The extracts below are from the part where he wrote about Maulana Mehmudul Hasan. While describing the Hadith about love and devotion to Hazrat Muhammad (Sallalahu Alaihi Wasallam), Maulana sahib describes our common attitudes regarding this, our violent reactions to any true of false news about the blasphemy, and defines the parametres of  true love to Muhammad (Sallalahu Alaihi Wasallam).

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Mufti Taqi Usmani, Mufti Rafi Usman and Mufti Naeem are notorious for their supporting and apologist approach towards Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban

So important is the business of fatwas that when Masood Azhar was re-launched by certain security agencies after he returned in exchange of some passengers from Kandahar as the ‘new saviour’, a fatwa was needed to launch his Jaish-e-Muhammad. And when one of the three prominent Deoband leaders, Maulana Yousaf Ludhianvi, refused to give a fatwa in favour of Azhar, he was shot dead in Karachi.

Understandably, fatwas play a huge role within the terrorist community where there’s a rat race over whose giving out which fatwa against whom. In fact, former Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister Mumtaz Rathore famously said, “How can you stop us from jihad when religious scholars gave a fatwa that Rs 430 million Zakat Fund could be spent on jihad?”

While there’s no denying the role of fatwas, what’s mind boggling is how most prominent Pakistani clerics and muftis refuse to give out fatwas against organisations such as the TTP and suicide bombing when over thousands of innocent Muslims are killed in terrorist attacks carried out by fellow Muslims? A top Interior Ministry official confirmed with Daily Times, “Rehman Malik and the Interior Ministry have tried their best to seek fatwas from influential Deobandi and Ahl-e-Hadith clerics but they simply refuse to give out fatwas.”

While in Islamabad, under the government’s supervision, major Sunni Muslim scholars, academicians, thinkers and political leaders publicly condemned suicide bombings and universally agreed that suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Islam, it is a legally reprehensible innovation in the religion, is morally a sin combining suicide and murder, and it is theologically an act of eternal culmination for all perpetrators.

“Not good enough. They are considered sell-offs – the legit clerics would never give out fatwas or even talk openly against suicide bombings because that would ruin there reputation within the respected sect and they can be killed,” an intelligence chief told Daily Times.

It’s interesting to note that Dr Tahirul Qadri, a prominent Pakistani scholar, recently gave out a 600-page fatwa against both suicide bombing and al Qaeda, which a prominent Deobandi cleric, with massive presence in Karachi, rejects as “nothing more than a PR exercise”. It should also be noted that the conference in which Dr Qadri gave out the fatwa was sponsored by a British counter-terrorism think tank, Quilliam that is founded by ex-Hizbut Tahrir member Majid Nawaz.

Fatwas also play an important part in sectarian conflicts where clerics, especially from Deobandi and Barevli sects, refuse to consider each other and often give out fatwas against each other, branding each other as ‘infidels’. In fact, when Daily Times reached a staunch Deobandi cleric, famous for refusing to lead prayers with anyone who wears Western outfits, Maulana Zarwali Khan Sahib of Majid Ahsanul Uloom, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, he bluntly refused to condemn suicide bombings on Sufi shrines and other targets.

It is to be noted that Dr Sarfaraz Naeemi of Jamia Naeemia and a focal voice against suicide bombings, who had given out a fatwa against them, had been killed in a suicide attack on June 12, 2009. Another prominent voice and a central leader of the Sunni Tahreek whose entire leadership had been wiped off in the Nishtar Park suicide bombing in Karachi told Daily Times, “What should we do to protect ourselves? They (Deobandis) have support of virtually everyone in the security agencies, and Saudi Arabia is funding them – we are the ones who are the orphans.” It is to be noted that only this year, three major Sufi shrines had been hit for the first time in what are being described as the worst attacks on the very foundation of Barelvi Islam.

The biggest service, one insider told Daily Times, would be if “folks such as Taqi Usmani openly condemn suicide bombings”. It is to be noted that Mufti Taqiuddin Usmani, who is the former grand mufti of Pakistan and the vice chairman of the PIC’s Islamic Fiqh Council, and has a huge clout over the Deoband sect and even Ahl-e-Hadith seminaries and followers, to this date has not signed the fatwa forbidding suicide attacks in Pakistan despite repeated efforts by the government. Mufti Taqi Usmani also did not come out openly to condemn the recent attacks on Sufi shrines and refused to speak on the subject.

An Interior Ministry official also confirmed with Daily Times, “Taqi Usmani is a problem and a key man who can save a lot of lives by giving out one single statement.” A well-informed diplomatic source told Daily Times, “Even Osama Bin Laden needs fatwas. After all, it was an operational fatwa issued by an Egyptian leader of the Gama’ah Islamiya, Sheikh Omar Abd al-Rahman that resulted in the assassination of president Sadat and the first attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993. In Pakistan, we have many Sheikh Omar Abd al-Rahmans.”

It is to be noted that over 400 people have so far been killed in suicide attacks in Pakistan alone.

Source: Daily Times, 27 Oct 2010

The Archive also sheds light on the modes and processes of denial, and provides irrefutable arguments and evidence to help those who are currently suffering from the Denial Syndrome.

While the majority of Deobandis in Pakistan are peace loving, moderate Muslims, it is a fact that almost all Taliban are Deobandi by sect. While not all Deobandis are Taliban, it is a fact that all Taliban are extremist Deobandi, and have been directly and indirectly supported by the Deobandi network in Pakistan, i.e., Deobandi madrassahs, Deobandis political organisations (e.g. JI, JUI), Deobandi jihadi cells (e.g. Jaish-e-Muhammad), Deobandi sectarian cells (e.g. Sipah-e-Sahaba) etc.

Therefore, it is no surprise to find the majority of moderate Deobandis in Pakistan in a state of denial. Instead of condemning extremist and misguided Deobandis (in Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba), moderate Deobandis have receded into a state of denial.

This archive is intended to help moderate Deobandis of Pakistan (and elsewhere) to understand their denial syndrome and make an effort to have a critical and realist view of things.

This is a long list of reading. Thus, you may wish to read it in more than one sittings to make an honest effort to grasp the essence of this archive. Happy reading! (Abdul Nishapuri)

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Blackwater is the new name of Taliban

Blackwater is the new name of Taliban – according to Taliban apologists. Here are two news items without any further comment:

Blackwater involved in Karachi catastrophe, says Mufti Usmani
Updated at: 2050 PST, Wednesday, December 30, 2009

KARACHI: Noted religious scholar Mufti Muhammad Rafi Usmani has alleged that the infamous American agency Blackwater is responsible for the gory incidents of Karachi.

Addressing a news conference along with Mufti Muhamamd Taqi, Mufti Muhammad Naeem, Maulana Tanvir ul Haq Thanvi and traders here on Wednesday, Mufti Rafi Usmani said that Blackwater is involved in the killing of innocent people at the Muharram procession.

Immediately after the blast, markets were set on fire according to a well thought-out plan, he said, inquiring how could the miscreants get petrol and weapons so early.

He claimed that the traders suffered losses worth Rs1oo billion. Mufti Usmani further demanded that immediate measures should be taken for the compensation of losses.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=94853

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Taliban claim responsibility for the Karachi attack

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan’s feared Taliban network claimed responsibility Wednesday for a suicide bombing that killed 43 people at a Shiite parade in Karachi and threatened further attacks.

The claim was made by one of Pakistan’s most wanted commanders in the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) movement, which for two months has been targeted by a military offensive near the Afghan border.

Monday’s attack in Pakistan’s biggest city reduced events marking the Shiites’ holiest day, Ashura, to carnage and sparked riots, underlining the security challenge faced by the nuclear-armed Muslim country.

It was the deadliest militant attack in Karachi in two years and one of the deadliest sectarian-linked attacks in conservative Pakistan.

“We carried out the suicide bombing in Karachi,” Asmatullah Shaheen, a top militant commander based in South Waziristan, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“We did it to protect the honour of the companions of the holy prophet,” he said, referring to a centuries-old disagreement between Sunni Muslims, who dominate the Taliban, and Shiite Muslims over the succession to the Prophet Mohammed.

“We will carry out more such attacks and also target government installations,” Shaheen added.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091230/wl_afp/pakistanunrest_20091230142810

http://criticalppp.com/archives/3969

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The pathology of denial

Khurram Husain
September 15, 2010

The writer is editor of business and economic policy for Express News and 24/7 khurram.husain@tribune.com.pk

Even cliches fail me now. Even as our cities are bombed and our minorities mowed down with machine guns and hand grenades, there still exists a loud cacophony of voices in our midst which seeks to deny that we have a problem with extremist and intolerant strains of religious militancy. Even as floods devastate our countryside, at a time when we need the state more than any other time in our recent history, there exists a cacophony of voices in our midst which seek to discredit whatever broken remnants of government we have left.

The piling debris of confusion and despair now looks hopelessly unmanageable. The cross cutting conflicts are too many to be reasoned through, the voices too shrill to be argued with, the arguments too specious and slippery to be engaged with. It seems like the bombs are the clearest voices in our midst now, the targeted killings the most persuasive arguments, and the floodwaters the only public spaces left that effectively connect us with each other — sweeping all before them without regard to gender or creed, race or religion, sect or language.
And still denial rules supreme. Still there are those who say this is not our war. Still there are those who would prefer to tear down the edifice of state rather than work to shore it up. Still there are those who pine for more chaos, more disorder, with all the wiles of a moviegoer who waits anxiously for the plot to thicken, for the destruction to come on harder and headier. Yes, let’s all exalt the spectre of revolution and military takeovers, just pause the action while I fetch my popcorn!

Notice how denial always rests on a popcorn understanding of large scale events. For instance, notice how adamantly so many cling to the notion that America is out to destabilise Pakistan, when every shred of evidence clearly shows that the superpower is in fact struggling mightily to sustain and prop up the global order it has presided over since World War II. In a world fast falling apart, with instability plaguing countries from Mexico to Iran to North Korea, a semblance of stability has been brought only recently, and through tremendous difficulty to the Caucasus, the Balkans and Southern Africa and large parts of North Africa. With that in mind, why on earth would the superpower be seeking to create more instability in a nuclear-armed country like Pakistan?

Of course it doesn’t help that a small band of ideological warriors went ahead and ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, wreaking such catastrophic damage to America’s global mission that the superpower is unlikely to ever recover from it. It also doesn’t help that America is leaving Iraq in a condition of greater disrepair than the country has ever experienced. But how on earth do we see that sort of thing happening here? Under the present American administration?

But evidence matters little to those in denial. It’s easier, more comfortable and certainly less confusing to select a couple of dots and connect the shortest distance between them and disregard the rest as the PR machinations of an imperial ambition and its collaborators. It’s easier to outsource our understanding of the world through blind faith to trusted arbiters, whether the cricketer turned politician or someone else, who participates heartily in the cottage industry of denial based views.

But denial won’t save us from the bombs and the bullets. Denial won’t produce order out of chaos. Denial cannot substitute for politics once we have torn down the last and only edifice of participatory state making that we have, broken and imperfect as it may be. The high road today is to find a way to tame this animal called democracy. The low road is to shoot it dead. And please remember that we are fighting the Taliban on the streets of our cities today only because for years we denied their ascendancy in the tribal areas of our western borderlands. If we continue in our denial today, tomorrow we’ll be fighting them in them our homes, indeed even in our hearts and minds.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2010.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/50306/the-pathology-of-denial/

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A state of denial
By Shahid M. Amin

Wednesday, 21 Oct, 2009

The GHQ attack has drawn accusations from several quarters in Pakistan that it was inspired by foreign powers; some have named India and the US among the usual suspects. Such ‘experts’ rarely bother to give any concrete evidence to substantiate their charges, which are based mainly on conjecture.

They can only argue as to which country would want to hurt Pakistan the most: surely it must be India. Since many now see the US as the enemy, it too, in their view, could be the hidden hand behind the attack. In this particular case the leader of the terrorists has been captured alive. An army spokesman has identified him as Aqeel, alias Dr Usman, affiliated with terrorist outfits based in southern Punjab. The terrorists involved in the attack were apparently trained in South Waziristan.

Will the spokesman’s disclosure silence those who see a foreign power behind the attack? Not likely. The conspiracy theorists in this case are the same people who have been claiming that the suicide bombers — who have killed thousands in Pakistan over the last few years — could not be Muslims. They ignore the reality that many of the suicide bombers have been identified and found to be part of Islamist extremist groups such as the Taliban.

Similarly, some conspiracy theorists believe that Al Qaeda does not exist and the Sept 11, 2001 attacks were the handiwork of Israeli agents. The fact that Osama bin Laden has taken responsibility for 9/11 and all those involved in it were Arab nationals has not deterred the ardent believers of conspiracies.

How should one explain such a state of denial? It is not a case of not knowing the facts. Actually, the conspiracy theorists do not want to believe anything that comes in the way of their firmly held views: firstly, that the US, Israel and India are the arch enemies of Muslims; secondly, that the militants involved in the struggle against anti-Islam forces must be absolved of any charge of brutal excesses.

One can see a clear pattern at work. After every gruesome terrorist act the ‘defenders’ of the terrorists react. They assert that this must be the doing of anti-Islam and anti-Pakistan forces, or of elements within the regime, such as intelligence agencies. Even when the Taliban or other extremists claim responsibility the ‘defenders’ assert that this must be disinformation. It would not be incorrect to conclude that there is a nexus between the Taliban and these apologists, mainly belonging to our religious parties which seem to be acting as the political face of the terrorists.

What kind of mentality is helping create sympathy for violent extremism? How is it that extremists are attracting so many adherents? No doubt, the majority are drawn from madressahs where young boys are subjected to relentless brainwashing. But some supporters are well-educated people. It is important, therefore, to understand the phenomenon of ‘Talibanisation’ since military measures alone cannot destroy Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In the final process, ideas must be fought with ideas.

Over a period of time the perception has developed in Pakistan and elsewhere that the US is following a global anti-Muslim policy. The US is viewed as the main supporter of Israel, which has long been a dagger in the heart of the Arab and Muslim world. The Al Qaeda phenomenon itself developed after the US attack on Iraq during the first Gulf War of 1990. In 2001 the US invasion of Afghanistan and, more notably, the invasion of Iraq in 2003 raised Muslim fears to an unprecedented extent.

In Pakistan, sectarianism has been on the rise for the last three decades or so. But it was under Ziaul Haq that extremism acquired the shape that we see today. He patronised fundamentalism for political and ideological reasons. The Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan was seen as a threat to Pakistan’s own security. The West had its own motives to oppose the Soviets. There was also sympathy for the Afghan Mujahideen whose struggle against the Soviets was seen as righteous. It was not realised, until it was too late, that these militants would turn into Frankensteins. Today’s Taliban are the offshoot of the Mujahideen.

Sept 11 led to the US invasion of Afghanistan. Here another miscalculation occurred. The Afghan people have a long tradition of opposing all foreign invaders and history is now repeating itself. Thus, the US and Nato forces are facing a war of national resistance which the Taliban have converted into a ‘jihad’ in the Pakhtun areas. Ethnic Pakhtuns also live on the Pakistani side of the border, thus extending the area of conflict to our tribal belt. Vital support is also coming from sympathisers affected by Talibanisation.

To counter Talibanisation and the religious fanatics, it needs to be emphasised, firstly, that they have done a grave disservice to Islam’s image by their senseless violence and brutality. Secondly, the rampant anti-Americanism that is providing so many recruits for Al Qaeda can be countered by recalling some historical facts. The US invasion of Iraq in 1990 was due to Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, an Arab and Muslim neighbour. In that war the UN and the majority of Arab and Muslim states had supported the US.

In 2001, it was the terrorism of 9/11 that resulted in the US invasion of Afghanistan and not vice versa. The liberation of Muslim Bosnia and Kosovo in the last decade was secured by the US, whose support for the Mujahideen had earlier secured Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Even in the case of Israeli aggression against the Arab countries, it was the US that twice secured Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. The US also secured Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza in 1994 that allowed the PLO to return and form a Palestinian Authority in those territories.

Nevertheless, the onus lies on the US to rehabilitate its image in the Muslim world. It must end its blind support for Israel. The US withdrawal from Iraq must be expedited. The US should play a role to help resolve the Kashmir dispute. Barack Obama has a historic opportunity to change the Bush-era policies and build bridges between the US and the Muslim world. It remains to be seen how far he can rise to the occasion.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/14-a-state-of-denial-zj-06

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Terra Incognita: Pakistan’s state of denial
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

10/05/2010 22:15

None of the current problems has anything to do with the US; all of them were “made in Pakistan.”

Talkbacks (4)
In an op-ed in The New York Times last year, the newly elected president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardani, explained how the US could now “mend fences with Pakistan.”

He claimed that “twice in recent history America abandoned its democratic values to support dictators and manipulate and exploit us.”

Furthermore, the US “used Pakistan as a surrogate in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. That decade turned our peaceful nation into a ‘Kalashnikov-and-heroin’ society – a nation defined by guns and drugs.”

The US even created the Taliban, and was thus responsible for supporting the “most radical” Islamists in Afghanistan.

But that’s not all. America is also at fault for having relations with India. “The perceived rhetorical one-sidedness of American policy often fuels the conspiracy theories that abound here – theories that blame the West for all of our ills.”

And then Zardani capped off his complaints with a list of what America must do for Pakistan. America must “work with us to turn public opinion around,” and the US must give money without strings attached, no “dependency” and the US must “mediate the Kashmir dispute.”

Is there more? What else can Zardani order from the American menu?

