Adil Najam
This is a VERY DISTURBING video. Please view at your own discretion.
It is important, however, that we speak about and shout out about this video.
It shows a 17-year old girl being flogged by a Taliban leader of some sort in a perverted form of justice. Reportedly the incident happened in Kalakalay, Swat around 3 months ago (before the supposed peace deal with the government). The girl is being ‘punished’ for going somewhere without a male relative. Supposedly, the male companion was also flogged.
This video is also be discussed vigorously at Pakistaniat’s new Facebook page. Some of that disussion does not carry over here, although we hope it ultimately will.
In more recent developments, supposedly Sufi Mohammad in Swat has condemned the act and said this was not Baitullah’s Taliban. More importantly, the recent reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has taken su moto notice of this incident. According to The News
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Friday took a suo motu notice of the media footage in which a 17 year old girl is being whipped out in the broad daylight in Swat. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhdy ordered the matter to be presented before a larger bench on April 6. He also summoned Secretary Interior, IG and Chief Secretary on April 6. He ordered formation of 8-member larger bench to be headed by himself.
This is a story that all Pakistanis and all Muslims must speak about and speak against. There are those who will try to make this a story about what Pakistan or Islam is. Such bigoted approaches are to be resisted. This is not a story about what Pakistan is. This is clearly not about what Islam is. This is a story about what the enemies of Islam and enemies of Pakistan are doing. This is a story about what Pakistan must not allowed to become. The bad news is obvious in the video itself. The bad news is about the criminality being conducted in the name of religion. The good news is that the media, the judiciary and ordinary Pakistanis ARE speaking up and speaking out. We must do more so. For if we do not speak out against this criminality, who will?
well said ammir ali
yai maulvee, talaibanee, shariat or islam kai thaikadaar….have always and will always be enemies of pakistan…..
@ karacchite, why shld we leave for india, u and yr jamaat-maulvian shld…cz you people were with indian congress and opposed jinnah and termed him kaafir and called formation of pakistan unislamic
and lemme REMIND YOU THAT AFGHANISTAN WAS THE ONLY MUSLIM COUNTRY THAT DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE PAKISATN AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE WHEN IT CAME INTO BEING IN 1947…..
so if we are not muslims, people u side with in the name of jhotee shariat…r not pakistani….and thus have nor right to live in this country and decide the fate of its people
@Karachiite
Since you have decided to speak on behalf of all Pakistanis, including Pashtuns, regarding Shariat and the Taliban, let me respond to you on behalf of Pakhtuns, since I grew up in NWFP.
Shariat to the Pakhtuns is merely an emotional slogan, and is exploited as such by maulvis and the Taliban. Nobody knows what it actually means, and if Shariat means interference in people’s personal lives, flogging and cutting off hands, then Pakhtuns are not interested in it.
It is also the right of Pakistanis to oppose Shariat if they see it as harmful, and to reject actions in the name of Shariat, such as flogging. You are not the landlord of Pakistan, or the thekedar of Islam to ask such Pakistanis to move to another country.
Never forget that Jammatis like you opposed the creation of Pakistan on religious grounds, then happily moved to Pakistan and now want Pakistanis to leave the country on religious grounds.
people you know what is ironic is that in quran in sora noor (probably) that father-in-law is mehrum….
lanaat ho moulwiyoon ki jahalat per…
ahsan: You might also like to know that all of what you describe is Saudi Shariah which is Salafi Shariah which is based around rejecting Imam Abu Hanifa and the legal rulings of the Hanafi madhab which do away with all such things. How ironic. You bash these things then also bash the scholar who defeated them.
I also wonder how many of you would rather spend time in a Pakistani jail over taking a flogging of the kind you see in the video (not even leaving marks if it is done in accordance with the Hanafi fiqh). Where you’ll be attacked, beaten, tortured, raped, and held without charge indefinitely. THAT is YOUR alternative. That is the law that YOU prefer. No thanks.
Benazir Bhutto never insulted Shariah or the Hudood Ordinances like that either. In fact, she helped create the Afghani Taliban. Nawaz Sharif is himself pro-Shariah for those areas which overwhelmingly want it (such as some in the NWFP). Even Altaf Hussein isn’t bashing Shariah yet. You guys who are anti-Shariah have little in common with the country’s politics… with any of it.
