Perils of Arundhati Roy Style Liberalism
Raza Habib Raja As a philosophy liberalism is more inward looking and hence does not try to shift blame on the outside forces. By its orientation, it also does not have an overly negative assumption about human nature and consequently is not obsessed with crime and punishment. It believes in the rationality of humans and further assumes that human intelligence is capable of creating an artifice where ethnic, linguistic and other such “ natural” differences can … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Imperialism, India, Marxism, Taliban
Irrational Patriotism and Pakistan
Raza Habib Raja In Pakistan, watching the media talk shows can be an enlightening and in fact entertaining experience. The “pearls” of wisdom uttered in these talk shows are a testimony to the intellectual orientation of the hosts, participants and unfortunately even the regular viewers who have become addicted to this Pakistani version of Indian soap operas. Like Indian soap operas, these talk shows aim to create melodrama, controversy and try their level … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Education, FATA, Taliban, Terrorism, Uncategorized, USA
Taliban are Today’s Kharjites
by Amaar Ahmad The fourth Caliph of Islam and the Holy Prophet (pbuh)’s son in law Ali bin Abu Talib was martyred by a member of the Kharjite movement because Ali had “deviated” from Islam in their view. ”Obedience to Allah and mutual consultation” was their slogan for which they branded any Muslim a heretic and liable for death. Using brutal violence against women and children, they tried but ultimately failed to impose their beliefs on society. Today, the Taliban and their Takfiri supporters are following the exact same violent path to their own oblivion. Years before the first American drone took off, these Taliban were killing Hazara Shia and Iranian diplomats, blowing off Buddha statues in Bamiyan and denying women their fundamental and Islamic right to education. Contrary to politicians’ pronouncements, military operations in Swat … Read entire article »
A Battle of Ideas
by Abdul Majeed Abid “When I knew that they were burning our schools, I thought they were burning education, they were burning books. I have to be educated. I’ll be educated no matter what the odds.” Malala Yousafzai Last Week’s attack on Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year old beacon of hope from Swat, garnered all sorts of reactions. Most people were shocked by the brutality of the perpetrators. The timing of that attack, in my opinion, was an extremely unfortunate one as it co-incided with the ending of PTI’s “Peace March” towards Waziristan. Attack on Malala has been construed as a stepping stone to military operation in Waziristan, a primer that turns public opinion towards a certain tilt. Conspiracy theories have been spun at an alarming pace about involvement of various Intelligence Agencies … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy, Education, FATA, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, violence, Women
Isn’t shifting blame away from Taliban treason against Pakistan?
By Amaar Ahmed: If Pakistan’s founder Jinnah were alive today, he would be the number one target of Taliban. He satisfies all their criteria: a liberal with Shia background who considered Ahmadis as Muslims. But in today’s Pakistan, Taliban would not even spare a 14-year old girl Malala Yousefzai. Yet conservative religious-political persons would not call out these mindless barbarians. Would making an excuse for violence by Taliban or putting blame elsewhere not be treason against Pakistan then? There is only up to a point that naive belief in their mythical ‘goodness’ and utter falsehoods spun for them could have been tolerated. After a point, that blind faith becomes duplicity. If the Taliban themselves do not deny their acts of barbarism and also publicly relish their brutality there is simply no room for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Taliban
El Che and Sheikh Osama
By Saad Hafiz: It has been reported from the interrogation of the Bin Laden widows in Pakistan that Osama Bin Laden admired Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. Che Guevara was the charismatic Argentine-Cuban revolutionary and close confidante of Fidel Castro, who was executed in Bolivia in 1967. It is worth exploring Bin Laden’s admiration for Che beyond just as a fellow political outlaw and rebel against US domination. There are definitely some eerie similarities in the story of the life and death of Che and Bin Laden, the most conspicuous being that both men had ‘declared war’ on the United States and also suffered violent death in actions which smacked of US frontier justice. We know that the Americans extracted their pound of flesh in Bin Laden’s case in a brutal fashion with elite … Read entire article »
Filed under: Taliban, Uncategorized
How Trolls are confounding the Shia Rights Discourse
by Abdul Majeed An article recently published in a notorious blog went on to criticize The Friday Times, Raza Rumi, Saleem Javed, Khaled Ahmad and Ali Chishti,because they dared to use the word “sectarian killings” instead of “Shia genocide” which is the term favored by the author of that post. The article also posited that there is a systemic genocide committed against Shias and that the #DeepState is somehow promoting it. The author did not specify exactly what benefit the #DeepState gets if they are actually complicit, when all it does is to actually compromise and damage its own writ and control. The article wanted us to believe that “Sectarian Violence/Genocide” is being “mis-represented” as a Proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article mentioned the plight of the Hazara … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Citizens, Democracy, Iran, Islam, Media, Pakistan, quetta, Religion, Society, Taliban, Uncategorized, USA
