Hamid Karzai, the Real Villain of the Qur'an Burning Episode
My posts are likely to remain sporadic for the next couple of weeks, but as I had some time this evening, I thought I would take up Stefan de Mistura's challenge, and ask, as he said we all would have to some day, why these Qur'an burning protests took place only in Afghanistan. The matter is important, as the doctrinal, legal approach, a pure focus on the classical fiqh of the medieval scholars, does not actually help very much. The cartoons of the Prophet were, we were told, a form of sabb al nabi, a type of crime as against Islam from which one cannot repent (though it might be noted they aren't really apostasy as the people drawing them were never Muslim). If so, let's assume so, it is hard to find a basis in shari'a that would somehow excuse Qur'an burning but not insulting of the Prophet. It's times like this that the Realist has to step in and start asking questions because frankly no doctrinal answers readily present themselves. And it is here where the real villainy of Hamid Karzai becomes clearer.
So let's start with the obvious, Terry Jones the Qur'an burner is no friend of mine, nor of the United States. He is no friend of mine because he burns my Holy Book (don't know why just because I don't toe the strict, pure doctrinal line I'm assumed to be some sort of wild apostate, wonder if such a rigid and silly standard would be imposed on anyone other than Muslims, blame Muslim and non Muslim alike for that). He is no friend of America because he disrespects faith and because he endangers American soldiers for no good reason other than some self absorbed and delusional sense of importance along with a depraved but very modern craving for publicity. (He's no friend of mine too for the same reason lest that be unclear.)
But I've always argued he's a sideshow, and he still is. He's just a broke guy, a loser, in a nothing church who nobody gives a crap about and kudos to the press for ignoring his Qur'an burning as they did and as they should have. Well done by the media, quite responsible not to allow a person to make himself a story. The story was dead for days. It was Karzai who picked up this story and ran with it, calling for the arrest of this Jones loon, stirring up the passions leading to the storming of a U.N. compound and the deaths of U.N. workers. Notice that no other world leader did what Karzai did, they all failed to comment. Fareed Zakaria wanted to know why the religious figures didn't denounce the Taliban killings, and I see the point, though I wonder about it. Unlike the Prophet cartoons, where really the violence was embarrassing and ridiculous and should have earned rounder condemnation, let's at least point to something--neither Qaradawi nor Sistani, not Khalid Amr and not Tariq Ramadan, meaning nobody from the popular preacher to the intellectual to the jurist to anyone in between raised the profile of this thing at all in the first place, and they still have not post Qur'an burning. Sort of makes me wonder, should these leaders actually denounce both Qur'an burning and killing as Zakaria wants? What's wrong with letting these sleeping dogs lie in Iraq, Egypt, Europe, Qatar where nobody has paid attention. Is profile raising maybe a problem even if violence denounced? Is it wrong for Sistani's people to worry that if they do criticize Qur'an burning and violence, then the Sadrists will take the streets and jump on the first bit and ignore the second? They may have a point. it is worth considering.
Anyway, it began with Karzai, it continued with the Taliban, it never left Afghanistan really and so while de Mistura's rage against Terry Jones is understandable, hell if my people were killed I'd be pretty enraged too, his later question, why is it that this only happened in Afghanistan, is perhaps even more salient. Let me offer the Realist suggestion.
The issue really isn't violations of classical fiqh, shari'a is being ignored pretty blatantly if you burn a Qur'an or insult a Prophet. Anti-colonial fervor driven by the West is a key component, as always, but demagoguery is too, and these days, in the Muslim world, both are not quite ebbing, but not in the same toxic form they were during the cartoon episode a few years back, in most of the Muslim world.
As to the anticolonial bit, the Iraq war is fading, the NATO intervention in the Libya war is supported by many, the Palestinians are planning to declare statehood. The demonization of anything Western has lost its luster, at least temporarily, and lost its credibility, as leaders like Qadhafi struggle to defend their repression as being against some sort of Western-Zionist cabal. Nobody is buying that anymore.
Of course, that brings us to the second point, which is demagoguery. The role of Mubarak's regime in the cartoon matter is understated, though the NYT did a wonderful job of highlighting it at the time. It's quite convenient for horrible, ineffectual regimes to distract populations of their pathetic governance, and their perduring corruption, by finding outside enemies to attract attention. What better thing than Prophetic drawings in a Danish newspaper nobody outside of Denmark had ever heard of? But that was then, this is now. Egypt is focussed on other things, for good reason. Mubarak is gone, for better reason, let's hope to jail and then not too long from now to a place somewhat hotter than a Cairo jail in summer. Even the folks who have held on to power probably don't think it wise to get people riled up on much of anything (like Abdullah Ali Saleh has nothing else to worry about in Yemen than folks even more upset and more Islamist than they are).
Unfortunately, it leaves Karzai, running a state worse than Mubarak ran his, a state infected with corruption, unable to supply its citizens with the basic elements of a decent existence, and a resulting population deeply ambivalent about the US presence. Desperate to earn credibility with the Taliban's base, seeking to separate himself from the people upon whom he depends for crucial support, Karzai alone dug up the old doctrine, the one that captured the world when it came to Prophetic insults, and sought to revive it once again when nobody else was, or is, interested. And after he was done, the Taliban surely would not be outdone, if Karzai could speak, they could act, and sooner than one could imagine, a compound was stormed, and aid workers killed. I expect such unspeakable callousness and demagoguery, such patent disregard for human life, Afghan, American, multinational (U.N. workers) from loons both Christian (Terry Jones) and Muslim (Taliban stormers). I do not expect it from statesmen.
