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Personal Reflections on the Iraq
War
"Which side do I belong to? Is it a war against Islam and Muslims by the
Christian invaders and their reluctant arm-twisted allies, or is it a war of
liberation of the oppressed Iraqi people?"
By IslamForToday.com columnist, Dr. Shahid Athar, March26, 2003.
Candidate George W. Bush knew
little about foreign policy. He wanted to be an “Education” president and USA to
be a “humble nation”. But those were the slogans of the election.
As I write this article, whether I
like it or not, whether protestors and the United Nations approve of it or not,
the Iraq War is on. The “shock and awe” mission is on and thousands of bombs are
dropping on Baghdad as our soldiers are struggling to make their way through the
desert. The extent of civilian casualty will never be told to us but what I can
see from the pictures on the TV screen, the whole city is in flames. We will
never be told the total civilian casualties of the war or the sufferings of
people and our brave soldiers.
The question I ask myself is
“Which side do I belong to?” Is it a war against Islam and Muslims by the
Christian invaders and their reluctant arm-twisted allies, or is it a war of
liberation of the oppressed Iraqi people? Is it a war of blood for oil by the
only super power which is now seen as an imperial power?
One of my African-American
Christian patient thought this was a war by Anglo-Saxon powers for the
domination of the rest of the world. One e-mail suggested that it is the
Christian fundamentalists who voted for Mr. Bush and pushed him to war for
Armageddon as they think Jesus will return in Iraq only after Iraq has been
Christianized. So, there is no limit to the imagination.
One of the most thought provoking
e-mails that I got was from my friend Mr.Courtnay Weldon, who wrote “for the
last 12 years or so, all of the wars in which the USA has been involved, have
been for the sake of Muslims. He gave the example of the Russian invasion of
Afghanistan, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo by the Serbs, the Iraqi
invasion of Kuwait, the Taliban’s oppression of Afghan people and now Iraq. I
told him, this is true, but also for the last 12 years, the most people who have
died in such wars or were made refugees worldwide, Muslims too. I ask him now
“will the self proclaimed liberators of the oppressed Muslims now go to
Palestine, Kashmir or Chechnya too to liberate them from oppressors?”
As a man of religion, I am opposed
to a war unless it is in defense when attacked. All 19 of the hijackers were
Saudis. Iraq had never attacked the USA. Therefore, in the opinion of millions
of protestors all over the world, it was not justified to go to war. If the
theory of presence of weapons of mass destruction is valid, then all nations
have the right to attack other nations including us, on the basis of that
theory, as we have more weapons of mass destruction than anyone else.
At the same time, I am reminded of
Prophet Mohammad’s two sayings, “If you see wrong doing, stop it by hand
(force), if you can not, then by tongue and if you can not do even that, then at
least feel bad in your heart”. The other saying is “Help your brother when he is
right and when he is wrong”. Companions were amazed and asked “ How can we help
a brother when he is wrong”? Prophet Mohammad said “you stop him from doing
wrong, that is his help”.
The crimes of Saddam Hussein are
well known. The brutal dictator who gassed and killed his own people deserves no
mercy. Thus, applying the sayings of the prophet together, Saddam had to
be removed, unfortunately at a very high price of civilian casualties.
The sayings of Prophet Mohammad
need to be confirmed by the Quran which says about the cry of the oppressed
people: “O God, bring us forth from this town of which the people are
oppressors, Oh, give us from Thy presence some protecting friend! Oh, give us
from Thy presence some defender”( Quran 4:75).
Will President Bush and the allied
forces behind him be that liberator and defender? Only history will prove that.
For now, as a Muslim-American, I am praying for both the Iraqi people as well as
our soldiers, for God’s protection for all those innocent people who are in
harm’s way.
There are several lessons to learn
from this war.
1) The dictators, whether they are
self proclaimed or installed by a superpower, should know that their days are
numbered. They should leave peacefully on their own, rather than be forced out
by those who install them after their usefulness has expired at the expense of
heavy casualties to their own people.
2) The third world should not
accept a tyrant above them, even if they have no choice and even if they were
installed by a superpower. They must free themselves from such tyrants, one way
or another.
3) The lesson for the superpower
is that they must befriend the masses, not just try to change the government. By
changing the regime of Saddam Hussein while turning the masses in the Arab world
our enemy is not going to help. This is not a way to increase the love between
the American government and Arab people. We also must realize that what is good
for us in America, is also good for them, like democracy. Thus, we should allow
and encourage democracy, even if they chose to have Islamists as their leaders,
as it happened in Algeria or Turkey. At the same time, if we do not like
terrorism inflicted on us, we should not terrorize others with our massive fire
power just because we can. If we do that , that will create more terrorists,
then we should not complain.
On of the best e-mails of support
that I got after September 11th 2001 was from a chaplain in California who
wrote, “We Americans should stop singing God Bless America. This is a selfish
notion to ask for God’s blessing just for our selves only. We should sing God
Bless the World”. I say Amen to this.
Shahid Athar M.D. is Clinical
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Endocrinology, Indiana University
School of Medicine Indianapolis, Indiana, and a writer and speaker on Islam.
Read other articles by Dr Shahid
Athar here.
sathar3624@aol.com
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