs know that there
are three million Palestinian refugees in neighbouring countries waiting for
the last 50 years to go back to their homeland. Why these champions of human
freedom do not support and help Palestinians to go back to their own homes?
They all know that if the Palestinians come back to their own homes it will
again change the demographics of the region significantly. Therefore, West is
reluctant to use its own democratic rules in Palestine and is trying to use diplomacy,
which has failed for the last 50 years. Why the western governments do not
force Israel to use the same
principles of democracy that the West has used in Estonia,
Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Canada, USA etc.? If Amnesty
International is sincere and a true human rights organization then it should
run a propaganda campaign for the Palestinian cause. Lip service through few
human rights reports will never be enough. At the same time, Palestinian people
must isolate fanatics and extremists from their communities in order to find an
honourable solution for the conflict.
Bosnia Herzegovina and KSSOVO
It is very clear that the
western governments are not sympathetic and sincere towards the Muslim world.
On certain occasions it seems that the western NGOs and the governments some
time try to help Muslims. But not many people understand the tricks behind that
help. For example, USA
and Europeans worked very hard to save the Muslims of Bosnia and Kossovo. Many
Muslims do believe that the USA
and European Union were sincere towards Muslims of Bosnia and Kossovo but the
truth is that the USA
and European Union solved their own problems by helping Bosnian and Kossovar
Muslims. The movement of independent Bosnia
was started by Bosnian Muslims in order to have a Muslim government in Bosnia in which
Serbs and Croats can live peacefully. But the European Union and the USA could not
tolerate such an Islamic government. The civil war was encouraged and created
by those who later tried to stop it. When the civil war broke out and the
Muslims from around the world started coming to Bosnia
and became part of the Jihad movement in Bosnia,
the European Union and the USA
realized that this will create another Palestine
in the centre of Europe and hence creating a
serious instability in the region. The European Union and the USA on one side
could not tolerate the formation of an Islamic government but on the other side
could not afford to have Muslim Mujahedeen fighting in their backyard.
Therefore, they used the old colonial tactics. They created a horrible
situation in which Muslims became desperate and left with no choice but to
accept the decision imposed by the USA and the European Union. After
scarifying everything in the Bosnian war of independence what the Muslims of
Bosnia have achieved? There is no Muslim government in Bosnia. Muslims
share the presidency of the country with Serbs and the Croats. Since, it is a
shared government, it has to stay secular in order to have peace in the
country. USA
and European Union did achieve what they wanted to achieve but the Muslims did
not get fully what they were fighting for.
The movement of independent
Kossovo took so many lives. Is Kossovo independent now? Of course, not. USA and the
Europeans used the same tactics, which they had used in Bosnia Herzegovina.
Europeans and the Americans waited for the situation to become worse. Millions
of Muslims became refugees; thousands of women were raped; thousands of Muslim
men and young boys were slaughtered and when Muslim civilians became desperate,
European Union and the USA
imposed their own solution upon them. USA and European Union became the
custodians of Kossovo, not because they were very sympathetic towards
Kossovars. They wanted to make sure that Kossovo does not become independent
country and the Muslim Mujahideen from other parts of the world should not
become part of Kossovo's movement of independence. After scarifying thousands
of lives, going through torture of concentration camps and getting destroyed
the entire infrastructure of Kossovo, Kossovo is still not independent. Thanks
to the diplomacy of the western world. Some people think that the USA and European Union have saved Muslims from
getting wiped-out from Europe. This thought is
absolutely false. USA and
Europe did not save the Muslims of Kossovo and Bosnia. They saved the stability of
Europe and prosperity of Europe. Muslims of
Kossovo and Bosnia
did not get what they were fighting for. They got some thing, which was far
less than what they fought for.
Saddam and Noriega
Cases
When USA wanted to help
Panamanian opposition parties and to save its military bases in Panama, the
American armed forces went all the way to Panama City to capture the source of
the problem, the President of Panama, Mr. Noriega and brought him to USA to
phase charges for drug trafficking. The whole issue between USA and Panama was resolved in few days. It
was in the interest of USA
to resolve the Noriega issue as soon as possible. American military bases were
already in Panama and the
trade with Panama
was normal. Panama
did not have any thing further to give it to the Americans. There was not much
left in Panama,
which Americans could have squeezed out of them. Therefore, the crises had to
end soon and the removal of Noriega brought that crisis to an end.
But when the American armed
forces went to the Persian Gulf with the best technology and support from other
allied forces, it was in the interest of
USA to keep the crises alive as long as possible. That is why they purposely
left Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.
