The attempt to forge alliance between Asian and European civilisation is possible if we place a premium on democracy, creating legitimacy by equitable sharing of wealth, and leave out the element of sponging on other countries' natural resources in foreign policy.
This was stated by Chairman Senate Foreign Relations Standing Committee Mushahid Hussain Sayed. He presided over a seminar arranged at the Institute of Strategic Studies here on Thursday. The seminar concentrated on discussing means of creating alliance between civilisations of Asia, replacing the theory of dialogue between civilizations.
In his presidential remark, Mushahid Hussain said it might be instructive to remember that the theory of the clash of civilizations sprouted not from any madrassah, but came from one of the American universities. He said that it came at time of Gulf War as an attempt to create Islam as a new enemy, soon after the defeat of communism. He said the move was religiously motivated in Poland for that the Pope received generous support from the American establishment.
A number of Pakistani participants supported the move initiated at the government level to forge such links across peoples and continents, but quite a few of them have some problems with the concept at the implementation level.
Among them, History professor of Quaid-i-Azam University Dr Dushka Hussain Syed, saw a dwindling respect for international law and the predominant use of military force. The worst is that European powers although they speak from a high moral ground and try to convey reverse impression coalesce with the US, in the final analysis, in dominating Muslims. 'It is militarism which is fuelling terrorism now coming masked as guerrilla war,' Dushka Syed said.
Former state foreign minister Akram Zaki observed that the alliance would adopt moral restraint and learn not to justify every thing they do on the touchstone of state necessity.
He said terrorism was a child of injustice, and sprung up as result of the violation of human rights. ISSI director general Dr Shireen Mazari took a stand on the human rights violations that was going on by default in theatres of conflict in places where Muslims lived, such as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kashmir and Palestine.
The edict of European states forbidding Muslim women from covering their head was equally a form of human rights violations applied collectively. 'One must respect the rights of others,' she observed.
'The west was not doing enough to make the alliance take shape,' said Aftab Husain Syed, a former Foreign office additional secretary. The Americans were calling the shots all over. A practical course of action would be for governments in Europe to reach out to Muslim political movements and parties. He quoted the example of Pakistan a place where the concept of pluralism was taking roots and here we find Muslim parties operating within the political system.
At this point, the Belgium Ambassador protested the overarching Pakistani habit of clubbing Europeans with Americans. 'I am not George Bush; we disagree with him on most points, including the decision to send troops to Iraq. In Afghanistan troops were dispatched under UN mandate.'
Lieutenant General (Retd) Talat Masud explained that the Muslims also were not a monolithic entity, but different from each other in culture, although the religion is the same. The Rector of East West Dialogue Centre, Case Asia, in Barcelona, Spain, presented the concept of the alliance between civilisations of Asia and Europe, developed by the Centre.
He said that 60 per cent of Muslim population lived in Asia and Europe was home to 20 million Muslims and in view of this population, in the Centre's formulation was that the voice of the Muslims must be heard.
Professor Piere Vilanova, of the law faculty from Barcelona University, another prominent guest speaker, said all this confusion has occurred because a deficit of theories occurred in the post World War II world, and people flagged new concept like the Clash of Civilisations and the End of History.
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