LEARNING THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Learning the lessons of history

I agree with Manzoor Moghal (First Person, December 13) that learning from the past is a logical pre-requisite for future peace.

The Africans correctly identified the problem with history when they coined the proverb "Until the lions write their own story, the hunters will be always be the heroes" and it is in this spirit that I am compelled to expand on Mr Moghul's assertion that India owes pluralism to the "Mughal Emperors of India who ruled for over 300 years and mostly treated Hindus as equal partners.

Some of the 22 Mughal Emperors were largely benevolent and inclusive. However, others did not consider Hindus as their equals.

On the contrary, they massacred thousands of Shi'a Muslims and non-Muslims and tore down their places of worship.

Prominent Sikh Gurus were killed by Mughals for opposing Mughal persecution of minority religious communities. Subsequently, Sikhism militarised to oppose Mughal hegemony. The "bad" Mughal leaders were Muslims merely in name but far from Islamic in their actions.

Islam's fundamental peace message is often hijacked by zealots.The death of the last Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb led to the emergence of the secular Sikh Kingdom from 1799 to 1849.

I agree, in part, with Mr Moghal's assertion that British Imperialism destroyed the mutual respect shared among Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus but it would be wrong to put all the blame on the British.

Sectarianism replaced secularism and Jinnah's egotistical desire to be the first premier of Pakistan was spurred on by emerging right-wing Hindu nationalism.

I too lament the partition of my beloved Punjab – a place where once all religious festivals were celebrated by all with equal gusto.

Western foreign policy is always mooted as the scapegoat for religious conflict, but the Russian retreat from Afghanistan left a power vacuum. A Mujahidin army of young guerrilla soldiers, armed with CIA supplied AK-47s and anti-tank missiles were left with no jobs. America failed to intervene with meaningful aid to help the Afghans to rebuild their state and the Taliban emerged.

To understand this crucible, in which terrorism is bred, one must take into account the much stronger influence of a strand of Islam called Salafism and Wahabism which both originated in Arab countries in the 19th century.

Al Qaida and its offshoots all adhere to this strict brand of Islam which later gave birth to Deobandism. The Arab countries have failed to utilise their huge petroleum profits to build up their own "United States of Arabia" – they had an opportunity to become an economic super power but instead squandered their wealth on lavish lifestyles and religious intolerance.

Rather than the West, the Arab League is now intervening in Syria and there is hope for a self-determined Arab future. This is tempered by US foreign policy, propped up by the Bible Belt Protestant belief that Jerusalem must be occupied by Jews converted to Christianity for the second coming of the Messiah.

Until nations become truly secular and religion is treated as progressive moral framework rather than a literal theological blueprint and, moreover, until compromise is found in the perennial Arab-Israeli conflict the world will always be distracted from the human race's biggest challenge – Africa.

Can we hope that the foreign policies and billionaires of all nations, including India, China, Russia, Indonesia, Thailand, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, will play a positive role in providing solutions for the Aids, corruption and hunger epidemics that ravish this beautiful continent?As Plato said: "The penalty good men pay for indifference is to be ruled by evil men."

Mr Raj Mann, Guru Arjan Dev Mission, Leamington Spa