I have no policy prescriptions, I make no pretense of having one. I can only say this. When a fellow like this is the domestic ally, the person leading the state which is expected to combat the forces of extremism, when he's this truly bad in so many ways, I don't understand how the war could possibly be won.
HAH
So let's start with the obvious, Terry Jones the Qur'an burner is no friend of mine, nor of the United States. He is no friend of mine because he burns my Holy Book (don't know why just because I don't toe the strict, pure doctrinal line I'm assumed to be some sort of wild apostate, wonder if such a rigid and silly standard would be imposed on anyone other than Muslims, blame Muslim and non Muslim alike for that). He is no friend of America because he disrespects faith and because he endangers American soldiers for no good reason other than some self absorbed and delusional sense of importance along with a depraved but very modern craving for publicity. (He's no friend of mine too for the same reason lest that be unclear.)
But I've always argued he's a sideshow, and he still is. He's just a broke guy, a loser, in a nothing church who nobody gives a crap about and kudos to the press for ignoring his Qur'an burning as they did and as they should have. Well done by the media, quite responsible not to allow a person to make himself a story. The story was dead for days. It was Karzai who picked up this story and ran with it, calling for the arrest of this Jones loon, stirring up the passions leading to the storming of a U.N. compound and the deaths of U.N. workers. Notice that no other world leader did what Karzai did, they all failed to comment. Fareed Zakaria wanted to know why the religious figures didn't denounce the Taliban killings, and I see the point, though I wonder about it. Unlike the Prophet cartoons, where really the violence was embarrassing and ridiculous and should have earned rounder condemnation, let's at least point to something--neither Qaradawi nor Sistani, not Khalid Amr and not Tariq Ramadan, meaning nobody from the popular preacher to the intellectual to the jurist to anyone in between raised the profile of this thing at all in the first place, and they still have not post Qur'an burning. Sort of makes me wonder, should these leaders actually denounce both Qur'an burning and killing as Zakaria wants? What's wrong with letting these sleeping dogs lie in Iraq, Egypt, Europe, Qatar where nobody has paid attention. Is profile raising maybe a problem even if violence denounced? Is it wrong for Sistani's people to worry that if they do criticize Qur'an burning and violence, then the Sadrists will take the streets and jump on the first bit and ignore the second? They may have a point. it is worth considering.
Anyway, it began with Karzai, it continued with the Taliban, it never left Afghanistan really and so while de Mistura's rage against Terry Jones is understandable, hell if my people were killed I'd be pretty enraged too, his later question, why is it that this only happened in Afghanistan, is perhaps even more salient. Let me offer the Realist suggestion.
The issue really isn't violations of classical fiqh, shari'a is being ignored pretty blatantly if you burn a Qur'an or insult a Prophet. Anti-colonial fervor driven by the West is a key component, as always, but demagoguery is too, and these days, in the Muslim world, both are not quite ebbing, but not in the same toxic form they were during the cartoon episode a few years back, in most of the Muslim world.
As to the anticolonial bit, the Iraq war is fading, the NATO intervention in the Libya war is supported by many, the Palestinians are planning to declare statehood. The demonization of anything Western has lost its luster, at least temporarily, and lost its credibility, as leaders like Qadhafi struggle to defend their repression as being against some sort of Western-Zionist cabal. Nobody is buying that anymore.
Of course, that brings us to the second point, which is demagoguery. The role of Mubarak's regime in the cartoon matter is understated, though the NYT did a wonderful job of highlighting it at the time. It's quite convenient for horrible, ineffectual regimes to distract populations of their pathetic governance, and their perduring corruption, by finding outside enemies to attract attention. What better thing than Prophetic drawings in a Danish newspaper nobody outside of Denmark had ever heard of? But that was then, this is now. Egypt is focussed on other things, for good reason. Mubarak is gone, for better reason, let's hope to jail and then not too long from now to a place somewhat hotter than a Cairo jail in summer. Even the folks who have held on to power probably don't think it wise to get people riled up on much of anything (like Abdullah Ali Saleh has nothing else to worry about in Yemen than folks even more upset and more Islamist than they are).
Unfortunately, it leaves Karzai, running a state worse than Mubarak ran his, a state infected with corruption, unable to supply its citizens with the basic elements of a decent existence, and a resulting population deeply ambivalent about the US presence. Desperate to earn credibility with the Taliban's base, seeking to separate himself from the people upon whom he depends for crucial support, Karzai alone dug up the old doctrine, the one that captured the world when it came to Prophetic insults, and sought to revive it once again when nobody else was, or is, interested. And after he was done, the Taliban surely would not be outdone, if Karzai could speak, they could act, and sooner than one could imagine, a compound was stormed, and aid workers killed. I expect such unspeakable callousness and demagoguery, such patent disregard for human life, Afghan, American, multinational (U.N. workers) from loons both Christian (Terry Jones) and Muslim (Taliban stormers). I do not expect it from statesmen.
I have no policy prescriptions, I make no pretense of having one. I can only say this. When a fellow like this is the domestic ally, the person leading the state which is expected to combat the forces of extremism, when he's this truly bad in so many ways, I don't understand how the war could possibly be won.
HAH
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