Showing posts with label viewpoint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label viewpoint. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
DAWN: THE militants’ tactical retreat from Buner, an armed operation against them in Dir and some formal assurances by the army top brass have given most Pakistanis a sense of respite. It should now be possible to comprehend the neo-Taliban phenomenon without which they cannot be overcome.
The armed bands engaged in terrorist activities in the northern parts of Pakistan are called neo-Taliban because it is necessary to distinguish them from the Taliban that overran Afghanistan in the 1990s and about whom conservative Pakistanis entertain some wholesome notions. They condone the Afghan Taliban’s excesses against women and their animalistic hostility to arts and culture, because they want to see the same done in Pakistan. At the same time these elements still praise the Afghan Taliban for unifying their country, for checking violent disorder and for disarming non-state militias. And, latterly, they are hailed for resisting foreign intrusion.
While the neo-Taliban operating against Pakistan can outdo the Afghan Taliban in their animus towards women and democratic institutions, they display none of the characteristics attributed to the latter by their Pakistani supporters. Unlike the Afghan Taliban they are dividing Pakistan and not consolidating its unity; they are increasing violent disorder and not suppressing it; and they are raising non-state militias, not disarming the existing ones.
Finally, the Afghan Taliban could claim to be fighting for their motherland and resisting ‘imperialism’; the neo-Taliban have invaded their patrons’ motherland and are fighting for a brand of imperialism Allama Iqbal had denounced in his 1930 address. Thus, the neo-Taliban cannot be favourably compared with their Afghan predecessors.
A large number of Pakistanis have been confused by the neo-Taliban’s rhetoric that they want to enforce the Islamic Sharia. Nothing can be further from the truth. The neo-Taliban’s precursors in Afghanistan too were not driven by their love of the Sharia. For all one knows, Hikmatyar, Rabbani and Masud, targets of the Taliban offensive, also swore by the Sharia. The Afghan Taliban had a definite political objective — to capture Afghanistan for themselves. The neo-Taliban too have a purely political objective — to establish their rule in a part of Pakistan and if possible over the whole of it. >>> By I.A. Rehman | Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
ARAB NEWS: A number of Islamic scholars and leading political figures have called for a boycott of Dutch products in protest at the film by Dutch MP Geert Wilders which attacks the Qur’an and equates Islam with violence.
It is a revolting, blasphemous and deliberately insulting film. The desire not to let this abomination pass without response is wholly understandable. Nonetheless there is little logic to a boycott. It is not the Dutch who have committed this outrage. It is an individual — albeit an MP — but one who does not represent the Dutch mainstream. It would be different if the film had been made by the Dutch government or a member of the Dutch royal family or had been approved by the Dutch Parliament.
In fact, the Dutch government has resolutely condemned the film — Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende went on television to castigate it and its maker — while Dutch TV stations have refused to show it and there has been widespread public disapproval. Moreover, at the last election, Dutch voters specifically rejected the far right with its anti-Muslim agenda. Editorial: Wilders’ Film >>> | April 18, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
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