The blurring focus on Kabul

The Festival of British Islam highlights the spectrum of views on the war against terrorism

THE transition was almost surreal from the burnt out Muslim shops and houses in Gujarat I had left behind the previous night, to the “Festival of British Islam” in London. The contrast was brought out even more sharply in a detail loaded with irony: the festival was sponsored by the London Fire Brigade.

I was part of a group of journalists and TV personalities from various (mostly Muslim) societies to see for ourselves how Britain was both participating in the war against terror and coping with the predictable internal fallout from this war.

The dialogue revealed the differences among Muslim societies themselves in their understanding of the post-September 11 scene. Arab journalists, for instance, saw American bias towards Israel as the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. This unresolved issue was, in their view, the source of the current global upheaval, of which 9/11 was the consequence.

Afghan journalists, for their part, were preoccupied with uncertainties in their country as the war against Al-Qaeda stretched longer than expected. This absence of a conclusion to the post-September 11 Afghan narrative was likely to be a source of global instability. This view was shared by the Pakistani journalist, Agha Masud Hussain, from the Jang newspaper.

I may be forgiven for feeling a little left out as nobody mentioned Kashmir or even the Gujarat massacre. When I asked Alastair Campbell, media adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, to list the five most important foreign policy issues that preoccupy 10 Downing Street, he fell into deep thought. Then he began to count: “Europe, the Atlantic alliance, Middle East, Kyoto protocol and Africa.” He then shrugged. “Well, India and Pakistan would have been high up there when there was danger of a military conflict.”

That he did not mention the war against terror was because it was a theme of obvious high saliency for the entire British establishment, not just the prime minister’s office. Moreover, policy decisions in that regard, involving the prime minister, had already been taken. Now the foreign, defence and home offices were in a scrum to refine and implement policy.

There are a series of questions on the war against terror, particularly the conflict in Afghanistan, to which British officials do not seem to have clear answers. They do not say it in so many words but the sense one gets is that there may be a lack of coherence among different members of the international community on how to proceed in Afghanistan.

For instance, a Turkish contingent is due to take over from the British Security Assistance Force at present keeping the peace in and around Kabul. But it has been delayed because the costs of the Turkish expedition, to be borne by the US, are yet to be sorted out.

Meanwhile, a 1,700-strong British Special Operations contingent is already in various stages of deployment in Afghanistan to flush out Al-Qaeda cells and operatives. The role of these troops is completely different from the peacekeeping unit, but bits of both may be retained to train a new, unified Afghan Army.

Since this comprehensive, American-led war against terrorism involves Muslim societies, the fear of a backlash is not far fetched in a society like Britain where between ‘‘two to three million Muslims’’ reside.

Indeed, five of the 300 suspected terrorists held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay happen to be British passport holders. Britain has played a considerable role in ensuring these detainees receive the treatment dictated by the Geneva conventions.

But the Guantanamo Bay episode remains unique because none of the detainees have been accorded prisoner of war status, opening up the path towards a fresh look at the Geneva Convention, at some future date.

At the popular level, there is a sense of boredom setting in at the unexpectedly long, inconclusive engagement in Afghanistan. A generally relaxed air (compared to the taut nerves in the September-October period) is quite striking during the courteous passage through immigration.

Clearly a great deal of work has been done to harmonise race relations since then. Credit must go to community leaders as well as government agencies.

London’s central mosque at Regent’s Park has, attached to it, the Islamic Cultural Centre where the Muslim Council of Britain, an apex body of about 300 Muslim organisations, expresses its dissent against British policies in the most civilised tones. There are one or two British officials present.

At the Ar Rum art gallery in East London, an art exhibition is on — the Best of British Islam. In the adjacent room a film on Jalaluddin Rumi and the dancing dervishes of Konya is followed by a lecture by an Englishman. He recites Rumi’s verses. The audience in a small circle sways.

Someone places his hand on my shoulder. “I believe they have burnt down Vali Dakhini’s grave in Ahmedabad?” “Yes,” I mutter, trying to disguise my embarrassment. Vali predated Mir Taqi.

Mir by decades and was the first great Urdu poet. His poems on Surat and Gujarat remain unsurpassed. I do not wait even to ask the name of the man who’s opened up the wound on which I had allowed a scab to form over the past week since visiting Ahmedabad.

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