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.
Dear Disgusted, I am also disgusted. The link is here. And yes it is very graphic so watch at your own risk.
It is about a 12 year old boy beheading a man. It comes from an Associated Press news item.
Like you I think this is time for all of us Muslims to rise against such things and join the old man in the video is condemning the actions of these Taliban and in making clear that this is NOT Islam and these madrassa Talibans are the real Kafirs.
By the way, I am glad people are rising against these things and condemning them. I thought that the editorial on this in THE NEWS today is very good.
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One is absolutely shocked at the details of a video acquired by the Associated Press Television News which shows a Pakistani boy, dressed as an Islamic militant, slaughtering a man. The footage which AP said it obtained from Peshawar shows a boy whom the news agency described as a “baby-faced” boy who was “barely twelve years old”. He spoke in a high-pitched voice, calling a tied and blindfolded man held before him as an American spy. The video then shows the boy literally cutting the man’s throat as he is held by older men, all dressed in military fatigues. The shot then shows the boy hacking at the man’s throat till he is decapitated. Amid cries of “God is great”, the boy then holds the man’s head by the hair, telling the camera that others who spy for America will meet the same fate. The man who is killed in this most gruesome manner was a militant himself but accused by his killers of betraying a senior Taliban official who was killed in an air strike in Afghanistan last December. (The reference must be to Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Usmani, a senior associate of Mullah Omar, who was killed at around the same time by a US air strike in Helmand province).
The name of the Taliban’s top commander in southern Afghanistan, Mullah Dadullah, is also mentioned in the video. Besides this, AP said that songs praising Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden (who is referred to as “Sheikh Osama”) can also be heard. A voice-over in Pashtu also identifies the dead man and his village, in Balochistan. Apparently, this video is widely available in the bazaars of NWFP and Balochistan and an AP reporter said it was even available in the dead man’s village. It has to be said that this isn’t the first time that an alleged spy has been killed in this manner by militants who by their actions seem to be very-much pro-Taliban. The headless bodies of numerous such ‘spies’ have been found in parts of FATA in recent months, as fighting between government forces, and now government-backed militants, and foreign militants rages on. However, this is perhaps the first time that a video of the beheading has been circulated and with such a young executioner.
The news agency has also claimed that its reporter who visited the executed man’s village in Balochistan met his father who had no qualms about admitting that his son was a Taliban supporter, had fought the Northern Alliance in the past, had arranged for the medical treatment of injured Taliban survivors and had provided shelter to both Mullah Osmani and Dadullah. Of course, all of this is vehemently denied by the Pakistan government, which has also dismissed reports of Mullah Dadullah being involved in the peace deal brokered last year in Waziristan. The gruesome and savage nature of this particular execution clearly suggests that those who claim to do such acts in defence of their religion are shamelessly indulging in falsehoods themselves. No religion condones such acts, least of all committed by a child, which as one expert has said may constitute a war crime in itself. Whosoever claims that this is being done to further the glory of religion is in fact guilty of doing great disservice to their faith and must be roundly condemned.
Assalamu Alaikum
I think what the students of Lal Masjid and Hafsa Jamia have done is really bad. It is also unislamic.
But I am very disappointed in this discussion. You are talking as if they are the real representative of Islam and what they do is right Islam. Those who are liberal are using this to make all religious people look bad. And those who are religious by defending them are also making all religious people look bad.
Let us all who are Muslims please unite and rally against these people in Lal Masjid but for Islam that is peaceful and tolerant.
Thank You.
I am sure people have already seen this video clip making the rounds over email. Young children and burqa clad women areshown beheading a bearded man and chanting Allahu Akbar. BE WARNED, IT IS VERY GRAPHIC.
<http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=46e_1177179030&p=1>
This is what we are up against. These protests take on new meaning after watching this. Rise everyone, otherwise this is where these Madrassa Taliban want to take you.
I agree with the man at the end of the video, this is not about Islam and Muslims. THESE TALIBAN ARE THE REAL KAFIRS.
mullah raj must be stopped in its tracks – whoever – WHOEVER – stands up to the mullah who now is infecting the capital – we need to stand with – up to these mullahs.
its clear cut to me – and probably most pakistanis – you have one side that doesn’t use religion to attack others and use as a tool to brainwash people and the other side which uses religion for all kinds of powercrazed and antistate antiislam stuff.
i don’t like the ppp or mqm or in fact any politicians or mullahs – but its in the NATIONAL INTEREST TO STAND UP TO THE MULLAHRAJ.
We need to have an across the board demonstration by citizens of Pakistan against this evil of mullahism – this is more of a threat to the existance let alone the progress of pakistan then anything else.
Pakistan was not created for the crazed mullah. It is time Pakistanis stood up shoulder to shoulder to be counted, only in numbers can we defeat this threat to the nation and its youth.
Lets join forces and Demonstrate against mullahism.
Pakistan Zindabad, Mullahraj Murdabad!
Dear Nazir
I am against all the ‘extremism’ Liberal or relegious.
Yes, u r right no one can support the sueside bomb attack on Masajid & Madressas or in public places where innocent people lost their lives, There is no link with Islam. W.R.T. Lal masjid & Jamia Hafsa, it is non issue, it is an effort to diver the public attention from CJ case & divide the nation. It is an effort to put Mush case in America to support him, it may be used as launching pad of BB. Qaari Hanif of Wafaqul Madaris clearly said that demand is correct but method is wrong. In the given link the same thing is expressed.
But, what NGOs want, they want to make another Golden temple in Islamabad. Can u support Asima with her slogan? if ur answer is yes, then keep in mind it can never be happened in Pakistan (Inshallah)
The definition of “Fasad” is just that any approcah other than Islamic perspective is Fasad fil arz