Mired between law and ‘religion’

Robert Mueller is the Special Counsel investigating whether anyone on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians

Last week, The New York Times had a detailed article depicting the personality and the mindset of Robert Mueller, the Special Counsel investigating whether or not anyone on the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in influencing the 2016 presidential election and also whether or not Trump obstructed justice by firing the FBI director, James Comey. The article goes on to predict that Mueller may not prosecute Trump despite having concrete incriminating evidence. The reason behind this is the character and the mindset of Mueller described as that of a man who never deviates from law and precedent.

Mueller did not think the CIA’s torture tactics were illegal only because the Justice Department said so. He did not invoke his own conscience. Robert Wexler, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Florida, asked Mueller in 2008, “Why did you not take more substantial steps to stop the interrogation techniques that your own FBI agents termed as illegal?” Mueller simply replied that since the Justice Department had declared the CIA’s torture tactics legal, it was not his place to challenge that conclusion. “There has to be a legal basis for us to investigate,” he told Mr Wexler. “And generally that legal basis is given to us by the Department of Justice.”

The one thing common between the American and Pakistani cultures is the tendency to treat the law as the final authority when faced with complex situations. The only difference between the two cultures is that the Americans tend to treat man-made law as sacrosanct where the Pakistanis treat the divine law that way. This doesn’t mean that the influence of religion in American culture is any less than in the Pakistani culture.



Many of my Muslim friends in America refuse to pay even a dime to Christian beggars on various traffic stops because they believe that only Muslim beggars are deserving of their charity. I wonder if Christians are not human beings? Doesn’t Islam preach love for humanity? If they haven’t encountered helping a hungry American Christian somewhere in their religious education or if the Mullah has never mentioned it, then it is of no concern to them despite the fact that it is totally moral and just to help a poor, hungry person irrespective of their faith. Such mindset is driving people like Mueller. For him, the Department of Justice and precedent in law are higher authorities than his own conscience. The law is where the answer to everything lies.

As the legendary Pashto Poet Ghani Khan once sarcastically said that religion is the answer to every question that does not have an answer. If it escapes their imagination and intellect then religion, as they have known it, is the answer to it. The mindset is that if something is not in the religion or the law, as they know it, then it is of no concern to them. The problem is not in the religion or the law, the problem is in the corrupt ways we use them for false beliefs and immoral actions or inaction.

In other words, the problem is not in the adherence to religion or the law but rather the blind adherence to either or both. The essence of religion as well as the law is to fathom the depth by questioning them. Seeking understanding and knowledge is a key teaching of Islam. More than anything, law is based on reason. Faith doesn’t require proof and evidence, but blind acceptance.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2018.

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