Terrible news from Pakistan this morning where another terrorist attack has caused carnage and loss of life. It’s an obvious act of retaliation from the Taliban who are currently being hammered in Swat.
Beyond the tragedy of this bombing there is an important subtext to all this.
Events like this bombing should remind ordinary Muslims – that’s you and me – who believe in the faith of Islam that we’re the primary target of these terrorists who believe in implementing their ideological and politicised version of Islam. They persecute and kill far more Muslims than anyone else.
Just look at what those animals from Taliban did to this 17 year old girl once they had control of Swat (I should warn you that the video is very, very distressing):
I have never got through that video without being moved to tears. But you have to watch it because that’s the kind of barbarism we’re up against. That video is the reality of what all these Islamist groups want, including those who operate in Britain.
Ordinary Muslims – that’s you and me – need to rise up against this kind of extremism now more than ever. And we have to be unequivocal in our condemnation of Islamists and the terrorism they promote whether its in Lahore or London, Jakarta or Jerusalem. It’s all the same thing – and we have to stand against it.
At it’s core, there is a battle taking place for the very soul of Islam and the future direction of our faith. In that context, we must develop a forward-looking, progressive and pluralistic Islam which will fatally undermine extremism and ensure that the Islamists don’t win.
We can never let the mad mullahs ride to power again.
19 Comments
Shikwa – what almost moved me to tears and distressed me was what the horrible Islamists have done in Somalia to a poor 13 year old girl! They stoned her to death, after she approached the Shebab for justice becuase she was gang raped. Instead they accused her of adultary! At the age of 13!!! If she can’t seek justice from them, then where? The practically failed Somali government is bowing to these hard core misogynistic perverts in Somalia! I talk about the Shebab’s disgusting behaviour in a previous entry: http://www.spittoon.org/archives/271
From my reading, this is most likely a Taliban response to military campaigns in the north-west, but underlying it is the long-standing ethnic clash between the largely Punjabi national army and the tribal Pushtun refugees displaced from the north-western border.
Not that I’m backing the Pushtuns and their obscurantist religious tendencies and the medievalist treatment of their own women, but as an ethnic group, they have been seriously fucked over by the Punjabis over the years. The situation is bad and getting worse.
Let us all pray for an end to this terrible violence in Pakistan – it is truly heart-breaking to every day watch the endless killing of Muslims by their own brothers.
What has become of us all that we so persecute our own brethren?
Fiyaz
Tari
Tariq Ali reckons this is all solely a reaction to US drone attacks and attempts to stifle Taliban advances in Afghanistan – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/03/pakistan-srilanka – dont forget boys and girls, this is all America’s fault, the Taliban have no agenda, they are simply fighting for equality and justice in the face of the Great Satan. Thats why they like to pin down little girls and beat them senseless, right? Those damn Americans with their equal rights for women, and laws against beating them, are they mad?!
ho ho, Uncle Tariq is a loveable old communist but he doesn’t half talk out of his arse.
How can such an impressive intellectual be so blind? It really is amazing how anti-Americanism can cloud the view of even our most brilliant fellow mammals.
Do you really think he’s an impressive intellectual?
He’s an intellectual but completely blinded by his communist ideals. Very anti-Islamist too and actually anti-Islam in that he is a hardened atheist.
****CROSS POSTED @Harry’s Place
@Shikwa/شكوة/شكوى
A few things…and I hope you’ll indulge my curiosity:
I’m not very familiar with Urdu/Panjabi, but in Sylheti dialect they use the word Shikwah to mean ‘complaint’ or ‘protestation’ and it’s a cognate of the Arabic term for ‘complaint’. You’re the first person I’ve come across with that name though.
Events like this bombing should remind ordinary Muslims – that’s you and me – who believe in the faith of Islam that we’re the primary target of these terrorists who believe in implementing their ideological and politicised version of Islam. They persecute and kill far more Muslims than anyone else.
I absolutely agree. That’s the point. And why more Western Muslims who are familiar with the way democracy works in places like the UK, need to convince ordinary Pakistanis, Indians and Bengalis that they have a choice. Just because someone says that Allah has mandated the shari’ah penal code for all Muslims, doesn’t make it so. Muslims need to support other Muslims to find their voices and condemn human rights abuses.
Just look at what those animals from Taliban did to this 17 year old girl once they had control of Swat (I should warn you that the video is very, very distressing)
Whilst I certainly don’t condone the implementation of the hudood and I personally found this video appalling, I think it’s simplistic to say that this sort of punishment is the norm. The impression many in the UK have of Islamic shari’ah is mainly influenced by their view of the harsh punishments advocated for some crimes. The hudood form just one small component of the vast body of uncodified Islamic law, with stoning and flagellation used as deterrents when all other sanctions have failed. It has become too easy to associate barbaric punishments like this and Islam in general. I think you need to make this clear.
