by B. R. GOWANI
Pakistan created in the name of religion amidst the rivers of blood is now being destroyed in the name of same religion amidst explosions by suicide bombers and blasphemy charges by hypocrites …
Read more : Globeistan
Tag Archives: Fundamentalism
Human rights in Pakistan?
by Nizamuddin Nizamani
General Ziaul Haq organically changed the socio-political landscape of the state and turned the country’s mass into a ticking bomb by planting the seeds of religious fundamentalism. To counter the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, he initiated a military operation in Sindh and created sectarian and ethnic militant groups in Karachi and other parts of the country
The world community celebrates Human Rights Day on December 10. The envisaged purpose seems to accept the truth that despite the claims of modern, scientific, human-friendly development and globalisation, still some heinous human rights violations are the order of the day in some regions, while realising the universal truth that all humans without discrimination have equal rights to live and develop.
It seems that the UN and related bodies have bitterly failed to guarantee access to basic amenities for common people globally in general and the global south specifically. Even the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) seems a distant dream. …
Read more : Daily Times
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful
Letter From An Expat – by Azra Rashid
Dear Pakistan,
I decided to write today after being mostly a silent observer for 31 years because now you are seriously …
Read more : CHOWK
Secular societies help people to morally upstand for truth without any fear
The language of discussion is urdu/ Hindi.
Courtesy: Express TV (Front Line with Kamran Shahid, guest Imtiaz Alam and others)
via- ZemTV – You Tube Link
Welldone Naseem Zehra to discuss on blasphemy law, it is not easy to speak truth in Pakistani (Junooni) soceity
Nice talk show by Naseem Zehra .. it was a pleasant surprise to have such discussion on TV… its not easy to speak truth in a ”junooni” (Pakistani) society. Blasphemy (Toheen) Law should be castoff because it is too easy in Pakistan to accuse anyone of Blasphemy to settle a score.
Courtesy: DunyaTV (Rana Sanaullah, Javed Akram Raja, Tahira Abdullah & Javed Ahmed Ghamdi join Naseem Zehra in Policy Maters 20 November 2010 program to discuss Aasiya Bibi’s death sentence under blasphemy law)
PML-N leader, Saad Rafiqe is talking against an army general of Pakistan & Fouzia Wahab on the role of media
The language of the Talk show is Urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: Geo Tv News, Capital Talk » YouTube
Watch Maulana Fazul Rehman showing his distrust in Nawaz Sharif & superior judiciary of Pakistan
The politics of hate, bigotry must end
Quran burning pastor: The politics of hate, bigotry must end
by Aziz Narejo, TX
The people, the civil society must stand up, call for and work for an end to the politics of hate, anger, reaction, bigotry and extremism. And to promote peace, tolerance and understanding.
The extremists are pulling everything down. We (mankind) will sink together if they are not stopped wherever they are and whatever faith they believe in – the Quran burning pastor, Fox, Glenn Beck, Zaid Hamid, Taliban, Qaeda, Shive Sena, rightists in JI, BJP, Jaish or whatever there name is … all are same breed …
Courtesy: Sindhi e-lists/ e-groups, September 9, 2010
‘Pakistan—Marvelous people, dangerous confusions’ – By Shiraz Paracha
… While waiting for my turn, I heard the people around me talking about threats to Islam and how bad the Pakistani rulers were. Most people in the waiting area of the hospital had common opinions. They saw the world in black and white.
For the last 10 years, I visit Pakistan every few months. During each visit, I see that more and more of my friends and relatives have grown beards in a race to become ‘good Muslims’. Children are named after Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The number of mosques and visits to mosques has increased tremendously in the past two decades. Young people are joining preaching tours of the Tabligi Jamat. There is a fear that Islam is in danger. Most ordinary people believe in a past that is glorified in school textbooks as well as in the media. People dream of an ideal Islamic society where all their problems will be resolved. Nevertheless, everyone appears to have his or her own interpretation of such Islamic society.
Religious zeal has been rising in Pakistan since the 1980s when the country was under a US-backed military dictatorship …
To read full article >> criticalppp
PAKISTAN: Two more Ahmadis murdered in target killings
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
Two more Ahmadis, Dr. Najam al-Hasan and Pir Habib al-Rehman have been murdered in religiously motivated killings. Once again, no one has been arrested and the likelihood of anyone being prosecuted is virtually nil.
