A Tale of Two Faisals

In this week gone by the Indian news media was full of two young men with a common name – Shah Faisal and Faisal Shehzad. This is a tale of hope and despair, a tale of hard work and twisted ideology, and a tale of two countries – one looking forward and the other going back to medieval times.

Shah Faisal, 27, is a doctor from the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. He has just topped the Indian Civil Services Examination, becoming the first person from his state to do so. In 2009, over 440,000 young men and women took this examination of which 875 candidates – 680 men and 195 women qualified to join the prestigious Indian Civil Services. Shah Faisal came out on top. His is a story of hard work, hope and a system that works despite plenty of odds.

Faisal Shehzad, 30, is the suspect who attempted to bomb Times Square in New York City (picture below). It is alleged that he has links with various terrorist organizations and has gone through training in terrorist camps in the Waziristan area of Pakistan.

Times Square, New York City; April 2009

These two young men have contrasting family backgrounds and circumstances.

Shah Faisal is the son of school teachers – Ghulam Rasool Shah and Mubeena Begum. They taught their three children the value of hard work, which earned Shah Faisal a place in the Jhelum Valley Medical College in Srinagar. But tragedy struck in 2002 when Ghulam Rasool fell to the bullets of unidentified terrorists in Kashmir. The family shifted from their village to Srinagar, where Mubeena Begum taught in a school to support her family.

Faisal Shehzad is the son of a Vice Air Chief Marshal of Pakistan. He grew up in an upscale neighborhood of Peshawar before migrating to the United States in 1998 to study computer science and engineering, worked in the US and recently became a naturalized citizen. Faisal was arrested while trying to leave USA on a one-way ticket to Islamabad after the failed bombing attempt in Times Square.

Many years ago my father gave me the guru-mantra for life. When I was just entering college, he asked me to be the best at whatever I do. He said, “even if you cut grass, be the best at it”. I reflect on that advice and the two Faisals.

Shah Faisal is a trained doctor and in today’s India would have made a lot of money through medical practice. Instead, he studied Public Administration and Urdu Literature for a year to take the Civil Services Examination. When a journalist asked him why, his answer was - "But my people need me as a civil servant. I want to be a role model for Kashmiri youth."

Faisal Shehzad came from a privileged background but only managed to study at B-grade American colleges, possibly with Dad’s money. He was not even a good terrorist, his dud device being a testimony for that. And thank Allah for that. 

Why did the Faisal who was born with a silver spoon (or shall we now say a silver foot) in his mouth take to terrorism? How come the Faisal who was himself a victim of terrorism, is today the toast of his countrymen? The answers perhaps lie in the systems and mindsets in the two South Asian neighbors – India and Pakistan.

Faisal Shehzad grew up in the Pakistan of 1980s when Zia-ul-Haq ruled it using religion as a tool, fully supported by a West that was eager to use the jihadis (freedom fighters then) to get the Russians out of Afghanistan. He was indoctrinated at an early and impressionable age, like thousands of others of his age, who have now earned Pakistan the dubious distinction of being a “migraine for the world”. Even today, on Pakistani blogs the sane voices are getting drowned by those who see this as a conspiracy against their country. Many others are claiming Faisal Shehzad to be an American citizen. Come on people, get your head out of the sand.

Shah Faisal however grew up in a system, which despite many odds, has always impressed upon its youth the value of education and hard work as the way forward. A young man who is willing to do this always comes out a winner. There are plenty of examples that give this hope to millions who live in abject poverty but aspire for a better tomorrow. That is why even while growing up in a Kashmir scarred by unrest and violence, he never gave up hope.

I met Shah Faisal this past week at a felicitation event for him at the Hamdard Study Circle in New Delhi, where he trained for his Civil Services Mains and interview. His speech, to an audience made up mainly of school and college students, was full of hope. His statement “If I can do it with my circumstances, you can too”, sums it all up. While preparing for the Civil Services, he was looking for role models and was reported to keep pictures of former Civil Servants from Kashmir on his cell phone. Today he is a role model for thousands of Kashmiri youth who are desperately seeking to build their lives from the rubble of militancy in their State.

Dr. Shah Faisal (right) with his two mentors - Prof. Syed Aftab Zaidi, Director, Hamdard Study Circle (centre) and Mr. Saiyid Hamid, ex-IAS and Chancellor, Jamia Hmdard, New Delhi (left).

Well done, Shah Faisal. You do all Indians proud.

Damn you, Faisal Shehzad. You are a blot on your religion, whose interests you claim to profess through your misdeeds.