Whipps Crossed Lad:-
These barbaric punishments that are ordained in Islamic law are quite clear to myself and many others others who have read the tenets of Islam. I can’t at this moment bring to mind any other country or religion who still have archaic practises like this written into their legal system. And looking at the number of hangings in Iran it does not seem that these inhuman corrective practises are few and far between.
How much of this happens that does not get reported in the west? I think we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg. I know in Iran they do not hang (slow strangulation by crane) so many in public as they realised the west thought it offensive and that in Nigeria they are not now cutting off hands for theft because they did not want the democratic countries to think the Nigerian people were backward!
If you think this does not happen to muslimas behind closed doors in democratic countries you must be dreaming. Asking muslim males to set aside the rights over their females that Islam entitles them to, is like asking rivers to run upstream.
Where else, besides Islam, does one see this. (In general, of course)?
@Kiwi
Whipps Crossed Lad:-
In case you thought that my moniker was some sort of pun connected with the video…it’s not. Whipps Cross is in East London.
I can’t at this moment bring to mind any other country or religion who still have archaic practises like this written into their legal system.
Saudi would be one country where the basis of legislation is the Qur’an and Sunnah; Iran is another. The northern, mainly Hausa-speaking states of Nigeria have adopted shari’ah to different extents. To the best of my knowledge, only in Kano are shari’ah criminal punishments exacted.
How much of this happens that does not get reported in the west? I think we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg.
It helps, obviously, if you can monitor local news in the language concerned. For instance, many Arabic newspapers in the ME routinely report so-called honour crimes; revenge killings etc. I believe that one can view some executions on Saudi TV. Obviously, much of what goes on in Afghanistan goes unreported, at least in English. Pakistan though, has a vibrant press and many bloggers willing to report goings-on in both Urdu and English.
Rather than being just the tip of the iceberg, I get the feeling that Western news agencies often ‘cherrypick’ news to suit their own news agendas. After all, other than terrorist attacks, sectarian violence and the ‘Islam is bad’ motif, how much real news do we get from Pakistan unless we actively seek it out?
If you think this does not happen to muslimas behind closed doors in democratic countries you must be dreaming.
Nonsense. Though your use of the attempted transliteration ‘Muslimah’ is revealing.
Of course, just as in other religious, and ‘secular’ communities, there is domestic violence, but the suggestion that flagellation is employed by Muslims in the UK for example, is preposterous. There was a case last year of a Shi’i Muslim coercing his sons, (I think sons plural – Google it) somewhere in Manchester, into taking part in the passion plays enacted to commemorate the Festival of ‘Ashura and Husayn’s martyrdom at Kerbala. Some of the commemorations involve the practice of self-flagellation using zanajir (lit. ‘chains’), but by no means all Shi’i Muslims observe this custom.
There have been reports examining corporal punishment in some kuttabs/madrasahs in the UK with some disturbing findings and honour killings, coercion in marriage are a major problem. Don’t forget that Hindus and Sikhs are also involved in honour violence, and there is much the same prohibition of interfaith marriage, and even intercaste marriage amongst these communities.
Asking muslim males to set aside the rights over their females that Islam entitles them to, is like asking rivers to run upstream.
You’re guilty of the most simplistic essentialising. Consider this sentence:
“Asking Christian females to close their legs on holiday is like trying to part the Red Sea again.”
If someone said this to me, I would be incensed because it’s clearly not true by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, it springs from a prejudice that some Arab men, for example, have about European women.
Where else, besides Islam, does one see this. (In general, of course)?
Recently Hindu fanatics went on the rampage in India opposing St Valentine’s Day as ‘un-Indian’ behaviour. Google ‘Hindu extremists’ or ‘Sikh extremists’ and you’ll see that God has an equal opportunities sense of humour (or not as the case may be).
Not that I’m backing the Pushtuns and their obscurantist religious tendencies and the medievalist treatment of their own women, but as an ethnic group, they have been seriously fucked over by the Punjabis over the years. The situation is bad and getting worse.
…and another Shi’i president to boot…’they’ must be really brassed off.
@ Kiwi,
I’m not excusing regimes like the Iranian regime which are vile and must come to end. However, you ask which other country executes more people, well, look at China. China executes more people than anyone else in the world – more than the Saudis, more than the Iranians. And, of course, the Chinese are not Muslim!
Evil comes in many forms. Yes, many of those who perpetrate it currently act in the name of Islam. But there’s lots of evil out there by people who are not Muslim too.
I posted a comment on this same article at Harry’s Place. It was deleted. I then posted a short comment noting that my coment had been deleted. The second comment was deleted. I am not sure who or why it was censored, but this is not good for anybody – Muslims or old infidels like me.