THIS PAKISTANI view is alive and well. The country’s pseudo-liberal newspaper Dawn published an editorial in June that asked: “Would Pakistan in the 21st century be wracked by militancy and terrorism if the US hadn’t supported Gen. Zia and pumped millions into the Afghan jihad?” A responsible person reading the Pakistani description of Pakistan’s history, even if she took it at face value, would wonder, “If America has been responsible for supporting Pakistan in the wrong way, will not our new support for this government one day be used by another one to again blame us for all the ills of the country again?” The Economist’s writers were not taken in. In a September article they claimed that Pakistan’s elite, “with heroic exceptions,” show “little appetite for trying to improve the place.” Many prefer to blame their problems on others, ideally America.

They also blithely dodge tax – at around 10% of GDP, Pakistan’s tax-collection rate is one of the world’s lowest.”

That is the situation today. Maybe it’s worse; 20% of Pakistan was recently underwater from flooding, affecting about 21 million people. But even in the midst of the flooding, three bombings were carried out targeting minority Shi’ite and Ahmadiyya Muslims. One of the bombings, carried out by the Sunni Taliban, actually killed Shi’ites marching on “Al-Kuds [Jerusalem] day” in solidarity with Palestinians. More than 100 people were murdered in the bombings, and in response Shi’ites rioted across Pakistan. One must ask the writers at Dawn and Zardani: How can America be blamed for these bombings? Surely a way will be found.

Pakistan, of all countries, is probably the one where the people’s heads are most buried in the sand. They are in denial about almost everything befalling their nation. In the province of Balochistan, which accounts for 48% of the land area of the country but only about 5% of the population, there is widespread resentment of the central government and an ongoing insurgency by the Balochistan Liberation Army.

In Karachi there has been a simmering ethnic conflict between Sindhis (Pakistanis from the province of Sindh) and Muhajirs (Pakistanis who immigrated to the country from India in 1948 due to partition and independence). There are around 13 million Muhajirs in Pakistan, and since their mass flight from India they have felt discriminated against.

They settled primarily in Karachi, where they now make up 6 million of a population of 13 million. In the 1970s they were the main driver behind the “language riots” that racked the city, and which were directed at Sindhis. They have been steadfast opponents of the Pakistan People’s Party (Zardani’s party, founded by his wife’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto), which they view as a Sindhi-dominated organization. To gain political rights, the Muhajirs founded the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in 1984.

On September 17, Imran Farooq, a leader of MQM, was found dead in the UK. In response his followers in Karachi rioted because they believed his death was part of a conspiracy.

Zihad Hussein of The Wall Street Journal reported that “party supporters torched several vehicles and attacked markets.”

He noted that in August MQM supporters had also rioted against Pashtuns (another ethnic group) after the murder of a lawmaker.

The Pashtuns make up 28 million of Pakistan’s people and are the main members of the Taliban who have been active in the tribal regions of northwestern Pakistan and who succeeded in taking over parts of that region between 2001 and 2010.

None of these current problems, the massacre of minority Shi’ites and Ahmadis, ethnic violence or secessionist movements, has anything to do with the US; all of them were “made in Pakistan.”

THE COUNTRY has a terrible habit of forgetting its own history.

Founded in 1948 by Ali Jinnah, a leader of British India’s All Muslim League, it was birthed in blood by the expulsion of some 7 million Hindus and Sikhs. Mass ethnic-cleansing paved the way for a Muslim-nationalist nation. The cleansing of Hindus presaged the intolerance that has marked the country ever since, with rioting against Shi’ites and other groups, and interethnic clashes.

Coups, far from being America’s creation, are part of Pakistan’s culture. They began in 1958 and occurred again in 1977 and 1999. Rather than being on the side of India, the US has long cultivated relations with Pakistan, and rather than “using” Pakistan, it was Pakistan which used the US in Afghanistan, funneling weapons and money to the Islamists after making sure to remove any mention that they came from the “great Satan.”

Pakistan’s troubles are made at home, and it will be a wonder if the country can ever emerge from its internal problems.

The writer is a PhD researcher at Hebrew University and a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=190330

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Pakistan: Living in Denial
Ahmad Faruqui, PhD

Pakistanlink, News analysis, , Posted: May 31, 2009

During a long appearance on the Fareed Zakaria show, General Pervez Musharraf proffered his analysis of the war against the Taliban. While conceding that the threat posed by the Taliban to national security was real, he blamed the problem exclusively on the situation in Afghanistan.

He contended that the Taliban were using drug money obtained by the cultivation of poppies to finance the purchase of advanced weapons with which they were making war against the poorly equipped Frontier Corps. The implication was very obvious.

If the Taliban in Pakistan did not have advanced weaponry, they would not be making inroads in Swat and coming within sixty miles of Islamabad. In Musharraf’s narrative, the surge of the Taliban in Pakistan can be traced to the failure of the US to subdue the Taliban in Afghanistan. Ergo, if the US knew how to fight a war, the problem would go away.

That bit of revisionist history caught the usually unflappable Zakaria off guard. Musharraf, even though he no longer holds any office in Pakistan, likes to speak as if he still runs the country. And he is as pugnacious as ever.

One has to assume that the general’s increasingly frequent appearances on the US lecture circuit, which he admits most military officers cannot even dream about, have the widespread support of the army. In Pavlovian fashion, the army blames its failures on someone else.

Those who have read the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report know that General Yahya Khan blamed the army’s defeat in 1971 on the “treachery” of the Indians. And, in his first address to the nation in October 1999, Musharraf said that the army had never let the nation down.

Musharraf knows that without the support of the army, the fledgling Taliban regime that took over Kabul in the mid-nineties could not have survived. Indeed, the Taliban were provided extensive financial and military aid by the army and the ISI. Without such nurturing, the Taliban would be dead.

It is also well known why the army went down this misguided path. A deeply Indo-centric mindset had caused it to embark upon a deliberate strategy of fending off an Indian invasion by creating “strategic depth” for itself in Afghanistan.

In this tiresome narrative, all threats ultimately can be traced back to New Delhi. Today, it is being argued in GHQ, India is out to encircle Pakistan. As evidence we are told that India is setting up a ring of consulates in Afghanistan from which mercenaries are being recruited and sent out to undertake missions in Pakistan.

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan made the army’s support of the Taliban untenable. But doubts remained. Many analysts, and not just those in the US, felt that the army was still supporting the Taliban. The only difference was that the support was now being provided clandestinely.

How else could it be that a military establishment that counted a million active and reserve troops in its strength, and one that was equipped with sophisticated air weaponry, would not be able to take out a rag-tag group of militants who were being pummeled into oblivion by the Americans?

When Zakaria asked the general to opine on whether influential voices in the army’s high command were indirectly supporting the Taliban, Musharraf flinched. He said that anyone who distrusts the ISI and the army – i.e., does not take them at their word — does not know much about Pakistan.

Zakaria then gave the general an opportunity to hit a sixer. He asked whether the recent surge of the Taliban was due to the weak leadership being exercised by the new civilian government. Given that opportunity, the general hit the ball out of the park. He said that for months the civilian government had dithered on how to deal with the Taliban and had provided no direction to the army. He went on to say that now that clear direction had been provided to the army, the problem would be taken care of.

At that point, Zakaria should have asked the general about the direction, clear or otherwise, that he had given to the army during his nine years in power when there was no doubt as to who was in charge. Perhaps the only benefit of military rule is unity of command.

Despite this unity, the army failed to subdue the Taliban. In all probability, the generals were divided on whether the Taliban were a friend or a foe. More fundamentally, the high command pre-occupied with running the country forgot that that the war was largely an ideological one and only secondarily a military one.

It was being waged in mosques all along the border with Afghanistan where illiterate preachers who knew little about how the world worked dished out a hate-laden gospel. They convinced an entire generation of Pashtuns that the troops which had invaded Afghanistan were carrying out Satan’s mission while Osama bin Laden was carrying out God’s mission. Most continued to deny that he had anything to do with 9/11.

But they did not stop there. They went on to accuse all those who had a different interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah as being agents of Satan and made their followers –the good Muslims — duty-bound to take out the bad Muslims.

Musharraf and his military regime did little to contain this cancerous doctrine. It was only a question of time before it would jump over the Indus River and lodge itself into the mosques of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

The battle for the soul of Pakistan was lost when these hate-loving preachers were given a free rein in the Pakistani heartland. It was not lost because the Taliban got their advanced weaponry from across the border.

For the war to be won, a lot more will have to be done than to simply take away that weaponry. The time has come for the nation’s security establishment, which continues to be dominated by the army, to look inward and engage in self-criticism.

What good is it to say, as Musharraf did on the Zakaria show, that the army continually engages in threat analysis and knows how to balance the threat coming from India in the east and the threat coming from Taliban in the west? If it did, a nation of 170 million would not be under siege by a few thousand Taliban fighters.

Faruqui@pacbell.net

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=9e2d349937176225303a21520070a509

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A Country in Denial
From THE ECONOMIST online

Western leaders claim there’s a connection between the bloody war in Afghanistan and “extremist safe havens” in Pakistan. The Economist’s central Asia correspondent heads to the borderlands …

As I walk through the bazaars of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, it is easy to think there is nothing wrong. I struggle through the crowds and pass mounds of spices in great brown sacks, birds trilling in pink cages and tiny old men struggling to restrain honking donkeys and whooping boys. Trade is brisk, and many of the shopkeepers, spotting a foreigner, grin and call out “How are you, Mister?”

But round the next corner is a different scene: a large building has had its front blown out, littering the street with bricks and slabs of concrete. “Suicide bomb yesterday,” explains Kausar, a local. “Many died. The people are scared—every week there is a new attack. They slaughter us even in the bazaars now.” Their attacks have been unrelenting: on March 5th, in the Hangu district of the North-West Frontier Province, a convoy of Shiite pilgrims and paramilitary soldiers was attacked by a suicide bomber. Twelve people were killed and more than 300 injured.

Theories abound as to who Mr Kausar’s “they” are. “They are Blackwater operatives,” says Dr Naveed Irfan, a prominent psychiatrist whose house was damaged by one recent explosion. “That is why they never recover the body.” He is equally confident about Osama bin Laden. “I met him once. Al-Qaeda is not a terrorist network. It is a conspiracy by the Americans to destabilise our country.” Similar theories are aired regularly by Pakistan’s newspapers and TV channels. This is a country in denial.

In recent months, international attention has been concentrated on the open warfare waged in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. But far from the borderlands around Kandahar, the battle for “hearts and minds” rages on in the other major Pushtun-majority region, the vast area between Peshawar in Pakistan and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama and every other Western leader involved in the war with Taliban have emphasised the importance of “recognising the fundamental connection between our war effort in Afghanistan, and the extremist safe havens in Pakistan.” I undertook this trip to learn something about that connection.

At Islamia College, a prestigious institution with buildings and grounds like an English public school’s, I meet a young man who is reading for his master’s in political science. He does not know who is behind the bombings in Peshawar, but he has convictions about the fighting over the border. “The Americans have no right to be there,” he insists. “They invaded Afghanistan and Iraq because they wanted bases next to Iran and China.” We are interrupted by a college lecturer who insists on convincing me of his love for English literature by listing his favourite books (practically the entire Western canon, it seems). He assures me that Pakistan “wants to march with the rest of the world.” The student scowls.

For lunch, I drive to the outskirts of the city to meet Sikander Afridi, a tribal chief. His compound is just beyond the Smugglers’ Bazaar, whose stalls sell everything from narcotics and fake dollars to World Food Programme biscuits (“Gift of Germany—not for individual sale”) and British and American military uniforms. Ordinary police have no authority here in the Khyber Agency, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). A bodyguard ushers me into Mr Afridi’s office, decorated with Islamic calligraphy and submachine guns. The chief himself lies on a long sofa. Lunch turns out to be a Nestlé cereal bar, a change at least from curried mutton with plain naan. (As far as I can tell, “Peshwari naan” is a myth propagated by British restaurateurs.)

He invites me to sit next to him with a gesture and takes out his mobile phone. “Look,” he says, selecting a video. The camera zooms in on an elderly man who has had his head chopped off and placed between his legs, a pool of blood spreading rapidly around him. “Taliban did this, Taliban this morning.” Members of his tribe have not been targeted like this before. This afternoon he will chair a shura to decide what to do. As he speaks, he takes a packet of white powder from his pocket, pours some onto his hand and snorts it. (Is it naswar, the Pushtun version of snuff? But naswar’s not white.) “For the stomach,” his bodyguard tells me, smiling.

To meet the Taliban, I need to head deeper into the Khyber Agency. Azam Khan, a local politician, has agreed to take me to one of their madrassas. A friend of his drives us most of the way, but we have to hail a donkey taxi to take us the final mile. The walls of the madrassa are whitewashed and I feel the force of the mid-day sun as we stand in the courtyard. About 40 young Taliban, 15 to 30 years old, quickly gather around us. Azam introduces me to the centre’s imam, a cold man in his forties who, like those of his students who are old enough, sports an impressive beard. He leads us to an underground classroom where we sit cross-legged in the gloom. A tall man with a black turban joins us: he has recently returned from Kandahar, we are told.

The imam explains that his students study the Koran here for eight years: some already have the 6,666 verses completely memorised. The Taliban answer my questions—yet more conspiracy theories—and then say they have one for me. “Why are your countrymen trespassing on Muslim soil?” a young man asks. “Why do they slay our Muslim brothers?” I choose my words carefully, explaining how the Americans demanded the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden after September 11th 2001, but were refused. “Listen,” says the young man, his fierce, proud face framed by a short black beard and a white prayer cap. “We are Pushtun people. We live by the Pushtun code. If your enemy came here”—he gestures towards the sky—“we would protect you with our lives. It is our duty. So it was when the Americans came for bin Laden.” The imam nods, smiling. “The Taliban said, ‘Give us proof, and we shall hand him over.’ But the Americans did not give the Taliban proof. So it is our duty to protect him, as it is our duty to protect you.”

(This is the first instalment of a correspondent’s diary about Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, published on The Economist online.)

http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/places/economist/country-denial

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The ‘It-is-not-us’ syndrome : state if denial

By Hajrah Mumtaz

Sunday, 15 Nov, 2009

A couple of months ago, I wrote a column in praise of certain Pakistani pop stars and bands, arguing that there are a fair number of songs that display political consciousness and a related sense of responsibility. I referred to such songs as Junoon’s ‘Talaash’, Shahzad Roy’s ‘Lagay Raho’ and ‘Kismet Apnay Haath Main’, Noori’s ‘Merey Log’ and Laal’s rendition of Habib Jalib’s ‘Main Nay Uss Say Yeh Kaha.’

I find now that that argument was all very well – as far as it went. Such is the manner in which we are bound by our long-cherished prejudices and mental chains that it took a report by the New York Times’ Adam B. Ellick to show me what I had completely failed to notice: the music acts’ total refusal to either touch upon the topic of the Taliban, or to even acknowledge them as a concern.

In a video report shot in Lahore, Ellick asks a few of Pakistan’s top musicians why they have spoken out against corruption, political wheeling-dealings, poverty and the manner in which the country has been done in by everyone from the politicians to the West to India – but never against the Taliban, who currently constitute the clearest and most present of dangers.

Here, verbatim, is what Ali Noor of Noori has to say:

‘We are not going to get up and say that we want to talk against the Taliban – simply because they are probably one of the smallest problems this country has. [...] It’s the West. It’s the West that is against the Taliban, because they are very heavily affected by it. We’re not.’

And here is what Ali Azmat – the man who once sang about ‘zehni ghulami’ – has to say: ‘We know for a fact that all this turbulence in Pakistan … it’s not us. It’s the outside hands.’

What, really, can one say? The Taliban are one of the smallest problems this country has? When we’re having a bombing virtually every day, when parts of the south-west of the country were until very recently in serious danger of falling to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and its associated gang of goons?

Hadiqa Kiyani is a very popular Pakistani pop singer and has many albums in Urdu and English. She continues to do concerts in the main cities despite death threats from the religious clergy and Taliban. Many Taliban men secretly own her music CD’s and listen to her music under cover.

Ellick comments, dryly, that this view – it’s not us, it’s ‘foreign hands’ – persists despite a spate of bombings in the country with the targets ranging from civilians and security forces’ installations to an Islamic university for women. ‘They’re [Pakistan’s pop musicians] angry about one fact: that the United States has interfered in Pakistan’s politics for decades.’

Of course Ellick focuses in his report on the anti-American angle apparent in many Pakistani pop songs, using stills from the ‘Klashinfolk’, ‘Kismet Apnay Haath Main Lay Li Hai’ and a CoVen video to press his point home. And he ignores other work such as that by Laal. Nevertheless, his point is made well enough to make me cringe: amongst the people interviewed in his report, there seems to be an utter refusal to acknowledge that the Taliban are in any way a threat, or that this is a local, home-grown problem that affects Pakistan first and most deeply.

To be sure, other comments may have been made in the interviews that were edited out when the report was compiled. And, as Nadeem Farooq Paracha tells Ellick, a musician is not necessarily the best person to come up with insights into the situation of Pakistan, since his view would tend to reflect the dominant one. But, he asks, ‘at least address the schools’ issue. Why are you [the Taliban] destroying schools? What has that got to do with America or Zionism? Nobody’s even talked about it.’

Noor–ul–Ain popularly known as Annie, (Punjabi, Urdu: عینی) is a Pakistani pop singer. Annie was born in 1984 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. In 1985, her parents moved to London where she grew up.

Annie started her singing career at the age of fifteen. In 2000, during a summer vacation in Pakistan, she performed for the first time in a live concert for Abrarul Haq’s charity in Sargodha.
So in the next shot, Ellick puts the question to Ali Azmat. Off-camera, he asks, ‘Would you ever sing a song about how two hundred girls’ schools were blown up?’ Azmat’s reply? ‘Well you know, you cannot blame the Taliban for that. Where do you think those fundings are coming from? It’s the agenda of the neo-cons to de-Islamise Pakistan… religion must be killed.’

