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?”
Azra, killing a murderer is justice. Opposing extremist Mullahs a duty. Don’t confuse yourself.
@Pyara Adnan Bhai
“but if some of them start abusing my parent and I don’t react just because they worked good for karachi then it’s an absurd demand.”
So you clearly say that mullahs are like your parent and you can’t take an abuse on mullahs. Thats fine.Why are you taking it so personal. Just because you respect mullah so highly doesn’t mean we have do it to.
“The reason I mentioned my parents because this is very closed relation and even I am not some good practised muslim, I would sure react and respond these mentioned people if they try to offend Islam or islamic clergy, just like I would react on insulting of my parents.Huh, who STOP you psuedo intellectual to offend mullah. Most of the time you “educated
why yes ofcourse, I am the extremist for expressing my views against Mullahs due to their wickedness….their fondness to use fitna and fasad to divide Muslamaan against Musalmaan….their desire to act a bridge between Allah and myself when my religion asks for no such thing…
what total BS!!!!
I am the extremist?? I am the bigot?? I am the intolerant one?
am I the one looking to blow up anyone who does not agree with me? am I the one threatening suicide attacks against my fellow Muslims if I do not get what I ask for?
am I asking all to bow before my interpretation of how we should live our life? am I the extremists who condemns every other group of Musalmaans because they wear their trousers 2 inches lower or higher…
am I the extremists for holding a nation hostage?
am I the extremist for hijacking the Kashmiri freedom struggle and turning it into a Talibanised Operation and making the kashmiris hate the idea of joining Pakistan….
am I the extremist for stealing government land and then trying to use religion as a rouse for keeping it?
am I the extremist for kidnapping..of all people the chinese…thereby again…putting my own house at risk….
I am not calling for anybody’s execution…or am not declaring anyone else a Kafir…as is the Mullahs want whenever anyone agrees with him…
no..I am not the extremists that the prophet warned about when he gave his last sermon to the faithful gathered around him….these Mullahs are….these are the Munafiqeen…and as a beareded…practicing and proud Musalmaan…I for one am sick to death of these half wit mullahs with a dirty taaki on his shoulder who thinks just because he chooses to have a beard he can tell me how I should follow my religion…the hell with that I say..
and I am sick…am just sick of these Mullahs trying to win arguments by simply talking longer and louder than people like me…however, no longer should we allow this…
read the Quraan people…read our history and understand why we became masters of our own destiny….read about our laws as they once were…the same laws that made the jewish population of Al-Andalus flock to tunisia and morocco and other arab lands when the catholics were wiping them out….
read and arm yourselves with knowledge so that you may fight the Mullah and shout back at him when he begins to spew his so called knowledge…for he has none..and the little that he does have is tainted by firqawaariyat and rejectionism….
read and you will understand what made us great..powerful and strong..read and you will find out how we were once the source of all that was beautiful and good…..how we were once magnanmimous and tolerant and strong…there was no place for the Mullah as he is now…he must be sought out…de bunked…discredited…his power to divide taken away from him..his power to inspire hate removed…
the Mullah must be stopped…for it is not too late…
and Inshallah stopped he shall be!
Dear Toryalai, I wish what you say was correct. Just scroll up and read teh last half dozen or so comments. They will prove that extremism comes in all flavors.
Sophaeyyah said on Jul 12th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
”There was a message above the switch board. It was saying to conserve electricity as it is a blessing of God.”
Did they Umme Ehsaan not teach her Taliban-e-deen that life is a gift and blessing from Allah and no one is allowed to take that back.
Don’t you think that things like hand grenades, explosive jackets and other weapons (klashnikov and kalakov) were not supposed to be in the premises of mosque, in the hands of Taliban-e-deen (the real terrorists)?
To Azra: on this forum only one side promotes extremism and that is the side which defends the mullahs!