I will post my original comment here, because it represents a view that needs to be heard. If it is deleted, so be it. It hurts you more than it hurts me.
Here is the posting I made about this article on the Hurryupharry blog this morning:
Quote: we must develop a forward-looking, progressive and pluralistic Islam which will fatally undermine extremism and ensure that the Islamists don’t win.
As to the “forward-looking, progressive and pluralistic” islam, a look at history indicates that this occured only when many orthodox aspects of Islam were put asside and when Muslims interacted freely with non-Muslims (ex: Abbasyds and Andalusia).
The problem is that what is typically called “barbarism” or “radical Islam” is the pure Islam of Mohammed. What the Mullahs are doing is just following the instructions and example of their dear prophet. The Quran is very clear: Muslims are to attack, fight and subdue infidels. Mohammed conducted dozens of raids and battles against his peaceful neighbors. He did surprise attacks, often by night. He plundered, killed, tortured, enslaved men women and children, and let his men rape captives. These things are clearly stated in Islam’s traditions (hadith), accepted by 99.9% of all Muslims. If you read the Quran, you will find that Mohammud even attacked Muslims and mosques (because of unbelief). These things don’t bother the so-called “progressive” Muslims. Think about that!
Any condemnation of Islamists and the terrorism without a condemnation of the source of that terror is worthless. The beating of the girl was barbaric but it was done according to instructions in Islam’s sacred writings. So… beating girl, bad – books that say to beat girl, good.
The so-called moderates cannot beat the so-called extremists on doctrine. If the moderates find one verse to support their claims, the radicals will respond with two. The moderates will lose any argument because the radicals have Islam on their side. So-called “ordinary Muslims” are just people that ignore facts and refuse to be honest about the evils that Islam teaches (would any Muslim care to justify cutting of fingertips or pouring boiling water over an infidel’s head?). They make excuses and blame others for the actions of the radicals. In a way, by their dishonesty, they contribute to the evil that is Islam. They will not stand up for non-Muslims and human rights when the Mullahs are knocking at the door. They will bow their heads and accept the evils done in the name of Islam. Do you doubt this? Look at Muslim societies. Do they fight for the rights of women and minorities? Do they permit freedom of speech and conscience? Do they believe in equality? Why should I believe that Muslims in the West are different from those in Muslim dominated countries? They just don’t have the numbers to impose their vile ideology, yet.
For years now (since 9/11) we have been hearing about how the “moderates” need to “re-take” Islam. Ask yourself if they have been making any progress. Now ask yourself why. Think!
There is no such thing as a ‘moderate’ Muslim. The radicals preach hate and kill, the moderates make excuses and look the other way.
Kactuz
That was basically what I posted. I am willing and able to back up any reference in my commentss with links to original Islamic texts (Quran and ahadith) on Muslim sites, of course.
The good people of Swat ought to watch some European videos. You know, the ‘Schoolgirl Spanking Video’ genre, to learn how it’s done properly.
Can the EU find funding to send a team to Swat to teach the locals?
Bill, that’s a weak and crass attempt at humour, even for you.
J. Kactuz ought to post a link to his site. It was possible to whizz there from HP for about ten minutes and then s/he [June?] was cast into outer darkness by the mods.
It is to be hoped that we can look forward to more exotic S&M clips [preferably with tribal music in the background] on this site. Very Harry Flashman!
Mixing such stimulating fare with erudite discussion is a novel idea and one to be universally admired and adopted!
@ Whipps Cross lad
Yup – but pointing out that China has the record for executions and that the Indian sects practice honour killings does not excuse or exonerate the violence towards women in Islam. You can’t play the “oh well they do it’ so it is alright if we do it too. And it would be so much better if you were not so patronising – another problem with the many muslim males I have met.
What really concerns me is that educated men in this century can still follow an ideology, and even argue on behalf of it, when it is so obviously belongs in history and goes against most modern dictates of humanity.
Would you use medical advice that prevailed in those days?
As for flagellation being used to keep muslim wives and daughters in line in the UK your use of the word preposterous is ridiculous! Over here they use electrical cords.
Of course, if you have friends in the medical profession you can have the females that are too recalcitrant locked up in a phsychiatric hospital.
And obviously I cannot read the middle eastern or ‘Asian” languages of their local rags – they are not languages that would have sprung to mind as being necessary when I was pursuing my career. I used French in Europe and Te Reo (Maori) here .
Please don’t think that what is happening in Islam passes over the heads of Kiwis and Aussies, all the world fears the Islamic presence and its retrograde ideology (by the way, Maoris were cannibals in 1850) but they progressed with education and superior standards of living). Why can’t Islam?