One could be forgiven, at this point, to want to shoot oneself in despair. We’re all tempted to defend Pakistan in the face of criticism, sure. But in this manner and in such ill-chosen words?

But why blame Ali Azmat or Ali Noor? The sad fact is that this is a nation of delusional people, and the views these two men have expressed are shared by a great many people – I’d go as far as to say the majority. It took years of beheadings, bombings, whippings and extortion by the Taliban to turn the tide of public opinion against them. It took the infamous ‘flogging video’, the imminent fall of Swat and parts of Malakand into the militants hands, and an active threat posed to the government’s writ over Peshawar to set people saying finally that the Taliban-led militants had to be countered. Until then, if you remember, the public discourse had mainly been along the lines of ‘but all they want to do is enforce an Islamic system – and that, after all, is what we all want.’

What will it take for us to recognise that Pakistan’s problems, from the Taliban to poverty, under-development and corruption, are home-grown? Even where we reject them, we try to blame others. ‘It’s the foreign influences; a conspiracy against Pakistan and Islam; it’s India; it’s America; it’s Israel.’ Like pre-schoolers, we whine on and on: ‘It’s not us; we aren’t like this.’

JUNOON – The internationally acclaimed South Asian rock band. The band that plays a fusion of western rock and traditional eastern mystical music. Their lyrics are inspired by the great Sufi saints, Rumi and Bulleh Shah; and their music by Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Santana, U2, Beatles, and Queen. Junoon is not just about a rock group – it is about sanity, it is about harmony, it is about tolerance and more importantly it is about truth

Ellick also shows in his report portions from that highly popular song ‘Yeh Hum Nahin’, the collaborative effort against terrorism by some of the country’s biggest pop icons. Here are the lyrics he picks up on:

‘This is not us; not us. The story that is being spread in our names is a lie. These stamps of death on our foreheads are the signs of others.’

(To be fair, Ellick also refers to Shahzad Roy of taking on religion in his ‘Laga Raho’ song. But that doesn’t alter the fact that no one refers to the Taliban-led militants. And it is true, as Ali Hamza says, that ‘If we start talking about the Taliban, it’s very easy for them to get rid of us.’ But that doesn’t alter the fact that others, from theatre groups such as Ajoka and Tehrik-e-Niswan, to filmmakers and journalists, are speaking up.)

One of of the single male Pakistani singer Atif Aslam who zoomed up the charts with musical … who bring the whole stadium up on their feet.” He has been able to woo his fans in India to bridge and bring peace vby his music. Atif’s pet peeve is … and Pakistani people will come closer by cultural associations. … “Live bands are a niche bunch in India whereas in Pakistan they are the people’s voice. …we don’t do the Bollywood crap we are more into the music create by the music icons of our time like the Beatles..Marley….Queen….Eagles…..Springsteen …..we may sing in a different language..but we all have the same passion for love and peace…
Pakistan is a nation in denial, unwilling to mature and accept responsibility for mistakes past and future – unwilling to shoulder the weight of responsibility for improving its own future. Certainly, other countries have meddled in our politics. But we’re the ones taking the decision to let them, and then finding ways of shooting ourselves in the foot. The Taliban are a case in point, thanks to Pakistan’s notions of strategic depth in Afghanistan. Like ostriches, we always have and perhaps always will keep our heads stuck in the sand. One can argue that it is the state and the government that ought to be tasked with steering the course of the country’s future away from its currently suicidal direction: but until individuals who constitute society change their minds, a mere government can achieve little of long-term impact.

http://pakstop.com/pmforums/f10/the-it-is-not-us-syndrome-state-if-denial-102629/

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Farrukh Rehan: Denial-istan
Posted: April 27, 2009,

Every morning I roll out of bed and scan the papers on the net. Today, like most days, I find something distressing about Pakistan. As part of my new routine I call my younger brother in Lahore. The exchange is familiar to both of us: No, he wasn’t near the suicide bombing/commando attack/ mammoth demonstration/drone fired missile. Yes he will be careful and will not visit fancy restaurants where he may be targeted in an attack against “Western” establishments, and yes, he agreed, he will not go to pray at mosques either, which perplexingly also seem to be a favoured target of the radical Islamic extremists who send the suicide bombers.

It is a devastating failure of state for any country when its citizens have to think twice before going to their place of worship. But the biggest failure of all is the utter inability of the leadership of Pakistan, both civilian and military, to unite the Pakistani people against this grave and imminent threat, and to explain to them what is going on, who is attacking the very core of the republic and what needs to be done to defeat this threat.

In the absence of national leadership or even basic coherence at the top, rumours and ideological punditry masquerade as reason. A television anchor insists that all the attacks are the handiwork of Indian intelligence agents. A talking head on another channel claims that the Taliban are misunderstood – all they want to do is to bring swift justice in the country. Another strategic expert assures viewers that everything happening in Pakistan is the US’s fault. Drone attacks are creating anti-Americanism, and its only natural that those attacked will retaliate wherever they can. If the US were to simply stop the drone attacks on Pakistan, everything would be just fine. The fact that Pakistan was spinning out of control well before anyone had heard the term drone hamla, is left out of the conversation.

Some though, have a more sinister explanation for Pakistan’s rapid descent into chaos. They whisper that the Pakistani army is orchestrating the bombings and ceding territory in Swat to ensure continued US attention and funding. How else can you explain the total capitulation of the vaunted 500,000 strong Pak army, which can’t seem to battle a rag tag force of a few thousand militants? But a counter theory gaining currency is that it’s actually the United States that is simultaneously supporting extremists on the one hand, and launching drone attacks with the other. The purpose of such dastardly duplicity? Well duh, to break up Pakistan into pieces so that the US could take over its precious nuclear weapons.

The net result of this mass confusion is that the people of Pakistan can’t seem to diagnose what is apparent to any objective observer:

A. – that the process of acceeding to Islamist demands that started in the 70’s has reached its logical conclusion, where the Islamists are now simply demanding that the whole country be handed over to them.

And

B. – the cancer of extremism, once foolishly used by the State for its own purposes, has metastized and is now spreading through the body of the nation.

But admitting this would be tantamount to admitting that we have been on the wrong path for a very long time. It would mean admitting that we have been wrong in our blind pursuit of Kashmir to the detriment of Pakistan, that we have been wrong in our meddling in Afghanistan for the sake of strategic depth, wrong in neglecting our people’s education and development in favour of purchasing F-16s. And most of all, it would mean admitting that we have been wrong in changing ourselves from our founder’s vision of a progressive, muslim majority but pluralistic Pakistan to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. No one has the courage to face these bitter truths. It is far easier to be in denial than to examine the core beliefs that form our national mythology. It is far easier to be indignant about the infringement of our sovereignty by US drones than to wonder how a nation could claim to be sovereign and yet be largely dependent on the generosity of other nations for paying its bills. It is far easier to keep blaming the USA for a thirty year old Afghan policy, rather than to ask why we chose to continue that policy once the Soviets had gone back.

And so it continues, every horrific incident, every injustice, every new low is justified and explained away. Mumbai attacks that trace back to Pakistan? Can’t be Pakistanis because the attackers seemed to know their way around Mumbai too well. What about the daily bombings across Pakistan? Of course it’s the work of India, perhaps the US, and maybe even Israel. What about the killings and beheadings in FATA areas? Well, those are unsettled areas, so what happens there doesn’t really affect the rest of the country. And the handing over of Swat valley to the Taliban? Its what the people of Swat wanted – the Taliban will bring peace in exchange for territory. What about the flogging of a 17 year old girl in Swat captured on video? The first response: That was shameful, no ifs and buts. A few hours later: Maybe the video was a hoax to defame Pakistan? A further few hours later: Its definitely a hoax. How could the girl take 34 lashes and then be able to walk home? A few days later: People have forgotten about it and moved on.

As the body of the patient convulses on the operating table, and the doctors squabble over both the diagnosis and the treatment, the seeds sowed in past decades – seeds of extremism, seeds of disenfranchisement, seeds of misgovernance – have come to bear their deadly fruit. I can only surmise that this fruit is so bitter, the picture in the mirror so ghastly, the fate so clearly written on walls, that our minds cannot accept it and denial is the only refuge for us. After all, if Amerindia is responsible for all this, we are responsible for nothing. Neither for creating it, nor for fixing it.

I place another call, this time to my sister in law. She laughs at my concerns. “My dear brother, the media exaggerates everything” she tells me. “You people living abroad become paranoid. We’re used to it. This is Pakistan. This is how its always been. People are going about their business and life goes on. It will all blow over in time.”

“I gotta go now, we’re going out to dinner” she tells me, and hangs up.

If our leaders and our people continue to keep their eyes wide shut, I’m afraid no amount of aid or drone strikes can prevent the coming calamity that will likely dwarf Iraq and Afghanistan.

— The writer is a Pakistani living in Montreal and writes on the Blogzine www.pakteahouse.wordpress.com.

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/04/27/farrukh-rehan-denial-istan.aspx#ixzz11keCkV1Y

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The Denial Of the Lambs
By Anas Abbas

Cross Post : Accounterterror blog

By Anas Abbas

This Essay is in response to an article “The liberal lynch mob” written by Mahreen Aziz Khan published recently in The Express Tribune. It will not only focus on this article itself but will mostly critically analyze the mindset behind such viewpoints and briefly look at the message in other such related articles for example “Get another passport” written by the famous “Flotilla Hulk”.

Recently a horrifying video of a crowd watching a mob brutally killing two brothers in Sialkot has sparked mass demonstrations in Pakistan. The video, widely broadcasted on Pakistani TV channels, shows a lynch mob taking turns to savagely beat the two boys with sticks, metal rods drawing blood from them before dragging and hanging their dead bodies from a nearby pole. But perhaps just as shocking was that none of the dozens of people including police officials watching tried to stop the ferocious attack. The government has responded to the attack by promising to launch an investigation and bringing the culprits to justice. Civil/Religious groups and Media condemned the killings and youth held demonstrations. The scenes have outraged Pakistanis all over the country challenging how their society could submissively watch the shocking killings without intervening.

Amid this crisis, a new debate has sparked in Pakistan as to how should one perceive it. Columnist Fasi Zaka not only condemned the incident but referred to Pakistanis (metaphorically) as ‘human cockroaches’ and concluded that we cannot and will not change unless we rise above all the defenses, excuses and accusations that we give to others and ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. In other words, we need to understand the nature and magnitude of our crimes and make a pledge with ourselves to change our ways. To change the world around us, we need to change ourselves first. In another hard hitting piece, a Pakistani journalist George Fulton focused on the gruesome nature of the society and highlighted the culture of vigilantism that has been ingrained in the very roots of the country and ever since actively promoted and widely accepted on mass scale within the country.

However there is another interesting point of view which was endorsed by Mahreen Aziz Khan in her article “The liberal lynch mob”. In this article, she lambasted both George and Fasi Zaka’s opinions labelling them as ‘western liberals’ and concluded that the norms of our society are not very different from those of the western more developed nations and that what happened in Sialkot was not as out of the ordinary as portrayed by the media.

Critical Analysis

Mahreen Khan’s article does not come as a surprise as I have been reading these viewpoints since a long time now. Basically this has always been the reaction of such analysts who either live in a mode of denial or deliberately choose not to scrutinize the loopholes in their society for the sake of their misperceived patriotism and false pride and nationalism. They guard the political-military elite of Pakistan and have been one of the biggest impediments in the democratic process by always possessing a soft corner towards the Pakistan army and its political supporters. They are the ones who choose only to criticize Pakistan’s current President Asif Ali Zardari (Popularly known as the source of all problems in the country) by demanding him to donate his entire wealth to compensate the flood victims and maintain their silence on the £10bn empire operating within the country that runs several industrial and manufacturing conglomerates (From Cement to Cornflakes), owns 12m acres of public land and controls one-third of all heavy manufacturing and approximately 7% of private assets. Welcome to Pakistan Army ladies and gentlemen.

The usage of the term “western, liberal”:

In her article, Miss Mahreen at least twice used the term known as ‘western liberal’. In Pakistan, this is a common term used to label any critic who points out either the caustic realities of the society or who invokes self introspection instead of blaming the West, Israel or India. This term takes a different form depending on the user. Some refer to it as Liberal Fascists, Liberal fanatics or Atheists and sometimes it takes a more blatant form such as Kafir, Hindu Agent, Jew or Qadiani, at all times the core meaning of the term remaining the same. These terms are used to describe those people who often:

• Challenge the popular opinion among the masses and take a stand for their views and have the guts to reach a rational conclusion on their own.
• Challenges the distorted version of history widely accepted in the country and demands a truthful reformation of the history books taught in the Pakistani classrooms.
• Highlights the importance of science and research and demand the country’s authorities to allocate a substantial part of budget towards this sector.
• Promote religious harmony and tolerance by demanding equal rights for Ahmadis and other minorities.
• Call for abandoning nuclear weapons and transparency towards nuclear wastes and challenge the “first use” nuclear doctrine of the Pakistan Army.
• Challenge religious orthodoxy and extremism, Taliban, and promote freedom of speech, race, religion, gender and Ideology.
• Promote the democratic political process instead of taking patronage under the military oligarchy.
• Point out other regions of the world as well (such as Baluchistan, Darfur, and Xinanjiang)  where Muslims are fighting for freedom instead of just playing the usual Palestinian, Iraqi and Kashmiri card

Here I am not going to defend or further analyse this term but instead I will certainly examine why this specific term was used by Mahreen Khan when the criticism or self-loathing by Fasi Zaka & George Fulton involved Pakistan only?

Where does ‘West’ come from?

The term ‘West’ used by Mahreen Khan was basically to offset the impact of the dilapidated condition of Pakistan highlighted by both Fasi and George by diverting the whole attention through highlighting similar incidents in other regions mainly West, Israel and India. Basically according to this mindset, we should not introspect and work towards seeking constructive feedback of our deeds and instead find similar faults of other nations and indirectly justify ourselves.

The basic strategy is to mention the names of these three regions in order to fuel the revulsion that already exists in Pakistan against them and to discredit the other argument not by presenting valid arguments but by presenting excuses. For example, whenever there is a bomb blast in a mosque or shrine in Pakistan where the Taliban accept responsibility for it, firstly it is not accepted by this mindset and secondly even if it is grudgingly accepted, it is incorrectly and indirectly justified by presenting a case where America is bombing Iraq and parts of Pakistan, killing innocent civilians.

In simple words, this Mahreen Khan Mindset looks at every problem in Pakistani society in this context:

As a point of illustration, on the issue of dealings with the minorities in the country, this mindset believes:

“So what if Pakistani institutions have been highly unsuccessful in protecting its minorities? Look at India (The typical Gujrat 2002 story), Palestine issue, and American invasion in Iraq etc’. ‘See the magnitude of violence they have been promoting!”

By presenting this “comparative-analysis”- excuse which is often out of context, this mindset justifies the weaknesses of its own society and dismisses any criticism directed against their country’s institutions. Eventually the critics are labelled as traitors, Liberal fascists or Western Liberals – as can also be seen in Mahreen Khan’s article.

Mahreen then says:

“These columnists (Fasi Zaka & George Fulton) would not dare to write in such sadistic terms about western cultures. No, they only prey on the weak – pure lynch mob mentality – developing nations like Pakistan, battered by natural catastrophe, war and poverty.”

My first basic questions to Mehreen Khan are:

Why on earth do these columnists need to criticize the “West” and its culture when the discussion is about Pakistan in the first place?

I would have understood had these articles “Pakistani Human Cockroaches” and “Don’t Act Surprised” were written by western analysts such as Bernard Lewis, Noam Chomskey, Christine Fair or Sumit Ganguly. But these articles were written by Pakistani nationals- so why wouldn’t they talk about their own country alone and present their opinion? They live here, they work here, their children go to school here- so why don’t they have the right to point out the shortfalls of their society (which they want to progress) and freely present their criticism?

What is the need to criticize the West or its culture- dragged out of context in Pakistani affairs? Why aren’t the Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Arabs so criticised?

The answer is simple: because “West” is despised by the masses in Pakistan so it has always been the requirement of Mahreen Khan type mindset to mention them in order to overshadow the Pakistani domestic problems.

The use of this strategy is not limited to the likes of Mahreen or Naseem Zehra but has also been employed as a frequent tool of digression by the bigoted mullahs who rule the illiterate Pakistani masses.

According to Mahreen khan, one should never criticize a third world country like Pakistan – battered by natural catastrophes, war and poverty.

Why I can’t criticize my country when I know that it is us who are responsible (due to our collective acts) for the natural catastrophes, war and the poverty?

Admittedly, it is a norm of our society to blame God, Global Warming, India or America, but in reality it is the Pakistanis themselves who are mostly responsible for these floods because of their mismanagement of the Indus river, the role of the timber mafia in denudation of the vast forests, and the appalling situation of National Disaster Management Authority  etc.

Should we not highlight these grave loopholes and debate this issue as to why efficient disaster management and building dams has never been a priority for the Pakistani state in the past decades? Why are we all possessed by the need for national security (Indian threat) and the weapons race?

For example:

Cities like London and Paris have floods too but they also have a set of appropriate measures to implement in such crises. Why cannot Pakistan take proactive steps to better manage its potential disasters as well?

Or, if we go by Mahreen Khan’s logic, should we first blame the ‘West’? Or find examples of similar natural disasters there and reach a dismissive conclusion that we should not do anything about this because it is also coming in other countries?

