Adil Najam
The news is developing by the moment. But the bottom-line is clear. The security forces have taken control of the Lal Masjid from militants after a severe gun-battle. But the story is far from over.
It will continue to unfold. There are too many unanswered questions. They will certainly be asked and discussed threadbare; here at ATP and elsewhere. But the real story of tomorrow remains the same as the real story of yesterday. Can a society that is so deeply divided against itself learn the lessons of tolerance? This question will continue to haunt us well into the future, in multiple shapes, in multiple forms, in multiple contexts.
This is a question that we at ATP have confronted from our very beginning and will continue to confront. But now is not the time to ponder on this. Even though what has happened had become inevitable over the last many days, I am too heartbroken to be able to do so.
Right now I can think only of Muzammil Shah (photo, from Associated Press, above). This photo was taken as he waited for his son who was inside the Lal Masjid. I do not know whether his son was there voluntarily, or as hostage. But I do know what the look of Muzammil Shah’s face means. The more important question is whether his son came out alive or not. I pray that he did.
Analysts - me included - will discuss what happened at length. They will try to understand the meaning of all this. What does this mean for Pakistan politics? What does this mean for Gen. Musharraf’s future? What does this mean for Islam? For Democracy? Does the fault lie with Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his militant supporters for creating a situation that could only end this way? Why did he not surrender? Is the blood of everyone who died not on his head for his stubboness and arrogance? Or, maybe, it is the government that is to blame because it did not act earlier? Act differently? Waited just a few days more for a negotiated solution?
Right now all these questions seem really petty and small. This is not the time for scoring cheap political points. This is not the time for spin.
Moreover, there are too many questions to ask. To answer. The head hurts as you think of them. But the heart hurts even more as you look at the face of Muzammil Shah.
Maybe the only really important question is the one that you can read between his wrinkles: “Why? Oh God, why? Why must things happen this way?”
Extremely sad what happened in Red Mosque and I condemn the use of excessive force. Had there been children of elite class, no one would have considered storming the Masjid and Madrassah. But thes were children from the poorest class which are no better than insects. They and their families have no voice So there is no sympathy.
There were hard liners and may be terrorists inside, we have no sympathy with them, but there were women and children also and they got killed. These were “innocent” and my heart cries over their death.
I am an engineer, 42 years old, married with 4 kids earning around one hundred and fifty thousands every month. Now I am mature. But when I was 20 or younger, my opinion was based on what I heard from elders like father, teacher or uncles. I hated Bhutto because they hated Bhutto (they are pro Jammat Islami). When I formed my own views, I found him the greatest leader after Jinah. My views changed about many things in life as I matured.
The boys and girls inside Mosque and Madarassah were immature. They had yet to form their own views. They believed only what they were told. They were given wrong concepts about religion, life and Jihad. If I would have been there at that age, I might have done the same what they did and believed the same what they believed and died with them.
Died with them!!! I would have died. Died. I. What a horror.
A person like me who is considered to be open minded and progressive would have died with those militants provided I had the same circumstances.
So that is why I believe most of them are innocent. They are our kids. They are victims of this system. They are victims of mullahism. They are victims of military dictatorship. They are victims of political plans of Musharraf.
How these innocent children are converted to human bombs. Why they are sent to these madarassahs, the problem lies in this system. Where every month hundreds commit suicide due to economical problems. The problem is in out political and economic system.
I think poverty, illetracy, gun control, drugs, bribery, equality, women rights and unlawfulness are bigger problems in our society then brothels and alcohal. Lets get to grass root problems. Be it conservative or liberal nobody wants to see exploitation of poor or orphan girls. Its the socioeconomic condition that has to change, which will change our behaviour. Middle-class wake up before its too late, stop being mohajir, punjabi, sindhi, shia or sunni start being Pakistani. If Pakistan goes down, we all go down. We want mullahs to call for a jihad against poverty, illetracy and discrimination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86gKKD6Ipcw
hmmm..
Id like to pose a question to a Mullah who might be listening..
how come when you want ‘Promote virtue and eliminate Vice’..your horizon only includes prostitution and alcohol..are you really of the Opinion that these two are the top two problems facing Muslims in Pakistan…if you do then I have nothing further to ask you and will let people judge for themselves..
but what about the feudal sickness in lower punjab and sindh…where people are kept like cattle and are deprived of any rights …how about a Jihad against a system that endorses Jirga systems which systematically pass punishments like rape, marriage of baby girls…parading women naked…
I do believe…and truly believe that if you were truly interested in Jihad and the elimination of Vice…you would be out there fighting to eliminate it…
how come you never go…kidnapp the jirga that let Mukhraran mai be raped…bring them back to the Lal Mosque and demand that this sick system be dismanteled…
instead of asking that the latest Van Damme DVD be burned…
but of course you have no answer to that…I have asked this to many a Mullah but they start meandering and just babbling about how I dont know how evil DVDs are hehehe… :)
@ All…oh who am I kidding…its @ Adnan Siddiqui :)
please refer to Anwars post from INSPIRATION PAKISTAN: ASHIQ MANG..regarding how he was declared a Non Muslim for hugged a sweeper..
During my short lecturership experience in Peshawar when I hugged a sweeper who visited me for eid greetings, many students simply froze. Few stopped by my office to express their views and concerns and yet another vocal group declared me a non-Muslim…
Another example of the Mullah simply ‘ex-communicating’ a fellow Muslim…hmmm..I wonder who used to do that and for that matter who still does that…
why its the christian clergy by golly!!!
must be sad to be a Mullah…to be clergy in a Religion which HAS NOT CLERGY..and looking on at their counterparts in other religions and the power they enjoy or enjoyed…
really people these Mullahs might just deserve our sympathy..actually Adnan is probably the one who derserves our sympathy…please feel free to start a sympathy posting campaign for him :)
@ Adnan Siddiqui…
just want to break down what you wrote in one of your last posts…
…”do you want to say that rabbis are not defended by jews? or do christians and hindus never pay respect to priest and Pandit respectively? Or you want to say that rabis,pundits and pontiffs are NOT evil or they are god-like structure?”….
so basically what you are saying is that you defend the Mullah because the Zionists defend their Rabid Rabbi’s and becuase the Hindu’s defend their genocidal Ram Sevaks….
I see now where you get your religious ques from….NICE! :)
roma locuta..cause finita..!!!
Rome has spoken…case closed good people..we now know what the Mullah really craves and what he expects from us and what justification he gives for expecting our support
…the Mullah wants a similar demi-god like status in Islam in which all matters related to Islamic Jurisprudence are left to him and him alone…as I keep saying the goal of the Mullah is the systematic dismantling of Islam and then reforging it in a way that allows them all the power that the Mullah has craved for…
Thanks Adnan….you said it better than I could ever have!! :)
Akif Nizam, your definition of religious extremism is quite valid.
“imposing one’s own religion or one’s own version of their religion onto others by using force or threat of force when such force is not sanctioned by the law of the land�.
But as I see it, this also makes parvez musharraf a religious extremist as he is using the military’ might to impose his version of religion aka ‘enlightened moderation’ or ‘deen-i- parvezi’ on Pakistan.
Why not let the constitution of Pakistan be the deciding factor? And the constitution guarantees that Pakistan is an Islamic country where the government is bound to provide an Islamic environment to the people of Pakistan.
Lets not side with musharraf or lal masjid, lets side with our constitition and strive that either it should be implemented or if the majority of Pakistanis wish so, changed.!!
I say, I will take the wine and brothels any time over the danda :)….. any time….. :)