“Dear Friends, it’s good to be here again, in a world which is still in a bad state but where people are now hoping that some things will change,” began Tariq Ali, the Pakistani-British author, playwright, and activist, to a full crowd at OISE on Friday. Ali spoke on a wide range of topics, from power structures in his home country of Pakistan to the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He began with the recent election of Barack Obama. Thought it’s a historic accomplishment for African-Americans, said Ali, Obama is not nearly as progressive as some have painted him. “It’s a development in American politics which is of historic importance regardless of what he does,” he said. “I keep saying this because he has not promised to do anything too radical, or anything radical.”
A high-profile activist and political commentator for decades, known for his opposition to the Vietnam War, an oft-repeated anecdote credits Ali as inspiration for John Lennon’s “Power to the People.” Ali reminisced on his experiences from this era, including his meeting with Malcolm X at Oxford, but devoted the majority of the speech to current events, especially in Afghanistan.
Throughout, Ali demonstrated his absolute opposition to the war and the possibility of conflict spilling over into other countries with recent U.S. incursions in Pakistan and Syria.
“The West doesn’t totally appreciate one simple factor: that the Afghan people do not like being occupied by foreign powers,” he said. “Most people don’t like being occupied by foreign powers.” Ali argued that Hamid Karzai’s legitimacy is complicated due to Karzai’s construction on prime Kabul property. He added that a New York Times report links his brother to drug smuggling (Karzai has denied the charges).
Though the speech was mostly devoted to international issues, Ali had plenty to say about Canadian politics and foreign policy. “The Afghan War, in which Canadians are being killed and killing, wasn’t an election issue at all when a majority of Canadians are opposed to the war,” he said. Ali denounced the Ontario school board allowing military recruiters access to students under 18, saying “It’s appalling that this is going on and that the schools and education authorities have accepted this […] It’s a way to militarize a society, and for what?”
In an e-mail interview with The Varsity, Ali shared his thoughts on Islamophobia, political poems, and student activism.
The Varsity: Why do you think, despite diversity and progress in the Islamic world, Islamophobia and the idea of a monolithic Islamic culture persist in the West?
Tariq Ali: Because the West needs an enemy and so stereotypical views of Islam prevail. It’s becoming wearisome and dangerous. Most intelligent analysts in the United States know that the dominant view of Islamic culture is simplistic and wrong, but the media networks (a crucial pillar of the new order in the West) carry on regardless. Renegades out to earn a quick buck (Irshad Manji [author of The Trouble with Islam Today] a prime example) pander shamelessly to prejudice and become overnight celebrities. It won’t last, but while it does it threatens many people of Muslim origin.
The language being used is similar to that deployed against Jews in the last century. It always puzzles me that despite the near-obsession with the Holocaust in Western culture today (though, alas, not at the time Jews were being killed), the lessons being learnt are so narrow in scope that people learn nothing.
TV: In your most recent book (The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power), you quote political and social commentary in the form of poetry. Could you explain this tradition of political and social commentary by poets in the Islamic world and/or Pakistan?
TA: It is not only in the Islamic world that poets and writers become the conscience of the country. South America is replete with similar instances. In my books (including The Duel) I try and contextualize a country’s political culture. Sometimes politics and culture mix well (Chile, Venezuela). At other times culture dominates because politics is petrified (Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan etc.)
TV:Despite Huntington’s theory of the “clash of civilizations” now being discredited, why do you think it still claims credibility among academics?
TA: I really don’t know. Most academics live in a bubble world, writing in a private language remote from reality. So we shouldn’t be too surprised that Huntington’s instrumentalist fictions (as well as those of Bernard Lewis and others) are still taken seriously by some.
TV:Can the West (particularly the United States) aid in the stability of Pakistan? And, given its history of backing military dictatorship, should it?
TA: It hasn’t been able to do so over the last sixty years and its unlikely that it will now. What is really needed is a government in Pakistan that puts the people first, but that isn’t on the horizon either. Pakistan is trapped between military dictatorship and political corruption.
TV: What similarities and/or differences do you see between student movements today and when you yourself were a student activist?
TA: Comparisons can be odious. Each generation is different from its predecessor and we shouldn’t bemoan the absence of Sixties radicalism too much. Political awareness or apathy is created by the environment in which we live.
In the United States the young generation has been energized by the Obama campaign in a way that could not have been predicted. This is tremendous and one can hope that this energy is used to permanently pressure Obama from below. He’ll need to implement the change many of his supporters (if not advisers) believe in.
