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?”
Dr. Najam, heard you this morning on the NPR talk show. Your analysis was spot on. You did your country proud.
S Akhtar said
“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.”
I agree that anger of poors on social injustice helps such form of radicals thinking. They use Islam beacuse Islam is a Egalitarianism religion. But these mullahs ask those poor to have more childs and make them more poor.
We have to first see how many more lal masjids we have. Then we have to decide as nation how we can make our madrassah more moderate. This event should be “eye-opener”.
Umar,
Keep up the great service to your country! I used to believe this is a topi drama, but I was dead wrong. The general has started the endgame for Pakistan’s disintegration.
May God protect our homeland from the nefarious designs of all enemies, ameen!
Do read the article I posted above, it is an eye opener.
A must read, gives you the inside story that TV channels are afraid to relay:
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IG11Df03.html
Later in the article:
The question is, now that the Great Jackboot has made a spectacle out of this issue and shown to the country/rest of the world that he can (when he wants to) take these people on, will he go back to twiddling his thumbs while the mullahs run amok, or will he actually do something about the other such places which have similar weapons? Let this be a wake-up call for him… despite my anti-military rants, I’d be willing to tolerate him if he can really go after these people… however, given the history of the army and its disregard for the shenanigans of the mullah brigade until something drastic happens, and its overt and covert pampering of these people, it seems highly unlikely…