Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 250
250 islam’s response to contemporary issues At least, one wishes it was so. However, upon a closer critical examination, a completely bleak, oppressive and even threatening picture emerges. In the newly emerging balance of power, will not the United Nations be practically governed by only one superpower? This presents the smaller and weaker nations no chance to escape the inevitable fate of hunted animals. The present United Nations has proved again and again to be a powerful organisation working not for justice but for the political ends of whichever nation has the greatest lobbying power. The concept of right and wrong has never played a part in the decision- making process of the United Nations in our recent memory nor in the present set up can it play a meaningful role in the future. Politics and diplomacy are too deeply and inextricably rooted in the soil of modern politics to leave any room for absolute justice to take root and be given a fair chance of survival. It is a hard and bitter fact, which no man with respect for truth can deny, that this great and awesome institution has been reduced to an arena of intricate diplomatic activities, lobbying, secret paramours and power struggles, all carried out in the name of world peace. According to the Holy Quran, therefore, what the world needs is an institution, which sets itself the task of establishing justice. Without absolute justice, no peace is conceivable. One can wage wars in protestation in the name of peace, stifle conscience and still dissent for the purported aim of establishing peace, but all that one can achieve is death but not peace. Alas! Few among the great politicians of the world understand the difference between death and peace.