Read more >> AHRC
Losing Faith In Pakistan: A Nation Of Human Bombs
The War within Islam – Losing Faith In Pakistan: A Nation Of Human Bombs
By Aatish Taseer
These shrines are a memorial to the hybridity of the land, if not the state, of Pakistan. Until Partition, before the exodus of Pakistan’s Hindu and Sikh populations, they were places (as they still are in India) where Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims worshipped together. Behind each one—formed out of more than six centuries of religious reform, which created humanistic, more tolerant hybrids of India’s religions—would be some tale built around a local saint that celebrated the plurality of the land. To adhere to the spirit of these shrines was to know that deeper than any doctrinal difference was a shared humanity; it was almost to feel part of a common religion; the spread of this shared culture through Punjab, Sindh and Kashmir constituted an immense human achievement. And for as long as the plurality remained, the religion remained, seemingly immune to fanaticism, incapable of being reduced to bigotry and prejudice. But once the land of Pakistan, after Partition, was drained of its diversity (and this constituted no less a shock than if London or New York were suddenly cleansed of their non-white populations) , the religion lost its deepest motivation, which was to bring harmony to a diverse and plural population. The amazing thing was that even after Partition, when the land of Pakistan was no longer so plural, it was this religion, full of mysticism, poetry and song, that clung on as the dominant faith of the people of Pakistan. …
As the attacks on shrines like Data Sahib multiply, as the Americans discover that nothing will be achieved by throwing money at Pakistan, as India realizes that Pakistan’s hatred of it is not rational, that the border issue with Kashmir cannot alone be the cause of such passion, as the world begins to see that Pakistan’s problems are not administrative, Pakistanis will have to find a new narrative. The sad truth is that they are still a long way from discovering the true lesson behind the experience of the past 60 years: that it is of language, dress, notions of social organization, of shared literatures and customs, of Sufi shrines and their stories, that nations are made, not religion. That has proved to be too thin a glue and 60 years later, it has left millions of people dispossessed and full of hateful lies: a nation of human bombs.
Read more >> NewAgeIslam
Rewarding hate
by Nadeem F. Paracha
The ‘educated’ today require an education based on facts and truth instead of what they were taught at school as ‘history’ and ‘ethics’
Read more >> DAWN
Punjab’s twist – By Nadeem F. Paracha
If democracy truly is the nemesis of talibanisation then certainly it is the PML(N) that will have to play the leading role in Punjab to wrest back the initiative from the monsters who have been plaguing the material and human wellbeing of what was once the most stable and vibrant province of Pakistan.
This is how terrorists operate: They identify a region where they feel they can bag sympathy for their cause and then try to construct ‘offices’ there. However, if they feel this sympathy is not enough to stop the government’s action against them, they terrorise the people with attacks. They know that this is the region that can capitulate in the face of terror faster than a place that does not hold sympathy for them.
Let’s face it, Punjab, like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been influenced the most by Islamist and sectarian organisations, with all that hoopla about justice, sharia and war against American imperialism. Over the years most of these organisations have found sympathetic ears and hearts in major Punjab and Pakhtunkhwa towns and cities, so much so that Punjab’s leading political party, the PML(N), sometimes sounds ambiguous about its stand on extremism.
Perhaps it fears that it may lose support from its more conservative constituencies, mainly centred round lower-middle and middle class sections. In spite of Lahore becoming the target of vicious terrorist attacks, we can still see and hear certain Punjab-based politicians and their supporters continue to dish out their deluded ‘Pakistan is fighting America’s war’ mantra and suggesting that ‘We should hold a dialogue with the extremists’.
Read more >> Dawn
Nawaz Sharif on Pakistan’s foreign policy, India, Afghanistan, democracy and other issues
Former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif with Najam Sethi on Pakistan’s foreign policy, India, Afghanistan, democracy and other issues. The language of interview is Urdu (Hindi).
Courtesy: Dunya TV-Tonight With Najam Sethi-05-07-2010-11 >> ZemTV
Lahore: These are not only Terrorist attacks on Sharine, but attacks on culture
Why Pakistan keeps exporting jihad
By Fareed Zakaria
Faisal Shahzad, the would-be terrorist of Times Square, seems to have followed a familiar path. Like many recruits to jihad, he was middle-class, educated, seemingly assimilated — and then something happened that radicalized him. We may never be sure what made him want to kill innocent men, women and children. But his story shares another important detail with those of many of his predecessors: a connection to Pakistan.
