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<P><EM><FONT face=Garamond color=#800080 size=4>A speech presented recently sent
to me by another colleague on another list. Blessings, Toni</FONT></EM>
<P>
<P>About a month ago, I rode up with two colleagues to the Northwest Frontier
<P>region of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. We were covering a story on
<P>Islamic militancy training grounds based in Pakistani religious schools.
<P>In the west they have widely been reported to be ground zero for the
<P>grooming of young Muslim boys into hostile anti-western terrorists. In
<P>Pakistan, both the government and the men at the school hotly contested
<P>these claims, castigating the west for generating such racist propaganda. I
<P>traveled to this lost area with as little bias as possible - but with a
<P>certain and undeniable fear in my heart.
<P>In the school itself, the chancellor was most kind and hospitable. He had
<P>us tour the grounds of the school, meet teachers and some of the boys -
<P>though at first we weren't allowed to talk to them. We were then escorted
<P>into his private residence. The first thing I noticed on the center table
<P>was a bowl of big yellow mangoes and a picture. The picture was of our host
<P>- an older Muslim Mullah wearing a traditional white turban and a stained
<P>orange beard and his friend - Osama Bin Laden, the number one man on the
<P>FBI's list of Most Wanted. I asked our host if we could interview him. He
<P>agreed but insisted first that we share mangoes with him. I agreed and he
<P>took out a long knife and proceeded to slice the fruit for me. We slurped
<P>and chatted for a while and finally were permitted to turn on the camera.
<P>I asked the Mullah a wide array of questions. "Did he hate the US? Why is
<P>there such Anti-Americanism in this part of the world? Should Americans be
<P>afraid?"
<P>He answered them all eloquently and without hostility. He talked about the
<P>history of the US and Afghanistan, how during the Cold War, they were
<P>allies, united fighting a war against the Soviets.
<P>"You gave us weapons and trained our men. You built our roads, fed our
<P>people. Do you realize young man that your government helps to create and
<P>to fund the Taliban because it was their interest to use Guerilla warfare
<P>and terrorist tactics against the Russians? You made us your friend."
<P>"But then your Cold War ended and you deserted us." At this point, there
<P>was a hint of animosity in his voice. " Because it was no longer in your
<P>selfish interest to have us as your allies, you abandoned us, left our
<P>people, hungry, and hateful. You turned your friends into foes because you
<P>used us like whores."
<P>There was a silence between us.
<P>Finally I asked him about the picture, about the nature of his relationship
<P>with Mr. Bin Laden.
<P>"He's an old friend. And a good man."
<P>I shook my head. "Is he a terrorist?"
<P>"We don't call him that here." The Mullah made it clear he was not
<P>interested in talking any more. We shook hands. I thanked him for his
<P>hospitality.
<P>On the way out I thought about that hospitality. I knew that the Mullah
<P>himself had endorsed a fatwa, or religious order, by Bin Laden several
<P>years ago urging Muslims to kill American civilians. But here was this man
<P>cutting mangoes for us and being very gracious.
<P>"Today you are our guest. If we were not hospitable, we would be very
<P>ashamed. But in times of war, yes you would be an enemy and we may kill
<P>you. Today a friend, tomorrow, inshallah (God willing), there will not be
<P>one."
<P>* * * * *
<P>Today Friday September 14, 2001, four days since the terrorist attack, it
<P>appears we may be on the threshold of war. Our President has called it the
<P>First World War of the 21st century. I am not sure whom we will be
<P>fighting. I would like to go to my favorite café in the city - a small
<P>Egyptian place on the Lower East Side that I have been going to since
<P>college. The waiters - mostly young Middle Eastern guys who like to talk
<P>about basketball and soccer, who come and sit at your table and share a
<P>puff on the sweet tobacco hookas they serve there - they are my friends.
<P>But I'm not sure when it will open again, if it will open again. There's a
<P>Mosque next door that has been closed since the attack.
<P>The weeks and months and perhaps even years ahead promise to be complex and
<P>wary. Hopefully our leaders will be judicious, precise, and compassionate
<P>in the difficult decisions that lay ahead. But it is each of us that now
<P>must rise up and be the true warriors in this difficult time. Does that
<P>mean seizing weapons and braving the threat of death out on a battlefield?
<P>Precisely not. Because the battlefield is invisible. The enemy is elusive.
<P>The web of evil too complex. Today there are no answers. It is too early
<P>for solutions for remedies. For now we each have our stories - where we
<P>were on the day that the twin towers toppled. Each one is dramatic; each
<P>one is tragic. From this day forward, everyday I shall observe a quiet
<P>remembrance for the victims of this calamity. Each one of us may choose our
<P>own way how to memorialize this moment but I believe we are all obligated
<P>to reflect for a moment, to care about our neighbor, to meditate for peace
<P>and tolerance because ultimately the only forces that can defeat such
<P>profound evil are compassion and hope.
<P>I ask everyone on this board to join my father and me in prayer for the
<P>healing of our wounded civilization (if we can call it that). Let us pray
<P>every day to our Gods remembering, as my dad has taught me since childhood,
<P>that Christ was not a Christian, Mohammed was not a Mohammeden, Buddha was
<P>not a Buddhist, and Krishna was not a Hindu.
<P>Love,
<P>Gotham Chopra
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