Chapter Sixteen

Peace in Kashmir his country’s freedom or political freedom, even though most of the prophets lived at a time when conditions were exactly the same as those that prevail when political leaders launch movements for freedom of their homelands. For instance, at the time of the Prophet Joseph, a pagan foreign family ruled over Egypt. Yet, Joseph did not launch a political movement of this sort in the country. Such a movement was launched later, after Joseph’s demise, and it was led not by his companions but, rather, by what could be called ‘community leaders’.. If the Kashmiri Muslims want to make their movement an Islamic one, it is incumbent on them that, first of all, they must completely end the present form of their struggle. They must admit that they have been carrying on what is an entirely national or communal movement to which they have wrongly given an Islamic label. Accordingly, they must completely distance themselves from this. No such movement can ever earn God’s help. Kashmiri Muslims often lament that they are being crushed on two sides—by the Indian Army, on the one hand, and by militants, on the other. They also claim that when their so-called jihad was started, a number of good people were involved in it but that it has now gone into the hands of the wrong people. This claim is totally wrong. The fact is that this is the inevitable consequence of guerilla war, always and everywhere. Guerilla wars are started by what seem to be good people, but later on, wrong or bad people inevitably join in, because they find in these movements a convenient shelter—in the name of, say, ‘Islamic jihad’ or ‘national liberation’—under which they can engage in killing and looting and falsely claim this behaviour to be ‘legitimate’. Hence, this sort of pretext is not going to be of any benefit whatsoever for the Kashmiris. They have to admit that launching their guerilla war was a mistake from the very first day itself. In a situation like this, admitting one’s mistakes, rather than blaming others, is the very first step that one must take.