In the same article, Mahreen Khan has promptly responded to the Maula Jatt example given in “Don’t act surprised” by giving an American alternate of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre example promoting once again a comparative analysis as highlighted by George Fulton in “Don’t act surprised Part 2” . This “Harvard” intelligentsia is clearly missing the point as to why the Maula Jatt example was mentioned in the first place. Yet again, instead of acknowledging the culture of vigilante justice bred in our state, the Mahreen mindset spends hours Googling similar examples in only those regions which are despised by the masses in Pakistan example India, Israel and America. (Remember No China).

These Pakistanis live in a mode of denial completely ignoring the murderous vigilante culture which has been promoted in their society. The people prefer to make their own law rather than following any set rules of law. This utter disregard for law gives way to even more mayhem thus resulting in today’s daily acts of terrorism, looting, raping and murders.

Take the incident of Sialkot killings for instance. How many times a mob or an individual in Pakistan has taken justice in his hands? This latest Sialkot tragedy is one of the countless incidents that has erupted like a hyper active volcano. How many Christians and Ahmadis have been victimised at the hands of these people? Other such instances include the Gojra incident and the Sangla incident. Read any report of Pakistan Human Rights Commission and notice how many Ahmadis, Christians and other minorities have been brutally victimised through such people. Does anyone even remember the famous incident which took place in 1995 in which Dr. Sajjad Farooq was beaten to death (Stoned) on false apostasy charges (rumour circulated by someone out of personal enmity) by people outside a police station in Gujranwala? Even the mosques and the ruling Islamic ulemas have always been supportive of such incidents.

How can one forget the pseudo scholar by the name of Dr Amir Liaquat (followed by masses) publically endorse the murder of an Ahmadi? (Notice the increase in the killings of Ahmadis immediately after this public legitimisation) How can one forget the late dogmatic Dr Israr Ahmed (followed by the masses) who endorsed the killings of both Ahmadis and apostates? How can we ignore the fatwa of a powerful radical cleric known as Mufti Rafi Usmani on Geo News for mobilizing a mob to kill Salman Rushdie?

As I am writing, a gun battle between the Chang and Khan groups over a 30-rupee loan left four brothers dead in Gulshan-e-Khair Muhammad Hyderabad. Recently, a teenage girl was gang raped by a feudal tribal council as it was recommended by the Jirga (the increasingly popular Imran Khan’s Insaaf Mechanism) purporting that justice can only be served by the rule of “an eye for an eye”.

This barbarous, merciless, homicidal and bloodthirsty approach is not only limited to rural or tribal areas in Pakistan but it is somewhat pervasive in urban areas among the educated families as well.

For example, quite recently a mass hysteria has been created in Pakistan after 3 Pakistani cricketers were exposed for spot fixing in a sting operation by a British tabloid.

Look at our reactions as shown on Pakistani TV channels:

One of the major consensus among the public as shown on various channels is that the cricketers deserve the same fate as that met by the brothers who were brutally murdered in Sialkot. The icing on the cake is that even educated sportsman such as Amir Sohail came on ‘Super eye show’ (August 29th 2010) on Geo Super channel and recommended the “Sialkot type” punishment for the Pakistani cricketers.

A top Pakistani banker and a friend of popular television anchor Mubashir Luqmaan againrecommended the same punishment.

Let’s look at the Facebook status of a third rate propagandist and megalomaniac freak, Ahmed Qureshi, who recently  blames George Fulton & Fasi Zaka of being British agents working against Pakistan – just like he usually blames the Jews and Indians whenever he struggles to get an orgasm.

Facebook Status:

“Pakistani cricket players chose to be a part of corruption. Where is the supervisory mechanism over the players? My take is: Hang the bastards. This country’s politicians and managers can’t give justice and can’t stop corruption. Burn the corrupt, I say. Make them an example, and start with all the corrupt all the way to the top” (Source Facebook Ahmed Qureshi’s Official Page)

Notice the terms “Hang the bastards” and “Burn the corrupt”; it reminds me of similar terms used by the lynching mob in Sialkot during their revenge against those ill-fated boys.

Let’s look at our “National Hero”, the merchant of menace Abdul Qadeer Khan’s article, “Acts of Ghairat”, in which he not only legitimised the full philosophy of vigilante justice but also instigated the public to take justice in their own hands by giving certain relevant examples.

How can we forget the cricket match against India in SAHARA CUP (1996), when the best batsman and national hero of Pakistan (Inzamamul Haq) assaulted a member of the crowd after he was compared with several kinds of potatoes on megaphone? I still remember… Mushtaq Ahmed was asked by Inzamam to bring a bat as he was about to beat up that person.

On Inzamam’s return to Pakistan, he was hailed and praised as being courageous and valiant.

Above all what about the glorified vigilantism, savagery and barbarity in relation to imperialist invaders (Bin Qasim, Ghaznavi, Ghauri and Babar) that the masses in Pakistan study in their crooked history?

Just when you are thinking that you have seen the deepest depths of Pakistani depraved thought- there’s more- People angry at the reported betting scam named donkeys after the players and accused and pelted them with rotten tomatoes to vent their anger. The poor donkeys which live sad existences anyway could not understand why they were being ridiculed and beaten in this manner. Animals though without speech can nevertheless understand affection when shown and are equally capable of understanding hatred. Someone once said, the way a country’s people treats its animals reflects the way it treats its fellow citizens. (Refer to the recent incident in Lahore where poor Donkeys were paraded and persecuted)

This is the real Pakistan where national heroes encourage vigilante justice and have themselves been live examples of it. Then why are we surprised when such an incident as the one in Sialkot happens?

To add to the knowledge of readers with the Mahreen Khan mindset, what Pakistan is, let’s look some of the facts below:

Pakistan is a country:

• With four provinces but the majority of the budget is usually allocated to Punjab and Sind with meagre left over amounts given to Baluchistan and Pakhtunkhwa, leaving them envious of the former two provinces. Thus all four states think for themselves only on a provincial level ignoring the benefits of the country as a whole, thirsty for each other’s blood. Even smallest issues quickly exacerbate into ethnic violence. Our country thus faces acts of terrorism and violence such as target killings on a routine basis. This is how the state of affairs of the country is run whose population is multiplying manifold whereas the resources are going down at higher rates. The country which proudly hosts a population of 170 million but doesn’t realize that this issue will become a national security threat in the upcoming years when the population is expected to reach 226 million.
• That proudly hosts some of the most dreaded terrorists ever, such as Dawood Ibrahim (Karachi Block 4 Clifton), Tiger Memon (Karachi Defence, PH 6 Khayaban Hilal), Masood Azhar (Garrison town, Rawalpindi), Hafiz Saeed (Muridke, Lahore), Illyas Kashmiri, the Afghan Taliban to name a few and the most prominent.
• Where terrorists such as Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar openly market their literature and audio tapes legitimizing hijacking, the use of RDX, suicide bus attacks etc. (Refer to Jamait Dawaa Urdu magazine GHAZWA to learn about the planning and legitimization of Mumbai attacks and Masood Azhar lectures on TAQI Usmani Website.)
• Where it is prohibited for an Ahmadi to write BISMILLAH on a marriage invitation card.
• Where it is banned for an Ahmadi to travel to Saudi Arabia in order to perform Hajj.
• Where religious abuse is evident even in the application of a National ID card and Passport(Notice this statement in application forms for Pakistani passport “I consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Quadiani to be an impostor nabi and also consider his followers whether belonging to the Lahori or Qadiani group to be Non-Muslim.”)
• Where a rogue and disgraced “scientist” illegally sells centrifuge designs and technology to totalitarian regimes like North Korea whose 25% of the population is imprisoned by the state.
• That persecuted the first Muslim Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam and refused to endorse his candidacy when he ran for the post of Director General of UNESCO. (Just because he was an Ahmadhi)
  
• Where out of more than 170 million citizens, fewer than 2 percent pay income tax and sectors such as stock markets remain untaxed.
• Where despite enormous American hatred, people usually seen standing in long queues outside the embassy for study or vacation visas.
• Where Bollywood songs are a regular feature in most weddings despite Pakistan’s enmity and hatred for the said Indians and thus the Pakistanis thrive on Indian forms of entertainment, i.e. its dramas (STAR PLUS), movies and music.
• That depends every year on the ‘West’ to avoid bankruptcy and for the approval of financial bailouts.
• Where the provincial government (KP) pays Rs20 million to the military authorities/elites, as charges for the helicopters used in the rescue operations during the flooding within the province.
• Where Hindu religion is officially abused in the text books of all public schools in which 70% of Pakistanis study.
• Where an Army General by the name of Musharraf openly violated the Constitution (even accepted on television) and was nevertheless given a safe passage to Edgware road London.
• Whose politicians/army/elite persecuted the Bengalis and launched Operation Searchlight during 1971, killing hundreds and thousands of people and raping women. Despite all this, this country never even apologised for their brutal acts. A country which at the same time accuses America of nuking Japan but doesn’t mention alongside that the same America later played a crucial role in developing Japan and apologised for its destruction caused.
• Where a popular national hero and philanthropist worshipped by millions has been an insult to science by calling Charles Darwin a “half baked” theorist.
• Where mafias operates openly on the nook and corner of every street and are involved in hoarding stocks of goods such as Flour and Sugar thus manipulating the price of the products in the market and causing unnecessary sufferings to the poor at their benefit.
• Where the crime rate is so high in urban areas that people are routinely killed for a meagre Rs 500 mobile phone.
• Where a ruthless army dictator, Ayub Khan, accused Fatima Jinnah (Women rights activist and sister of Jinnah) of being an Indian and American agent.
• Where national heroes are regularly accused of taking banned substances such as nandrolene, cannabis and such.
• Where a court demands a blind girl (Safia Bibi) to present four male adult Muslim witnesses in order to prove that she was gang raped or else she would be charged with having committed adultery and sentenced accordingly (Famous Asma Jehangir Hudood Ordinance Case).
• Where a philanthropist (Abdul Sattar Edhi) who easily qualifies as one of the world’s greatest humanitarian activists, is threatened by the army to such an extent that he needs to temporarily leave the country.
• Where the powerful military makes its own people suffer by blocking the relief aid from other countries just for the sake of its egotism and vanity (Recently Pakistan blocks UK offer of military aid for flood victims in protest against David Cameron’s comments on a selling trip to India)
• Where the combined yearly education and health budget is peanuts as compared to the gigantic military budget.
• That suffered a $35 billion economic loss and lost thousands of lives in the War on Terror andstill hasn’t declared Al Qaeda a terrorist organization. (Read here how a famous terrorist escaped punishment from High Court just because Al Qaeda is officially not a terrorist organization in the country).
• That spends $2 million of the people’s money for the legal process of a terrorist, Aafia Siddiqui, whereas no such financial assistance is allocated to the countless cases of women undergoing corporal punishments, domestic violence, arson, torture or kidnapping.

This is the real Pakistan that has been dominated mainly throughout its history by illiteracy, conspiracy theories, corruption, political instability, military interferences, terrorism and poverty. A country where leaders openly justify on national TV that their involvement in corruption is acceptable, by employing the same tactics as those employed by the likes of Mahreen Khan. According to them, it is justified to delve in some corruption because another person belonging to X party is also involved in corruption. Hence, there was nothing wrong with this equation. But the truth of the matter simply put is that two wrongs do not make one right.

Yes Pakistan has positive qualities too as does every other country to more or less some extent. In fact every individual has some positive qualities alongside the negative ones. But what defines you as a good person/ country are the overriding qualities—the good ones or the bad. In other words, the important thing is what prevails over you. For instance, an active child molester also donates some money to a school as charity on a monthly basis. The money he donates will be overpowered by the indecent acts towards children. The same goes for Pakistan whose negative qualities have tipped its scales towards being not only a failed state but a rogue state.

This is not the Pakistan which was envisioned by its founders. It has now instead become ‘Denialistan’ whose citizens do not accept their shortcomings and- if they are faced with no other choice but to accept their faults- are quick to justify them by pointing out similar failings of other states. Who similar to lambs, follow mindlessly what is fed into their brains through the variety of mediums present in the society (such as the military elite, the Ulema and other influential personalities who are idolised by the masses). Just like lambs do not use their minds before following its leader, the vast majority of us blindly follow these figures of influence without applying our brains to what is being said/ asked of us. Moreover those who dare to introspect are condemned as “western liberals” who ought to ‘Get another passport’.

According to this ‘Get another passport’ directive recently reiterated by “Flotilla Hulk”, a person should either blindly love Pakistan or, if he or she can’t do that, they should go get themselves another passport. (Reminiscent of George Bush’s “With us or against us Rhetoric”)

In reply to this, I would like to give the following example:

If a mother chides her child who is consistently failing exams due to an irresponsible attitude and who refuses to take studies seriously, she has every right to criticise her child and doing so does not make her less of a mother to her child. She only chides because she cares. If the same child brought in a good result, she would be equally quick to applaud him.

If we suppose that the mother in the above example was in fact ‘Flotilla Hulk’, what response to the child’s failings do we expect of him? Wouldn’t he criticise his son and take whatever steps are necessary to push his child towards success by pointing out what he was doing wrong? Or will he simply “Get another son”?

Similarly, if the critical analysts of our country have some vitriolic truths to convey to their readers, it is not to pull the country down, neither does it make them any less of a citizen. In fact it is for the betterment of the country at heart that they take a stand in the first place.

Above all, Pakistan is not the property of these Guevaras, Khans, Qureshis, Peerzadas, Guls etc, it’s the country of 170 million people and everyone has the constitutional right to form their opinion.

I would like to end this by dedicating the following quote to this Denial Brigade of Denialistan:

“Sometimes reality has a way of sneaking up and biting us in the ass. And when the dam bursts, all you can do is swim. The world of pretend is a cage, not a cocoon. We can only lie to ourselves for so long. We are tired, we are scared. Denying it doesn’t change the truth. Sooner or later we have to put aside our denial and face the world. Head on, guns blazing. De Nile. It’s not just a river in Egypt, it’s a freakin’ ocean. So how do you keep from drowning in it?” (By Meredith Grey)

If we keep denying ourselves the right to critically self-analyse, willingly turning a blind eye to the blatant causes of the problem, the potential within us to improve and tackle these deeply ingrained issues will be utterly wasted.

References:

http://teeth.com.pk/blog/2008/09/11/aalim-online-inciting-murder-against-ahmedis

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,AMNESTY,,PAK,,3ae6aa124f,0.html

http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-kulturen/nachrichten/Sangla_Hill_attack_continues_to_draw_condemnation.asp

http://www.awaztoday.com/playvideo.asp?pageId=10392

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Poll-Majority-of-Pakistanis-View-US-as-Enemy-99620719.html

http://www.hrcp-web.org/showdocument.asp

http://www.hrcp-web.org/currentstat.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2014405,00.html#ixzz0y5jM62Hv

Analysis on Pakistan Army enterprize were taken from the book Military Inc.

http://criticalppp.com/archives/22412

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Beyond state of denial: How blind hatred of United States is undermining our own interests
By Raza Habib Raja

Raza Habib Raja has contributed this piece to LUBP which was previously published at Chowk. Here is Mr Raja’s brief introduction in his own words:

I am an economist by education and a banker by profession. I have enormous interest in political issues. Politically I am a moderate though slightly on the left side and have a staunch belief in skepticism. I avoid taking dogmatic positions on issues.

——

In the current era of media fueled urban politics, the issues most discussed on the media have tendency to take all the limelight. Once an issue assumes the status of a “rallying” point then political parties try to show adherence to the same in order to remain politically popular. Right now and increasingly after 9/11, US bashing supplemented by notions like national sovereignty and nuclear arsenal paranoia, have taken the centre stag. Historically the anti US sentiments had always been present but these were given a new vigor after 9/11. From that point onwards, the scale has increased to such an extent that it has become the sole paradigm through which we view the world. Right now as the case of Faisal Shezad has emerged, our media is again ranting the same mantra of a grand conspiracy of USA to “frame” Pakistan.

I would have casually dismissed this hatred as comic absurdity had it been a harmless thing. However, it is now bordering insanity and has made us completely oblivious to our own shortcomings. It is true that the current superpower is not an angel and historically has been an aggressor with imperialistic designs, but the way we are viewing things has seriously affected our own welfare and virtually made us unable to self introspect. Moreover, this trend is forcing political parties to reorient their focus increasingly towards irrational direction rather than deploying their energies towards real issues such as employment, power shortages, provincial autonomy etc. Since political parties and populace have a reciprocal relation with each other, right now it is like a self reinforcing spiral taking us to complete intellectual bankruptcy.
One has to see the evolution of this phenomenon after 9/11 to see its negative effects. I was in Karachi when 9/11 happened. As I watched TV coverage with my cousin, he was ecstatic and visibly showed his excitement that finally USA was being meted out the treatment it deserved. I objected that targeting civilians like this was not the right approach but was countered by the ever famous answer: “these people have killed Palestinians in the same way” and also that in the 2nd world war USA had used even nuclear bomb against Japan. “Those who target other’s civilians should be punished in the same way”, he remarked.

A few days later as the situation changed and gradually it became clear that USA was pointing fingers at Osama Bin laden and hence this region would be the focus of some kind of military action, the excitement gave away to accusation. The act which had made my cousin happy a few days ago was suddenly transformed into a “grand plan” by USA to have justification to come to this region.

His opinion actually was also the dominant opinion in those days in majority of the urbanities particularly those from Punjab and such views were increasingly being endorsed and promoted by newly emerging Media. Talk shows were in their infancy and mirroring the variants of what essentially was the same opinion. Of course, some variants were exceptionally more fantastic (one suggested that the WTC had explosives planted also which set off the moment the planes hit), but the basic premise remained the same: USA itself had executed the attacks to conjure up a justification to come to this region. The supreme justification was that since it had given them the opportunity to attack Afghanistan in retaliation therefore it had to be planned by them.

