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.
@ usman kadri..
Before you are ‘allowed’ to pronounce which type of Pakistani’s should have any rights or not…
you really do need to address the very inconvenient question put to you raza..ie..if Pakistan was such a good Islamic Idea…then why were the dirty Mullah’s so against it…chiefly Maudoodi and his Ilk…
it was either:
1. They were bought off by the Birtish and/or Congress…
2. Pakistan was such a good Islamic Idea…
3. They just got it wrong like they have gotten wrong everyother thing…
neither of the scenario’s looks good for you side im afraid…
and wasnt it Jinnah Saab Who said that we are free to go to our temples…mosques…churches and that has nothing to do with the business of the state?
care to explain that for me?
Thank you people, espeically Masood Ahmad and Mohd Hafeez, for comic relief. Wow, just wow! The ignorance and arrogance of such people, may Allah help us!
A “secular Muslim”?!! That’s like saying a “Christian Buddhist” or a “Jewish Hindu”. Then, Masood Ahmad calls himself “atheists…”. So, who is he? A Muslim or a secularist/atheists? A person who thinks he is secular, knowing the meaning of what secularism, is outside the fold of Islam.
Mohd Hafeez, who sounds more like D_a_n, thinks staying away from politics means secularism. He doesn’t even know what secularism is and he calls for it. Secularism in its simplest form means separation of religion (church) and state…to rule by other than Allah’s laws (which would includes hadd punishments as well). And, that my friend, is straight up kufr. It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. To be a leader and deliberately not implement shariah (the laws of Allah) and replace them by man-made laws, then that leader is a Muslim no more. This is a very simple concept in Islamic creed, but you would only know it if you had taken the time to learn some Islam.
Similarly, a non-leader (from the awaam/common people) who is against the implementation of shariah amongst Muslims leaves the fold of Islam for the same reason.
Then, Mohd Hafeez tells another joke that majority of Muslims in history have been secularists. If he still thinks that after knowing the correct definition (separation of religion and state/ruling by other than Allah’s laws), then he is delusional and cannot be reasoned with. Btw, Mohd Hafeez’s jokes don’t end here. The last paragraph of his comment is nothing but a complete joke…”I am a very good practicing Muslim”. I have never heard such arrogance.
Allah’s book and His laws weren’t just a lip service. They were sent down to be implemented and followed.
“Why should we aspire to become like them?”
I can give you at least one reason. 99942 Apophis. In case you don’t know there is a very slight possibility that this asteroid may hit earth on April 13 2036. Though the collision probability is small, a collision will mean annihilation. The possibility though minuscule, is quite large as compared to any other threat the planet has faced in the last 50,000 years.
While you are busy here debating Shariat law in Pakistan, the moral-less drug-abusing scientists at Stanford and MIT in conjunction with NASA are drawing plans worth billions of dollars to face this eventuality. In case you are inclined, it will make a fascinating read so as to what all humanity has to offer scientifically in order to save this planet and what are the pros and cons of each alternative on the future of Earth. It is also worth mentioning that NASA recruits people on merit and not on whether they are believers or kafirs.
You don’t need to worry about all these trivial matters, you will automatically get saved by the high-crime-rate west society if they save this planet. Unfortunately with you your Talibani “values” will also be saved, that contribute nothing to humanity except intolerance.
“This statement is the very difference between us and the West. This statement is the very reason why we are where we are and the West is where it is.”
We don’t want to become like west.
US has world’s highest crime rates, drug abuse, child abuse, teen pregnancy, racism. Why should we aspire to become like them?
We have our own values that we need to nurture. It is good that we are not like the west.
“Please note that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam. Atheists may live in this country but they cannot demand equal rights.”
Guys this is the most brutally honest upright statement ever made in Pakistaniat. I just want to make it even more correct and substitute Athiests for Non-Muslims or Kafirs.
This statement is the very difference between us and the West. This statement is the very reason why we are where we are and the West is where it is. This statement directly identifies with the core fundamentals of Taliban and it directly interferes with the most sacrosanct gift of God to mankind: “freedom of conscience, belief and thought”.