AFGHANISTAN NEEDS AHMAD SHAH BABA
HABIBZAI´S ARTICLE IS PRAISEWORTHY
By: Dr. Rahmat Rabi Zirakyar, Independent Scholar, U.S.A.
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A symbol is an idea or an ideal to which people attach meaning. Money is a symbol of power. Thanksgiving is symbolizing of a typical American holiday, a day set aside to give thanks. The millennium year 2000 was proclaimed as the ´´International Year of Thanksgiving” by the UN General Assembly-a spiritual idea to reinforce peace, harmony and brotherhood. The dove is the symbol for peace while a pillow full of feathers is not. Trampling upon a Coca-Cola bottle or a Mickey Mouse would not hurt American feelings, but trampling upon the American flag would be insulting to the majority of Americans. Why? Because it is a national symbol relating to the historical foundation of the United States of America: The stripes on the flag represent the original 13 colonies that resisted against the colonial English monarchy and became the first 13 states of the Union. The 50 stars on the American flag represent the 50 states. Similarly important is the majestic New York harbor’s 124-year-old Statue of Liberty embodying the U.S. Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). Yasmin Sabina Khan’s recent book explains that the Statue of Liberty still has relevance today: Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statue of Liberty (Hardcover, March 2010, 240 pages). Since the U.S. has become the sole empire, some people might question the relevance of the Statue of Liberty for those nations who are suffering from the empire’s foreign and military policy. In the words of Professor of Peace Studies Johan Galtung: ´´I love the U.S. republic, and hate the U.S. empire” (Quoted in Rahmat R. Zirakyar, ´´U.S. Empire Is Ending in TenYears”, June 30, 2010, electronic version).
The function of national symbols is threefold: (1) They play a vital role in integrating the ‘imagined’ community of the respective nation; (2) they strengthen the identity of the state, especially in time of crisis; and (3) they save specific elements of the nation’s collective memory. Based on these functions, we can argue that national symbols facilitate the nation-building process, which is important to the cohesion of the people of a country in the long run, namely bringing reconciliation and unity in a diverse society. Countries need national symbols, civic elements and economic justice for promoting healthy nationalism. The revival of Ahmad Shah Abdali (revered as ´´Baba” =The Father of the Nation) will give war-stricken Afghanistan the resemblance and feeling of historical country, cultural continuity, national identity (´´Afghanyat” =Afghanness) and Islamic solidarity. Anybody else is fictitious, divisive, foreign-connected, and illegitimate. A friend of mine Shindandiwal emailed me an article ´´The Revival of Ahmad Shah Abdali, Afghanistan’s ‘Father of the Nation’” by a young Afghan journalist Hanan Habibzai. He identified the problem and suggested a solution: The main problem for the nation-building process in today’s Afghanistan is ´´the fact” that Afghans have neglected their ´´ideological and founding father” of Afghanistan Ahmad Shah Baba (´´Father Ahmad Shah”: 1747-1773). Why Ahmad Shah Baba? Because he was the leader who had the knowledge and support of his people: Ahmad Shah Baba was a charismatic, brave and patriotic poet-leader. He was a genuine administrator of his age, who understood the perceptions and needs of his people, respected their customs and traditions, consulted with them, spoke with them in their language, united them, established a state for them and exalted them to a nation, the Afghan nation, not a corrupt and poppet entity. But now the ´´identity and the Afghan character of the state” established by Ahmad Shah Baba in 1747 is sold out which is causing suffering and divisions. ´´The only solution to restore trust and harmony” in Afghanistan is for all Afghans to turn to Ahmad Shah Baba ´´as their ideological father”, as well as to recognize him as their sole symbol of national unity. The ethnic minority should speak in Pashto as the majority Pashtuns do in Farsi. Also, the portraits of Ahmad Shah Baba should be displayed in all public institutions.
From a professional point of view, (1) the title of Habibzai’s article draws the reader in; (2) the article offers wide-spread appeal to the reader; (3) its prose is clear; (4) it stays focused on the topic without being inflated with irrelevant details; and (5) it offers a solution to the crisis in Afghanistan. Habibzai is alert and quick to learn from an event (Afghan Students Union, Shah Mahmood, Ahmad Dustokhel and their friends organized in London a gathering to celebrate Ahmad Shah Baba’s 288th birth year anniversary in 2010, which he attended and learned from). Habibzai has the potential to become a vision-guy for the good of his suffering people and for peace and progress in the region. I admire him for his ideas that are clear, fair and necessary for the urgently needed nation-building process in Afghanistan, where he was born in the year of the Soviet invasion in 1979. I urge him to write in English until the independence of Afghanistan. July 15, 2010
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