SHABTAAB IN JNU

 Renowned Scholar Dubs USA As Biggest Terrorist Today

PROPOUNDED by Huntington in the mid-1980s, the current slogan of a “clash of civilisations” is nothing but a façade for the US imperialist drive for hegemony. This was stated by Professor Aijaz Ahmad while speaking to a group of students in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, on September 28. The meeting was organised by some Urdu speaking students for popularising the monthly Shabtaab in the campus. Dr Anwar Pasha of the Centre of Indian Languages presided while former JNU students union president Albeena Shakeel introduced the speakers to the gathering.

“War, Terror & Clash of Civilisations” was the topic Professor Aijaz Ahmad took up for elaboration. He said the Huntington thesis visualised a situation when the Judo-Christian world would be pitted against the peoples professing Islam and Confucianism, and it would be the destiny of the former to save the world civilisation from the barbaric forces which the latter represent. Yet, giving concrete arguments and instances, the learned speaker showed how the obtaining reality contradicts the thesis. For example, while the imperialist propaganda today equates Islam with terrorism, the reality is that US imperialists have by their side the ruling circles of Saudi Arabia that houses the holy places of Islam.

As for the US claim that it is fighting against the terrorists worldwide, the speaker elaborated the point that it is the US that is the biggest terrorist force today. Though the United States did not suffer any major attack in the 200 years of its existence except the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, it has itself been attacking or intervening in country after country on one or another, often flimsy, pretexts. In the words of the speaker himself, “Not a single year has passed since the second world war when the US has not attacked some other country of the world.”

In this context, the speaker pointed out the coincidence that if the US imperialist conspiracy brought down the government of President Salvador Allende in Chile on September 11, 1973, it was exactly 28 years later, on the same date, when the US itself faced the terrorist wrath in the form of attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Incidentally, Professor Aijaz Ahmad recalled, September 11 was also the date in 1946 when the heroic peasant war in Telangana had started.

Here, the speaker dwelt at some length on the methods the US employed to get the Allende government overthrown. Quoting Henri Kissinger’s remark that the US could not remain a silent spectator if the people of a country were so “foolish” as to elect a Marxist government, Professor Aijaz Ahmad said the US intervention in Chile was against the norms of civilised living, against the UN Charter and even against the US constitution itself that forbids the state to intervene in other countries. Moreover, about 35,000 Chileans were killed in a few weeks after the coup, and the champions of democracy blessed these acts. Of those who “disappeared” during the Pinochet dictatorship, some 30,000 still remain untraced.

Yet, the renowned professor added, the US intervention in Chile was nothing new. It had already intervened in Latin American countries like Mexico, Venezuela and Guatemala; it had constantly tried and is still trying to strangulate the Cuban revolution through a criminal blockade. Even today, the US is not leaving any stone unturned to oust the Chavez government in Venezuela. Outside the American continent, the US intervened in a number of countries including Indonesia where over five lakh communists were killed in a matter of days and the second biggest communist party of the world was brutally suppressed.   

Here, Professor Aijaz Ahmad clarified a few more points. Though the US claimed some 20,000 were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Centre, it was forced to bring down the figure to about 3,000 when the reality of the claim was exposed. But, more importantly, about 20 per cent of those killed on that day were Muslims from India, Pakistan and other countries, while Latin Americans were the second biggest group among the deceased. This reality does not tally with the clash of civilisations thesis, the speaker remarked.

Secondly, giving facts, the speaker showed it is the US that has been propping up terrorist groups, with the Taliban of Afghanistan being a recent example of the US role in sponsoring terrorism. Yet, it is against this world power that resistance is gradually mounting in various parts of the world. Most recently the Venezuelans have foiled US attempts to topple the Chavez government, while the US is finding it almost impossible to hold on to Iraq. It is this resistance that has to be multiplied manifold and converted into a single stream, Professor Ahmad stressed.  

On this occasion, the speaker also pointed out that soon after Huntington put forward his thesis, the Chinese are said to have concluded that it was a ploy to eventually encircle China. Yet, not to add to the complexity of the world situation, to date the Chinese have never said any such thing publicly.

Before beginning his talk, the speaker lauded the attempts to impact the people’s thinking in order to strengthen secularism, democracy and anti-imperialism, as were reflected in cases like Shabtaab, Yeh Naye Rastey (Srinagar) and the forum Awaz of Hyderabad.

Shabtaab publisher Dr Moinuddin and executive editor Naresh Nadeem also addressed the meeting.