Adil Najam
The cowardly suicide attack on the Danish Embassy in Islamabad which has led at least eight people dead is not just an attack on a foreign embassy in Pakistan, it is an attack on Pakistan.
There is and there can be no excuse for this dastardly action, and to make excuses is to become part of the apparatus of validating the terror itself. There are those who will make misplaced claims about this being an act of ghairat (honor). Let us be very clear, this is a bay-ghairat (dishonorable) act, no matter what the concocted excuse or justification might be.
The Associated Press pictures above (and below) tell the story of hate and destruction; here are the details, from The News:
The death toll in a huge blast near Danish embassy in F-6 II area in the Red Zone of the federal capital Islamabad on Monday has reached to eight, while seven wounded said to be in a critical condition. The car blast near the Denmark embassy damaged a boundary wall of the building, while nearby UNDP office premises were also damaged in the blast. According to sources 10 to 15 kilogram explosives were used in the blast, which also shattered the vehicles parked in the area. Huge clouds of smoke were seen over the area. The blast created four feet deep crater sources said. Police have cordoned off the area to collect evidence about the incident. Relief operations were underway and the wounded being transferred to hospitals.
While leaders in Pakistan as well as Denmark have condemned the dastardly act, we the people of Pakistan also need to condemn and be outraged at this. These acts of venom and hate are being done in our name. And no matter what the cause we need to stand up and say that this cannot, must not, be allowed to happen in our name.
This is just the latest in a string of hate blasts across Pakistan, including in Islamabad. We at ATP have been worried and have been warning against this culture of violence that has been festering in Pakistan. ATP commentator Deeda-i-Beena has provided some thoughtful ideas of steps that can be taken to begin addressing this cancer. It is time we think of them seriously.
There can be no justification. You are right.
As someone had written some time ago on this site, we can all do something to help:
a: Verbally stop those who talk hateful about others or about violence to show them that you do not support this
b: Keep eye out for suspicious characters and report them
c: Do not let our religion be defined either by those who hate it and abuse it or those who can only act through violence.
So I remember from my “naaqis” Islamiat class way back when about the Prophet (PBUH) going in to check on the woman, who regularly used to dump garbage on him, when she didn’t do it one day. Somehow I think his reaction to mere cartoons would have been significantly different from what has been demonstrated by his latter day followers. Reducing a great man to this…the ummah ought to be ashamed!
What we are seeing is not some random act of violence by a group of amateurs. It is the culmination of a half-century of evolution of radical Islamic thought fueled by Western intolerance and lovingly nurtured, especially in the last three decades, by self-serving Pakistani governments and short-sighted American policies.
This is not going to go away just because we “stand up” and say it is wrong (although we must still do that). I am afraid that it is going to get much worse before it gets any better (if at all). Our nation, and many other Muslim nations, may not survive to see this period through.
I hate to be a messenger of doom but I think it is important to realize how big this problem is (and not just for Pakistan). We need to be ready for a long drawn-out war and not look for easy political solutions.
The President, Prime minister,ministers and various politicians have all condemned this dastardly act. They have the responsibility to do much more than the mere condemnation.
I and all the citizens in their right mind Also condemn it.
So what is the difference between US and THEM ?
“Qaabilay nafrat hai wuh kiyoon saaree dunya kay liyay
Aik lamhay kay liyay bhee uss nay yeh socha naheen
Wuh Zamanay bhar ko dehshat gard kehta hai magar
Koi dehshat gard uss kee gard ko puhuncha naheen”
— Anwar Mas’ood
Not every act of violence is terrorism. Many are retaliation, albeit sometimes out of proportion to the initial insult. Terrorism hasn’t been defined. Has any reporter asked George Bush what terrorism or terrorist means? IMHO, terrorism is violence for the sake of inflicting terror. I can’t see any clear example of that in recent history except one dubbed “Operation Shock and Awe”. Awe means terror. In case you missed that, I just wrote Awe means terror, and it was the declared name of the operation announced by the perpetrator of that violence himself. I am personally opposed to this act of violence against the Danish embassy, but we should delve deeper into perspective.
I am also of the view that a fitting response to the published cartoons, no matter how insulting they were, should have been to write responses to that heinous and backward gesture and to give the responses wide publicity – through prose, poetry, art, public speaking, blogs, etc.
That said, we can’t shut our eyes like the proverbial pigeon to escape the reality that there are lots of nuts out there whose only solution to any offense is violence. These nuts are color-, race-, geography-, etc. blind and there are probably many more of them in the west than in Pakistan or the “Islamic world”, if there is such an entity.
So while Adil Najam, many posters on this blog, and myself, are deeply shocked and amazed at the tragedy, many might not see the broader picture beyond the natural instinct of emotion. If we think beyond emotion, and try to remember, after all, what brought this about?
People talk about being insulted by those cartoons. I get insulted everyday when I read the word “Islamist”, so close to “Islamic”, to refer to terrorist or extremist, and not having to do with the Peaceful religion of Islam. Notice that they don’t use “Jewist” to refer to Jewish extremists, and that I DID, above. For a change, ATP-ers or others who write, could use that term and bring it to the attention of editorial pages around the globe and see what happens.
So it’s time we pigeons opened up our eyes and began to read the writing on the wall. Islam is under subtle assault by even those we think of as our friends. We’re helping them by adopting their insultive anti-Islamic language and by lending them ears.
ATP could begin by removing the ads for books by Lou Dobbs, Bill ‘O Reilly and Ann Coulter, anti-Muslim bigots, IMHO, from the web site.