‘War on terror not against Islam, waged for US global dominance’
* Visiting UK lecturer says war in Afghanistan justified, Iraq invasion
not
* US has come to Afghanistan due to long-term interests
By Zakir Hassnain
PESHAWAR: The war on terror is not against Islam, but for the United
State’s dominance over the
world, Yunus Samad, a senior lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences
and Humanities at
the Bradford University in the United Kingdom and deputy director of the
South Asia Research
Centre in Geneva, said on Saturday.
Delivering a lecture entitled ‘Islam in Europe and Extremism and
Fundamentalism in Pakistan’ at
Peshawar Press Club Dr Samad said, “The war on terror should not be seen
against Islam. It is
for US global dominance. Whoever stands up to the US, Americans consider
him to be their enemy.”
The British researcher said North Korea - one of the countries declared to
be part of the ‘axis
of evils’ by the US was a non-Muslim state. “So, this is proof that the US
war on terror is not
against Islam,” he said.
Prof Samad, also a director of the Ethnicity Social Policy Research Unit
at the University of
Bradford, said that the US is a powerful country and it is difficult to
resist its global
dominance policies, and that countries opposing the US dominance should
form an alliance to
resist it.
Justification: Prof Samad said the West was divided over religious
fundamentalism and many
European countries did not agree with US global policies, adding France
and Germany opposed the
Iraq war despite US pressure on Europe. “A huge number of Europeans took
to the streets to
protest the Iraq war,” he said. The researcher said there could be
justification for war in
Afghanistan following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US, but there was
no justification for
the war in Iraq. He said Britain and other European countries believed
peace could be achieved
only through dialogue and negotiation with militants and extremists and
not through force. He
said the US had not succeeded in achieving its designs in Iraq though it
had spent billions of
dollars on the war and it may prove to be another Vietnam for Americans.
US policy: He said the US had come to Afghanistan with a long-term
interest-based policy.
“America has an interest in the region and will stay here,” he said.
Prof Samad said, “We must accept that extremism exist in Pakistan, but
this will not help
Pakistan.” He said the US wanted political stability in Pakistan, adding
that if America
cornered Pakistan and destabilised it, Pakistan would create more problems
for the US. “We must
set our house in order to overcome problems and crisis,” he said.
He said President Pervez Musharraf was doing exactly what the US
government wanted him to do,
and that Pakistan meant nothing to American leaders, adding, “They
(Americans) are all US
nationals and it’s America that is im****tant to them and nothing else,” he
said.
Prof Samad said the number of Muslims - the largest minority in the world
- was on the rise in
European countries. In Britain the researcher added young Muslims are
working as councillors,
members of Parliament and in the House of Lords and are working in various
institutions,
contributing to British society and economy.
He said there existed the inaccurate notion in many European countries
that young Muslims are a
potential security threat, adding that this is not true.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C05%5C18%5Cstory_18-5-2008_pg7_45
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