Measuring Justice by One Yardstick: Muslims Should Hold Muslim Governments Accountable for Injustices

By Mirza A. Beg

When oppressed by others, we appeal to humanity and justice and fight against the oppression, as we should. But it is a sad and unfortunate part of human nature that once we get the upper hand, we often turn around and inflict similar atrocities on others. All ethnic groups, religions, and societies have been guilty of this evil.

In these ever-repeating tragedies, the innocents are the victims. Yet by our quiescence when we see injustice happening to others, we are guilty of being enablers. Often the lament is, What could an individual do? It is usually true, but not always. As history is witness, an individual can make a difference.

Yet even when one can not make a difference materially, it is still important to speak out against all atrocities. And it is more difficult—therefore, more important—to speak out against atrocities committed by one's own kind.

Recently the Asian Center for Human Rights reported the land grab and killing of the indigenous "Jumma" people in south-eastern Bangladesh (Chitagong Hills). The attacks are aimed at terrorizing indigenous people for their lands. In April 2003, the army and illegal settlers burnt down Jumma houses in Bhuiochari village after indigenous peoples asked the settlers to stop encroaching onto their lands and to dismantle the houses they had built. The army encircled the village and forced the indigenous people out of their homes while the settlers looted and burnt down the houses.

Sadly, Bangladesh broke away from Pakistan in 1971 because of similar inequities and maltreatment from the more powerful Western Pakistanis. Comparable atrocities are being committed by the Janjaweed (Nomadic Sudanese claiming Arab descent) against the settled Muslims of the Darfur region.

Muslims vocally, monetarily, and emotionally decry and condemn, as they should, the atrocities and land grab against Muslims in Palestine, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Ughur, Kashmir, Gujarat and many other places. Such land grabs, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are occasionally even gingerly condemned by governments of predominantly Muslim countries, though not too vocally lest their own record may be examined more closely.

Yet when Muslims oppress people of other religions or even other Muslims in the same manner, the criticism at most is muted. For example, witness the reaction to the persecution of Muslims and non-Muslims by the erstwhile Taliban in Afghanistan, Kurds by Arab regimes, Jumma people in Bangladesh, Qadianis in Pakistan, or tribal cleansing in the Darfur region of Sudan and Aceh in Indonesia.

To their credit many Muslim journalists have taken pains to write about it with passion. The Bangladesh Observer, for example, has written strong editorials, but the governments, social, and political organizations and individuals remain generally silent or perfunctorily shake their heads.

Often governments justify their actions or inaction by pointing to the supposed follies and deviance of the people being oppressed. These are more self-serving than real. Even when true, the duty of the government is to treat all its citizens with equality and justice. The miscreants should be brought to the court of law. Governments that suppress civil dissent and practice oppression in effect invite rebellion.

Unfortunately, some in the western media with an anti-Islamic agenda will use the Muslim condemnation of other Muslims for their own purposes. But that should not deter us. Our timidity and non-condemnation only helps the evil forces within our communities. The paucity of reforms and the existence of such heinous forces inside our communities inevitably bring condemnation and pressure from the outside. This only helps to advance the agenda of those outside forces that are malicious towards Islam for their own vile reasons. It is always better if the opposition springs from within the community. It is more effective and conducive to thoughtful change.

The excuses that true understanding of and adherence to religion would ameliorate these problems have been bandied about in all religions since time immemorial. But it has only produced more discord and arguments about the true meaning of religion.

In public discourse, we never tire of pointing out that Islam stands for peace, mercy and compassion, and it does! Oppression breeds extremism. When extreme becomes common, the normative base of society is severely injured. Such perversity of beliefs must be opposed by civil society, especially one that claims a moral high ground.

When others practice cruelty and mayhem against Muslims, it hurts, and we resist and fight against it. When Muslims do it, we need to fight even harder. We should condemn it, resist it, and fight against it with even greater resolve.

The question that is staring us in the face and tugging at our conscience is, Do we practice Islam as a religion of morality without exception as it ought to be, or simply as an extension of local tribalism into a super-tribe? Should only non-Muslims be condemned for inhumanity, but people in our own super-tribe supported for fear of Muslims becoming even weaker, or out of a desire to hide from others what we refuse to acknowledge?

It is a shame that the central tenet of Islamic ethos based on Justice is being so cavalierly and nonchalantly violated by many Muslim governments, while many of us remain mute, observers at best, and by our quiescence, collaborators at worst.

Originally from India, Mirza Beg works as a geologist in the United States. His articles on national and international affairs have been published in newspapers in the Southeastern US and India.