Iran and the world’s politics [Archives:2005/902/Letters to the Editor]
Barkatullah Marwat
Kuwait
[email protected]
The remarks made by the Iranian President, Mr Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, terming Israel as a 'tumour' to be relocated to Europe triggered the outcry of European leaders. Coincidently, the blasphemous cartoon published by the Denmark newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, also witnessed violent reaction from the concerned quarters.
While going through a write-up on the cartoon published by Kuwait Times, I noted closely the remarks made by Carsten Juste, chief editor of the paper, justifying it as based on the freedom of speech. If the author of Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie, could write something that hurt the feelings of Muslim Ummah and taken them as a part of freedom of speech, then whatever the Iranian President may have asserted be taken as a part of the freedom of speech. He just said that rather than doing something practically. Here such a war of speeches reminds me of a third law of motion postulated by Newton, “Every action and reaction are always equal to each other but in opposite direction.”
By the way, the points enlisted by the president are not so wrong and false but carrying some water when he questioned, “Where do those who rule in Palestine as occupiers come from? Where were they born? Where did their fathers live? They have no roots in Palestine but they have taken the fate of Palestine in their hands. Is it not a right to national self-determination, one of the principles of the United Nations charter? Why do they deprive Palestinians of this right?”
There is no denying the fact that not furnishing the right of an independent state to Palestinians has been a core issue in the region. Much efforts were made in the past to resolve the issue once for all, but all proven fruitless due to lack of sincerity.
One thing is clear that what the Holy Quran predicted 1400 hundred years ago is being proved and authenticated by the science now. Therefore, let's not forget the teachings of Islam, the Holy Book and Allah's Messenger, Muhammad [PBHU]. I happened to read a book titled 'Maot ka manzar' [A scene of death], the author of the book quoted certain predictions made by the Holy Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] about the commencement of Doom's Day. One of them I noted was about the period of time [day, ie, yesterday and tomorrow]. So according to the saying of Muhammad [PBUH], each tomorrow holds a lot of troubles, miseries and grievances for a common man even though we, irrespective of our religious affiliations, are of the view that we have been stepping forward towards progress, prosperity and happiness. Yes, apparently we have made a great deal of progress and prosperity but let's not forget that internally we are hollow like a trunk by having lost lots of a good number of values and norms, such as, humanity, peace of mind and heart, trust, honesty, respect, honour, true love etc that we used to enjoy in our past days. Is it not that?
——
[archive-e:902-v:14-y:2005-d:2005-12-12-p:letters]
