AMSA: by Tahir Nasser

“He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf…”

(King Lear III, vi, 19)

I cannot speak for others, but only for myself. Perhaps it was the carefree nature of my younger years (I’m only in my mid-twenties), but when the invasion into Afghanistan and Iraq occurred, in which the UK government itself was involved, I was not as anxious nor as unsettled then, than I am now, by even the mere proposition of an attack upon Syria by the United States and her allies.

Perhaps it is because since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have – as the jester of King Lear would say – rid myself of the madness of trusting in the tameness of the Wolf. The Wolf invaded Iraq on a farcical lie and encouraged others to do the same. Today, the same rhetoric of “evidence” for the use of chemical weapons by Bashar Al–Assad, as opposed to the rebels of Syria, is spoken of as certainty by the Wolf, while the Fox (Russia – come on, keep up!) quietly reminds the Wolf that no such hard evidence has, as yet, been definitively produced. The Wolf hails from a country, don’t forget, that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (where’s that red line?), dropped napalm on the Japanese and the

Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki

Vietnamese, imposed sanctions on Iraq that killed an estimated 500,000 children over a decade after the first Gulf War (I’m sure I left the red line here somewhere) and recently used depleted Uranium shells in Fallujah, resulting in a generation of genetically deformed children. Thus it is that the moral posturing of the Wolf over red lines leaves more than a sour taste in the mouth.

Despite the multifarious theories surrounding the US’ motives for adopting a strong stance vis-a-vis Syria, it all amounts to political conjecture and there is, for me, a more unsettling reason that I am deeply concerned regarding the way this political drama is panning out. It has less to do with my modest political acumen and more to do with my religious background. As an Ahmadi Muslim, I am unnerved by the continuous and forceful speeches of the leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community – Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, to the World leaders, in which for the past few years or so, he has persistently been warning them of the possible imminence of World War III. He has spoken and addressed the US Congress on Capitol Hill, the Houses of Parliament, theEuropean Parliament and the Military Leaders of Germany in Koblenz. As early as the beginning of 2012, he wrote letters of warning to the major World leaders such as President Obama, the Prime Minister of the UK, the German Chancellor, the then Prime Minister of Iran, the Ayatollah of Iran, the President of France, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Premier of China and to the King of Saudi Arabia. In each of these letters he has emphasised that unless they act towards each other and Mankind along the principles of Absolute Justice as outlined by the peaceful teachings of the Holy Qur’an – doing unto others as you would have them do unto you – then the world will be faced with the possibility of a Nuclear, Third World War.

In his most recent Friday Sermon, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad once again spoke of the need for absolute justice in the world and dangers associated with a war involving Syria. Opening his Sermon he stated: ”The current global situation is fast moving towards devastation. In particular the Syrian crisis could plunge the Arab world in great devastation and if foreign powers join in, the terrible damage ensuing will not be limited to some countries in Asia, but will be worldwide. Neither the countries in Asia, nor the world powers appreciate that this conflict could be a pre-cursor to a World War.”

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