TheFlyingPretzel
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Considering all the recent threads on the talk of a caliphate, I don't know if it's been said here before by any of my Pakistani brethren, in the detail which I wish to see it discussed, and at the cost of sounding slightly condescending and maybe even myopic, I'd like to opine that even if there were established a Caliphate the only way I would ever want Pakistan to accede to it is if they make Islamabad the capital of it all. Frankly speaking, and taking lesson from Syria, Iraq and Libya and the ever-growing rift between Sunni Islam and Shiite Islam....I don't think the Arabs know what they're getting into.
Also, I don't think anybody in the immediate Middle-East knows how to play America quite like the Pakistanis do. Some essential reading for those of you interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Delusions-Pakistan-History-Misunderstanding/dp/1610393171/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DDHD9XQAAK6RTR2RMK5
Granted Pakistan has its shortcomings, many more so than some extraordinarily stable Middle Eastern countries such as the Emirates, Saudi and Qatar. But if you step back and look at the bigger picture, it becomes increasingly evident that almost all of Pakistan's worries, in its brief but eventful history, have stemmed from its weak economy and the paucity of funds at the disposal of the Federal Government. I don't mean to blow our trumpet, and I submit the foregoing ever so humbly but when you look at the successes which Pakistan has achieved and more so on the shoestring budget which it has done so, it only tickles one's fancy as to what this nation is capable of, had it the abundance of wealth which the Arabs enjoy from the blessed black resource which Allah has given them near-infinite amounts off.
A Muslim Caliphate is a concerning thought for a Pakistani, because effectively a Caliphate is an Arab Caliphate and the Pakistanis have little in common culturally and linguistically (save for our Persian script) with the Arab traditions. For better or for worse, our fates are inter-twined because we have accepted Islam as our religion of choice and we have submitted ourselves to it on a national level by incorporating its tents into our constituting documents. But in a Caliphate, our constituting documents themselves lose all constitutional force and our sovereignty is dissolved and our land merged into a pan-Arab State. The geographical merger of the lands under the Caliphate would automatically render the idea on which Pakistan was founded, a story for the pages of history, and the fate of the Pakistani people would rest, then, solely in the hands of an Arab man, living in a foreign land beyond the reach of the largest segment of our society, the financially-afflicted.
I understand that to many, this would be a welcome merger and possibly even news for redemption, and to them I have little to say, because unlike me they were never Pakistani to begin with...and also unlike me, they will not understand the gravity of what I am trying to stress here. Moving on...and accepting our geographical merger under the Caliphate, the dissolution of our Parliament, the repudiation of our Constitution, the demise of our culture and our traditions, the usurpation of our sovereignty, etc....
Assuming Baghdadi's Caliphate finds legitimacy among the Arabs (in all likelihood it won't, but I'm just going to argue this on the foregoing assumption) and Pakistan pledges her allegiance to him, and assuming he's serious about his hell-bent aspirations to conquer the world, and to do so he calls for total control over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, will we be ready to relinquish it for him?
*pause for effect*
Even in a post-Caliphate world, our nuclear arsenal guarantees our freedom from the hegemonic forces lying on our Eastern border, and relinquishing control of our nuclear weapons to a Caliph in Raqqa, who hasn't the slightest clue of the strategic importance of our deterrent would spell absolute disaster for us. Sure, we can give him partial control, or insist he operate the arsenal through us but then we'd be forgetting one very important contingency of our allegiance - Total submission to the will of the Caliph. Is Pakistan prepared to do as he insists to the detriment of our national integrity? Is Pakistan prepared to hand over its nuclear deterrent to an Arab in an unheard-of Iraqi city who swears that he has been appointed by the will of Allah as the leader of Muslims everywhere?
Handing over our strategic assets to madman-Baghdadi would mean abandoning control of the border which we share with India, and maybe also forever losing to our greatest arch-nemesis, whose superpower aspirations have actually helped spur us on towards self-reliance and economic stability. Territorial loss in Khorasan would be of trivial concern to a Caliphate because the real focus of the Arabian world are the immediate cities of Jerusalem, Baghdad, Constantinople, Andalus, Mecca and Medina - the perennial constituents of the ancient Islamic Empire. Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi do not register as important cities for the continuation of the Muslim world.
I would also hate to be sitting here knowing that as a Pakistani Muslim, my old country lost territory to the Indian cold-start doctrine, after relinquishing total control of our strategic assets to the Caliph, and that I am now a second rate citizen in an Arab Caliphate and will never enjoy the same rights as an Arab because I will always be an Ajami and, therefore, not from Allah's chosen race of people.
Also no matter how many assurances I get from any of my Pakistani or Arabian brethren on the equality of status which the citizens of a Caliphate would enjoy, I will always know first-hand the contempt with which the Arabs hold the people of the sub-continent. For this very reason in particular and relying on the foregoing in general, I am adamant in insisting that the seat of power for any Caliphate should rest in Islamabad, because as Ajamis we stand to lose a lot.
