The killing of nine Shia Muslims near an Imambargah in Malir, Karachi, puts us on notice that religious terrorism is not at an end; and that the government remains responsible for it in more ways than one. Because of dereliction on the part of the government, more disorder is now in store. Already, the mourners of the latest victims have gone on the rampage, attacking two fast food American franchises in the city.
| That makes sense. It wasn't Americans who attacked the mosque, but Kentucky Fried Chicken owners are less likely to be armed and dangerous than the people who did. |
Allama Sajid Naqvi, the leader of banned Shia religious party, was found fulminating against America in Lahore; and Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan was supposed to have said that this was âan act of the enemyâ, implying the usual âforeign handâ. The police chief has vented his self-righteous anger by suspending a few of his Malir officers. The terrorists were not caught and most probably will never be caught.
Up until recently, whenever there was a terrorist incident in Pakistan (ie: every other day) the Indian counterpart to the ISI got the blame, but nowadays the Americans have taken over as the Mullahs favourite boogeyman. Of course the Pakistani media are full of stories about Mossad being active fighting alongside the Indians in Kashmir, as part of that well known Hindu-Jewish-Crusader conspiracy against Pakistan
The systematic Shia murders that took place in Karachi targeted the countryâs best doctors and industrialists in 1998-99; and the murderers were not caught because the jihad was on full steam.
You can't demoralise the Jihadis by arresting their buddies just because they murder a bunch of doctors and businessmen, after all, these guys are doing the army's dirty work!
Many of them were caught later when, after the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, the Americans put pressure on us and brought in the FBI. All of them belonged to the jihadi militias fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir. One by one, all the killings that we had routinely attributed to the âenemy abroadâ were laid at the door of the jihadis who had concentrated in Karachi as a safe haven along with their Arab friends.
Good thing these sectarian groups have promised to be good boys, so there shouldn't be anymore problems
The latest research tells us that the madrassas continue to be nurseries of hatred and extreme views. In comparison with students from Urdu and English medium schools, a survey found that over 60 per cent of the respondents in seminarians are opposed to giving rights to the minorities. What is remarkable is that despite indoctrination 60 per cent of the pupils from the other two education streams responded positively to giving rights to the minorities, proving once again that the general non-clerical population of the country is neither sectarian nor warlike in its thinking. In response to the question whether equal rights could be given to Ahmedis and Hindus, the Urdu school response was nearly equally divided, but the seminarian response was negative up to 80 per cent. Not surprisingly, the English medium schools were pluralist in their thinking with over 60 per cent positive responses. No wonder the Brussels-based International Crisis Group chaired by former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, expressed its dissatisfaction last year with Pakistanâs response to the UN directive to reform its madrassas.
So nearly 40% of English language schools of the middle class are opposed to equal rights for the infidels, and they are considered bastions of pluralist thinking? |