Adil Najam
Some 70 people are dead. Nearly a dozen of them were children. Most at a mosque in Darra Adem Khel as they assembled for Juma prayers. Others at a mosque in Sulaiman Khel during Isha prayers. According to Dawn, both were mosques frequented by anti-Taliban tribal elders in Northwest Pakistan.
The purveyors of hatred continue with their murderous spree. Their methods are extreme and extremely inhuman. But their pathology stems from the same pathology of righteousness that seems to thrive in a society where everyone seems to believe that we and we alone have a monopoly on truth and anyone who dares not agree, even in the slightest, with whatever we believe in should be crushed. The tactics of those who hate are the same everywhere. Assert your own righteousness. Hurt, not just to inflict pain, but to spread fear. Attack systemicly and systematically. Take no prisoners.
The institutionalization of righteousness and the instrumentalities of hate (grenades and a possible suicide jacket in this case) are killing us. And we need to confront the purveyors of hatred everywhere. As we have written so many times before, our first priority has to be to bring those committing these acts to justice, and visibly; but we need to be equally attentive to rejecting every other form of self-righteous hatred and loathing – because when we do not, then this is what hate leads to (I realize that these pictures are extremely graphic – which is why we have placed them after the break). Because hate breeds on itself. Small hate, left unchecked, becomes big hate. And this is what huge hate looks like.
Some comments from the ATP Facebook page:
– “the price of working with extremists=death. The price of working against extremists=death. pretty messed up situation.”
– “Every nation has its dark times. Currently Pakistan, along with a few others, is going through its dark time. These bombings will not last forever. The only sensible thing we can do is to educate people. Have agreements with the extremist along with infiltrating them through espionage and make their institution weaker internally. If we start today, hopefully our coming generation will be safe from this. It took years for these extremists to be born and is going to take decades before they die out since they’ve multiplied.”
– “:( heartrndng”
– “al ajal Ya Imam(a.s) :(”
– ” abhe tak tu ya bhe confirm nhe ha ka waqai mai ya TAliban ha bhe ya nhe kyu ka hamain tu Dhamaka ka Foran baad bata detay ha TAliban na Zimadari Qabool kar li .. MEri souch ya ha ka ya TAliban nhe karsakta na Hi Koi MUslim. YA koi Aur log ha jo ya sab karwa rahay ALLAH MB ANTI-Muslim like ULFA Hindus Terrorist organization.
YA ALLAH JO LOG BHE KHUDKUSH DHAMAKA AUR MULK DUSHMAN HA UN KO HIDAYAT DA AGAR UN KA NASEEB MAI HIDAYAT NHE TU UNHAY TABHAH-O-BARBAD KARDAY”
– “Allah in Quran admonish Muslims not to become like people of book. Whoever kills one soul unjustly kills all mankind,
“That was why We wrote for the Children of Israel that who ever killed a soul, except for a soul slain, or for sedition in the earth, it should be considered as though he had killed all mankind; and that who ever saved it should be regarded as though he had saved all mankind. Our Messengers brought them proofs; then many of them thereafter commit excesses in the earth. [5:32]”
Meanwhile we have to take very precariousness before laying any blame on anyone, Allah says:
“Believers, if an evildoer brings you a piece of news, inquire first, in case you should unwittingly wrong others and then repent of what you have done.[49:6]”
What I am trying to say that there is huge agenda and propaganda behind these incidents. There is not doubt that enemies of Islam patronizing such diabolic actions causing Muslims to fight each other. I am not taking side of Taliban. I don’t know even who they are? Before 9/11 anyone knew Taliban by their name? It is just a myth to spread fear, hate, and enmity among Muslims.
Allah knows best.”
– “This must be a new record…even by our high standards.”
– “allah maf karay allah k ghar may blast”
– “Yet! Another very sad day for the pepple of khyber pakhtoonkhawa…”
– “YA ALLAH…..HER TEERGI MAIN TU NE UTAARI HAI ROSHNI……….AB KHUD UTER K AA K SIAH TER HAI KAAINAAT”
– “Very sad”
– “”
how come ‘islamists” and their appologists are not going crazy over the destruction of mosques and copies of Holy Quran when someone blow ups inside the mosque killing not only fellow muslims but also destroying everything that is sacred to their religious believes?
It is sad that things have degenerated so much in Pakistan. A combination of corrupt and ineffectual governence, religious extremism, and what you call “pathology of righteousness” can only bear this toxic fruit.
I think Allah started to punish Pakistanis in 1977 for their “service to islam” in 1974, first by imposing Gen. Zia on them. Gen Zia = Azab-i-Ilahi (Allah’s wrath on Pakistani nation).
And it never ends ….