ondon — Earlier this year in Karachi, I
overheard a fellow Pakistani say, "Of course Bush is a disaster for
the world - but he's good for Pakistan.'' It's conventional wisdom
in Pakistan that President Bush's policies have transformed the
country from a pariah state on the verge of bankruptcy to a
strategic, and prospering, ally in American expansionism. John Kerry, viewed as
less invested than George Bush in such expansionism (for that is how
the "war on terrorism'' is seen in Pakistan), was always the less
popular presidential choice for those of my compatriots who feel
that it's important to wrest as much economic and political
advantage as possible from Pakistan's present usefulness to America.
But for me, there's no getting away from the ratcheting up of
anti-American sentiment during George Bush's first term. It is a
mistake to assume that sentiment is based primarily on Muslim
extremism. In most cases it is directly linked to the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq, the camps at Guantánamo Bay, and the
innumerable accounts by Muslims in America of being treated as
criminals by immigration and police officials for no discernable
reason but their religion. Still, the fact remains that in George
Bush, those who use Islam as a political tool have found their most
powerful rallying cry.
One October morning, two years ago, I watched as votes were
counted in Pakistan's general elections. The religious parties made
significant gains for the first time in my country's history - and
the cornerstone of their victory was not religion but
anti-Americanism. Earlier this week, staying up all night again to
follow an election halfway round the world, I couldn't help
wondering how much more support George Bush will drum up for
Islamists around the globe in the next four years.
Kamila Shamsie is the author of the forthcoming "Broken
Verses,'' a novel.
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