The muezzin’s cry echoes from the top of the 160-foot-high minaret throughout the Kalorama neighborhood. He is calling the faithful to prayers at the Washington Islamic Center at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Belmont Road.
Scores of taxicabs and other cars line Belmont and nearby Tracy Place as their drivers ignore the “Reserved for Residents” signs, park and head inside the elaborate limestone building with mosaic inscriptions of verses from the Koran written in blue Arabic script just above the five entry arches.
As Jambaz enters the mosque for Friday prayers, he feels anxious. Just that morning he had read a headline in the Washington Post that announced the bad news from his country. In Kashmir, Abuses Bruise Hopes for Peace. The next line read, Complaints against Indian Security Forces Rise. When he had read the article, he was infuriated that those Indian forces had arrested a respected Moslem doctor and tortured him for three straight days, charging him with aiding militant groups in the region. He knew the doctor, and he also knew the man was not involved in their movement.
The piece went on to say that complaints about abuses by the Indians had doubled in recent years. No wonder his cells were gaining new recruits every month.
The longer he thought about the situation in Kashmir, the more he began to see another angle to these developments. Since their cruise missile strike, Indian leaders were vowing revenge, refusing to free any political prisoners, and their remaining forces were redoubling their counterinsurgency campaign. This meant that the promised negotiations to end hostilities were going nowhere. This was good. More attacks meant more retaliation. More retaliation meant more destabilization. More destabilization meant the government of Pakistan could fall. And when that happened, Inshallah, their cells could unite with militants throughout the country, take over and put their ultimate plans, the ones involving control of the nuclear stockpile, into operation. It was a reported cache of some two hundred nuclear weapons.
He gave a silent prayer of thanks to the brilliant Pakistani physicist, Dr. A. Q. Kahn, who had founded the uranium enrichment project and developed the country’s atomic energy program. So what if the stupid United States, home of the infidels, got evidence of illegal proliferation. So what if Dr. Khan was arrested. He only got a slap on the wrist when they sentenced him to house arrest. Later, the Pakistani Courts, obviously showing sympathy toward a national hero, freed the genius.
Now with more calls emanating from the mosque, Jambaz took a deep breath and began to prepare himself for official prayers. He began a series of bows, kneeling and prostrating while repeating the words, “Praise be to God, Lord of the Creation. Alone we worship, and to you alone we pray for help.” He needed to be at peace with Allah. He needed to restore his equilibrium and his energy, for he had a big job to do tonight.