I would also like to bring this forum's attention to the absolute possibility of the Caliph (particularly Baghdadi) mismanaging our strategic assets to the point of obliteration and the very possible likelihood of the total annihilation of the Muslim Ummah. Another reason not to accede to any Caliphate!
In a modern world, then, isn't a Caliphate only for Arabs and not Pakistanis.
Also, I don't think anybody in the immediate Middle-East knows how to play America quite like the Pakistanis do. Some essential reading for those of you interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Magnificent-Delusions-Pakistan-History-Misunderstanding/dp/1610393171/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DDHD9XQAAK6RTR2RMK5
Granted Pakistan has its shortcomings, many more so than some extraordinarily stable Middle Eastern countries such as the Emirates, Saudi and Qatar. But if you step back and look at the bigger picture, it becomes increasingly evident that almost all of Pakistan's worries, in its brief but eventful history, have stemmed from its weak economy and the paucity of funds at the disposal of the Federal Government. I don't mean to blow our trumpet, and I submit the foregoing ever so humbly but when you look at the successes which Pakistan has achieved and more so on the shoestring budget which it has done so, it only tickles one's fancy as to what this nation is capable of, had it the abundance of wealth which the Arabs enjoy from the blessed black resource which Allah has given them near-infinite amounts off.
A Muslim Caliphate is a concerning thought for a Pakistani, because effectively a Caliphate is an Arab Caliphate and the Pakistanis have little in common culturally and linguistically (save for our Persian script) with the Arab traditions. For better or for worse, our fates are inter-twined because we have accepted Islam as our religion of choice and we have submitted ourselves to it on a national level by incorporating its tents into our constituting documents. But in a Caliphate, our constituting documents themselves lose all constitutional force and our sovereignty is dissolved and our land merged into a pan-Arab State. The geographical merger of the lands under the Caliphate would automatically render the idea on which Pakistan was founded, a story for the pages of history, and the fate of the Pakistani people would rest, then, solely in the hands of an Arab man, living in a foreign land beyond the reach of the largest segment of our society, the financially-afflicted.
I understand that to many, this would be a welcome merger and possibly even news for redemption, and to them I have little to say, because unlike me they were never Pakistani to begin with...and also unlike me, they will not understand the gravity of what I am trying to stress here. Moving on...and accepting our geographical merger under the Caliphate, the dissolution of our Parliament, the repudiation of our Constitution, the demise of our culture and our traditions, the usurpation of our sovereignty, etc....
Assuming Baghdadi's Caliphate finds legitimacy among the Arabs (in all likelihood it won't, but I'm just going to argue this on the foregoing assumption) and Pakistan pledges her allegiance to him, and assuming he's serious about his hell-bent aspirations to conquer the world, and to do so he calls for total control over Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, will we be ready to relinquish it for him?
*pause for effect*
Even in a post-Caliphate world, our nuclear arsenal guarantees our freedom from the hegemonic forces lying on our Eastern border, and relinquishing control of our nuclear weapons to a Caliph in Raqqa, who hasn't the slightest clue of the strategic importance of our deterrent would spell absolute disaster for us. Sure, we can give him partial control, or insist he operate the arsenal through us but then we'd be forgetting one very important contingency of our allegiance - Total submission to the will of the Caliph. Is Pakistan prepared to do as he insists to the detriment of our national integrity? Is Pakistan prepared to hand over its nuclear deterrent to an Arab in an unheard-of Iraqi city who swears that he has been appointed by the will of Allah as the leader of Muslims everywhere?
Handing over our strategic assets to madman-Baghdadi would mean abandoning control of the border which we share with India, and maybe also forever losing to our greatest arch-nemesis, whose superpower aspirations have actually helped spur us on towards self-reliance and economic stability. Territorial loss in Khorasan would be of trivial concern to a Caliphate because the real focus of the Arabian world are the immediate cities of Jerusalem, Baghdad, Constantinople, Andalus, Mecca and Medina - the perennial constituents of the ancient Islamic Empire. Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi do not register as important cities for the continuation of the Muslim world.
I would also hate to be sitting here knowing that as a Pakistani Muslim, my old country lost territory to the Indian cold-start doctrine, after relinquishing total control of our strategic assets to the Caliph, and that I am now a second rate citizen in an Arab Caliphate and will never enjoy the same rights as an Arab because I will always be an Ajami and, therefore, not from Allah's chosen race of people.
Also no matter how many assurances I get from any of my Pakistani or Arabian brethren on the equality of status which the citizens of a Caliphate would enjoy, I will always know first-hand the contempt with which the Arabs hold the people of the sub-continent. For this very reason in particular and relying on the foregoing in general, I am adamant in insisting that the seat of power for any Caliphate should rest in Islamabad, because as Ajamis we stand to lose a lot.
I would also like to bring this forum's attention to the absolute possibility of the Caliph (particularly Baghdadi) mismanaging our strategic assets to the point of obliteration and the very possible likelihood of the total annihilation of the Muslim Ummah. Another reason not to accede to any Caliphate!
In a modern world, then, isn't a Caliphate only for Arabs and not Pakistanis.
Although, I'm pretty sure @
