Adil Najam
I must confess that after our recent posts on the vigilantism by folks at Jamia Hafsa and the Lal Masjid I had hoped not to write about this issue yet again so soon.
This is not because I shun controversy or duck issues. It is merely because discussions on this issue tend to be prone to slogan-mongering from those holding extreme positions on all sides, they tend to drown out the more serious and more thoughtful deliberations that are so needed, and they quickly turn into mud-slinging matches which take up too much of our time in cleaning up the mess made by those who routinely ignore or are incapable of understanding and following our comment policy. Having said all that, let me also say that it is intellectually dishonest to simply ignore events and trends that are tearing apart the fabric of society.
With that rather long preamble, what has really prompted this post are two things I saw in today’s Dawn. The first is a set of two ads on behalf of ‘The Citizens of Karachi’ (clicking on the images will take you to larger and more readable versions). The first starts off with:
“Are You Ready? Do you want danda bardar and klashnikov shariat?
IF NOT THEN… come to attend the rally in lage number and show your solidarity against the danda bardar and klashnikov shariat.”
I found these ads to be yet more evidence of a polarized society. More than that, I wonder who put these ads? Any clues, readers? I also wonder how many – and who – will show up on the 15th at this rally (starting 2:00PM near the Mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam)?
The second item appears on the back page of Dawn (and most other papers) and is much more disturbing. Here is the story in full:
Militants Beat up Dancers
LAKKI MARWAT, April 12: Clashes between militants and villagers in the Dhoda-Shah Hasankhel area on Thursday morning left two people injured. About a dozen people were taken hostage by the militants.
Sources said a group of Taliban militants had beaten up some transvestite dancers, shaved their heads and broken their musical instruments near Abdulkhel as they were going to the Dhoda village to perform at a wedding on Wednesday night.
Villagers decided to take revenge by raising a Lashkar against the Taliban, the sources said. Light and heavy weapons were used and the Taliban also fired rockets during the clash which lasted for several hours. The Taliban took 12 villagers hostage. Five of them were later freed while the others were in the custody of the Taliban till late evening, according to the administrator of a seminary, Hafiz Amanullah Khan.
A heavy contingent of police and Frontier Constabulary personnel reached the area. A ceasefire was brokered by some local ulema who held talks with village elders and the Taliban. The sources said the situation was tense and additional contingents of the FC had been summoned.
What is common between both stories is that the battle lines in a divided society are being drawn. The only possible good that could come out of this is for the mainstream of the country to recognize the difference between being ‘religious’ and ‘religious extremism.’ Maybe it will take such actions to remind people that we can be religious without being religious extremists; that faith should help flourish a culture of caring, not of violence.
I wish Musharraf was actually a Liberal. If he really was liberal he would not be supporting the mullahs and they woudl not be supporting him through these topi dramas like the Hafsa thing. If he really was liberal he would have totally discarded the Hudood Ordinance. He he really was liberal he would not have be this close to MMAs. If he really was liberal he would not have allowed the rise of the Taliban. He is really was liberal he would have actually stopped the criminal behavior of the Lal Masjid hooligans. If he really was liberal the CJ affair would never have happened since a central tenet of liberalism is respect for institutions. I wish we really had a ral liberal leader. What we have is General Maulana Pervez Musharraf.
Kuchal do aasteen kay saanpoon ko…how appropriate…
Much as I have been depressed about Pakistan I am also encouraged…. on teh negative side you see the craziness of teh CJ removal and these idiot mullahs at Lal Masjid and their criminal behavior…. but on teh other hand you actually have people rising, both the political types and the citizen groups… I hope ordinary paistani will rise everywhere and show teh mullahs that we are not going to be cowed down by the danda brigade…. the WAF and these citizens groups have again made all of us Pakistanis proud.
جامعÛ
Adnan, you are confusing speech with policy. Mush has not put any policy which can be termed liberal (other than perhaps more freedom for the press than was previously allowed); he has made several speeches which can be termed liberal. We have had this discussion already; the reason why liberals seem to embrace Mush is because he is the lone voice that at least sounds like them. However, this voice has not translated into actions and hope is running low.
Secondly, I didn’t bring Bush Doctrine into the discussion per se. It was just a comment I made because what Jabir said sounded eerily familiar: the Bush strategy of equating his criticism with cowardice and treason. Please let it go now.