The World ANEW

Last week was the series of a rollercoaster of emotions, where when we resorted to the digital media, and social media, the misinformation and the disinformation, led us into total chaos. The X, the channels, Facebook, etc. was filled with rumors and false reporting. The way everyone used to say that the dynamics and the architecture of warfare has been changed drastically, we saw it all happening within the span of one week. Though we have been seeing what is happening in Ghazza for more than a year, but when we actually were caught in the similar situation, we understood what it was like to be the victim of such news propaganda. Not only that, the new horizons that opened up concerning the whole Air defense system, that came under play during these past days, was something that I would never have predicted in my life.

When I used to think about the modern day settler colonial mindset of the Israelis and the Zionists, I used to go back to the whole tradition where the superiority complex of the European part of the world used to come under play. The French colonist advocate, Jules Harmand, believed that it was their superiority (mechanical, economical, military and MORAL) that gives us the right to rule over these native people of the land. In the wake of the Palestinian genocide in Ghazza, the Western claim of superiority over the global East, just went into tatters. Piers Morgan or others, asks the natives to come on their show and then keep saying that they have a moral superiority over the Arabs and the Muslims because the West still believes in the same principles. Imagine Piers saying that Pakistanis only export ‘terrorism’ on TV while India was the one carrying out terrorist activities in Pakistan. When children die, these people side with genocide because that is the ‘moral high ground’ that they have possessed for the past three hundred to four hundred years where the rest is the white man’s burden and it doesn’t matter if the people of color die. BUT something interesting happened when India tried to do the same to Pakistan these past few days.

When the first attack happened in Bahawalpur in Pakistan, my daughter became distressed, as all of us have only seen what war looks like in Palestine, the only reference point we have. The whole world sided with India, as they sided with Netanyahu, and did not say a word when innocent civilians died in Pakistan and then claiming that they did not intend to target any civilians but the terrorists in Pakistan, whilst killing children here. Interestingly, when Pakistan downed six jets, the whole world came running to the South asking to de-escalate the situation. The world, the leaders of the world, do not care about people dying. Do you know what they care about?? THE STOCKS OF RAFALE!!! Not only that the geopolitical shift from the Eurocentric world to China, and this war established that shift in the most unapologetic way that the whole world is now concerned with it. Countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, became the testing ground of the weapons of Russia, NATO, US and the likes and they were uncontested as they bombed the hell out of the innocent civilians and did not fight anyone head on. When Pakistan, and India came face to face, mostly they didn’t bother as they knew that India has more weaponry, more technology, massive artillery and a huge army, and Pakistan is tiny compared to it. The hegemony of the whole power block that was being created by the West in the global south or say South Asia by making India their side chick, was shaken when they realized that there might be another power emerging here that they did not consider to be anything. I am talking about China here, which seemed to have been nowhere in the equation and it silently became the center now of the global South.

War is not the same when two nations are fully equipped with modern day technology and weaponry. War becomes something else. The media becomes a tool of war, as many people had rightly put, the war now will be fought in the cyber space. And we saw that happening, war was being fought on cyber space. But what was more interesting to see was how war was fought in the air space. The jets that didn’t cross international borders, the radar jammers, the communication jammers, the airborne radar jets, the air to air missiles, the ability to see the jets on the radars and hitting them without them knowing. With China and Turkey, both providing satellite data to Pakistan (Alhamdolillah), we achieved what would have been impossible. The days of conventional war suddenly shifted to something big, something we could never imagine happening in our lifetime. We saw history being written right in front of our eyes.

The lessons to be learned from the past few days are many but I would like to stick to three; the first and the foremost and the most important lesson is to be equipped with the best of technology, best of weapons as per the Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (saw). The importance of having at least one satellite in space and have that power to see what your enemy is able to. The world would not have bat an eye if all of Pakistan was nuked because it’s a Muslim country and we have seen that in Ghazza, they became concerned because a non-Muslim state was seeing a rebuttal. Secondly, as the Quran says, to verify the news that is brought to you before you act upon it. The recent disinformation and misinformation, do not give in to the hype, keep calm, do not react impulsively, and do not make rash decisions. Thirdly, remembrance of Allah. Muslim ummah should never forget that in the midst of calamity, remembrance of Allah is what keeps us from falling into despair, from having a weak heart and losing a battle. Remember, Palestinians are not losing any battle but they have conquered what we can never; the fear of death and destruction!