More realness

[Toni Petrinovich]

A speech presented recently sent to me by another colleague on another list.  Blessings, Toni


About a month ago, I rode up with two colleagues to the Northwest Frontier 

region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. We were covering a story on 

Islamic militancy training grounds based in Pakistani religious schools. 

In the west they have widely been reported to be ground zero for the 

grooming of young Muslim boys into hostile anti-western terrorists. In 

Pakistan, both the government and the men at the school hotly contested 

these claims, castigating the west for generating such racist propaganda. I 

traveled to this lost area with as little bias as possible - but with a 

certain and undeniable fear in my heart. 

In the school itself, the chancellor was most kind and hospitable. He had 

us tour the grounds of the school, meet teachers and some of the boys - 

though at first we weren't allowed to talk to them. We were then escorted 

into his private residence. The first thing I noticed on the center table 

was a bowl of big yellow mangoes and a picture. The picture was of our host 

- an older Muslim Mullah wearing a traditional white turban and a stained 

orange beard and his friend - Osama Bin Laden, the number one man on the 

FBI's list of Most Wanted. I asked our host if we could interview him. He 

agreed but insisted first that we share mangoes with him. I agreed and he 

took out a long knife and proceeded to slice the fruit for me. We slurped 

and chatted for a while and finally were permitted to turn on the camera. 

I asked the Mullah a wide array of questions. "Did he hate the US? Why is 

there such Anti-Americanism in this part of the world? Should Americans be 

afraid?" 

He answered them all eloquently and without hostility. He talked about the 

history of the US and Afghanistan, how during the Cold War, they were 

allies, united fighting a war against the Soviets. 

"You gave us weapons and trained our men. You built our roads, fed our 

people. Do you realize young man that your government helps to create and 

to fund the Taliban because it was their interest to use Guerilla warfare 

and terrorist tactics against the Russians? You made us your friend." 

"But then your Cold War ended and you deserted us." At this point, there 

was a hint of animosity in his voice. " Because it was no longer in your 

selfish interest to have us as your allies, you abandoned us, left our 

people, hungry, and hateful. You turned your friends into foes because you 

used us like whores." 

There was a silence between us. 

Finally I asked him about the picture, about the nature of his relationship 

with Mr. Bin Laden. 

"He's an old friend. And a good man." 

I shook my head. "Is he a terrorist?" 

"We don't call him that here." The Mullah made it clear he was not 

interested in talking any more. We shook hands. I thanked him for his 

hospitality. 

On the way out I thought about that hospitality. I knew that the Mullah 

himself had endorsed a fatwa, or religious order, by Bin Laden several 

years ago urging Muslims to kill American civilians. But here was this man 

cutting mangoes for us and being very gracious. 

"Today you are our guest. If we were not hospitable, we would be very 

ashamed. But in times of war, yes you would be an enemy and we may kill 

you. Today a friend, tomorrow, inshallah (God willing), there will not be 

one." 

* * * * * 

Today Friday September 14, 2001, four days since the terrorist attack, it 

appears we may be on the threshold of war. Our President has called it the 

First World War of the 21st century. I am not sure whom we will be 

fighting. I would like to go to my favorite café in the city - a small 

Egyptian place on the Lower East Side that I have been going to since 

college. The waiters - mostly young Middle Eastern guys who like to talk 

about basketball and soccer, who come and sit at your table and share a 

puff on the sweet tobacco hookas they serve there - they are my friends. 

But I'm not sure when it will open again, if it will open again. There's a 

Mosque next door that has been closed since the attack. 

The weeks and months and perhaps even years ahead promise to be complex and 

wary. Hopefully our leaders will be judicious, precise, and compassionate 

in the difficult decisions that lay ahead. But it is each of us that now 

must rise up and be the true warriors in this difficult time. Does that 

mean seizing weapons and braving the threat of death out on a battlefield? 

Precisely not. Because the battlefield is invisible. The enemy is elusive. 

The web of evil too complex. Today there are no answers. It is too early 

for solutions for remedies. For now we each have our stories - where we 

were on the day that the twin towers toppled. Each one is dramatic; each 

one is tragic. From this day forward, everyday I shall observe a quiet 

remembrance for the victims of this calamity. Each one of us may choose our 

own way how to memorialize this moment but I believe we are all obligated 

to reflect for a moment, to care about our neighbor, to meditate for peace 

and tolerance because ultimately the only forces that can defeat such 

profound evil are compassion and hope. 

I ask everyone on this board to join my father and me in prayer for the 

healing of our wounded civilization (if we can call it that). Let us pray 

every day to our Gods remembering, as my dad has taught me since childhood, 

that Christ was not a Christian, Mohammed was not a Mohammeden, Buddha was 

not a Buddhist, and Krishna was not a Hindu. 

Love, 

Gotham Chopra 


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