Address of Ms Benazir Bhutto at
International Peace and Role of Religion – London
June 25, 2004
Ladies and gentlemen!
I thank Mr. Joseph Francis and the organizers of the International Peace and Religion seminar for the invitation to meet with you.
Today’s discussion is well timed. The context of 9/11, the controversial Iraq war, the events of Afghanistan, the suicide bombings in Pakistan, the global multinational terrorist organization of Al Qaida, the use of the human body as a weapon inflicting destruction, make us both potential weapons and potential targets.
Complicating the issue is the attempt to give violence a sacred face by articulating it through religious symbols. Although this may be the work of a small group, it has resulted in associating Islam with militancy.
Violence dressed in religious symbols masks historical, social and economic issues simplifying ideologies. To unmask the religious face of terror, we need to separate the terrorists from underlying causes of discontent.
>From time to time in history, religion was used to obtain political results.
The Spanish Inquisition is one example. The Crusades another.
Resistance to British colonial rule in the subcontinent was articulated as Muslim subnationalism.
Communism in Central Asia was met with religious resistance in the form of Mujahideen during the Afghan Jihad.
Madrassahs founded during the Zia dictatorship taught war to Afghanis, and contributed to the warriors fighting in the name of Islam in Afghanistan.
In India the recent resurgence of the Hindutva ideology changed the secular nature of that country to redefine nationhood in terms of religion.
The Zionist ideology led Israel to justify violence to protect hold of territory.
The anti-Zionist ideology unified Islamic militancy. The splinters from the Afghan war reorganized and joined Middle eastern militarism.
The challenge in addressing the issues of peace is therefore to separate the terrorists from the issues they adopt to gain a wider audience. Of course violence in all forms must be denounced.
Western countries must understand that the anger of the militants is equally directed towards their own governments. No democracy will have militants spilling over, as is now happening in dictatorships.
This is especially the case in Pakistan where militarism is equally directed at the state as it is towards the Western world.
In the search for peace, I see two pillars of a world at peace. The first pillar is the pillar of inter faith dialogue. The second is of promoting democracy. Both these pillars are inter-twined. Democracy 0promotes safe debate. Dictatorship silences dissent.
The attack on the Twin Towers jettisoned us into the age of Terrorism. Our generation is caught in a war triggered by militants driven by religious extremism.
Suicide bombings and acts of terror can bring a Clash of Civilisations that destructs the world. I have hope in you, the supporters of inter faith dialogue, who are gathered here today. I believe that you can stop the coming destruction through building tolerance.
It is the multi cultural, multi ethnic society where each person is respected regardless of race, religion or gender that can truly lead us on to the path of progress and prosperity.
I have hope in democracy with its values of pluralism. Democracy can permit the flowering of a multi ethnic and multi cultural society. A society where races, religions and genders co-exist peacefully, in harmony to the mutual benefit of all.
When terrorists strike at women, children and innocent worshippers in masjids and churches they do a disservice to Islam. It grieves me when I hear of people killed in the name of religion. It grieves me when I hear of religion used as a weapon to kill, maim and destroy.
I was brought up to believe that Jews, Christians and Muslims are Ahle e Kitaab, that is people who received the message sent from God.
I was brought up to believe that God sent tens of thousands of prophets to spread His message amongst humanity.
We are all God’s creatures and it is to God that we will all ultimately return.
Extremist groups are rising in all the key civilizations. There are extremists in the Muslim world, in India, in America. They spew hatred against Muslims, or Jews or Christians. The extremists are united in hate, in intolerance and in sparking religious wars where they can prosper.
I call upon the youth of each of the civilizations to reject the message of hate and embrace the message of peace.
The biggest blessing from God is the blessing of peace. Woe to the land caught in war, in fratricide in bloodshed.
The end of the Cold war has seen much shedding of blood in the name of religion. We saw it when Yugoslavia broke down and Bosnians were killed by Serbs. And we keep seeing it today like helpless spectators.
I do not believe that we are helpless spectators. Each one of us is an agent of change.
I have hope in humanity, in our seniors and in our youngsters that they will reject the victim mentality.
It is by dictating the agenda of understanding, as you are doing today through this Inter-faith seminar that we can build a better world.
Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University predicted a clash of civilizations between the West and the Islamic world.
We can prevent this clash from taking place by marginalizing the voices of the extremists.
There is much that binds us in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim heritage.
These three great religions were born in the cradle of the Middle East. The word “Muslim” actually means those who follow the Prophets Moses, Jesus and Mohammad.
