Adil Najam
Pakistan is in tears today. Yet again.
70+ people are dead in Wah today, as yet another cursed suicide bomber targets Pakistan and Pakistanis. The Tehrik-i-Taliban has taken responsibility for them. Only two days ago, 32 people were killed in a suicide attack on a hospital in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan. Meanwhile incursions and attacks into Pakistani territory by American forces continue and fighting between militants and Pakistani forces rages in Bajur and other areas, killing even more.
In what continues to be war on and in Pakistan, Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Some will call it the largest legacy of the Musharraf years. Some will read unstated messages within this murder and mayhem by these killers. Others will see it as the price in dead bodies that Pakistan pays in the War on Terror. Yet others will remind us that this is reaping what Gen. Zia-ul-haq sowed. There will be, I am sure, plenty more pontifications too – ranging from the absurd to the absurdly profound.
All I know is that today, yet again, Pakistanis die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Why must this murder and mayhem continue? I ask. When will it end? These, of course, are absurd questions themselves. Because we all know the answers. It will continue for as long as we let the killers kill and support their murders with our silence. Silence, of course, also kills. And some are condemned to cry silently.
Muslims are the laughing stock- as well as the most despised community- of the world, and yet we refuse to be critical of the direction are societies are taking. there is a persecution-complex that comes out of the insecurity of being left behind culturally and technologically.
look what the u.s has done to latin america, much worse than anything to a muslim country, do they strap themselves up and murder innocents?
look at whats happening in kashmir right now. a mass of people marching peacefully has brought so much international attention to the problem. much more than wanton suicide bombs or an insurgency. our kashmir/india/ taliban policy has been a colossal failiure and will continue to be so until our milatiristic mentality changes.
i think the islam that these taliban preach is a murderous, mysoginistic death cult. it needs to be rejected or we are all doomed.
It is clear from the discussion on this forum that English speaking intelligentsia is singularly incapable of understanding the aspirations of common Pakistani. They are dazzled by the materialistic culture of the West and want to emulate western systems here in Pakistan. However Pakistani awaam is now woken up. Common Pakistani understands that the systems preferred by English speaking intelligentsia are for their personal benefit alone. They have disinherited common Pakistani from social, economic and political life of Pakistan. The only solution in this dark hour is return to our Islamic roots. We already have the best possible social, economic and political systems clearly detailed in Islam. All we need to do is to adopt this system whole heartedly and not mess them up with half baked western ideas. Common Pakistani is fed up with the pretensions of their elites and his heart aches for the simplicity and straightforwardness that cannot be provided by current systems.
This is my last post on this forum because clearly this forum is infested with anti-spiritul and anti-Islamic forces who are brainwashed by western and Indian media. Anyway, English language bloggers have zero influence on the mind of common Pakistani and hence their sinister designs are bound to fail. It is better to utilize one’s precious time on field work rather than “bhains ke aage been bajaaye”.
Good luck with your blogging!
There is only one solution to this problem in my view. Try your best to make sure that these people loose the ability to recruit new blood in their organization.
The process will require a multi dimensional approach and will not be an easy solution by any means but then again, solutions to complicated problems are rarely simple.
1) The government must do anything they can to bring the 22,000 mostly unregulated madrasas into the mainstream. Every existing madrasa must conform to a single standard and must provide their students education that enables them to be a productive part of the society.
2) The private sector and the people of Pakistan must perform their duties as well. I envision a non-profit organization which provides orphans or poor children the best education possible with boarding to compete with the madrasas. Lets see if these little minds can be moulded to do great things.
3) There are almost 32,000,000 graduates and current students in the existing madrasas. If you look 15 years in the future and consider the reproduction rate of poor Pakistanis the number will give you nightmares. We must do all we can to develop our impoverish areas and provide these graduates of the madrasas with employement opportunities so the last thing in their minds is to blow themselves up in the name of God.
4) The most obvious solution is to eradicate the current crop of talibans from the face of the earth. I plead to my nation for patience and determination. My heart goes out to the poor civilians who have and will be the innocent victims but this cancer has to be removed through surgery and every surgery results in some blood loss.
Lets play our part as best as we can. If we remain quiet, we will be the ones to blame when our country disintegrates.
Harris Siddiqui
In Talibans defence
They believe in their beliefs that they are doing the right thing.
They lust for fight and feed on hate. Word “peace” was never in their dictionary or it has to be under their terms.
The rest of the world is just “wrong” in their eyes.
And they are the one, who would “correct” it.
They totally believe in whatever they believe.
Like a cult, you can get in but you cant get out.
Everybody…………Listen,
Why dont we stop fighting for a day on this forum and see if there is a rational solution to this problem???