This mindset increasingly started to look like an alternative universe, where the devil was United States of America. Whatever USA said or endorsed had to be against us. It pointed fingers at Osama, therefore Osama had to be innocent. When the USA attacked and routed out Taliban, and evidence mounted that Osama had orchestrated 9/11 attacks, the interpretation changed to accommodate Osama as an agent (though still some doubt that he did it). USA could not be right and its interests could not be our interests, was the justification for these ever changing weird spins. When horrific atrocities of Taliban regime were brought to media attention those were simply dismissed as mere propaganda of the western powers.

The worst thing which happened was the Iraq war. It actually gave credibility to the foundations of this parallel universe. The devil of this universe actually behaved like a devil. I watched a raging debate on BBC when a labor backbencher pointed out that Britain by going into this war is merely going to alienate the moderate Muslim opinion. I knew inside my heart that he was right. When you are driven by instinctive hatred, you need very little evidence to stick to it. Iraq war provided much more than a flimsy justification. Suddenly, every weird theory found increased number of believers.

In near past, just because USA was forcing us to take a timely action the militants, we were all against it because in our heads it was against us and our “own” people. Those delays eventually enabled the militants to have a complete foothold in places like Swat. When news regarding the Taliban atrocities started to emerge, we refused to believe them because some of the western channels were also airing them. As late as 2009, when flogging video went on air, instead of being appalled, the entire media thrust was on proving that it was a fake. It had to be propaganda against Islam and us. The Nazam-e Adl deal was virtually endorsed by our media and a large section of sensation loving romantic nationalist urban middle class. And when ANP successfully maneuvered the situation to expose that militants were indeed animals, almost overnight they became bad Taliban who had been created by USA. We conveniently overlooked the fact that in fact USA had been pressurizing us to take action earlier and only a few days before we were reacting violently to opposition to Nazam-e-Adl by calling it interference in our internal affairs. And not surprisingly when reality dawned about Taliban by virtue of a live speech of Sufi Muhammad, we were quick to point out to the possibility of emergence of “Bad” Taliban. In this parallel universe every fact had to be spun to be consistent with the original premise.

This hatred has now reached such gigantic proportions that even when clearer evidence is presented in front of our eyes about what creed of people Taliban are, we are completely unable to condemn them. Instead we are either calling barbarism a reaction or trying to bifurcate them into good and bad Taliban. A “strategic” asset, created by our own armed forces and defended to madness by our own media, is now believed to be partially bought over by USA. USA the devil becomes our sole point and in that hatred we completely overlook where we are heading.

Since blame has to remain constant on them, now the “victims” of false propaganda in the past are provided an apologetic defense of poverty or “reaction” against US drone attacks. As blood litters our streets, rather than collectively denouncing the ideology of hate and barbarism, our sole reaction is pointing to the same premise in one way or the other. This sole reaction shows the depleted soul of the nation. We are ready to hold rallies when a few are killed due to a drone attack but speechless when literally hundreds are killed by the Taliban monsters. Rather than trying to fight the miserable creed of monsters we are coming up with new spins of national sovereignty, reaction to US policies, nuclear arsenal, grand conspiracy of US and God knows what else. Consequently, it is becoming exceptionally difficult for the government to muster the political will to sustain this fight which is no longer physical. The hatred is misplaced, the enemy is within, but we are totally oblivious to it and in the process strengthening the forces of extremism through appeasement, apologetic defense or outright denial.

Right now it has to be understood that despite differences, at least in one critical aspect, USA’s and our interests are common: we face a common enemy. And yet just because they are saying it, we are opposing it and in the process treading on a self destructive path. Our every new interpretation is contradictory to the previous one, but it does not matter; because irrational instincts are driving our introspection. It stretches beyond that. Anyone who opposes Taliban vehemently and does not buy these wild theories is labeled as an unpatriotic, liberal elitist or someone who is a sellout.

The effects of this mindset, if unchecked, will go beyond the current battle against Taliban. As the anti US rhetoric is whipped into frenzy and becomes a popular rallying point, the politics will no longer be an art of identifying core issues and striving to address them but merely expanding the borders of this parallel universe. An open and intellectually honest society should have the moral courage to look into itself also rather than blaming each and everything to USA. We are in dire need of that spirit of self introspection.

http://criticalppp.com/archives/10816

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“No Muslim can do this”-
by Dr Khawaja Muhammad Awais Khalil

Attack on Data Darbar is a continuation of the same events in which Pakistanies are under attack by the few ‘Faithfuls’. Its not an event in isolation and its not a solitary attack on Braylvies. Its essentially the same wave of attacks [based on religious hatred] in which Christians, Hindues, Shiites and Ahmedies were targeted in the past. After the attack, watching the so called ‘Azad Media’, I noted a theme, which was recurrent with slight change of words. ‘no muslim can do this’, ‘this is not done by any Muslim’, ‘how a Muslim can think of doing such a horrific event’, ‘those who did this are not Muslims’. I ask a question from myself are they really not Muslims or are we just in a state of mind, called denial? Are we trying to find out the excuses to blame ‘some one else’ but Muslims?

Muslims have been involved in killing of other Muslims for centuries on religious grounds. If we analyse the history, 3 out of the 4 of our pious Caliphs were killed by the people who claim to be Muslims. Prophet’s Household [peace be upon them] were slaughtered in Karballa by their fellow Muslims. Not just slaughtered but mutilated,their dead bodies chopped into pieces and were not allowed to be buried properly. During the Caliphate we killed each others without hesitations, when ever needed to be. In recent past we can remember the events of Mazar-e-Sharif when Talibans [Muslims] captured it, they killed 15000 Shiites and then didn’t allowed their dead bodies to be buried rather let it rotten so that dogs and other animals can eat them. This was an exhibit of their religious hatred against Shiites. Our brave [Muslim] Army is alleged to kill hundreds of thousands of poor Bengalies. Most of you will remember the picture of dead body of Najibullah hanging from a traffic signal [shown above] , castrated and his penis put in his mouth. This was done in the name of Islam, as is evident from the statement by the Taliban official “He killed so many Islamic people and was against Islam and his crimes were so obvious that it had to happen. He was a communist…”.

In 1990s Shiites were killed , their Majalises were bombed, their intellectuals and community leaders were targeted, by whom, our Sunni brothers. They, not just took responsibility of it, but also took pride in it and did it as their religious duty. I feel sorry for those so-called analysts and politicians who think that all this started post 9/11. Christians and Hindues were persecuted and our ‘faithful brothers’ were involved in it. It was ‘Mullah Radio’ who was on killing spree in Swat and it was ‘Mohtaram’ Sufi Mohammad and his fellows who dugged out the dead body of Pir Sami Ullah of Swat, that was mutilated and then hanged on a crossroad. Those were our ‘faithful brothers’ who attacked and bombed the mazar of Rehman Baba. Those were our ‘faithful brothers’ who attacked Ahmdies in Lahore. PML N Govt still holds one of them but doesn’t want the pubic to know that, he is our own home grown ‘Muslim brother’ trained in a madrissa and inspired by some so-called scholars.

Most of the above mentioned events were/are driven by the religious hatred. This hatred is still being taught, preached and propagated in most madrissas in Pakistan. This hate is also being propagated day in, day out on TV, radio and newspapers. When we allow teachings like ‘Ahmedies are murtid hence wajib Ul qatl’, ‘Shiites are blasphemous to Sahabah hence wajib ul qatl’, ‘Braylvies are mushriq, Shirq is the worst crime of all, Data Darbar is the hub of ‘Shirq’ hence Braylvies are wajib ul qatl’, ‘Christians and Hindues are blasphemous to the Prophet Muhammad hence wajib ul qatl’, then what we are seeing is a logical consequence. Most of us were and are silent on the propagation of this hatred just because it was not against us. Muslims remained silent when Hindues are Christians were targeted by the barbarics. Braylvies and Ahmedies remained silent when Shiites were under attack. Shiites and Braylvies remained silent when Ahmedies were slaughtered. Now its the turn of Brayvlies and others are somewhat silent or just giving verbal condemnations. As long as we come out and speak against this hatred,which is the root cause of it, we all are in it and sooner or later we will be attacked.

ظلم سہنا بھی تو ظالم کی حمایت ٹھہرا ——- خاموشی بھی تو ہوئی پشت پناہی کی طرح

http://criticalppp.com/archives/17682

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Generation Axe –
by Nadeem Farooq Paracha

by Nadeem F. Paracha

Source: http://blog.dawn.com/2010/08/08/generation-axe/

It does pain me to see a lot of ground-level PPP workers being pushed into a corner by their party leader’s nonchalant ways. They seem and sound helpless and exhausted in trying to defend their leader who has become the target of an obsessive-compulsive punching campaign of the media.

However, though the president does not seem to be bothered by the campaign, he must realize that there are many of his party workers who are being seriously affected. More than this, he should also realize that the media is targeting these very workers because it knows how vulnerable they are at the moment and also how defenceless they are feeling in the wake of both the media’s rather pathological hatred for Zaradri as well as Zardari’s own obvious and not very endearing eccentricities.

Let’s just forget what I think about Zardari’s tour of France and the UK in the wake of the devastating floods that have hit millions of unfortunate Pakistanis. All I’ll say is that my view on the issue is not compatible with those members of the PPP who are defending the President’s trip, but nor are my views in tune with those heaping scorn over him for being such a heartless president. Instead I will share with you an observation.

In 2005 when a horrifying earthquake hit Kashmir and many areas of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, we saw an immediate response from thousands of young men and women who just rolled up their sleeves and plunged into relief work, sometimes facing great dangers.

I am proud to note that this is one thing this generation is very good at. So I was expecting the same this time around as well. So, off I went with a friend to take a tour of some offices and colleges where we knew a few people.

I won’t go into details about this, but will share with you an episode I witnessed at an office full of young folks. This episode neatly covers the ground realities I experienced elsewhere as well.

At this office I saw three donation boxes put there to collect funds for the flood victims. Since they were one of those transparent plastic ones, one could see through and in them. They’d been lying there for three days and none of them were even half full.

A number of young people approached me and they just seemed to have Zaradri’s trip on their minds. Seeing me retreat, my friend intervened: “Zaradri was wrong to go. But what have YOU done to help the victims? Do you think all this obsessive whining about Zaradri would help you help the hungry, broken and shelterless victims?”

He was right. Because whereas one saw a number of young Pakistanis gathering to actually do something practical and tangible to help the earthquake victims, this time around however, the same young guns and, of course, the electronic media were spending more time spouting accusations and curses at Zaradri and navel-gazing about morality in this context than actually doing something a lot more noble.

There is no nobility I’m afraid in attacking an incompetent (democratically elected) government when every Junaid, Seema and John in the media is doing so – especially a wobbly government of a country ravaged by the demonic specter of religious extremism and violence, a dwindling economy, unchecked corruption and sudden natural calamities . Turning such loud whining into an obsession is even worse.

In a democracy people get the chance and the right to throw such a government out through the power of the vote. But, of course, those who make the most noise in this respect, hardly ever go out to vote.

What’s even shoddier is the way the many western media correspondents based in Pakistan report the happenings here. I have met some really good ones, who are open to learn about the complexities of the many social and political issues that this country faces. But unfortunately, since many of them have connections with the so-called intelligentsia and media of Pakistan, they too end up describing a lot of events through the paranoid shades of the somewhat despotic, self-righteous middle-class morality.

While reporting a political event involving, for example, Nawaz Sharif or Asif Zaradri, most western reporters (like the Pakistani middle-classes) are bound to digress towards commenting on the dynastical soap opera of the Sharif family and the Bhuttos with, of course, Fatima Bhutto, always making some kind of an entry, despite the fact that the talented writer that she is, the lady quite clearly has no clue what politics is.

And when it comes to Altaf Hussain, many western correspondents again take the minority, non-voting Pakistani middle-class view. They (like a bulk of the middle-class in the Punjab), are still measuring Hussain and his party as if this was not the 2000s, but 1992!

Nevertheless, after concluding our ‘fact finding’ mission in which we saw young, middle-class Pakistanis filling donation boxes with anti-Zaradri curses (instead of actual money), my friend and I drove down to a café in Karachi where I was invited to meet a large group of young high school and college students.

They wanted to talk to me about terrorism. I’m not much of a speaker, so I just asked them to start a conversation on the subject. They were a lively bunch. But such is the state of confusion, denial and mistrust in the country’s urban middle-classes, that I wasn’t surprised at all to be bombarded by one conspiracy theory after another that these young people had obviously picked up from the electronic media and a number of (the rather unintentionally) hilarious websites out there who deal in peddling the most outlandish claptrap this side of Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin!

I let the young group’s members do most of the talking, until I decided to ask a few questions: “How would you like to be part of a generation that may go down as the one during which Pakistan was finally turned into hellhole of religious extremism? How would you all feel when history describes your generation to be the one that in spite of having unprecedented access to some stunning technology, democracy and superior education, still allowed its country to become the breeding ground for audacious, obscene and insane mad men who use the good name of God to spread hatred?”

“That won’t happen!” A young man announced.

My friend intervened: “Oh, but it’s already happening. It happens almost every single day. Can’t you see it?”

“That’s what the West wants us to believe,” a young lady replied.

“Okay then,” I said. “Let’s say for a while most of you are right to suggest that that ubiquitous foreign Indian, Western, Israeli or Martian hand is involved, it’s still Pakistan’s survival on the line, isn’t it? What have you done about what your country’s going through, apart from, of course, forwarding Zaradri jokes and nice little religious couplets through SMS …”

I was interrupted by an enthusiastic young man announcing the ‘news’ about Zaradri facing a ‘barrage of shoes in Britain!’

I nodded my head: “Right, so you think the answer lies in throwing shoes at Zaradri?”

“Hell, yes!” came the reply from a couple of young guys sitting in the front row.

“So if you see Zaradri, you too will be willing to throw a shoe at him?” I asked.

“Yes, I definitely would!” A young man announced.

“Would you throw a shoe at a religious extremist? I asked.

“Are you crazy!” he shot back. “He’ll blow me up to bits!”

A ripple of laughter and high-fives ran across the gathered group.

“That, I’m afraid, makes you a coward.” I said.

The laughter faded away.

“Anything that scares you or retaliates, you deny its existence. As if it’ll just go away. But all that which does not hit back or retaliate is fair game for shoes and boos? That, lad, is the dilemma of your generation. Now, if you all don’t mind, this creaking 42-year-old cynic would like to have that coffee this café is famous for. Thank you.”

http://criticalppp.com/archives/20972

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The Great Denial
By Nadeem Paracha

In Pakistan, the audacious has become the norm. The terrorist attack in Lahore today – along with the many that have taken place in the last many years in this unfortunate country – may seem something out of ordinary anywhere else in the world, but not in Pakistan.
Pakistan it seems stopped being part of the ‘normal’ world a long time ago. Nothing’s impossible here when it comes to faith-driven terrorism. Now everyday the terrorists manage to mock and dodge the government and the state, almost at will. Nobody and nothing’s safe.
One can go on criticizing the state’s many intelligence agencies and the government for exhibiting utter ignorance and helplessness in anticipating terrorist acts that have been repeated over and over again using almost exactly the same ways and techniques and impacting the same venerable areas and spots, but I’d rather take a more self-critical view of the whole damn nightmare.
What is it that makes these terrorists so sure and confident about themselves?
It’s simple. We do!
It is the sheer hesitancy that we show towards fully realizing the grave dangers these terrorists hold, and a weird, inexplicable sense and understanding of reality that most Pakistanis look to be suffering from, that gives these terrorists the psychological edge and opening; providing them as convoluted a justification to commit acts of barbarism in the fine name of God, as is our own habit of ending up actually recognizing their many deeds as being either a sympathetic socio-political outcome, or, of course, a wild conspiracy by our many (largely imagined) enemies lingering on our borders.
The TV channels and drawing-rooms will be abuzz for a day or two discussing the mayhem, but very few Pakistanis actually take the time they get during the lull periods to reflect as to what has happened to their country and its people.
Instead, these lull periods are spent going right back to flexing our pulpy rhetorical muscles and sharpening of our non-existent teeth against our ‘enemies.’
Amazingly, as politicians, TV talk show hosts, clerics, the chattering classes and journalists all get together for a collective show of inspired morning and bemoaning against our ‘corrupt politicians’ and ‘government of beggars,’ we so conveniently forget that at the moment nothing’s as bad or more troublesome an issue in this country as terrorism.
But it is not general apathy or distracted energies of the people that the extremists are feeding on; it is a collective case of denial on the part of an increasing number of Pakistanis that is strengthening these extremists.
First of all, it is a fact that violence-prone extremism was ironically the creation of the CIA, with patronage provided by Arab petro-dollars and the local intelligence agencies such as the ISI. There is not an iota of doubt about the history of these agencies using the concept of jihad as a calling card to gather fighters for the so-called ‘Afghan jihad’ in the 1980s. A string of radical Islamic scholars were used along with the state-owned media and madressahs to fervently indoctrinate a huge number of young Muslims.
More dangerous was the way droplets of this aggressive strain started to trickle down to shape the sociology and politics of Pakistanis who are not extremists. That’s why, for example, today, if you mention names like Musharraf, Zardari. Altaf Hussain or Nawaz Sharif, one won’t be surprised to see a number of Pakistanis leap into to action, getting into an animated mode, criticising and lambasting corrupt politicians and power-hungry generals. However, the moment you try to discuss a recent episode of suicide bombing, most Pakistanis can then be seen suddenly going into a shell, trying to avoid the topic.
The majority will not condone suicide bombings and terrorism, but they will not condemn it either – or at least the way it should be condemned. No wonder, according to a recent survey, most Pakistanis actually believe terrorism is a secondary problem in their country – rather obnoxious a delusion indeed.
And that’s dangerous. Some Pakistanis would avoid discussing the issue altogether, actually believing that maybe criticising the ‘holy warriors’ (no matter how violent they may be), is like criticising Islam, while some would gladly become navel-gazing apologists of such acts, pointing their finger at the every ready list of imagined enemies who want to ‘destabilise Pakistan.’
Whom should we blame, seems to be the question on their mind. The thinking is that blaming the extremists is perhaps equal to agreeing with Zardari and the US. It is this narrow, egocentric mentality, coupled with echoes of years and years of indoctrination of a contradictory and xenophobic strain of Islam that has left a bulk of Pakistanis apathetically suffering from and subdued by matters such as extremism and terrorism.
What Musharraf represented or what this present government is all about in the form of the establishment comes with a historical and visible baggage. It is thus a target that can be clearly seen, pinpointed and attacked, whereas extremism remains an elusive enemy. Some would even go to the extent of negating its very existence, in spite of the ubiquitous sights of blood, bodies and limbs quivering on blackened streets. So, it is not general apathy or distracted energies of the people that the extremists are feeding on; it is a collective case of denial on the part of an increasing number of Pakistanis that is strengthening the extremists. A denial made worse by the animated apologists found babbling and foaming incoherent and unsubstantiated drivel across the many TV screens and channels of the nation.
Though it is true the terrorists are not overwhelmingly popular with the masses, it is also true that most Pakistanis have yet to perceive the extremists as the kind of enemy that they really are. With ready-made explanations like RAW, CIA and that ‘fellow Muslims are being subjected to state atrocities in the north’ spiel being their best answers to the madness of extremism and terrorism, it is highly unlikely to expect Pakistanis to tackle the issue anytime soon – in spite the fact that maybe it’s already too late.

www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/03-The-great-denial-ss-01

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Can’t be us, or can it?
Nadeem Paracha

January 10th, 2010

On the day of the devastating terrorist attack on the Ashura procession in Karachi, the MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, pleaded for a complete boycott of those political parties and personnel who he believed were supporting the Taliban.