This is why the British, during their rule of Muslim countries, referred to the Muslims as Mohammadans.
Abraham is our common father. He built the holiest place of the Muslims known as the Kaaba, the House of God, in Saudi Arabia.
According to the Muslim Holy Book (verse 62 second sura Al Baqara): “Those who believe (in the Koran), And those who follow the Jewsih (scriptures), And the Christians and the Sabians, Any who believe in Allah, And the Last Day, And work for righteousness, Shall have their reward with their Lord; On them shall be no fear, Nor shall they grieve”.
As in Judaism and Christianity, Islam says Do not commit adultery; Do not cheat; Do not kill your children for fear of poverty; Do not lie; Do not spy; Do not speak ill of anyone; Do not drink alcohol; Do not gamble; Do not hate or envy each other.
Religon is a moral compass that gives its followers faith, hope and a path for the redemption of the soul on the day of Judgement.
Irrespective of our faith, we may distinguish between those who spread hatred and violence in the name of religion and those of us who would live respecting the right to freedom in religious worship.
It worries me that Pakistan, the second largest Muslim country, is under a military dictatorship.
Each country with a military past, including Indonesia, Phillipines and Pakistan, has a problem with terrorism. Terrorism and extremism go hand in hand with dictatorship.
It is through universal freedoms, including the freedom to elect ones own government, to change ones own government, to shape ones own destiny that true stability can come.
Today the West supports a military dictator in the name of stability. I have problems with such support particularly as we witness the lack of stability under the military dispensation.
There is little stability in Quetta, or Karachi or Lahore or Islamabad or anywhere else. Innocent people are killed, the regime too caught up in power struggle to bother about the elements of stability.
We are sitting on a volcano. Unless democracy returns to Pakistan, the fear is that civil war could break out.
The involvement of the military in first raising militants under one dictator and subsequently seeking to crush them under another dictator has culminated in attacks on the armed forces themselves.
The army chief is helpless to protect himself or his corp commander. Officers in WANA are taken hostage. Six hundred and thirty eight policemen were killed since the terrorists were released from the prisons of Karachi in November 2002. These incidents are a few examples of the coming chaos and anarchy unless order is restored.
Order can be restored. For this, the army must go back to the barracks. A professional armed forces under an elected government enjoys prestige, for it is non controversial. It is the political government that absorbs the criticism of policies. And the political government is answerable and accountable to the public through fair elections.
India is much admired for its independent judiciary, its independent election commission, its professional armed forces and for its smooth transition from one government to another. It saddens me that in the case of Pakistan, we are labeled a country of coups, of dictatorships and of violence.
It need not be so if we unite and with one voice fight for the restoration of the Constitution as it existed in September 1999 and for the holding of fair elections under the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.
A democratic and political government respecting human rights is the best guarantee of inter faith understanding, of brotherhood and harmony, the very building blocks of peace, progress and prosperity.
It is truly hypocritical that in the very week of June 2004 that the military dictator extols the virtues of enlightenment in the Washington Post, his minister for Religious Affairs calls upon Muslims to become human bombs. It is the duality of policy, with one tune sung for the international community and another for the domestic audience that has brought about the crisis where the writ of the regime has failed.
While the dictatorship speaks of democracy to the west, it uses the state resources to undermine the elected parliamentarians. While it speaks of freeing the media, it stops advertisements, beats up and forces into exile independent media.
The steps to crush the moderate political parties and silence debate creates a vacuum which the theocratic forces fill.
We can counter such forces by maintaining our commitment to the principles that define us–the principles of racial, gender and religious equality, the principles of political pluralism and tolerance, and the principle of peaceful change through democracy. And, in the end, we shall prevail.
Just as in Christianity, Judaism and other religions, we must always be on guard for those who will manipulate the message of religion for their own narrow political ends, who will distort the essence of pluralism and tolerance for their own extremist agendas.
This is a time of test for the Muslim community. We see ourselves as a largely a peace loving people. The effect of 9/11 has led to our being viewed as violent, intolerant and capable of frenzied killing of innocents. We now feel that we are at the receiving end of world bias and prejudice.
In this context, this inter faith dialogue is an important step in redressing the balance.
I thank the sponsors for holding this seminar, for inviting me to attend it. I thank all of you for attending it for it shows your commitment to tolerance and understanding. I am convinced that we will together beat the forces of terrorism and extremism because ultimately truth must prevail.
Thank you .