Adil Najam
To view such a video and assume that all of Pakistan is against the Taliban would be as delusional as the proposition that all of Pakistan is for them is deceptive.
The point of this video is not that all Pakistanis are opposed to Talibanization. It is that not all Pakistanis are for them.
The distinction between the two is subtle, but vital. The video puts to a lie the notion that anti-Taliban sentiment are to be found only in the so-called “liberal” and “elite” classes. Indeed, the empirical fact is that the people who the Taliban and other religious extremist forces have been killing in Pakistan are (a) nearly all Pakistanis, (b) nearly all Muslims, and (c) none of them are either very “liberal” or very “elite.”
It should not be a surprise, then, that at least some, probably many, and possibly most, “non-liberal,” “non-elite,” Pakistani Muslims would be against the Taliban and the war they are waging on Pakistan, Pakistanis and on Pakistani Muslims. The tragedy is that too many Pakistanis remain agnostic on the Talibanization threat and even more who are afraid of or reluctant to raise their voices against them.
There is clearly a need to counter the propaganda of those who would have us believe that the Taliban are opposed only by a few “liberal elites.” But equally important – even more important – is the need to acknowledge and somehow deal with the deep fissures and divisions within Pakistani society. Indeed, if there is any one unambiguous truth about Pakistan today it is that we are a deeply divided society. Deeply divided on many of the most existential questions about the country’s past, present and future: Including on questions of what the Taliban represent and how they should be dealt with. It is this division that the Taliban are exploiting. Until these societal fissures are somehow addressed neither military action, nor political strategy, nor international intervention will make any difference whatsoever.
Since prophet of Islam and his companions were illiterate therefore Muslims should accept every illiterate person coming down the pike as their savior! If reading and writing is irrelevant then why do we send our children to school. Why did you and I go to school. We could just all sit in a cave and wait till God sends his angel upon us. Taleban seekers of truth? You can not be serious? Are you? I say it again. Taleban have nothing to do with Islam and religion. They are a bunch of illiterate, brutal murderers out there to destroy Pakistan. They are not fit to run the country or the religion. But then I also blame Pakistanis for the rise of such people.
Zecchetti, please don’t abuse the name of the prophet (PBUH) by mentioning the kafir Taliban with him.. these are killers of Muslims and abusers of Islam. All Taliban and all Taliban supporters, here or elsewhere, are enemies of Islam because these are the people killing more Muslims than anyone else. The Taliban and those who support them and their killing of Muslims are all enemies of Islam and that is exactly how Rasulullah would have dealt with them.
@PMA,
Did you know that Rasulullah sallallahu ‘alayhi wasalam and many of the sahabah were illiterate? Yes, they went onto establish the most literate and knowledgeable nation/community on the planet, but what this does teach us is that you don’t have to be literate to know the truth and fight for the truth.
As such, all this talk about the Taleban being illiterate is totally irrelevant.
“How can religion be dumb in state affairs?? Who will see to it that the parliament doesn
Adnan Siddiqi: Islam is for the literate where as Taleban are illiterate people. What do they have to do with the religion? And what is so ‘Western’ about that? It is not just the clerics, military dictators, politicians, sardars and nawabs to be blamed. It is ALL of us, including people like you and me to be blamed for the mess we are in. Clerics are just filling in the gap created by the absence and apathy of the urban upper middles classes.