Jihadis In Punjab – Punjab Govt Ignoring Reports
Punjab ignoring CID report on terror groups – By Nasir Jamal and Shakeel Ahmed
– DAWN
LAHORE: The Shahbaz Sharif government appears to be reluctant to take action against the banned sectarian and Jihadi organisations operating in Punjab in spite of evidence that these may have been involved in many terrorist attacks in the province recently and may have strong links with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The Sharif government’s unwillingness to deal with the growing menace of terrorism in the province, including its southern districts, is in defiance of the evaluation by its own counter-terrorism agencies. A recent secret document based on data collected in south Punjab finds that a number of banned groups are carrying out a “sustained drive” to recruit fresh cadre from among the “poverty stricken, illiterate and unemployed” youth in the region.
Continue reading Jihadis In Punjab – Punjab Govt Ignoring Reports
Encountering fundamentalism —Nizamuddin Nizamani
Extremist Islam is encroaching deeper into the Thar Desert and almost all district and tehsil headquarters of Sindh and Balochistan, where large numbers of seminaries, with new buildings and equipped with every kind of infrastructure, have been erected during the last few years.
Continue reading Encountering fundamentalism —Nizamuddin Nizamani
Still a long way to go….
by Omar Ali
There can be no doubt that hardcore salafist jihadism (which is the kind of jihadism promoted by alqaeda and its affiliated groups) is not compatible with “normal” life in the modern world. This is not due to the effects of some brilliant US policy or propaganda; it was incompatible even when the CIA and Saudi Arabia and ISI were working together to use it against the soviets in Afghanistan (which is why there has been no peace in Afghanistan since that glorious jihad “succeeded” in 1992). The CIA of course couldn’t care less and simply wrapped up their operation, gave medals to Imam Wilson and left the region to their proteges in the ISI. Saudi Arabia took a little longer to wake up, but by the time Mullah Omar was pouring a jug of cold water on some Saudi prince in Kandahar, their official romance with this project was over. … and …, thanks to their education in National Defence College, proved stupider than their paymasters in Saudi Arabia and their trainers in the CIA and were trying to save some jihadis for their own use until very recently (maybe still trying in North Waziristan, but that game is going to be up soon). So maybe the real question is not how it is now marginalized but how it ever became so powerful? On the other hand, this piece by Fareed Zakaria has more than whiff of Tom Friedman about it, which can never be good. Salafist jihadism is about to lose its last state sponsors, but as a terrorist movement it has many many years left to run. And the various underlying issues that were used by the salafists as recruiting tools have not gone away (Israeli occupation, corruption, injustice, a dozen different ethnic and religious clashes in different places, the question of mosque and state in Islam) and will continue in other forms. Still, I agree that the salafist jihadi wave has crested and outside of afghanistan, pakistan, somalia and yemen, its pretty much confined to the distant fringes of real politics and struggles. Unfortunately, in these countries there is still a long way to go….
Courtesy: crdp@yahoogroups.com, Feb 16, 2010
Ticking bomb of self-destruction!
by: Iqbal Tareen, Washington, DC
The issue of rising tide of Islamic extremism in Punjab requires more attention than it has received especially with respect to the role of Pakistan Muslim League (N), which claims to be a mainstream political party. More than anything else, the very existence of PML (N) will become irrelevant if it failed to differentiate itself from other religious parties in the country. Majority of the people of Pakistan do not want to see state policing Islam in their living rooms and bedrooms. Absolute majority of Pakistanis have rejected and will continue rejecting religion as a system of dictates. They cherish it as a moral support system and inspiration for social and cultural value system.
I am not being overly critical of Shariff brothers but I can’t ignore the fact that the birth of their political careers has been an absolute blessing of Zia’s era. It has been very hard for PML (N) leadership to cut their ideological umbilical cord with Zia’s extreme religious ideology. I have yet to hear from Shariff brothers denouncing their association with Zia or declaring his Taliban style rule in Pakistan as insane.