Leaders of other secular political parties such as the PPP and the ANP and members of the liberal intelligentsia too have been expressing their concerns about certain political and TV personalities who are said to be mouthing loud, sympathetic sentiments for the Taliban. It must be asked: what does it mean to be an educated, pro-Taliban entity in a modern, urban setting?

To begin with, the question is riddled with an obvious dichotomy. How can a person or a party in a modern, urban setting sympathise with a set of mountain men who are completely detached from reason and humanity; and whose idea of an Islamic state is actually a stony religious emirate built on the slain bodies of thousands of men, women and children, and a scruffy, violent romanticism derived from glorious myths about jihad, martyrdom and battles?

Well, supposedly educated men and women can regularly be seen on TV and heard in drawing rooms, passionately giving an economic twist to the shameful ways of the extremists. They say it is economic exploitation and lack of economic opportunities in the rugged areas of Pakhtunkhwa that have forced the locals to take up arms. But if this is true, then are these the only people in Pakistan hit by exploitation and poverty?

One can come across even worse cases of poverty in the widespread slums of urban Pakistan. This poverty has given birth to all sorts of crime and even a few protest movements, but how many of these people have decided to blow up whole markets and mosques packed with people; and that too, in the name of God? The so-called economic argument by the Taliban sympathisers does not bode well with their supposedly educated dispositions. But then the question arises: what is their education made of?

Many intellectuals and scholars have constantly lamented the volatile content that exists in the many Pakistan Studies books that have been used in both government and private schools ever since the 1971 East Pakistan debacle and, more so, since the reactionary Ziaul Haq dictatorship.

These scholars have systematically criticised these books for glorifying jihad and hatred (against both non-believers as well as those Muslims who do not follow a narrow and myopic rendition of Islam). Instead of telling history as a linear narrative based on authentic sources, these books read like badly written fairy tales oozing with half-truths and obvious distortions.

The space here does not allow one to analyse the number of such ‘history books’ being taught in Pakistani schools, so I will take a single example in this respect to hit home the point. The Illustrated History of Islam by Abdul Rauf is an example. Published in 1993, it is said to be offered by schools as an ‘important side reading’. The cover is a watercolour painting depicting a Muslim warrior on horseback, wielding a heavy sword against what, I’m sure, are infidels.

Not surprisingly, the book uncritically uses the usual (and clearly polemical) Arab sources (that started emerging some two to three hundred years after Islamic conquests). Insisting on portraying the religion as a culturally homogenous entity (with all other variations being heretical innovations), the author, it seems, uses a war drum instead of a thoughtful pen to jot down his thoughts.

Then, as is typical of such history books, the author laments the downfall of the Muslim empire and squarely bases the reasons of this downfall on the theological innovations of Muslims that made them move away from true Islam and indulge in luxurious living and social laxities of the infidels. Of course, the author never touches upon the stark economic and political reasons that can explain the fall of empires in a more rational and thoughtful manner. That would require a pen, instead of the sword he seems to be using here.

My favourite section of the book is a sub-chapter called ‘The Four Anti-Islam Elements.’ This is what the author writes: “Currently Islam faces grave dangers from the following four elements: Christians, Jews, Hindus and atheists.” In other words, everyone who’s not Muslim is a threat to Islam.

If such are the books being taught to children, is there any element of surprise left in watching certain TV personalities, politicians and their largely urban middle-class fans nodding in uncritical approval to what is simply a convoluted charade peddled as history and analysis?

The scary thing is, the bulk of young, educated middle-class men and women are lapping up these one-dimensional and black and white ‘historical’ tirades, and then using them to understand the issue of terrorism and extremism haunting Pakistan. No wonder then that even in the face of some stark proofs of the local Taliban’s involvement in terrorist attacks and religious coercion, our minds, as if on hypnotic cue, shut down and let the irrational instincts studded with paranoia and denial rule the roost.

‘Can’t be us’, becomes the mantra. Has to be some Christians/ Jewish/ Hindu or other such ‘anti-Islam’ abomination.

This column was originally published in Dawn on 10 January 2010.

http://new-pakistan.com/2010/1/10/nadeem-paracha-can-t-be-us-or-can-it/

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Wake up, Punjab
by Nadeem F. Paracha

Another bomb attack in Lahore. What to expect from the PMLN government in the Punjab? Lip service condemning terrorism, of course. But, as usual, keeping in mind the Punjab government’s past record, the condemnation will be general and vague.

Even as the PPP-led coalition government in Islamabad will not hesitate to take names – they’ll point to the Taliban or the many sectarian organisations working as Al Qaeda’s foot soldiers – it is expected that the Punjab government under the PMLN will not.

Determining which forces are hell-bent on mutilating the country is not rocket science. But brace yourself (yet again) to be bombarded by the PMLN leadership and the usual intransigent suspects on TV channels talking generalised nonsense about terrorism and the ubiquitous ‘foreign hand,’ consequently drowning out the obvious involvement of any of the many extremist organisations running amok in Pakistan’s largest province.

But why the Punjab? Although it has been ravaged and broken by extremist terrorism for over two years now, political parties strong in the Punjab (such as the PMLN), the Punjabi-dominant electronic media, and fringe Punjab-based politicos such as Imran Khan have simply refused to acknowledge reality.

Still operating from the fanciful high pedestal of a superiority complex, a bulk of urban Punjab and its leadership continues to live in a stunning, air-tight state of denial.

Whereas in Karachi one can find a majority of common men and women unafraid to air their distaste for the extremists, and walls can be seen adorned with slogans such as ‘Taliban raj namanzoor’ (Taliban regime not acceptable), ‘Taliban sey hoshiar’ (beware of the Taliban), and, my favourite, a slogan found scribbled in a thick coat of black on a wall in a rundown lower-middle-class area of the city, ‘Mulla Omar dajjal’ (Mulla Omar the devil), one just cannot expect such voices and scenes in the Punjab, at least not in Lahore.

Why not? How can a province and a city (Lahore), devastated over and again and plunged into the depths of chaos and fear perpetrated by monsters such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the province’s many clandestine sectarian organisations, simply refuse to face its most ubiquitous tormenters and demons? Why the fearful silence by its people, and why the spin, the vagueness, and ultimate derailing of the issue by the electronic media?

Punjab is suffering. And it is not only from extremist terrorism. It is as if every time its leadership and people attempt to awkwardly repress the obvious lashings of fear and confusion that cut viciously across the province whenever there is a terrorist attack, they become more vocal in their condemnation of the present government at the centre, incredibly investing more emotional and intellectual energy on abstract issues such as corruption, judiciary, and ‘good governance’ through passionate displays of TV studio and drawing-room nobility, rather than directly tackling their greatest enemy.

Funny thing is, they would readily accuse the president of corruption and the US and India for having nefarious designs on Pakistan without offering an iota of evidence, but would get into a long navel-gazing exercise asking for proof of militant involvement in a terrorist attack.

Again, why? Why in the Punjab? Are the Sindhis and Karachiites more enlightened, liberal, moderate or whatever? Some of my most intelligent friends are from the Punjab, as was my father. And so I keep asking these friends, why isn’t the Punjab fighting back this menace of extremism? Why have most of this province’s brightest minds allowed themselves to be pushed in the background by this new breed of neoconservative ‘intellectuals’ in the shape of TV talk show hosts, ‘journalists,’ ‘analysts,’ et al?

I will continue by relating two small but relevant incidents that may help clarify what I am rambling about.

In a province that has been witnessing nauseating bloodshed perpetrated by those who have a painfully narrow view of Islam and are least hesitant to slaughter innocent men, women and children in their pursuit of both heaven and the shariah, one of the Punjab’s leading politicians and ministers did not find anything wrong in accompanying the leader of a banned sectarian organisation during a recent election campaign.

The minister was PMLN’s Rana Saifullah, who proudly stood beside a notorious leader of a banned sectarian organisation during a by-election rally in Jhang. This organisation openly sympathises with the Taliban.

Only in the Punjab can such an episode take place. Only in the Punjab can a minister can get away with holding hands with a myopic violent fanatic and, in the process, openly mocking and insulting the feelings of hundreds of Punjabis whose loved ones were brutally slaughtered by the extremists that the fanatic sympathises with. Only in the Punjab can his party then go around and ask for votes from the same people. Yes, only in the Punjab.

One can also mention a recent incident that involves Zaid Hamid to hit home the point I am trying to make.

Mr. Hamid, a hyperbolic TV personality who is an animated cross between a foaming televangelist and an impassionate right-wing drawing room revolutionary, has been on a ‘speaking tour’ of various colleges and universities of the country.

Known for openly holding (and advocating) gun-loving militarist hogwash, Hamid has turned distorting history and dishing out the most twisted conspiracy theories not only into an attractive art form, but a lucrative undertaking as well.

Hailed as a modern Saladin (of the armchair variety, I’m afraid) by his mostly urban, middle-class fans, and flogged as a hate-monger with links to the most rabidly anti-India and reactionary sections of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies by his many detractors, it has been very easy for Hamid to speak at Lahore’s private universities and colleges.

This included a visit to the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) that only two years ago was the scene of a lively students’ movement against the dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf.

If the student body of the prestigious university found Musharraf’s action of dismissing a chief justice unbearable, I wonder what was so bearable about a man who is not only a self-claimed supporter of the ex-dictator, but also a proud war monger whose fans are famous of uttering insightful gems such as “if the Pakistan Army was really guilty of raping Bengali women in former East Pakistan, then they had every right to because Bengalis were traitors!”

Nonetheless, after smoothly completing his ‘Wake up, Pakistan’ speaking tour of Punjab’s campuses, Hamid and his entourage of trendy, designer reactionaries, made their way towards the country’s most ravaged province, the Pakhtunkhwa.

Faced by an insane spate of suicide and bomb attacks by extremists and the military’s war against the Taliban, the youth of the Pakhtunkwa province have shown great resolve to fight back. Student organisations in various state-run universities and colleges of the province have gone on to organise cultural functions that the extremists would term ‘haraam’ and ‘unIslamic.’

Just like the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) in Balochistan, the Peoples Students Federation (PSF), and the All Pakistan Muttahidda Students Organisation (APMSO) in Sindh, students’ organizations of the Pakhtunkhwa have continued to fight a cultural war against extremism, even when a recent cultural function organised at a university by the BSO in Balochistan’s Khuzdar area was bombed by extremists.

So when Hamid and his army of patriots reached Peshawar University, he was confronted by loud groups of protesting students who wanted him banished from the campus.

The protest, perhaps the first of its kind faced by the likes of Hamid, was organised by the Peoples Students Federation (the student-wing of the Pakistan Peoples Party), the Pakhtun Students Federation (the student-wing of the Awami National Party), and the independent collection of liberal students under the Aman Tehreek umbrella. What’s more, also joining in the protest was the Islami Jamiat Taliba, a student organisation whose mother party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, ironically sympathises with the Taliban.

As the students threw stones at Hamid’s entourage and tried to chase him off the campus, the Aman Tehreek explained exactly why democratic student organisations had joined hands to throw him out.

“We have already suffered a lot due to the suicide bombers and militants and do not want people (in our city and campuses) who promote the extremists,” said an Aman Tehreek activist talking to Dawn.

In light of this example, it seems Punjab’s political leadership is out of sync with the prevailing psyche in Sindh, Balochistan, and the Pakhtunkhwa regarding Pakistan’s war against extremism.

The people and politicians of Punjab need to contemplate difficult questions before they can rid their province of the violence that it has had to face. More so, the confused mindset that is causing violence to be bred and sustained in the Punjab must be eliminated.

http://blog.dawn.com/2010/03/08/wake-up-punjab/

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A nation of sleepwalkers
by Nadeem Paracha

The day after the terrible terrorist attack at Islamabad’s Islamic University that took the lives of eight innocent students, certain TV news channels ran a footage of a dozen or so angered students of the university pelting stones. The first question that popped up in my mind after watching the spectacle was, what on earth were these understandably enraged young men throwing their stones at?

So I waited for the TV cameras to pan towards the direction where the stones were landing. But that did not happen. It seemed as if the students were pelting stones just for the heck of it.

So I called a fellow journalist friend who was covering the story for a local TV channel and asked him about the protest. He told me the students were pelting stones at a handful of cops. Now, why in God’s good name would one throw stones at cops after being attacked by demented men who call themselves the Taliban?

The very next day another protest took place outside the attacked University in which the students, both male and female, were holding banners that said: ‘Kerry-Lugar Bill namanzoor!’ (Kerry-Lugar Bill Not Acceptable).

I could barely stop myself from bursting into a short sharp fit of manic laughter. It was unbelievable. Or was it, really?

Here we have a university that was attacked by a psychotic suicide bomber who slaughtered and injured dozens of students so he could get his share of hooris in Paradise. The attack was then proudly owned by the Tekrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. And in its wake, we saw enraged students protesting against the Kerry-Lugar act? What a response!

What did the Kerry-Lugar act have to do with the suicide attack? Wasn’t this remarkably idiotic ‘protest rally’ by the students actually an insult to those who were so mercilessly slaughtered by holy barbarians?

But then, some would suggest that in a society like Pakistan, such idiosyncrasies should be swallowed as a norm. And I agree. What else can one expect from a society living in a curiously delusional state of denial, gleefully mistaking it as ‘patriotism’ and ‘concern.’ It seems no amount of proof will ever be enough to dent Pakistanis’ resolve to defend the unsubstantiated, wild theories that they so dearly hold in their rapidly shrinking heads.

Take for instance the recent case of a famous TV anchorman who visited a devastated area in Peshawar that was bombed by a remote-controlled car bomb. He talked to about 10 people at the scene. More than half of the folks interviewed spouted out those squarely unproven and thoroughly clichéd tirades about RAW/CIA/Mossad being the ‘real perpetrators’ and that ‘no Muslim is capable of inflicting such acts of barbarity.’

A friend of mine who was also watching this hapless exhibition of the usual top-of-mind nonsense suddenly announced that he wanted to jump in, hold these men by the arms, and shake them violently so they could be ‘awoken from their dreadful sleepwalking state.’

Pakistanis routinely continue to deny the fact that the monsters who are behind all the faithful barbarism that is cutting this country into bits are the mutant product of what our governments, military, intelligence agencies, and society as a whole have been up to in the past 30 years or so.

Well, this is exactly what happens to a society that responds so enthusiastically to all the major symptoms of fascist thought. Symptoms such as powerful and continuing nationalism; disdain for the recognition of human rights; identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause; supremacy of the military; obsession with national security; the intertwining of religion and government; disdain for intellectuals and the arts; an obsession with crime and punishment, etc.

Have not the bulk of Pakistanis willingly allowed themselves to be captured in all the macho and paranoid trappings of the above-mentioned symptoms of collective psychosis. It clearly smacks of a society that has been ripening and readying itself for an all-round fascist scenario.

This is the scenario some among us are really talking about when they speak of ‘imposing the system of the Khulfa Rashideen’ or shariah, or whatever profound buzzwords adopted to explain Pakistan’s march towards a wonderful society of equality and justice? Words that mean absolutely nothing, or systems and theories either based on ancient musings of tribal societies or on glorified myths of bravado.

I felt bad for the few bystanders at that Peshawar bombing site who kept contradicting their more gung-ho contemporaries by reminding them that for months the shopkeepers where receiving threatening letters from the Taliban warning them that they should stop selling products for women and ban the entry of women in the area.

