The Last Thing We Need

On the 2^nd of January, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia executed 47 prisoners convicted for different charges. One of those executed included Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a cleric from the Eastern Province region of Saudi Arabia. On the same day, Channel 4 published a video reporting protests against Sheikh al-Nimr's execution. Strangely enough, the video highlighted, of all places in the world, Kashmir as one of the places where people protested against the execution of Sheikh Nimr. It even ignored the protests, that too violent ones that happened in Iran. As a Kashmiri, I find this worrisome, if not dangerous already. We are seeing country after country in the Middle East struggling to come out of imported and imposed-sectarianism fueled wars which refuse to die, one of the reasons being the fighters owing allegiance to either side of the Persian Gulf. I don't think we can afford people getting divided on the same lines in Kashmir. Do we need anything else to worry about than the reasons a military occupation has given us? How does one justify taking sides in a struggle for regional hegemony between two countries, which do not give a hoot to our issues when we have our own struggles unattended!

I have been using social media for a pretty long time now. And, I feel, the current discourse on social media is more dangerous than ever. I fear if the language one gets to see people using online is an indication of intensity of the divide between communities, a disaster is staring at our face. The social media war is a sectarian war without weapons. When I call it a social media war it is not an exaggeration. All you have to do is to follow some accounts from Kashmir on twitter and you will be treated to a myriad of social media posts related to issues ranging from the death sentence issued to someone in Saudi or Iran and conspiracy theories explaining how Saudi or Iran is a friend of Israel, depending on whether you are following a Saudi-loyal or a Iran-loyal twitter account. I can't help but be appreciative of people who raise a voice against injustices around the world, but the raising of voice against injustices selectively is an injustice in itself. And this sectarian and ideological idea of justice and injustice, in which every voice raised is actually an attempt to prove one's point or to further an agenda is an idea where people killed unjustly are reduced ultimately to pawns who at best get a place on placards in the hands of angry protesters.

Muslims around the world do not have to necessarily take sides in this rat race, and neither should we assume that we have sides already taken because of the sect we belong to. Saudi Arabia and Iran are not the imams of Muslims around the world that we should follow whatever their governments decide. Their governments serve, at best, the interests of their own people and strive to maintain peace within their international boundaries, irrespective of the hell they might have let loose elsewhere. Everyone of us cannot, and need not, be an International Relations expert and post our angry and emotional views online. The way we write our posts and the meaning we intend to convey is may not be the same what the reader comprehends. So, in regard to such issues where a single post of mine can be shared to the world, I ask myself, is it not better to refrain from taking sides? It is not that I am asking myself to remain silent in the face of injustice, rather what I am asking myself is to show commitment to justice for the sake of justice and not for the sake for purifying the king's linen or the mullah's robe. There are enough sensible thinkers with presence on facebook who share their views on such issues. I think it makes sense to first make sense of what the wise are saying about current issues facing the world than to publish our expert opinions online solely based on sensational headlines.

In an column in a German news-website someone recently wrote, “An escalation in the long simmering conflict between the rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran is the last thing the region needs”. I would add something and say that fighting each other taking sides which we never took, and hence becoming pawns in someone else's fight(s), is the last thing we need in Kashmir!