by Tarek Fatah

… As Palestinans die, we all suffer, but at some stage one has to ask, what have been doing wrong that even after 60 years we do not see anyhting other than sloganeering and suffering of common people. And now we hear the dead Hamas leader died alongisde two of his four wives. Is this how national liberation movement have been led anywhere else? Four wives?

.. I am not sure if I am discussing with socialists with a Marxist background or with Islamists who have just discovered the charm of leftwing lingo. BTW, while Israel was killing Palestinians, right in your own backyard, 43 Pakistanis were blown up by a Taliban suicde bomber. Are Pakistanis children of lessor Gods that their deaths do not matter? Or should I assume when the pious momins kill fellow Muslims, that is OK? Is this why we are unwilling to even talk about Morroco’s 40-year occupation of Sahara?

While I wait for another rant about me, please take the time to read this letter in DAWN. It poses a few questions to the people who need to reflect whether sloganeering alone witll help their coause, or iof a dash of honesty might help.
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Politico-religious parties’ role

Courtesy and Thanks: Daily Dawn

http://www.dawn.com/2009/01/02/letted.htm#11

ACTIVISTS of politico-religious parties staged a protest demonstration on Dec 29 to condemn Israel for bombing the Hamas-populated area of Palestine.

There is no doubt that bombing of innocent homo sapiens anywhere in the world is a nerve-wraecking and must be condemned with all the force at one’s command.

Nonetheless, the most shocking aspect of the recent public demonstration in Pakistan is that on the day the Israelis bombed Palestinians thousands of miles away from Pakistan, extremists in our own country, in Buner district where Pakistani ‘Qalma Go’ had gathered at a polling station to cast their vote in the by-election, bombed the place with their explosive-laden vehicle that resulted in killing 43 and rendering hundreds crippled for life.

Why the gory incident taking place in the home-country of the activists of the politico-religious parties was ignored while an incident of bombing taking place thousands of miles away in Palestine should provide them an opportunity to exhort the workers to condemn it through public demonstration cannot be understood by the compatriots.

In fact, the leaders of the politico-religious parties never in the past, too, condemned or publicly demonstrated against any act of terrorism that has taken toll of hundreds of lives of the Pakistanis.

Extremists have bombed Pakistanis within sacred premises like mosques, imambargahs, funeral prayers but these inhuman, anti-Islamic acts never evoked any reaction from the leaders of politico-religious parties. Should we assume then that bombing by extremists on Pakistan population is ignored by the leaders heading religious parties because they owe their loyalties to their former madressah-educated students turned ‘fidayeens’?

During the Israel-related demonstrations, the other day, the participants criticised the Pakistani government, saying military operation against militants in Fata and the NWFP should be stopped immediately.

Such a stance clearly shows to which camp the politico-religious parties owe their sympathies. Leaders of these parties have often announced in public that the military should not take action ‘against our own people’.

These leaders are right: between the aggressive militants and the victimised population they have chosen the former to be “their people” and hence to protect every act of the militants is their obligation.

SAYED GB SHAH BOKHARI
Peshawer
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Source: Posted by Tarek Fatah, tarekfatah@rogers.com on Fri Jan 2, 2009 11:05 am (PST) at SPN yahoogroups.com

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