21st International Sindhi Conference on Sindh, 3rd October 2009, London , UK
London,: World Sindhi Congress ( WSC ) is organising their 20th International Conference titled ‘Sovereignty of Sindh for World Peace ’on Saturday, 3rd October 2009, in London, UK. The conference will be held at Kingsley Hall, Powis Road , London E3 3HJ UK.
In light of the growing radicalization and overt violation of human rights by both the Pakistani military and Taliban, the 21st International Conference on Sindh will explore how a sovereign, democratic and secular Sindh could counteract the spread of Talibanization and military dictatorship in Pakistan and surrounding region. The conference aims to address the following issues:
Continue reading 21st International Sindhi Conference on Sindh, 3rd October 2009, London , UK
Book Review – The Battle For GOD
In the late twentieth century, fundamentalism has emerged as one of the most powerful forces at work in the world, contesting the dominance of modern secular values and threatening peace and harmony around the globe. Yet it remains incomprehensible to a large number of people. In The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong brilliantly and sympathetically shows us how and why fundamentalist groups came into existence and what they yearn to accomplish.
We see the West in the sixteenth century beginning to create an entirely new kind of civilization, which brought in its wake change in every aspect of life – often painful and violent, even if liberating. Armstrong argues that one of the things that changed most was religion. People could no longer think about or experience the divine in the same way; they had to develop new forms of faith to fit their new circumstances.
Not Without Making Mullahs Irrelevant
by: K. Ashraf
One young Pakistani intellectual made a telling statement about Pakistani nation. He wrote: “Pakistanis are a democratic nation trapped in undemocratic state.” I would like to give this statement a slightly different twist: Pakistanis are a culturally secular people trapped in culturally religious state.
Of course Mullahs have somewhat influence in Pakistani society but they are not as powerful as state institutions present them by giving them more than due acceptability in national discourse about national issues. This acceptability of Mullahs even becomes more evident when we form committees like Royete-Hilal and create a media circus three times a year by inviting Mullahs to decide the moon-sighting and hold so called nonsensical Mushaikh conferences to address critical national issues.
When Pakistan came into existence it was simply called Pakistan. It was neither Islamic nor Republic of Pakistan. After creation of Pakistan, Mullahs who originally opposed the idea of Pakistan,
Real possibility of Taliban take over of Pakistan
WASHINGTON DIARY: The advancing enemy (Real possibility of Taliban take over of Pak) Daily Times
by Dr Manzur Ejaz, USA
Rulers averse to an independent judiciary and an equitable socio-economic order; an economic upper class hostile to paying its fair share in taxes; self-obsessed intellectuals and media persons; and a poverty-stricken population – this presents the perfect mix for the forces of destruction.
Continue reading Real possibility of Taliban take over of Pakistan
The hypocracy of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Imran Khan & other right wing parties of Pakistan!
What this accord meant?
by Lala Hasan
It is interesting that some political leaders inclduing Imran Khan (cricket hero), Qazi & others use to condemn the Jirgas & feudalism in Sindh but they have been trying to justify the Jirgas in Pakhtoon Khawah. Many politicians and beaurucrats are libral and moderate on the issues of Sindh & Punjab but on the issues of NWFP they have many arguments to tell. They are champions of movement for Independent judiciary but they like Jirga system and Taliban brand Sharia courts in NWFP. They are democratic and libral but they have been supporting Taliban brand of Sharia. They are supporting women rights in Punjab and Sindh but they are not ready to condemn blowing up of girls schools by terrorists in NWFP or PakhtoonKhawah. They are supporter of working women in Sindh & Punjab but in NWFP, they have an other story to tell in the name of so-called traditions and customs. Actually they neither are Democratic nor in favour of independent judiciary.
They want to throw women and other libral people back to stone age. They can use aeroplanes, missiles, rocket launcher, kalashan kov, cars, modern medicines, electricity, loudspeakers, TVs, computer etc, all introduced by west & Europe but on the issue of women, they reject even education and Polio drops while saying its west brand so they would not allow. Its really a joke & some friends “innocently” have been indirectly supporting such strange arguments of extremists.
Pakistan: No money, No energy, No government!
New intelligence report says Pakistan is ‘on the edge’
By Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott | McClatchy Newspapers
Courtesy and Thanks: McClatchy
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
Severe economic crisis threatens Pakistan’s stability
Wave of violence worsens Pakistan’s security, economic crisis
WASHINGTON – A growing al Qaida-backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army’s reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America’s key ally in the war on terror deeper into turmoil and violence, says a soon-to-be completed U.S. intelligence assessment.
