Pakistan has been playing with fire for decades .... and people playing with fire always get burnt in the end. On the one hand, Pakistan's been promoting the Taliban inside Afghanistan, to keep the country destabilised, but on the other, the Pakistani army is increasingly finding itself fighting a war against the Taliban inside Pakistan.
Ever since General Zia Ul Haq Islamised the country, its been sliding into a supine acceptance of Sharia law as the only legal and moral framework for the country, whilst becoming increasingly a hard-line Taliban ridden and intolerant society, where women's rights are going backwards .... but we have a saying in the West which is that you reap what you sow.
 |
| Pakistan Taliban - Picture Of The Merciless Killers Of Children |
Ever since General Zia Ul Haq Islamised the country, its been sliding into a supine acceptance of Sharia law as the only legal and moral framework for the country, whilst becoming increasingly a hard-line Taliban ridden and intolerant society, where women's rights are going backwards .... but we have a saying in the West which is that you reap what you sow.
The thing about it is is that the more you Islamify (or any religion actually) a country, the more its populations tolerance towards violence towards 'others'
is built up ... in Pakistan, attacks on Shia's have been bloody and
violent, but more or less silently condoned by the Sunni majority (there certainly has been no movement to stop Sunni's committing the crimes).
Similarly casual street violence towards the tiny Christian community
is not preached against in mosques. Woman are routinely controlled and
killed in honour crimes, with the tacit if silent approval of the elder
males ... the 7th century mores are in full force in many areas.
Once a society is saturated in blood to the extent that Pakistan is, then the men of violence find little resistance towards crossing what ever lines there are left in the sand. In Syria and Iraq, minority groups women are routinely raped and used as sex slaves, their children treated in much the same manner. Little is said about this in the Arab or Pakistani press because, well its kinda OK isn't it? Qur'an (5:51/52) 'O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other;' and other such remarks from the holy book.
Then when hundreds are killed in a mosque attack on Shia's, well its bad, but they are unbelievers and we know what the book says about that .... so how big a line is it to cross, to target army school children? Apparently, not much ....especially if the attackers believe they are revenging their own families deaths.
The murder of over a hundred school children in an army sponsored school in Pakistan is a very tragic event, but surely was predictable, as the dual policy of feeding the Taliban in Afghanistan, whilst trying to muzzle them in Pakistan, was bound to come unstuck eventually .... matters have moved on since the 1980's.
The fact that the poor victims now are increasingly Sunni's, means that now the main Pakistani community cries out, that its against Islam's teachings .... but what about the Christian or Yazidis children in Syria and Iraq? Where were the cries when Shia children are killed in Sunni Taliban bomb blasts in Pakistan? .... this latest tragedy was inevitable once Pakistan stopped being a secular state, and started committing acts of violence on other groups with no protests.
The Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are now looking to what 'I.S.I.S' in Iraq and Syria is doing, and the rise of the other Caliphates in Arab and African lands, are the new benchmarks of jihadist ambition, and that's exactly what Pakistan is likely to find developing in the badlands of Helmand and North Warizstan ....
Once a society is saturated in blood to the extent that Pakistan is, then the men of violence find little resistance towards crossing what ever lines there are left in the sand. In Syria and Iraq, minority groups women are routinely raped and used as sex slaves, their children treated in much the same manner. Little is said about this in the Arab or Pakistani press because, well its kinda OK isn't it? Qur'an (5:51/52) 'O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other;' and other such remarks from the holy book.
Then when hundreds are killed in a mosque attack on Shia's, well its bad, but they are unbelievers and we know what the book says about that .... so how big a line is it to cross, to target army school children? Apparently, not much ....especially if the attackers believe they are revenging their own families deaths.
The murder of over a hundred school children in an army sponsored school in Pakistan is a very tragic event, but surely was predictable, as the dual policy of feeding the Taliban in Afghanistan, whilst trying to muzzle them in Pakistan, was bound to come unstuck eventually .... matters have moved on since the 1980's.
The fact that the poor victims now are increasingly Sunni's, means that now the main Pakistani community cries out, that its against Islam's teachings .... but what about the Christian or Yazidis children in Syria and Iraq? Where were the cries when Shia children are killed in Sunni Taliban bomb blasts in Pakistan? .... this latest tragedy was inevitable once Pakistan stopped being a secular state, and started committing acts of violence on other groups with no protests.
The Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are now looking to what 'I.S.I.S' in Iraq and Syria is doing, and the rise of the other Caliphates in Arab and African lands, are the new benchmarks of jihadist ambition, and that's exactly what Pakistan is likely to find developing in the badlands of Helmand and North Warizstan ....
Pakistan may not be able to turn back from the course it has followed for decades, there is apparently no real appetite amongst its backward patriarchal masses to return to secular law with minority and women's rights respected, and maybe its actually entering the first phase of becoming yet another failed Muslim state.
Time will tell if this is a final and last chance for the Pakistani leadership to realise exactly what abyss they are staring down, or if they just bluster, make a few futile show blows, and then in a few months carry on as before .... the bailing of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the man India accuses of ordering the Mumbai Atack suggests not everyone is on board with the idea that there are no good Taliban.
So if its the latter course, then they have crossed the Rubicon, and really are heading for a collapse.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.
Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.
Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.
Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.
Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.