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?”
Shafique. I have read Edward Saeed as well and I am also impress by him. The issue is as Atta Turk once said.
“There are never two civilization at any time of history. There is always one emerging civilization. Either you join them or remain uncivilized”.
What I and many ppl think that why not join western civilization while holding to our identity and some key values. There must be some compromised some reformation in the way we percieved Islam. I think Pakistan is going in that direction but ppl are confused that in which direction they are going.
On heroism the American political journalist and historian, Theodore H. White, said:
“To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
The society we live in exerts tremendous demands upon all of us to conform to its unwritten dictates. At times we find our deepest and most cherished convictions put on trial against the tide of a majority-held opinion. We all have an inner moral voice, yes, but only a few brave souls among us listen to it and answer its call for action while most of us agonizingly attempt to silence it. Those who defy the crowd on a perceived wrong all the while knowing the consequences of their defiance truly possess moral authority and character. It is they who are the heroes of a society”.
Now coming to Lal Masjid saga and all the views and comments on this blog. The bloggers putting their views on this forum can easily be divided in six categories;
1) People like me, who were always against the Mullah’s or radical Mullah’s to be exact with a strong belief that the last resort for a scoundrel is an escape to religion. To me and many of the likes of me, being religious is being a pious man who follows the tenants of Islam without making a big fuss about it.
How so ever, with all my dislikes I DO NOT support the killing of almost 1000 dead people (the true numbers will gradually surface)and regret the ruthless action of this Government.
2) People who are sold to supporting Musharraf dictatorial regime hell what may come even to the dismemberment of Pakistan. These are people who understand that their own survival or the survival of their affiliated political party (a chance after 60 years) is so closely linked to the survival of this regime that the question of going any other way is not even an option. These are people who will go to ANY extent to safeguard or protect the downfall of this particular military dictator.I refer to MQM and it’s supporters on this. The massacre of March 12th in Karachi was a reflection of the same & several bloggers with same thought use the power of their intellect to brain wash or mislead others without disclosing their ulterior motive.
These are people who will portray themselves to be the enlightened one’s against mullah radicalism & militancy. In fact that is a deception technique because in reality these people have quietly and discreetly supported similar militancy for the last 15 years by MQM.
3)People with family links to the military (not retired personnel) and current civilian hierarchy making it possible for them or their families to reap great financial benefits from their roots within this establishment. Examples of this are son’s, daughters, nieces, nephews, close friends or business partners of the current set-up.
These people will all support Musharraf’s actions against Lal Masjid not because of their conviction but they understand that to talk negative about the incident would just add another voice against the current regime and thereby put a hole in their pockets.
4) People who are hell bent to oppose Musharraf and no matter what he does would be condemned. These people might have supported this action had there been Nawaz Shareef or Benezir Bhutto (depending on which sides you are) in power taking the same action.
To be fair, this also includes people who oppose any kind of military rule/martial laws and are and have been sold to the idea of democracy as that was the basis on which Pakistan came into being. To give myself credit, I also fall in this category.
5)People with no minds of their own and live their lives just playing safe and politically correct for lack of arguments. Whichever forum they sit on, they will side with the dominant thinking around themselves and change to go with the flow.
6) Someone told me a long time back and I find this so true; There are three kinds of people; a)those who make things happen,(b) those who try and understand what happened, (c) those who say “what the F… happened”
Unfortunately some of the comments on this blog on Lal masjid comes from our friends who are part of the (c) category. With all due respects to them, keep going as together we make this forum a great place to be on…
Unfortunately none of us have any moral voice to justify our comments and the poor masses (90% uneducated) who have no clue what we all are talking about are living a pre-human life in Pakistan. Their voice is simple,
“Roti, Kapra & Makan”. Real and not just a slogan!
“There are two opposite visions that animate American scholarship on Islam and Islamic societies. One vision represents Islam – the religion and society – as an enemy that must be destroyed … This is the camp led, among others, by Bernard Lewis, Daniel Pipes, Charles Krauthammer and Martin Kramer.
[The late] Edward Said gets to the nub of Lewis’s Orientalist project when he writes that his “work purports to be liberal objective scholarship but in reality very close to being propaganda AGAINST his subject material. Lewis’s work is “aggressively ideological.
An excellent article by Hamid Mir:
http://jang.com.pk/jang/jul2007-daily/12-07-2007/c ol4.htm
I was watching Imran Khan on the Riz Khan show on Al Jazeera English and he made some bold statements about the Red Mosque Crisis. It was really interesting!
Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5mx6MkPn7w