A U.S. official who participated in drafting the top secret National Intelligence Estimate said it portrays the situation in Pakistan as “very bad.” Another official called the draft “very bleak,” and said it describes Pakistan as being “on the edge.”
The first official summarized the estimate’s conclusions about the state of Pakistan as: “no money, no energy, no government.”
Six U.S. officials who helped draft or are aware of the document’s findings confirmed them to McClatchy on the condition of anonymity because NIEs are top secret and are restricted to the president, senior officials and members of Congress. An NIE’s conclusions reflect the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.
Continue reading Pakistan: No money, No energy, No government!
A perfect storm brewing in Pakistan
Within a matter of days, events on the Afghan border seem to be creating a perfect storm of mistrust and conflict between the United States and Pakistan: The recent US heliborne attack with troops inside Pakistan’s tribal area; the report that President George W. Bush had signed off on such attacks in July, allowing US forces to conduct these raids without clearance from Pakistan; the short-term shutting down of the US supply route to Afghanistan by Pakistan, ostensibly for “security reasons”; and finally an unequivocal riposte from Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that “There is no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border.”
Unless good sense prevails, the US-Pakistan alliance may be heading for the rocks in a storm that could rent the tenuous alliance between these two “allies”.
There may be good grounds for the US to feel that it has been let down by Pakistan in the past. Pakistan’s ambivalent approach to the Afghan Taliban and continuing hidden links to former Afghan Mujahideen commanders, such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj, came to be at odds with its partnership with the US against militants in the border region. Coming clean on that score may not have satisfied the US. Hence the Bush signature on unilateral attacks even perhaps as he entertained the new Pakistani prime minister in Washington this July.
Suddenly the old policy of “a wink and a nod” that worked for President Pervez Musharraf and that appeared to be continuing under the new democratically elected Peoples’ Party government seems to have been set aside. Kayani’s tough statement appears to have widespread public support in Pakistan. The Prime Minister echoed his words. But President Asif Ali Zardari uncharacteristically has been silent. If this portends fissures in the ruling hierarchy then the signs are not good for the balance of power inside Pakistan.
Other dangerous possibilities appear likely in the US-Pakistan relationship. The next time the US physically invades Pakistani territory to take out suspected militants, it may meet the Pakistan army head on. Or it may face a complete a cut-off of war supplies and fuel in Afghanistan via Pakistan. With only two weeks supply of fuel available to its forces inside Afghanistan and no alternative route currently available, the war in Afghanistan may come to a screeching halt. The Bush approach may prove to be yet another example of short-term thinking that damages the longer term objective. The Taliban meanwhile will be applauding from the sidelines.
A major consequence of the US invasion of Pakistan’s territory will be the further alienation of the Pakistani public and a serious internal problem for the fledgling civil government that took over from Musharraf’s autocracy. The US may think it has considerable leverage over the Pakistani government because of the latter’s economic ills and financial straits and its overwhelming reliance on US aid. But it is failing to measure the power of the Pakistani street. Already, a vast majority of people in Pakistan, including inside the army, see the United States with hostile eyes. Anyone in Pakistan seen as aligning with the Americans would lose public favor. And the nationalists and religious extremists will then get a chance to say “we told you so!” and gain the upper hand.
All this is happening as the lame duck Bush presidency is getting ready to pack its bags. But the campaign to succeed Bush is heating up. Cross border US attacks inside Pakistan will distract from the war on terror in the region. They will also divert the campaigns of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama from finding solutions to hurling new rhetorical bombs at each other to prove that each is tougher in the use of military force than the other.
Both Pakistan and the United States need to rethink their actions. Pakistan must prove with actions not just words that it is willing to shed its ties to all militants. The United States must ratchet down the rhetoric and the use of force, especially against an “ally” in this war on terror, a war that will last well into the next president’s term and may be beyond. And it must fully equip the Pakistan army to fight a mobile counter insurgency in its borderlands. Otherwise, the US will not only lose an ally in Pakistan but ignite a conflagration inside that huge and nuclear-armed country that will make the war in Afghanistan seem like a Sunday hike in the Hindu Kush.
Author’s Note: This article has also appeared on The Huffington Post
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