Fallacies that befuddle the ‘educated’ Pakistani mind
by Abdul Majeed Wise people always say, Do not try to present complex matters in black and white terms as it will defeat the purpose. To quote Paul Valery: “That which is simple is always false; that which is not simple is always unusable”. Kala Kawa, a widely read blogger, recently wrote, “Something I Wrote On Pakistan Day”. In that particular blogpost, the blogger expressed his opinion about “confronting your own biases or assumptions” and “middle class … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Conservation, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, Women
The Curious Case of Difa e Pakistan Council
Difa-e-Pakistan is an Urdu word meaning Defense of Pakistan. Difa-e-Pakistan Council means a council willing to/responsible for defending Pakistan. The semantics dictate that the said council should comprise of representatives of the armed forces, the para-military forces, domestic law enforcement agencies, defense ministry and foreign ministry. In fact, the esteemed council that has come to the fore recently consists of none of the above. In the words of the journalist Ejaz Haider, it’s a “circus”. Much … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Islam, Pakistan, Politics, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, Uncategorized
Servants, not masters!
Salman Latif While the wounds of Abbottabad’s ‘imperial insurgency’ were still fresh, a debate was going on in the GHQ. For the first time in the history of Pak Army, the Chief was vociferously questioned by the officials who were briefed by him about the entire operation. Some of them went as far as to suggest resignation for the entire top echelon. The interesting part, however, is that all the questions thrown to the Army Chief General Kayani revolved around the violation of national sovereignty and about the drone attacks. The officers demanded immediate bans on drone attacks and wished to know how could US violate international regulations and launch an attack on our land. Sadly, not one of the officials asked the … Read entire article »
Five Myths About Pakistan
We are cross posting this short but insightful post by Anatol Lieven where he discusses the five popular myths about Pakistan. In our view, these myths as much of a must-read for non-Pakistanis as they are for the Pakistani nation. (Editors, PTH) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, state, Taliban
The evil in our midst
By Saad Hafiz: “The Taliban are trying to purify our culture, they are trying to re-establish a purist Islamic culture and tradition,” a young middle class IT professional explained to me in Toronto in 1996. What worried me then was that this person was not a Taliban madrasah graduate living in Pakistan but a professional living in and enjoying the fruits of the “decadent” West. I remembered an earlier ideology based on purification … Read entire article »
Filed under: Taliban
Things More Important than Sovereignty and Honor
Zia Ahmad Two days ago, a motley crew of a handful militants raided and occupied a highly sensitive and supposedly heavily fortified Naval air base in Karachi. The ensuing battle lasted for sixteen plus hours at the cost of ten military personnel, fourteen injuries and two surveillance planes. Bear in mind, these are the official numbers. We can’t really blame the people if they find the official toll of damages suspect and assume a higher count of casualties. It is also said that a contingent of a hundred commandos was deployed to reclaim the naval base. Let’s run the numbers again: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, Karachi, Taliban, Terrorism, violence, Yusuf Raza Gillani
The Empire strikes back
By Saad Hafiz “I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden” a resolute looking President Obama announced to the world. America had violently dealt with another Public Enemy ala Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger. The moment smacks of frontier justice, but it was the only choice given the alternative of a long, drawn out trial and probable execution. Once the hoopla dies down, America must go back to addressing its growing 14 trillion dollar national debt and chronic 9% unemployment rate. Progress on cutting the debt and reducing unemployment will count more towards Obama’s reelection prospects than a dead Bin Laden. That Bin Laden had to be a US kill was a … Read entire article »
Legality of the Drone Attacks
By Yasser Latif Hamdani (First published in The Friday Times) The question of legality of American drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas is one that hits at the core of the laws of war and international law. Two questions need to be asked for us to better understand this debate. 1) Is the use of American drones on Pakistani soil to kill insurgents illegal? 2) Is the use of drone technology to target specific members of the Al Qaeda or Taliban permissible under international and American law? … Read entire article »
Filed under: Taliban
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