Saudi Arabia says Israel has a right to homeland - KPs deserve a similar declaration

Sh Jagan Nath Dhar Editor Koshur Samachar

Followers of the faiths of Judaism and Islam have had embittered relationship for over a millennium. Yet, Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, is, today, supporting the idea that Jews, also, should have a territory which they claim to be theirs. Crown Prince and de facto leader of Saudi Arabia Mohammad bin Salman has said that Israel has a right to a homeland. This is an extraordinary shift in the kingdom’s centuries’ old position. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations; but, behind the scenes, improvement in their relations has increased in recent years. Both the countries see Iran as their biggest threat and the United States as their key ally. Both see danger from armed extremists.

For a long time, Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians has proved an obstacle to complete rapprochement. However, Saudi Arabia supports their claim to sovereignty. At the same time, now, the Crown Prince appears to put rival land claims on equal footing. Asked if the Jewish people have a right to a nation-state, he said: “I believe that each people, anywhere, has a right to live in their peaceful nation. I believe the Palestinians and Israelis have the right to have their own land.”

This change of attitude is taking place because the process of thinking is undergoing a change for the better. Poet Iqbal says: Sabaat ik tagayur ko hai zamaane main. That is: If there is anything that can be treated as permanent on our globe, it is the process of change. The same idea was enunciated by Buddha when he said: Anything that goes up, one day comes down. The world has witnessed many a civilization; yet there is little existence of a civilization which is more than 10,000 years’ old.

If a society wants to progress it should have the sagacity of changing according to new circumstances. Longfellow said long ago: Old order changeth, yielding place to new. And God fulfills himself in many different ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. Our globe has produced a highly rational thinker in the person of Plato, who declared: “Let us go where reason leads us”. Yet, if he were born today, he would have to adjust to a new situation. That is because what he said in the third century B.C. pertained to Greece which had towns with a population of ten thousand, or less.

With the passage of time, creeks developed even in established religions. Christianity got divided into Catholics,

Protestants and Puritans. Hinduism gave birth to new ways of worshipping propounded by the founders of new systems like that of Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj. In theory, Islam preached that Muslims should consider themselves as brothers. Yet differences cropped between Sunnis and Shias.

Ahmediyas were declared to be non- Muslims in Pakistan. Jewish Israel and Sunni Saudi Arabia want to cooperate to oppose the policies undertaken by Iran, another neighboring Muslim country. The ISIS says that Khilafat leadership should not remain with Saudi Arabia but should get transferred to the ISIS set up in Iraq and Syria. In international relations, religion has lost significance. Politics and economics matter more. Pakistan wants to maintain friendship with China, ruled by a kafir regime because its leaders have, compulsorily, to be atheists, but it is unwilling to have good relations with India which allows all citizens to follow the faith of their choice.

When Saudi Arabia is desirous of providing living space to Jews, how we wish that the majority community of Kashmir takes a cue from such changing attitudes. They need to create a united front and call the exiled Kashmiri Pandits to resettle in their homeland in a sense of security and respect. Yet, an atmosphere, opposed to the basic tenets of Kashmiriat, is prospering in Kashmir. One day, when Dr. Farouq Abdullah was the J&K Chief Minister, he addressed the National Conference members of the two Houses of the state legislature, hailing from the valley. He said: We should welcome Kashmiri Pandits back. An important members of his party got up and shouted: Sir, during the years of turmoil, after 1990, the majority community of Kashmir has achieved nothing except driving the KPs away. If you take away that single achievement of ours too, we better join the ranks of the militants and leave the National Conference. After that day, the doctor by qualification and politician by family tradition, never had the courage of saying that KPs should be welcomed back.

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Jagannath Dhar Editor Koshur Samachar and Koshur Samachar April, 2018