As tensions and verbal banter rages between India and Pakistan, I offer a different perspective to those who wish to think rather than vent their anger alone. Do we have the courage to heal? There comes a moment when nations must set aside pride and confront truth.
For me, as a Pakistani, that moment is now.
Born to parents who migrated from Allahabad and Lucknow. My dad late SM Owais was ex ICS and worked under the British government in undivided India, later retired as Commissioner Karachi, an honest officer who raised us on good British values then just Islamic perspectives.
My mother Prof Dr Atiya Khalil Ansari was respected by Indira Gandhi as well as Zia Ul Haq, Mian Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto for not only her knowledge of Hadith but also her poetry and her PhD thesis on the perception and portrayal of women in the Arab world before Islam on such great poets as Amr Al Qais and Mutannabi.
I come from a family of scholars, we were and are not petty, sadly as much of the landscape I see on this planet today.
People and Empires
We Muslims grew up glorifying Islamic empires, taught that Islam’s expansion was embraced joyfully across continents. Rarely did we ask how it really happened. Were there willing converts? Of course.
But were there forced conversions, desecrations of temples, erasures of ancient cultures? Any honest person knows the answer is also yes.
I offer a sincere apology to the people of India – especially Hindus – for the wrongs committed centuries ago. Whether by force or by politics, their sacred spaces were violated in ways no civilized people should justify. It does not matter what others did before or after; our responsibility is to confront our own history with integrity.
I also apologize to the people of Bangladesh. In 1971, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman rightfully won a democratic mandate, West Pakistan chose suppression over justice. The brutal military crackdown that followed stained our national conscience.
Courage To Heal
Today, as I watch Imran Khan – a leader who commands millions of hearts – languishing in jail on trumped-up charges, I see tragic echoes of our refusal to honor the people’s will.
True patriotism does not mean defending every mistake our country makes. It means having the courage to correct them. This courage is missing across South Asia.
In India, despite extraordinary achievements, discrimination against Muslims, Dalits, and Christians mars the spirit of democracy. In Pakistan, Hindus, Christians, Ahmadis, and Shias face systemic oppression.
Instead of fixing our broken houses, both nations indulge in jingoism – hurling accusations at each other while our own youth flee to the West seeking dignity and opportunity. It is not hard to imagine a better way.
Union
I dream of a South Asian Union – a region with open borders, free trade, mutual respect, and shared prosperity. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar – and perhaps even a reformed Iran – could flourish together as Europe once did after centuries of bloodshed.
We have more in common than we dare admit. Our music, our sports, our cultures, even our failings, are mirrors of each other.
Accept Opportunities When They Arise
In this spirit, I also wish to correct the blind rage many Muslims direct toward Israel.
It is fashionable to deny Israel’s achievements, to frame it solely through the lens of conflict. Yet Israel – a nation of nine million under existential threat – has created remarkable innovations: the USB flash drive, Iron Dome, Waze, Mobileye, PillCam, water in the desert, and countless others.
Israel’s successes are not mere “rebranding.” They are real, hard-won triumphs of human ingenuity, built under relentless adversity. It is not “Zionist propaganda” to acknowledge this. It is simple fairness.
Meanwhile, Palestinians too had opportunities. Billions in aid could have built cities, industries, futures. Instead, extremist leadership often chose violence and missed opportunities, leaving generations trapped in suffering.
Criticizing Israel’s faults does not excuse ignoring Palestinian leadership’s own role in their people’s tragedy. Muslims often demand the world condemn injustice, yet many stay silent when injustice comes from within.
We rage at cartoons in France but look away from Ahmadi mosques burned at home. We demand justice for Gaza, but deny it to our own minorities. We call for dignity, yet trample it ourselves.
The Creator
If there is a Creator, He will not ask what label we wore – Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew – but how we treated His creation. Either we will all find the same judgment, or none at all.
No God worth worshipping would hate the souls He Himself breathed into existence. It is time to put down stones – whether aimed across borders or at our own.
It is time to end the hypocrisies that have hollowed us out from within. It is time to build, not destroy.
I apologize to Hindus, to Bangladeshis, to Jews, to Christians, to all those my faith and my nation have wronged, even unintentionally.
This is not weakness. This is moral strength.
And I encourage people on all sides to do the same. A movement for forgiveness that results in love and peace.
The Future
Our future depends on whether we have the courage to live by truth – not by slogans, not by anger, not by selective memory, but by the stubborn, beautiful, radical idea that all human beings deserve dignity and peace.
Having the courage to heal is not a common trait.
The road to healing is open. Will we walk it?
