Pakistanis everywhere are viewed with suspicion despite the fact that no one should be judged as such
HYDERABAD: September passes every year with the grim reminder of 9/11, which marked one of the most destructive events in modern times. A thousand theories have cropped up regarding this atrocious event but the pity is that it has become the epicentre from where all the mess of modern terrorism began. No matter what religion people belonged to, at the end of the day, human beings died. Faith is a personal matter and no human being can be excluded from a certain faith. We need to transcend our limited mindset to protect humans.
Undoubtedly, this incident has changed the course of world history, past and present. Subsequently, it caused the death of two million innocent people as a consequence of wars. The USA has played a key role in these wars; many Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Pakistan are suffering the consequence of 9/11 directly or indirectly. In the larger sane view of the intelligentsia, Pakistan should have not participated in the War on Terror in the first place, because more than 50,000 lives have been lost and counting.
We are being described as the world’s most dreadful nation where secular voices are overshadowed by a few frivolous voices, which is pitiable. In fact, war is a phenomenon in which the military plays a relatively small part. It is the civilians who pay for war through their lives, homes and hearths. Pakistanis everywhere are viewed with suspicion despite the fact that no one should be judged as such. Furthermore, our image is tarnished and it will take us a long time to come out of this quagmire because of one strategic blunder.
Nasir Soomro
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2016.
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