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?”
Humayyun what is your alternative to mullah, if your answer is no mullah. then you are right. same is true for army. don’t ask me how and why. every reason for and against mullah holds exactly true for this army.
pm what is your alternative to army?
@Humayyun so army is no more saving you from india ? it is now mullah from whom this army is saving you? Sometimes I think Pakis are really innocent lot , half of those innocents are fooled by mullah to get heaven in the hereafter and rest of them are fooled by army to save them from hell on earth :)
I am sure the massacre of Ali’s family was no less grotesque. It just wasn’t recorded on video for posterity. Nothing new for Muslims or Islam. A plague on both your houses…
To Dan: I agree with your post one hundred percent.
It’s very sad day for the people of Pakistan and for Muslims all over the world! I do sympathise with all those (not the militant terrorists) who perished in the Lal Mosque confrontation, either because they were the security forces personnel or because they were kept as hostages by the criminal Maulana brothers and there were those who were brain washed. Though I have NEVER supported and will never support a military rule over Pakistan but I really feel sorry for the security forces’ jawaans and officers who by sacrificing their lives got the Lal Mosque area rid of these terrorists (there’s no other word to describe them).
Those who support sharia laws or religion here, could kindly tell me where has it been applied successfully (e.g., Afghanistan: total failure; Saudi Arabia: fooling muslims through their twisted wahabi/slafi agenda; Iran: just experimenting and suppressing their own people). We must admit that religions (all religions) have been or are the root causes of all massacres on the earth since the day humans started practising them in one form or another.
Have we forgotton the sikhs and hindus were treated in Afghanistan (stipulating they should wear an orange ribbon to be identified from muslims) and there are many more examples to illustrate the fascist nature of the ideologies of our mulla-driven Islam! The sectarianism in Pakisatn that was encouraged by Zia and then maintained and sustained by successive regimes, killing and uprooting thousands of Pakistani families in their own land.
I will only vote for a secular Pakistan, devoid of mullahcracy. A prosperous Pakistan for all, run by civilised people and not by foreign funded jehdi terrorists, waiting to meet their 70 virgins in the paradise while disrespecting their female partners on the earth – the physical one, the real one!
Adil: please discard the first post and keep this one as I have made a small amendment.