If Saddam had gone from Iraq,
USA
would not have any justification to stay in the region. During 80s and 90s many
US bases were closed in Philippines, Japan,
Europe and even at home in the United
States. America was desperately looking for
markets, which could feed its huge military infrastructure. USA needed
military bases in order to keep its huge military in place. What could be more
ideal place than Persian Gulf. The countries
in the region are rich. Most of the world's oil supply comes from there. It is
very close to Israel.
If help is needed in Israel,
it will be a matter of minutes to reach there. The worse enemies of Americans
live in the region, therefore, they can be spied upon easily. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait provided this perfect
opportunity for Americans. Let's consider a hypothetical scenario. What if Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and Iraq were poor countries? What if,
they did not have any oil and they were not able to pay to Americans to fight
for them. Would Americans have fought for them? The answer is obvious, NO.
In order to provide
sustainable income to the economy and military of the United States, USA kept
Saddam Hussein in Baghdad purposely in order to use his government as an excuse
to stay in the region as long as possible. Therefore, when American forces
arrived in the Gulf they came with a long term plan to establish military bases
for US armed forces in the region, to get better opportunities for US economy, to
control the oil flow from there. USA has been squeezing and will continually
squeeze whatever it can from the GCC countries till GCC dries out OR some thing
else happen which may force USA to get out from the region as it did happen in
Iran during early 80s. In the history of Saudi
Arabia, Saudi
Arabia first time had to borrow money from
IMF after the Gulf war to pay its bills. Saudi Arabia is now frequently
borrows money from the IMF.
Pre-Decided Wrestling
The war between USA
and Saddam Hussein is like a pre-decided wrestling match in which both
opponents have full understanding of each other's move and the outcome of the
wrestling. Apparently, the both wrestlers look angry and want to defeat each
other but from inside they smile and admire each other. The big money, which
comes from the pockets of the spectators, is used to pay the expenses and the
prizes for both wrestlers. The spectators, who do not know that the outcome of
the wrestling has already been decided, spend more and more money to buy
expensive tickets. Both the wrestlers try to create as much sensation as
possible in order to keep spectators pre-occupied with the wrestling. In the
war between USA and Saddam
Hussein the spectators are the poor people of Iraq,
Saudi Arabia and the region
whose money is being drained in the pockets of Saddam Hussein and the USA. Certainly,
most money goes to USA
and little to Saddam Hussein. Above all USA is the Heavy Weight Champion
and Saddam Hussein is the challenger. The actual losers and victims of this
fight are the Iraqi people, not Saddam and certainly not USA.
Conclusion
We can go on and discuss
many examples of Western hypocrisy. But will this discussion solve the problems
of Muslim Ummah? May be not.
- The most important thing for Muslims is to take
care of themselves. Muslims must be strong (spiritually and materially) if
they want respect and dignity in this world.
- The Muslim Ummah can become the strongest nation
on this earth if they are UNITED.
- The unity of Muslim Ummah can only be achieved
by becoming the best human beings.
- The best human beings are those who follow (in
its true sense) the word of Almighty Allah, His books and His Messengers
(Peace be upon them).
- When Muslims become the best human beings
through practicing Islam, it will bring SALEH (pious) governments in
Muslim countries.
- And when Muslims will have honest and Allah
fearing rulers in Muslim countries, they will be strong as they were few
centuries ago.
As Allah made promise to
the Muslims, “Ultimately, You (the Muslims) will be victorious provided that
you become true believers." (Qur'an).
By blaming USA and the Europe
for the miseries of Muslims around the world is not the right thing for us to
do. These agencies will never ever be sincere with Islam and Muslims. We must
take charge of our destiny and start the change from our own homes, in our own
countries and in our own society. Muslims around the world can not be strong
unless they are educated each and every citizen of the Muslim world, learn
science and technology, be sincere with their families and the countries and
above all be the true followers of Muhammad ibn Abdullah (Sallallaho Alaihe
Wasallam).
Let’s try to work hard to
become true believers. May Allah give us the courage to adopt the path of
Success, which is practicing Islam like the Family of the Prophet, and
Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon them) did. Like Albairooni, Al
Ghizali, Al Khuarzmi, Ibn Sina, and many other Muslim scientists who practiced
what they preached. Ameen.
Abbreviations
GCC: Gulf Cooperative
Council. It includes, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar,
UAE and Oman
NGO: Non-Governmental
Organizations
IMF: International Monetary
Fund
/
Address: 28 Crowfoot Terrace NW, P.O.
Box 68142, Calgary, Alberta T3G 3N8,
Canada
Phone: (403)-208-7148