Fears of Muslim backlash exaggerated?

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (BAHRAIN), NOV. 10. Among the several benefits that might accrue from the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif to the Northern Alliance is that the world outside might now start to get some real hard news on the fighting itself. If the focus of reportage should shift to developments on the battle-front, and away from the stories of refugees and the deaths of innocents, the prospects of major flare-ups in the Muslim world during the period of Ramadan would be considerably diminished.

Pakistan's President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been making much of what could happen in the Muslim world if the U.S.- led bombing campaign in Afghanistan continues during the month of Ramadan which should start by Nov. 16 or so. Going by what has been happening in his country for the past few weeks, the General might be accurate in his assessments of how events could unfold in Pakistan.

Some commentators in West Asia too have expressed the view that popular sentiments would be inflamed if the bombing continues during the holy month. But from the complete lack of even medium scale public protests against the U.S. campaign, in the Muslim- majority belt that stretches westwards from Afghanistan, such comments appear hyperbolic.

True, there is a lot of outrage here. A part of this outrage is set off by what are considered U.S. double-standards in letting ``the Jews (i.e. Israelis) kill Muslims'' while themselves killing other Muslims who might or might not have had anything to do with the Sept. 11 events. But a more immediate cause for the outrage are the daily images and reports of children and other innocents being killed by not-so-smart bombs and of poor Afghans starving in refugee camps. These images have been far more immediate and telling than the stray shots of blooms of dust being kicked up on an Afghan hill-side supposedly by U.S. bombs or of a fighter-bomber flying high in a blue-sky. Such reports that have come from behind the Northern Alliance frontlines have been more about the endless preparations that are being made there and about the reporters' own hardships in ``covering the war''.

With Mazar-e-Sharif having fallen, and presuming that it continues to remain in the Northern Alliance's hands, there might possibly be more real war reportage - of advances made, or bottle-necks, accounts of real fighting etc. If such does happen the whole imagery of the war would change. It would no longer be a case of an inhuman U.S. war machine killing innocent Afghans but of one set of armed Afghan warriors killing another set of armed Afghan warriors.

Further down the road, it could also come to be viewed as a situation where moderate co-religionists are fighting fanatics and since a majority in the Muslim world arguably belongs to the first category, the centre of gravity in the public relations part of the campaign could also tilt.

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Section  : International
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