During a discussion seminar in Washington, a Muslim lady queried an elderly Egyptian academic what to do when Muslims are being constantly denigrated. The response was terse: “Speak out”. This has not been done well enough and often enough.
The year 2011 has seen the epic unfolding of the ‘Arab Awakening’. The fervour and fever of the Arab Street crossed the Atlantic and ignited also the Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate greed in the US. Similar was its impact on the anti-Putin agitation in Moscow. Former US Presidential contender Senator John McCain sent out a message on Twitter telling how the Arab Spring was galvanising Russia, infuriating Putin, who lashed out that McCain had lost his mental balance due to his years as a POW in Hanoi during the Vietnam conflict.
The uprising against oligarchy is basically a fight for core human dignity values. Fittingly, then, TIME magazine has picked the protestor as its “Person of the Year.”
According to the magazine, the protestors are reacting to “sham democracies rigged to favour the rich and powerful and prevent significant change.” Elections are inherently polarising. They can lead to bitter divisions, as they indeed did 40 years ago leading to the Dhaka debacle.
Western polity, too, has been infected by the contagion of obscurantism. America is witnessing a decline of civility in society. For example, Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had the gall to say that the Palestinian people are an “invented people” (without realising that the same reasoning may apply to the American people).
There are 57 members in the Islamic Conference plus a mammoth Muslim embassy presence in Washington, not to mention a US Muslim community larger in size than the Jewish and Hindu community combined. Gingrich got away with it because their over-careful mindset makes such outrageous utterances a cost-free exercise. In striking contrast, when Jimmy Carter ran for the US presidency in 1976, he publicly endorsed a Palestinian homeland. Compared to King Faisal’s bold stance 38 years ago, the Muslim elites now are swayed more by cash than by conscience. Their docility has been the nest that hatched the egg of militancy.
Clouding the picture has been the Iraq misadventure that devastated the US economy to the tune of an estimated $1 trillion, leaving thousands of US soldiers dead, tens of thousands maimed and wounded, and many others with mental health trauma. It contributed to the crushing federal debt, economic downturn, and diminished America. In 2011, according to new statistics, one out of two Americans are now living at near poverty level.
The dissent of the Arab Street has accomplished what the Arab Elite – with all its size and strength - could not. It has energised grassroots activism around the world. The upper tier may remain shackled and subdued with fear. But the youth-led lower tier by speaking out against despotism - in face of danger and death - are breaking the barriers of fear. It all started a year back when a Tunisian fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, had enough of the humiliation and lit a spark whose flames continue to glow.
The writer is an attorney-at-law and policy analyst based in Washington DC. He is the first Pakistani American member admitted to the US Supreme Court Bar.