One shop-owner who said he lost more than millions of rupees worth of goods in the blast was slightly taken aback when the anchor asked him who he thought was behind the bomb attack. For a few seconds he looked curiously at the anchor’s face, as if wondering why would a major TV news channel be asking a question whose answer was so obvious. ‘What do you mean, who was responsible?’ he asked. ‘The Taliban, of course!’

Fasi Zaka wrote a scathing piece on the floozy response of some students who chanted slogans against the Kerry-Lugar Bill outside the freshly bombed Islamic University. He was battered with hate mail, even from those who did agree with him that it were the Taliban who bombed the unfortunate university. But these folks turned out to be even worse than the deniers. They are apologists of all the mayhem that takes place in the name of Islam in this country.

Every time the barbarians set themselves off taking innocent men, women, and children with them, these apologists suddenly emerge to write letters to newspapers and try to dominate internet forums explaining the intricate ‘socio-economic problems’ that are turning men into terrorists. Or worse – as is expected from reactionary news reporters like Ansar Abbasi – they will start giving details about the infidel targets that the terrorists were really after at the place of the attack.

Zaka told me that he got letters suggesting that the Taliban attacked the canteen of the Islamic University because ‘women students were not behaving and dressing according to Islam.’ The state under Ziaul Haq had the Hudood Ordinance for such ‘loose women,’ but now the Taliban have bombs for them. And mind you, those who were trying to justify the bombing in this respect at the University were ‘educated’ young men and even women.

Recently, we also heard about a hijab-clad female student at the prestigious and ‘liberal’ Lahore University of Management Sciences, who bagged her 15 minutes of fame by capturing images through her mobile phone of students indulging in ‘immoral activities’ on campus. Of course, the same lady’s ‘concern’ and righteousness ends at becoming a self-appointed paparazzi for the reactionaries, whereas it was young women (in hijabs) and men with beards who died so senselessly at the Islamabad Islamic University campus.

Pathetic, indeed.

http://nadeemfparacha.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/a-nation-of-sleepwalkers/

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Musical denial
by Editor, New Pakistan

November 13th, 2009

It was an August day when my cousin Navid and I were standing in the rain, by the edge of the Hudson River. He was somber, having decided to drop the cheerful façade he’d maintained throughout his visit to New York City. The wind blew his hair from his eyes; I saw tears.

Looking away from me and in a low voice, he recounted the night he learned his friend died as a result of a suicide bomb. A witness who survived said Abbas had been standing outside the Shi’ite mosque, turning off his music player before any of the older men could give him disapproving looks. He had loved Junoon, a popular rock band. He must have been near the bomber, maybe even glanced up and said “Salaam.” Something about the innocence of Abbas’ last act — turning off his music so the imam wouldn’t get mad — touched me deeply.

“It’s funny,” Navid said, looking suddenly at me. “That night it rained hard, like this.” Sitting outside the red-sanded steps of Abbas’ house that very night, the group of young friends knew things had changed. Going through the motions of consoling the family and being there for one another, they knew something foreign had entered their worlds. They were now face to face with the cancer of extremism, something that had always seemed so far away, because it affected the regions up north. Now it was in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore.

Coming from a Muslim family with relatives throughout the world, I can many times connect the events in the news to people I know. I try to keep the two worlds apart though, but at times the they are too strongly linked.

As with this story.

This New York Times video details the Pakistani rock music scene. The truth may startle some not familiar with a public who uses anti-Americanism as a crutch against many national issues.

Junoon’s beloved lead singer, Ali Azmat, is now on a solo career and has become an icon. He has stopped singing about love and heartbreak, and, like many other musicians, now chooses to sing with current affairs.

The alarming anti-Americanism in the top songs of Pakistan is unsettling.

When asked if he would ever sing about the 200 girls’ schools that were blown up, Azmat looked slightly taken aback but then an expression of denial crossed his face and he declared “You can’t blame the Taliban for that! Where is the funding coming from? It is the agenda of the neo-cons to de-Islamize Pakistan.” His songs routinely condemn the United States for meddling in Pakistan’s affairs, for infringing upon Pakistan’s territory and causing the problems the nation faces today.

Another popular band, the Noori brothers, sat relaxed and carefree, with the most nonchalant expressions as they agreed “The Taliban are amongst the smallest problems Pakistan faces. The West is affected by the Taliban, we’re not.”

Pakistan has been rocked by devastating terrorism this past month; one wonders if the Noori brothers and Ali Azmat mourn for the countless killed, wounded, traumatized…or is their grief reserved for the US?

I should note one of the brothers wore a shirt that said “Not terrorized enough.” Well, exactly how many deaths and how much destruction will it take before it IS enough?

I find it absolutely ironic these musicians are complaining about the west trying to rid Pakistan of the Taliban. The militants are killing Pakistanis every single day, these militants wouldn’t even support the right to music, and yet…and yet we have people in positions of influence being grossly irresponsible and pathetic.

I am at a loss to understand this. I cannot comprehend the thought process it must take to blame the United States, India and Israel for the violence that paralyzes the nation. Bombings at mosques, like the one that killed Abbas, explosions at schools and markets, suicide bombings at aid organizations…how can this all be blamed on others?

What is more disturbing is how their opinions have gained traction amongst the youth.

In his last blog, which can be found here:http://blog.dawn.com/2009/11/12/a-nation-of-sleepwalkers, Nadeem Paracha implores Pakistanis to gather their wits about them. Regarding the bombings at International Islamic University in Islamabad, he writes

Here we have a university that was attacked by a psychotic suicide bomber who slaughtered and injured dozens of students so he could get his share of hooris in Paradise. The attack was then proudly owned by the Tekrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. And in its wake, we saw enraged students protesting against the Kerry-Lugar act? What a response!
What did the Kerry-Lugar act have to do with the suicide attack? Wasn’t this remarkably idiotic ‘protest rally’ by the students actually an insult to those who were so mercilessly slaughtered by holy barbarians?

He highlights the Pakistani media’s love of the conspiracy-minded mentality, and cites an incident after a suicide attack in Peshawar:

One shop-owner who said he lost more than millions of rupees worth of goods in the blast was slightly taken aback when the anchor asked him who he thought was behind the bomb attack. For a few seconds he looked curiously at the anchor’s face, as if wondering why would a major TV news channel be asking a question whose answer was so obvious. ‘What do you mean, who was responsible?’ he asked. ‘The Taliban, of course!’

In a time where Islamic clergy are taking a stand against the Taliban and suicide bombings (and often being killed for their bravery), it is a downright shame the leading musicians choose to spread an ignorant message of blame and denial.

http://new-pakistan.com/2009/11/13/musical-denial/

Comments
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Taliban have accepted responsibility for assassinating Dr Muhammad Farooq Khan, a moderate Deobandi scholar.

1. While almost all Taliban are Deobandis, not all Deobandis support the Taliban or agree with their violent, intolerant ideology.
2. The murder of Dr Muhammad Farooq Khan (and previously murder of other moderate Deobandi scholars e.g. Maulana Hassan Jan of Peshawar) suggests that the Taliban will kill any one who does not subscribe to their violent jihadi and sectarian agenda.
3. The Taliban have hijacked the Deobandi school of thought; they have been successful in befooling and misguiding the Deobandi youths within and outside madrassahs leading them to jihadi and sectarian violence.

However, one may not ignore the complete absence of an irrefutable and unconditional condemnation of the Taliban by any notable Deobandi organisation, e.g., Jamaat-e-Islami, JUI(F), JUI (S), Tableeghi Jamaat etc.

The day must come when sanity prevails in Balochistan, no matter which side proves to be acting in a rational manner.

Pakistan is in a very bad way.  By most standards of measurement, it is a failed state, or very close to it.  The emergencies generated by the latest natural disasters probably won’t cause forced relocations quite as enormous as those that have been generated by the Army’s many unwise military operations.

Pakistan is rapidly becoming a failed state because of the many military misadventures in the tribal regions.  The policy of providing military support to the Taliban (and potentially to “al Qaida”) has made Pakistan a pariah in the world community of nations.  The cost of that perception (whether it is true or not) can be measured in the failure of that world community to rush to Pakistan’s aid in this, her hour of greatest need.  It is uncertain whether this untypical response is because the world is ready to see Pakistanis suffer for the terrorism that they have helped spawn, or because of the fear that increased monetary aid will go to those terrorists.

Is it because of the Army, or perhaps in spite of the Army’s best efforts, that Pakistan may not survive as a state unless it fights a war against terrorism?  The United States has pushed Pakistan into a corner, forcing the Army to fight the terror war against the Pakistani people.  Even so, the government has been made to jump through hoops to acquire the equipment and the funds needed to fight the war.  As things now stand, the Army could not take and hold N. Waziristan, as the Americans demand, but it is in a good position for “pacifying” Balochistan, especially since the unruly province would not need pacification if the Army wasn’t constantly stirring things up there.

Balochistan is truly under a state of siege.  Bodies turn-up daily there, some of them are even beheaded (no doubt to implicate the government’s scapegoats, the “Islamists”).  With each case comes a new lame explanation from a government representative, attributing each political assassination to some dispute with locals, or some sort of feud between hostile clans.  (SEE:  The Unbelieveably Lame Army Excuse for Habib Jalib’s Assassination)  Explaining the wholesale slaughter of nationalist leaders in this accusatory, off-the-hand manner reveals a great deal about the murderers of all these Baloch leaders.  Showing a pattern of repetitive ridiculous government attempts to dismiss the cover-up and conspiracy charges as “sour grapes” made by “miscreants,” these contrived explanations provide strong circumstantial evidence that most of the guilty were Pakistani government agents or their hirelings.

This is the overriding pattern we see in the place of civil law in Pakistan.  The Army strong arms and terrorizes the people of Pakistan into accepting an alternative reality for everything that happen there, even if it happens before their own eyes.  Their eyes and ears clearly show them the reality of the constant murders and terrorist attacks, but outwardly they accept Army-mandated explanations for the attacks which obviously contradict the truth about what they have seen and heard.

The Pakistani people try to live normal lives as they go about under an umbrella “double-think,” whereby they maintain two realities within their own minds, while outwardly maintaining the roles that they all agree to play.  Like stoic little mind-slaves, they continue to trudge on with their lives, knowing that their silent acquiescence makes them collaborators, complicit with an overwhelming state which selectively kills their countrymen, in order to maintain national order.

This is an ugly fact of life in Balochistan, but it is also true for the other Tribal Regions and throughout Pakistan.   The barbarity and government terror hold sway over every mind in every corner of the “land of the pure.”  The solution for Balochistan must be a solution for all Pakistan.  The Army and the civilian agencies maintain order throughout Pakistan, especially in the tribal regions, through a sort of unspoken agreement between the government and the people.  Equilibrium between the chaos of revolution and state terror passes for “civil order” in Pakistan, as long as both sides continue to maintain a mental image of the reign of terror which awaits them, should they question the government’s often absurd explanations for terror.  Everyone knows that the Army is the hidden hand behind countless acts of terrorism, but very few people choose to reject official absurdity, out of fear for their lives and that of their families, should they publicly do so.

Fear for families seems to be the lynchpin that holds society together, binding them with invisible chains around the central absurdity.  The state maintains the delicate balance through real and implied threats to friends and family members.  Would-be heroes must consider the repercussions that family members could suffer, should they feel compelled to right the wrongs, or push the envelope of the conspiracy of silence.  It is not uncommon for family members to be arrested along with the offenders, where they all suffer the same abuse, from the same agencies’ hands.

This immoral, illegal policy is hinted at in stories that are sometimes found in the national news.  Rehman Malik has reportedly threatened to locate and harass family members of offenders living outside the country, for people responsible for insulting e-mails.  He had members of the Times Sq. bomber’s family picked-up.  The government has arrested and allegedly tortured the children of evil-doers, such as the son of radical radio preacher from Bara, Mufti Munir Shakir.   Mufti Shakir’s ten-year old son Abdullah claimed just that, telling reporters and supporters at a press conference about being tortured to force him to make incriminating statements about his father being tied to “al Qaida.”

The Army rules over the entire nation by maintaining a reign of terror.  In Balochistan, as in the other tribal war zones, the various factions of Army power are deployed against the most vocal resistance, threatening locals in order to keep them behind a curtain of silence.  Contrary to its carefully cultivated image, Pakistan hides its totalitarian tendencies behind a veil of feigned democracy.  The moderate leaders are being eliminated because they are the only Balochs with the credibility to draw the attention of the world to Balochistan.

The international illusion that Pakistan has a civilian government is a protective curtain, which hides the real “Iron Curtain” from prying foreign eyes.  To allow the curtain to drop would cut the economic lifeline of foreign aid which sustains the Army dictatorship.  Even a peek behind this curtain would blow the Army’s cover, turning truth and revelation into weapons far more dangerous to the Pak Army than anything hidden in India’s entire arsenal.

The truth about Pakistan is also the truth about the United States of America.  If the truth about the reality of Pakistan ever breaks free from the Iron Curtain behind which it hides, it will have a cascading effect—the dominoes will fall all the way to America.  Nothing done by Pakistan over the last thirty-odd years could have been possible without American aid and acquiescence.  The reign of terror which has resulted in the “Islamization” of Pakistan, indoctrinating the people with a false twisted version of Islam, has been key to all of America’s plans for a world empire.

What has been hidden can only be described as a carefully orchestrated plan to create a global “jihad,” using a well-trained army of militants to wage a crusade to force a militarized false religion upon captive populations.  The greatest arrow in the CIA’s quiver has proven to be the false religion constructed in the agency’s Frankenstein labs.  The “Islam” of America’s “Islamists” bears little likeness to the teachings of The Prophet.  Deobandi/Wahabbi “Islam” is not a religion, it is a psychological weapon of war.

Wherever this religion of war has been sown, or sold, the CIA program is instilled within the beliefs of the locals who have had this false religion forced upon them, especially within the minds of impressionable illiterate Muslim boys.  By killing all the real religious leaders and scholars, along with key tribal and local leaders and replacing them with the agency’s own men, the local people were made susceptible to the poison.  Taken with a large dose of American and Saudi dollars, it proved to be just the thing for what psychopathic American leaders had in mind.  America waged war against the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan using Pakistani militants as well as Pakistani military/intelligence personnel, in order to manufacture a false reality based solely upon lies and terror.

Everything seems to be going according to plan, except for one thing, American psycho-planners are coming up against unplanned resistance from the over-abused populations of these targeted nations.  The reasonable people of the world are growing weary of the unreasonable conundrum which confronts us all.  We are growing tired of the ruthless hard-headedness of America’s leaders who seem intent on taking the rest of the world down with us.

The world community is ready to resist further besides the ones that America has already foisted upon the world.  You can see this new trend in global thinking arising in world reluctance to help American ally Pakistan recover from nature’s onslaught.  The growing prevailing world opinion seems to be—Let America take care of Pakistan, since it has become “evil incarnate” for much of the free world.

The monsoon rains have multiplied the destruction and misery all over Pakistan.  Whenever Pakistan begins to recover from the flood devastation wrought by monsoon rains, the political crisis now brewing Balochistan will return to center stage.  When the water finally recedes and roads are cleared enough so that heavy equipment can once again move about there, the freeing-up of military hands will allow the deadly mischief to recommence.  Beginning just before Cyclone Phet struck the area, the Pak Army began reinforcing its positions throughout the key areas, allegedly blocking Balochs from reaching fresh water or fuel, according to Baloch sources.

Whatever international relief manages to reach the heavily damaged Baloch province, aid workers will also have to deal with the deprivation caused by previous military punitive measures in some areas.

The emergency relief which is required to preserve the state will require massive American and international assistance.  Saving lives and overcoming the effects of the flood and crop loss will require American air power and lift capability.  Whatever is done there cannot be just to preserve the situation which has been created in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but to create a better, more stable Pakistan.

There must be massive American investment in undoing what has been done there, but it must be done in a manner that stabilizes an independent Pakistani state, not an American vassal state.   The same holds true for rebuilding what America has done in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well.  Paying for our collective sins must become as important as repairing our banks and financial markets.  But none of this will happen until the American conscience is awakened.

The monsoon rains have multiplied the destruction and misery all over Pakistan.  Whenever the water finally does recede and roads are cleared enough so that heavy equipment can once again move about there, the freeing-up of military hands will allow the deadly mischief to recommence.  Beginning just before Cyclone Phet struch the area, Pak Army began reinforcing its positions throughout the key areas, allegedly blocking Balochs from reaching fresh water or fuel.  Predictably, with the receding of the water, the militant resistance groups, such as the BLA, have begun their own counter-offensive to the targeting of Baloch’s leaders, staging a series of murders and terror attacks around Quetta. Everything is set for a major eruption there.

American planners have their own missions in Balochistan that are far more advanced than the cobbled-together Pakistani plan.  The result of the offensives and counter-offensives is that the militaries and intelligence agencies of both countries are targeting Baloch leadership, one side seeking to move moderate nationalist leaders to take-up arms against the state, the other state working just as hard to eliminate those same moderate leaders before they become radicalized and join the insurgency.  Some say that the moderate leaders are being eliminated to eliminate the Balochs’ choice in the matter.  People will resist at some point, with no moderates to lead them responsibly, the violence is certain to escalate.

With both competing regimes of targeted killings going full-boil all the time, there will soon be no moderates left in Balochistan, at least no one left who is brave enough to open their mouths in public without first grabbing his trusty Kalashnikov.  Now, before that moment of ultimate silence announces the arrival of a full-blown dialogue of weapons in Balochistan, the moderates and anyone who has an ounce of common sense must muster the courage and the means to forge links that will bridge Balochistan, standing in reasonable opposition to those who are promoting war and further divisions.

The American military leadership, just like their Pakistani counterparts, seems to be content with the current situation in Balochistan.  Neither side appears to be ready to push hard on the other side, in order to settle the matter, at least not yet.  Both sides want the war to continue, in fact, both sides are relentless in their efforts to prevent the premature ending of their war.

