During the next two weeks I’ll be visiting Pakistan at the invitation of the US Embassy there. I won’t be there to toe the government line; from time to time US diplomats abroad call on people from many different points of view and walks of life to give overseas audiences a chance to encounter Americans first hand.
On these trips, US diplomats try to ensure that a variety of audiences get a chance to meet with you and share their concerns. This time I’ll be meeting with everyone from senior members of the Pakistani diplomatic corps to civil society groups and secondary school students. I’ll be interviewed on TV and for newspaper articles; I will post links to the English language coverage so Via Meadia readers can see how things are going. Many Pakistanis speak and write fluent English; I’ll be posting links to some of the English language publications I run across so readers here can follow the Pakistani media on their own. One of the great benefits of the internet is that news sites from all over the world are instantly available; access to publications like The Dawn, The Nation and The News can help Americans get a sense of what people are thinking and doing over there.
This works both ways. Pakistanis read American papers and sometimes they don’t like what they see. A recent example is the “Burn a Koran Day” being sponsored by a profoundly misguided church in Gainsville, Florida. As this story from the Orlando Sentinel notes, the church members plan to burn a copy of the Islamic Holy Book outside their church on September 11 this year, and encourage others to go and do likewise. The Pakistani media has picked up on this story, including the Urdu language press, and people are understandably upset. For many Pakistanis, this is confirmation that Christianity is a dangerous movement of religious radicals who will use any weapon at hand to destroy Islam. They will point to US military attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan itself, and highlight statements by US military officials and others that give a religious cast to America’s war efforts. They will point to statements by religious figures like Franklin Graham and Benedict XVI to paint a picture of Christianity on the offensive against Islam around the world.
Part of what I will try to do is put statements and actions like these into context for Pakistani audiences. Just as the wild eyed violent statements from various misguided extremists in some parts of the Islamic world don’t reflect the views of the majority of pious Muslims, so certain statements and actions by self-appointed spokespersons for Christianity do not reflect the core of what most Christians understand their faith to be about. Fanatics who want to bring about a ‘clash of civilizations’ or start a new age of religious warfare are the enemies of peaceful Muslims and Christians all over the world and in Pakistan and other predominantly Islamic countries I’ve visited I have always been struck at how many people agree. There is and there should be no clash of civilizations between Islam and the west; there is a clash between civilization and barbarism, and in this fight mainstream Islam and the mainstream west are on the same side.
In my public lectures and seminars I will try to help Pakistanis see how American history, culture and our global interests affect our policy towards Pakistan. Americans sometimes are unaware how rapid changes in our foreign policy unsettle our partners overseas. During the late Cold War, we worked closely with Pakistan to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan. Once the Soviets left, we moved on. More recently, US policy has seemed to shift wildly between the Clinton administration, the Bush administration pre-9/11 and again after it, and now again under President Obama. The combination of great power and unpredictability is not something people overseas welcome; countries like Poland and the Czech Republic who worked very hard to stay on good terms with the Bush administration can feel left out in the cold when the winds in Washington change. For Pakistanis, the uncertainty about America’s future intentions can run very deep. Are we getting ready to stay the course in Afghanistan? To cut our losses and run? To accept an informal partition of the country? Is the United States getting ready for a confrontation with Iran — or to accept iranian nuclear weapons? More broadly, Pakistanis watch the changing relationships between the United States, India and China with concern. If the US continues to deepen its relationship with India, where does that leave Pakistan? What can Pakistan do to make sure its interests are respected as US-Indian relations evolve?
These and other questions are hugely important for Pakistan; I’m looking forward to a series of stimulating sessions with thoughtful people and I hope to help them gain a better sense of how Americans approach these issues, even as I learn more about Pakistani perceptions and concerns. Pakistan has a vibrant intellectual life and some very talented scholars — including some very sophisticated students of American history and culture. I look forward to reconnecting.
While I’ll continue to post from time to time, the schedule is heavy enough that I don’t expect to keep to my usual pace. To keep things interesting here at the site, I have invited some friends and associates to post from time to time while I’m gone. Some of these folks are experienced writers; others are relative newcomers. We will post bios of the guests as their posts appear. Enjoy.
When I get back from Pakistan, I’m leaving almost immediately for some quality family time. Weather permitting, we will be at an undisclosed location improving the scuba skills we developed last winter in Belize. Once again I hope to do a little light posting from my tropical hideaway, but the guest posters will bear the brunt of the blog duties that week.
Expect me back at the stately Mead manor in glamorous Queens in the second half of August.