As for my opinion, I am not defending the actual act at all, I am only discussing the nation’s response to it. I think instituting a tazeer (discretionary) punishment of 30 lashes over having an electrician visit your house is insane, and having it done by strange men in front of a crowd in public is even more insane and horrific, but I am not surprised that it happened considering SWAT was in the middle of a war-zone then and the government was roving bands of Taliban and the judges were militia commanders, not actual Ulema. According to reports from independent (and anti-Islamic Western media), these kinds of things are dying down wherever the government’s Shariah courts have jurisdiction.
I agree with those who say we don’t want the Taliban to institute Shariah (to say it is “Taliban’s Shariah” is a misnomer because they just use normal Sunni law, the error is in the application). I would rather have the government do it if the people in these areas want it (which they do). It is Pakistan, and Pakistan’s government should be responsible for all law and order, including Shariah, which according to the constitution, is the law of the land.
It is the only way to take the loyalties of the people away from the Taliban and back to the normal government. Of course stopping attacks on villages by random US air force drones will also help but that is a different problem.
I am very worried for Pakistan, not over Swat (by the way, the dialect/accent in the video of Pashto is the kind spoken in Swat, these are locals, not even Waziris, and for those who don’t understand Pashto, she isn’t screaming about the pain she is repeatedly apologizing for “it” and saying she swears by her family she will not do “it” again). She promptly got up and walked off, escorted by her brother.
Some of the Westerners commenting on the video even remarked that they received worser lashings from their parents.
LOL.
Farrukh: “Karachite, your argument is stale as well as wrong.”
What is my argument?
Let me dumb down my post into one paragraph:
I was just saying that this video was Taliban’s Shariah done before the peace treaty. The population themselves want Shariah, if you don’t believe me, go and see for yourself. I also explained how it was possible for the Taliban to do this within the context of Sunni law at all (where they took a correct principle, and where they went deviant with it).
In fact, the Taliban themselves acknowledge how they went about things was completely wrong.
Which leads us to the next point.
You all hate flogging. In that case, I don’t need to argue with you, because you hate the Qur’an. Even Altaf Hussein doesn’t hate flogging, he is himself quoting the Qur’an and talking about HOW it was applied, rather than it applying at all.
If you really hate Shariah to that extent, then you also hate most Pakistanis, Islam, and the Pakistani constitution.
It is plainly obvious that the government must enforce Shariah for now to keep the peace, and while doing so, rebuild the infrastructure and re-educate the people to tackle REAL fundamentalism and extremism (those who attack Pakistan).
I hope you are able to leave Pakistan for lands that are more to your liking. If not the West, then India certainly would suffice. They all speak Urdu, Punjabi, etc there and have the similar culture.
You guys really have nothing in common with the average Pakistani. It’s amazing how being sheltered, isolated, and elitist can do that to the “upper” echelon of Pakistani society.
And if you are one of those who just hate the punishments of Shariah but see no problem with the marriage/divorce/inheritance law and all that, then you can continue to straddle the fence for only so long. Realize that no politician from any party, MQM included, will bash any Shari’ Hudd punishment. The Hudood ordinances will likely never apply to Sindh or Punjab, the population just does not want it. NWFP is an entire other matter. Pukhtoon culture is synonymous with Shariah and Islamic culture (combined with an alien element of tribalism which is the problem). It is not like Punjabi culture which is essentially Majhail Sikh culture or Sindhi culture or Mohajir culture (which is Hindustani culture).
As for the Salafis and Ahl-e-Hadith who want to start insulting Imam Abu Hanifa and say that following Sunni law is deviant: Save it. More than 95% of the world’s Muslims are Sunni and at least 30% of those are Hanafis. Hanafi madhab was also enforced in actual nation states and empires. The Mughals, the Ottomans, etc. Even the British enforced Hanafi Shariah while they were here. Did you forget all about that? The English translation of the Hidaya was done by a British guy hundreds of years ago. Not to mention that you (Salafis/Ahl-e-Hadith) are the real terrorists, and Osama Bin Laden is your Shaykh. Literalism (interpreting the Qur’anic and Hadith texts literally outside of the context of legal and scholarly interpretation) is the path to losing your intelligence and becoming extremist. The Hanafi madhab is the most liberal of the four schools of law in Sunni Islam. Even the Shi’a, Salafis, etc in the MMA all want Hanafi Shariah in Pakistan because they know it is the only kind that can actually be used in a legal system due to precedence. Might want to consult with your religious superiors next time before you lash out like that.