Indian Defence Review

Hurriyat stalwarts Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Fraooq are insisting on attending the annual foreign ministers meet of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to be held at New York from 27 Sep to 01 Oct 2015. The OIC granted observer status to the ‘Hurriyat’ describing it as “true representative of J&K”, while the consistent Indian position has been that “OIC has no locus standii on internal affairs of India.”

The OIC meet coincides with Mr Modi’s visit to New York where he is scheduled to address the UN. It is nauseating to reiterate the anti-national aspect of this move as it has become an endemic feature of the Kashmir discourse—a discourse scripted by Kashmir-centric mainstream parties, the separatists and the jihadi organisations. These are essentially three routes to the same objective. The progenitor of this discourse was none other than Sheikh Abdullah. Since then Kashmiri politicians have honed the art of duplicity and use of forked tongues against their motherland.

Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq are certain that as in the past they will be denied permission. The very purpose of their rhetoric is posturing for consumption of their puppeteer Pakistan which along with Saudi Arabia dominates the 57 member OIC. Saudi Arabia has been using Pakistan to circumscribe Shia Iran at the OIC. Pakistan also acts as China’s contact point or leverage at the Islamic forum. Look how diabolical is this arrangement! After 26\11 in 2008, China used its veto in the Security Council to avert the ban on Hafeez’s Sayeed JuD (Jamait-ul-Dawa), the parent organization of the LeT. As quid pro quo Pakistan ensured that any move to censure China on treatment of Uighur muslims was defeated. This is the façade of Pakistan’s muslim face. The Hurriyat is not unaware of this façade and yet it calls for people in Kashmir to romance with the idea of Pakistan.

Geelani has emphasized that at the OIC he would demand ‘’resolution of Kashmir issue in historical perspective’’ and also raise issues like ‘beef ban’ and “approach towards minorities’’. Ironically, he plans to send a memo to Saudi Arabia which is a member of the contact group on J&K at the OIC. It is ironic that Geelani wants India to learn from Saudi Arabia, or some sterling country of the OIC regarding treatment of minorities. Geelani’s prescription for minorities manifested in the hounding Kashmiri Hindus out of the Kashmir Valley. In most Islamic countries the religion and culture of minorities is gasping. The Shias of Saudi Arabia inhabiting the oil-rich eastern parts are anything but first-class citizens. On this score Pakistan’s worsening track record cannot be of any comfort to Shias in Kashmir, being seduced by the Hurriyat. The search for democracy and justice amongst OIC countries can be frustrating. Such is the abysmal level that municipality elections in Saudi Arabia, open to only males, was declared as a politically historic moment. So women in J&K have every reason to be nervous. Also, supporters of Hurriyat must draw relief from the fact that medieval laws, the law that advocates’ ‘eye for an eye’ has not found adherents beyond the so called Islamic World.

Geelani has appealed to the OIC for resolution of the Islamic problem based on ‘historical perspective.’ History is rather a slippery surface Mr Geelani! The farther you travel the greater could be your loss or steeper your fall. This new world of DNA could be unforgiving. The truth is that Kashmiri Muslims share their DNA with Kashmiri Hindus and not with Arabs or Afghans. Tej Bahadur Sapru was not a very distant cousin of poet Iqbal, one of the biggest forces behind the flawed idea of Pakistan. It is dangerous to mix literary skills with political sagacity. If Kashmiri Hindus could be purged from the Valley for standing up to conversion, history at some point could also conversely reward them at some turn. History never has a final word.

Mr Geelani needs to be aware that the 57 member OIC has nothing to offer except for rhetoric. It has been in existence without substance or muscle for last 40 years. The OIC meetings, apart from spitting venom at the imaginary enemies of Islam, has achieved very little. In the OIC are some of the richest countries of the world, and yet, most Islamic countries including Pakistan remain impoverished. Consequently, the combined GDP of the OIC countries is less than any West European country like UK, France and Germany. As has been observed, that even during natural calamities, the so called ‘enemies of Islam’ are the largest donors.

The so called Islamic world is in throes of total disarray. Muslims are slaughtering Muslims. The core of the Islamic World in West Asia is imploding. Refugees are not being welcomed by majority Muslim countries. Political Islam has consumed religious Islam. Refugees are putting their being at stake to reach European shores. Shia –Sunni fissures is becoming unbridgeable. A monumental tragedy has overtaken the Islamic World. Even as the old devilish forces like Taliban , Al-Qaeda and groups like LeT continue to practice violence and terror in the name of Islam; new ones like the ISIS—more rich, more powerful more globalized have emerged. Each of these curses is bearing on the Kashmir Valley (135km long and 32 km wide valley). Political Islam like rest of the Islamic World has failed Kashmir as well.

The OIC has therefore now been reduced to mere fantasy and symbolism.

Lamenting on his own state by using the allegory of the world of Islam an Urdu poet says:

Ek lamha to mile amno sukun ka aii rab,

Jindagi alam-e-Islam hui jati hai.

The poet says that there is not a moment of peace and tranquility in his life. His world has begun to resemble the world of Islam. Pakistan epitomizes that failing world. In terms of asylum seekers Pakistan ranks sixth in the world, the escapees being mostly Ahmediyas and Shias, particularly Hazara Shias.

Even as the heart of Islamic world weeps, there is one tranquil space for Muslims on this earth, it is India. The solution therefore, lies in India and not Pakistan and OIC.