In unison, the media and the leaders from both sides sing the same song, persuading all the people that survival demands that the war go on.  This mantra is repeated over and over, embedding its illogical claims deeply within the unthinking minds of  normal Pakistanis, as well as within the American sheep—“Pakistan cannot survive unless it fights another war against Pakistanis.”

The cold hard truth is that–Pakistan will NOT survive IF it does continue to fight this war.  That has been a major impetus for the war since the beginning.  The only thing that can overcome this existential threat to Pakistan’s survival is if politicians on either side learn to see beyond the foolish rhetoric and refuse to be frightened into another escalation.  The only way that Pakistan can survive the next war is to avoid getting embroiled in it.

Look at the facts about this truly “existential” war which will determine whether “Pakistan” exists at all, after this all plays-out—or especially if it is prevented from being playing-out.  The Pakistani people and the Army which represents and defends them stand on different sides of a vast river of distrust.  De-escalate the war and survive.

The truth is—There would be no war in Balochistan if the Army was not constantly stirring things up, just as there would be no war of terror if the United States was not constantly abusing Muslims all over the world for perceived gains.  Governments all over the world understand this—yet no one dares to question why we must manufacture conflict, and what is hoped to be gained in the process?  People are lined-up in the streets of Quetta demanding that the murder of their leaders stop now, and that these targeted killings be truly investigated by some authority.

The same thing is happening simultaneously in Tripoli, Lebanon.  In Lebanon, just like in Balochistan, the people hunger and thirst for justice in the murder of their president, Rafik Hariri.  When the truth is revealed in the end, it is likely that proof will be found connecting the instability in both countries to the same international gangsters.

Why have we never seen any size crowd demanding the heads of the masters of chaos theory who were behind the assassination of our own president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy?  Anyone remember him?  He was one of the first national leaders to be martyred by this international criminal cabal in an unbroken string of bombings and assassinations intended to create a global dictatorship, which has encircled the earth.  Synthetic chaos is the path to the planned “scientific dictatorship.”

Global resistance to that scientific dictatorship is growing faster than plans can progress.  We have a distinct advantage over our adversaries, in the explosive potential that our global movement represents, over the limitations which have built into their plans in the form of contracts that need to be signed, along with deadlines which have to be met, in order to complete their pipeline pipedreams, the key to everything that they have planned.

We don’t have to prove our charges against the growing dictatorship; we merely have to prove that our message is based on reasonable observations of prevailing trends and available evidence.  Over time, they will have no ground left to stand upon, as the evil of concerted government actions becomes more and more apparent as the “war of terror” is exposed for the quest for mega-profits that it has always been.

It is reassuring to know that most normal people find the image that I am painting here for you so repulsive that they cannot even open their minds to the possibility that this is the true state of our reality.

This natural human resistance to unpleasant or abhorrent information also represents a great barrier that must be overcome.  Our task must be to patiently work to overcome this barrier of unbelievability which covers the big lies which underwrite the entire American war.

The power of the people is an irresistible force, even if all that they are armed with is the plain truth.

peterchamberlin@naharnet.com



Source: View Point

‘Data Darbar had to be destroyed because of Ibn Taymiyya’
Sunni-Sunni war was much earlier and it reached a peak in 2006 at Nishtar Park, the year the ISI allowed Sipah-e-Sahaba to stage its show of power in Islamabad

Mazhar Jadoon

The Sunni-Sunni war reached a peak in 2006 at Nishtar Park, the year the ISI allowed Sipah-e-Sahaba to stage its show of power in Islamabad, senior journalist and Editor Khaled Ahmed responds to some questions by Viewpoint on the post-Data Darbar attack scenario in Lahore and the menace of sectarian strife in Pakistan.

Viewpoint: Attack on Data Darbar was bloody, but shrines like Bari Imam and many more in Pakhtunkhwa have been attacked in last few years. We have seen attack on Sunni Tehrik in Karachi besides Deobandi-Barelvi riots in Khyber agency. It seems Shia-Sunni strife is now becoming Sunni vs Sunni clash. What do you say?

Khaled Ahmed: Barri Imam was attacked by backers of Lal Masjid through an anti-Shia personality of Kohat known as al-Qaeda Lawyer who was brought as arbiter by our agencies together with others like Fazlur Rehman Khaleel of Harkatul Mujahideen fighting Pakistan’s proxy wars during the Lal Masjid faceoff in July 2009. The Sunni-Sunni war was much earlier and it reached a peak in 2006 at Nishtar Park, the year the ISI allowed Sipah-e-Sahaba to stage its show of power in Islamabad. Why should we start dubbing the old war as new war? And why should we leave the state out of it? It is not ‘now becoming’, it is ‘continuing’ because the state has not decided that it must stop its protégés from killing Pakistanis. Questions should be correctly posed. The Sunni-Sunni strife is old. Ask Mufti Munib and he will put you right and clear your mind of indoctrination. Data Darbar had to be destroyed because of Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) who figures now in the al-Qaeda pantheon.

Viewpoint: Zia regime is blamed for sectarian trouble in Pakistan. But we have seen that even PPP and PML-N governments are trying to appease these forces. PPP built election coalition with TNFJ while accommodating an SSP minister in its Punjab cabinet back in 1990s. PML-N’s appeasement policy has also been highlighted recently. Your comment.

Khaled Ahmed: The state of Pakistan has deployed its non-state actor terrorists in Punjab. Because of the unclear charter of power of the state agencies linked to the army, parts of Punjab are succumbing to the power of the terrorists. South Punjab is vulnerable to three terrorist organisations. The Punjab government is now paying crores of rupees supporting ‘charities’ of one of them that it has ‘nationalised’. A new perspective of the Seraiki Movement is gradually coming to the fore, reflecting the political dominance of Sipah-e-Sahaba and its offshoot, the Jaish. No one from among the backers of the Movement – known traditionally to be secular – is willing to even speak of the presence of the jihadi-terrorist organisations. One reason is that most of them want to lean on them to win the elections; the other may be the simple fact of intimidation and the subliminal acknowledgement of state patronage to the terrorists. A Seraiki Province in the coming days will be exclusively the domain of Sipah-e-Sahaba and its friends. It will be for the first time that terrorists posing as Islamic warriors against India and against the Shias of Pakistan will possess an entire province and its resources under the new constitutional dispensation of real autonomy.

Viewpoint: What about the role of Iran and Saudi Arabia?

Khaled Ahmed: Official Saudi Arabia hates al-Qaeda but Saudi civil society plus the civil society of UAE and Kuwait are spending big money in the region so that Shias and Sunnis should be killed in Pakistan because of the ‘jahiliya’ act on the part of Pakistan to be an ally of America. Iran is out of the competition after getting a bloody nose in the shape of mass Ashura slaughters in Pakistan.

Viewpoint: What do you say about the curriculum of hate taught at madrassas stoking sectarian fire?

Khaled Ahmed: Textbooks at the madrassas are OK. The courses are culpable only so far as they take the acolyte away from the world outside the madrassa. The isolation of the acolyte and his total enslavement to the handlers is what should bother us. Everyone who does terrorism has been to the madrassas, starting from Sipah leader Azam Tariq, to Harkatul Mujahideen Fazlur Rehman Khalil, Qari Saifullah Akhtar and Mullah Umar. Banuria has the distinction of getting most of its leaders like Yusuf Ludihanvi and Shamzai killed after they sanctioned violence on targeted communities. The Madrassa network is not only sectarian; it also disagrees with the state of Pakistan as it is. But this is not a strict law. Suicide-bombers are also picked up from mosques. All strictly religious people are vulnerable, as shown by Faisal Shahzad and his helpers.

Viewpoint: Media, in bid to maintain sectarian harmony, almost never mentions the sect perpetrating acts of terror. Even victimized sect is not mentioned. Does this self-censorship help? Also, how would you evaluate the role of media with regard to sectarian tensions in the country?

Khaled Ahmed: Media has to be protected. If it is not, it is vulnerable to threats. Mangal Bagh picked up a reporter from Peshawar and made the offending newspaper apologise and swear that it will not print anything against him. Media also is Urdu-dominated and those who speak and write well in Urdu are from the same background as the terrorists. But the dimension of widespread extremism has to be added, otherwise people like Javed Ghamidi too would be terrorists.

Viewpoint: ‘No Muslim can do it’ is a mantra we often hear from different circles. What do you say about this exercise that many call self-denial?

Khaled Ahmed: This is pure Muslim doublespeak and it is universal, so one can call it collective insanity. Muslims no longer do ‘amal’; they simply do ‘radd-e-amal’ and end up killing themselves. And ‘amal’ is all from America. This gives rise to the absurd ‘radd-e-amal’ of killing Muslims in Pakistan because America is supporting Israel in its enterprise of killing Muslims. The term self-denial is wrongly applied. It is simply denial. The non-Muslim world must remain strong against this lethal trend; otherwise it will succumb to the suicidal dogma and lose its freedom. Meanwhile, non-Muslims and apostatised and ‘apostatisable’ Muslims like Shias and Ismailis living in Pakistan are under direct threat because the state is too weak and too involved in its own extremist transformation to protect them.

Viewpoint: Do you see any parallels in attacks on shrines and Barelvis in Pakistan with attacks on shrines and Shia population in Iraq as in both cases a majority sect is under attack?

Khaled Ahmed: There is no comparison. In Iraq, the Shia majority is being attacked by Sunnis, some of whom like al-Qaeda cross the border into Iraq. But the Shia, unlike the Pakistani Shia, have counterforce. In Pakistan, it is Sunni killing Sunni. There is no comparison. The common factor is al-Qaeda and its slave organisations brought into existence by Pakistan to fight India.

Viewpoint: How dangerous is this sectarianism for civil society bodies particularly political parties, trade unions and professional bodies. Also, what civil society needs to do to counter this growing menace?

Khaled Ahmed: Civil society is ipso facto not a virtuous community. In the Islamic world, civil society is dangerously bigoted while the rulers are liberal, as in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt. Civil society as a counterforce to the state is a Western construct. If civil society is more intolerant than the state then it cannot be called civil society. (Maulana Fazlur Rehman is right when he says there is no such thing in Pakistan.) The madrassa is a civil society product and will conquer the state if it can. Democracy is vulnerable to extremism for this reason. If we produce a dictator like Musharraf or Hosni Mubarak we can survive for some time; if we produce General Zia then we are sunk. Another problem is that after a ‘liberal’ dictator leaves there is a reaction in civil society in favour of bigotry and extremism. If Egypt goes collectively terrorist, with stoning to death (mostly women) and cutting of hands taking place in its streets under the Ikhwan, Hosni Mubarak will be blamed.

Today in Jasarat (JI newspaper ) Moulna Aslam Shaikhopuri, a well known Deobandi Aalim in Karachi (graduated from Jamia Binoria) justified suicide bombings because of not having “Khilafah ”

اگر مسلمانوں کا کوئی خلیفہ ہوتا تو انہیں خودکش حملے نہ کرتے پڑتی، نہ ہر جماعت الگ جہاد کا عَلم بلند کرتی، بلکہ ان سب کی تلواریں خلیفہ کے ہاتھ میں ہوتیں، وہ جہاں چاہتا انہیں استعمال کرتا۔

However the next day you will find him blaming Blackwater (or CIA or RAW) and the next day he will be calling suicide attack as a “reaction” to unjust policies of the Pakistan and other governments. If the Khilafah was established till 1924 (in Turkey), why and how were the British able to rule the subcontinent for almost 300 years?

Read the full article by Maulana Aslam Sheikhupuri here

You can join the discussion forum thread on which this article was originally posted here

Supporters of Sunni Ithad Council chant slogan during a rally to condemn the twin suicide attacks on the shrine of Sufi Data Ganj Baksh. -AP Photo - Source: Dawn.com

Source: Daily Times

The Deoband philosophy is a rejectionist philosophy, which rejected modernity and saw the British as the embodiment of western irreligious thought and materialism

The attack on Hazrat Ali Hajvery’s shrine has struck at the root of Lahore’s religious and cultural ethos. For 1,000 years, this city has been sustained by the cultural openness and tolerance that Ali Hajvery, or as he is known to the people of Lahore, Data, gave us. Indeed, Lahore is famously called Data Ki Nagri for the Data was, in a way, the famed Afghan warrior-plunderer, Mahmud of Ghazni’s most lasting bequeath to the subcontinent. For 1,000 years, Hajvery’s shrine has fed Lahore’s hungry, clothed its naked and given shelter to the shelter-less. All that was brought to a halt when the night jackals in straitjackets struck like the cowards they are. It was Ahmedis last month, sufis now and Shias probably next. Pakistan’s Islamic pluralism is now the target.

The purpose was not to create fear. The purpose was to target the soft traditions of Sufism and Barelviism — traditions that have informed Punjab’s social milieu for centuries. This popular Islam is the reason why there is a Muslim majority in Pakistan. It may be pointed out that this same Sufi-Barelvi Islam was invoked by the Muslim League in Punjab in the 1946 elections to counter the high-strung ulema and Islamic clerics of Deoband who had thrown their lot against Pakistan’s creation. Ironically, what was a low church project was hijacked by the high church.

Every militant organisation that exists in Pakistan or was deployed during the Afghan war was Deobandi in orientation. The notorious Jamaat-ud-Dawa is Deobandi. All so-called freedom fighting groups, trained for Kashmir, are Deobandi — ironic for a movement that had doggedly opposed partition because the underlying rationale is the same. The Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi — two of the most vile sectarian bodies — are Deobandi and, while the third such body, the Tehreek-e-Khatme-Nabuwat, which calls itself non-violent, claims to represent both Deobandis and Barelvis, it is entirely dominated by Deobandi clerics. Recently, PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif was on the receiving end of this last organisation’s bigotry. But then Mian sahib has only himself to blame. In his last government, Mian sahib had placed, in Pakistan’s presidency, Rafiq Ahmed Tarar, a student and follower of Maulana Ataullah Shah Bukhari, a firebrand Deobandi scholar and orator who also coined the term ‘Kafir-e-Azam’ (the great infidel) for Pakistan’s founding father.

It goes without saying that there exists not even a single Barelvi terrorist organisation in Pakistan. And yet, another complication of this is the potent mixture of Pashtun nationalism with Deobandi Islam. Mix Pashtun nationalism with Deobandi Islam and you get Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the most important terrorist leader from North Waziristan. Hafiz Gul Bahadur is the direct descendant of Faqir of Ipi, whose claim to fame was that he raised the banner of violent jihad against the newly formed dominion of Pakistan. Thus, Pakistan has faced a war against militant Islam since the first day it was created. The world discovered the Taliban a decade ago but Pakistan has been forced to reckon with them since its inception. And they were called the Taliban even in the time of Lord Curzon where a religious fanatic, Mullah Pawinda, had challenged British rule.

I do not wish to insinuate that all Deobandis and Salafis are terrorists or extremists, but my point is this: all terrorists in Pakistan are Deobandis. No doubt, a majority of Deobandis are good, hardworking people who just wish to live according to their own beliefs. However, there is something intrinsic to the very nature of the Deobandi doctrine, which makes it amenable to violence. It is perhaps the conditions under which the Deobandi movement in Islam emerged. It was a reaction to colonialism and was fiercely anti-imperialist in its moorings. The Deoband philosophy is also a rejectionist philosophy, which rejected modernity and saw the British as the embodiment of western irreligious thought and materialism. Their hatred for foreign rulers was thus rooted in a carefully constructed religious dogma that presented all Europeans as monsters out to destroy Islam.

This is why the Deobandis, despite their strict version of Islam, were closely allied with the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress during the independence movement, instead of the Muslim League which was seen as leaning towards the British and was in any event dominated by the westernised Muslim classes who were not Deobandi. Today in India, Darululoom-Deoband seems to have ensconced itself above all else as the supreme fatwa generating body for Indian Muslims. Consider the latest fatwas that have come out from there: banking is forbidden upon Muslims as a profession and also that women are not allowed to work. Whereas in India it is an attempt to exert clerical control over a hapless and insecure minority, in Pakistan, Deobandi extremists have tried to seize the state itself. They came very close under the military dictatorship of usurper General Ziaul Haq who supported them and nurtured them through Pakistan’s ISI for jihad against the Soviet Union. Needless to say, all this happened with the US’s approval. Things seemed to be going in that direction again in 1999 when Nawaz Sharif, who should have known better, made a decisive move to establish a caliphate in Pakistan. The Deobandi extremist movement in Pakistan is actually the officially anointed clergy’s war on the people’s Islam.

The question is, where do you take a stand? Where do you begin? The Punjab government’s denials of the existence of Taliban strongholds in South Punjab and elsewhere are disconcerting. In the longer run, it will threaten the PML-N itself. There is remarkable convergence today between the GT-Road’s middle class towns and the poverty stricken Seraiki belt, which have turned terrorist out of desperation, and the Taliban networks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, connected by a massive road network. The PML-N is, at heart, a party of shopkeepers and small city businessmen. The ultimate victim in this negligence is going to be the PML-N. Therefore, the Punjab government needs to take stock of the situation. About 10 years ago, only some 15 percent of Sunni Muslims would have described themselves as Deobandi. Today, this number has nearly doubled. This has everything to do with the unchecked growth of Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan. While still only a minority of Sunnis associate themselves with this school of thought, more than 60 percent of all seminaries in Pakistan are associated with Deoband. How does that make any logical sense? The state is obviously too weak to try and counter this. And so we continue this slide down our slippery slope.

Yasser Latif Hamdani is a lawyer. He also blogs at http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com and can be reached at yasser.hamdani@gmail.com