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?”
Long video interview of Zahid Hussain about Pakistan’s struggle with militant Islam:
http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=95862192 6&channel=301939273
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilayhi Raji’oon
Adil:
On the one hand you say “This is not the time for spin”; and on the other, this post, well written as it is, takes a peculiar angle on the Lal Masjid saga-turned-tragedy.
Admittedly, it is a complex issue and there must be several Muzammil Shahs in this state but there are a few questions that arise regardless of state’s role in this whole issue:
a. where were the parents of these students since the last few months when the Lal Masjid brigade inspired by sacred dreams was taking the law into their hands; and it was clear that the government will take action against them?
b. Islam and Muslims get defamed each time when a sect or a cult tries to impose its brand of Shariat on the world. It is clear from our Holy Book that “there is no compulsion in religion”; and yet this incident is being given a religious colour. Lal Masjid has nothing to do with Islam per se. It is pure politics and power game. Of course the innocent kids and presumably hostages have been sacrificed at the altar of one man’s intransigence.
c. Is cultivation of suicide bombers (when suicide by all accounts is not permitted by Islam) acceptable? Sorry it isn’t and this is the plain truth.
d. Despite the days long siege of the mosque, the Ghazi (now Shaheed!!! as popular lore and posts such as this will make him into one) was unwilling to surrender. After all, we live in Pakistan and not Afghanistan where such private mafias prosper with impunity. So the tragedy is a direct outcome of the adventurism and criminal behaviour of the little mafia, who takes over state property, imposes Taliban Islam and then claim shahdat when challenged. This is not what the majority of Pakistanis want and the proof for this is the OUTRIGHT rejection of such parties whenever there have been elections.
e. The state acted with maximum restraint. I hate to be in this position of defending the state authorities but they have tried to negotiate until the last minute. Lunatics such as the ones in Lal Masjid were alas not prone to reason or rationality.
f. Lets pray for those who died; and let this be a message to other thekay-daars of Islam and Shariah that their imposition of self styled cults is not acceptable in this day and age.
I have one question: what kind of a maddrassa/learning center was this, where the inmates are fighting with rocket launchers and grenades? Please, all Mullah apologists, save your sympathy for a nation that has been held hostage by these idealogues for long enough. It is time for the jackboot to come down, and come down hard.There is no other way. Ghazi was a coward and probably died a coward’s death, hiding behind women and children.
BTW, I am not a Musharrafite and am against any role of the army in politics (before Adnan Siddiqui jumps down my throat).
True enough… where they get to eat and get brainwashed in the process… they’re not to blame of course, but the state that creates this state of affairs and the mullah brigade, which has a history of hanging on to the military’s coat-tails should be held accountable… it really isn’t the poor kids’ fault…
Clash of poor vs rich. Rich people spend thousands on one meal at KFC,McDonalds, etc. Poor people have no money and send kids to madrassas where they at least have something to eat.