The example of the ‘carrot and the stick’ is a commonly used principle in negotiation dynamics. The trainer offers the carrot to the rabbit as an incentive to listen to the trainer. However, if the rabbit refuses, the threat of the stick in the trainer’s hand looms in the background. Nation states use this principle all the time: if you drop your nuclear programme we will grant you economic aid. If you persist and refuse to listen to us we will impose sanctions upon you and even military action.
The ‘two begging bowls’ concept is unheard of except in some Muslim communities in the West. Since we always approach the Government with a begging bowl in each hand we never get anything in return that we want. Yes, our bowls do get filled with ‘talk shop’ coffee mornings with ministers and maybe even a few photo shoots to frame on our living-room walls. Other than that we really have to ask ourselves what the two begging bowls have done for us.
The same can be said of local ‘community relations’- if such a thing exists. Mr Policeman asks us to inform on, spy on and hand over our sons to him so he can extradite them (fast-track) to hungry predators around the world. In return, we are overjoyed if he just steps into our mosque in uniform for some tea and samosas, just like the days of the colonialist British Raj in India.
Yet when two negotiating partners approach each other, each with a carrot and stick in their hands, the end result is usually an amicable compromise between the two. Because each knows that the other also hides a stick behind his smiling face.
The ‘stick’ does not have to literally mean a stick of violence or bloodshed. In racist 1950’s South Africa, the African National Congress used a combination of strikes, boycotts, sit-ins and voluntary imprisonments in order to demand justice from the oppressor. As Nelson Mandela wrote, ‘A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor. At a certain point, one can only fight fire with fire.’
After the recent decision of the Home Secretary to extradite Babar to the U.S. (the first time ever that a British Government has approved the extradition of a Muslim ‘terror’ suspect to the U.S.), we may have today reached that ‘certain point’. The equation is simple. What do we want from the Government and what does the Government want from us? We want the Government to stop extraditing our sons to brutal regimes under its phoney ‘War on Terror’. Instead if our sons have done anything wrong they should be put on trial in Britain since there certainly is no shortage of terrorism legislation here. The Government, on the other hand, needs our ‘support’ and co-operation’ in fighting ‘terrorism’. This is our stick and maybe now it is time to use it.
Maybe it is now time to notify the Government: If you do not stop extraditing our sons to your brutal ‘allies’ then expect no help, cooperation or support from us. You want us to hand our sons over to you just so that you can fast-track them to America or Guantanamo Bay? Sorry, this is not going to take place without a price. And that price is that you can expect our communities to stop cooperating with you in your ‘War of Terror.’ This time you have gone one step too far. You opened this can of worms and you can close it.
The Messenger of Allah (SAWS) said, “The believer is never stung from the same hole twice.” Several Muslim organisations and individuals (may Allah reward them) made frantic efforts directly with Government ministers to prevent this decision of the Home Secretary, but they were chewed and spat out. It is clear that the idea of the ‘British Muslim’ is just a public-relations exercise since if the British Passport meant anything (like the German, Dutch or French one) it would have protected its holder from extradition to a foreign country.
If any Muslim is extradited from Britain to the U.S., he will be the first of many. Moreover, it will mean one bottom line. That bottom line will be that our community will go down in history as the two-million strong Muslim community that could not stop one man being forcibly taken to one of the most brutal regimes the world has ever known. The next few months will decide which course history will adopt.
You concern really needs attention. what i think at this point is that all the muslim nations should get united. This is the only way we can tackle the current crisis but unfortunately this all is not not happening. May allah unite all the muslim under a one banner of islam.
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