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Of Pakistan, Terrorism, and Confusion

That is why the arguments must focus on all possibilities - as I said, the discussion on support from the Arab nations must not stop, nor should the discussion on the ideological roots of terrorism in Pakistan stop. But at the same time it would be naive to dismiss the possibility of Indian involvement as well.

My argument is that all of the above can take place simultaneously - India does not have to get some sort of 'Holy Cow' status in this debate.

even i dont say that someone should be given the holy cow status.
"doodh ka dhula koi nahi hai"

but the point is that by pursuing so many possiblities, u end up diluting your efforts.

when u blame the external powers for the problems, part of the public will surely forget about the war of ideologies which is going on and will instead concentrate on beating the external forces.

u might deny it but external forces is much more catchy than a war of ideologies and finds more supporters just from the fact that its easier to blame them and fight them than to change ones own thinking.

hence the external forces will get more attention that they warrant and the efforts towards fighting the ideology will weaken.

i am sure that you will support me when i say that this is not a good thing to happen.
 
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Ghazala Minallah's letter of November 18 titled "For those who say it's not our war" was an eye-opener. We live in difficult times and face an enemy that we created ourselves sometime back. We glorified these militants and called them 'mujahideen'. Now they kill our brothers and sisters but we keep blaming 'foreign' elements for it instead of realising our own mistakes. How can the Zionists be blamed for the Taliban monster that was created during Ziaul Haq's regime? Are Iran and China under Jewish influence too since they see Pakistan as a centre of terrorist activities as well?

Even if it was America's war initially, it is ours now, and instead of confusing the masses and de-motivating the valiant jawans battling militants it would be better to accept harsh realities, identify the real threat, learn from our mistakes and defeat the enemy within. All democratic forces need to join hands and build a consensus at the national level over the war. We need to curb extremism in all its forms and manifestations. We must speak with one voice. It's our war, a war for the survival of Pakistan and everyone who hurts Pakistanis must be dealt with strongly.

Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi

Islamabad
 
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The Faulty Strategy of Muslims
Filed under: Uncategorized — Khalid Zaheer @ 8:18 pm
I find myself in a state of mind in these troubling times which is different from that of many otherwise likeminded Muslim brothers and sisters. I want to therefore state my mind:

I find many Muslim brothers spending a good part of their time accusing the US, the UK, Israel, and India of inflicting atrocities on Muslims and displaying double standards while dealing with Muslims. It is also quite often mentioned that there is a grand, global conspiracy against Islam and Muslims that is at the heart of whatever is happening in our times.

Although some of these allegations could be partly true, I find the activities of these brothers not only a futile exercise, but also one which is proving to be counter-productive. The reasons for my opinion are many: i) The addressees of these criticisms aren’t even listening to us. ii) Muslims are getting a false impression that there was nothing seriously wrong with them; all their woes owed themselves to the grand conspiracy of the western and some sinister eastern powers. The result is that Muslims are not doing at all what they needed to do the most during these times: to reform themselves morally and spiritually. iii) As a result of the strong criticism against the west, there is an east-west or Islam-kufr divide created which is highly inimical for the task of effectively disseminating the true message of Islam. We are losing many potential Umars because we find them in their first six years of the prophetic mission. iv) A false impression is being created that this world is being run not by God but by the US and its allies. Because had we believed that God was running the affairs of this world, instead of living with the negative mindset that has plagued many Muslims struggling to regain the lost glory of Islam, they would have focused on correcting themselves and believed in the Quranic message: “They plotted a plan (against the prophet) and Allah also designed a plan. And Allah is the best planner.” v) As a result of the emotional rhetoric of some Muslims, some others have taken up arms to undertake ‘Jihad’ against ‘Kufr’, thus causing not only hundreds and thousands of innocent lives to be lost but also tarnishing the good name of Islam. By indulging in this completely unnecessary war against the west, we are losing our innocent lives, military strength, and most importantly, the good image of Islam.

What then should we do? i) We should buy peace at all costs; focus our attention on moral, spiritual, and material progress of Muslims; ii) invite people, both Muslims and non-Muslims, to the true religion of God; iii) fight legally and politically –- and not militarily — our cases wherever our interests are being harmed; and iv) undertake a Jihad to remove poverty and ignorance — the two biggest enemies –- from Muslims.

http://http://blog.khalidzaheer.com/posts/date/2009/04/
 
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Talaban are bombing ???? Which Talaban ?????? AT or TTP ?????

Western media supported by zoinists regimes and neo cons is playing big propoganda game to defame talaban were once gaining role model in Islamic world during their rule with out any foriegn aid they sucessfully run the country which was challenge to capitalisim and uni polar US agenda.

TTP was created by Mosad and Indian nexus to damage the image of Afghan Talaban .

Warning, Warning, Warning: Being poor backward and ignorant religious fanatics is going to be a poor survival skill in the 21st Century.
 
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Warning, Warning, Warning: Being poor backward and ignorant religious fanatics is going to be a poor survival skill in the 21st Century.



Infact US entered in danger zone where have little resources left to contune war in Afghanistan, US economy is nearly exhausted , time is coming when US dont have money to pay the salary of soldiers:lol::lol::lol:
 
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Infact US entered in danger zone where have little resources left to contune war in Afghanistan, US economy is nearly exhausted , time is coming when US dont have money to pay the salary of soldiers:lol::lol::lol:

Theres cheaper ways to handle things.
 
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The convenient curtain of myth
Posted by Asif Akhtar in Featured Articles, Pakistan, Politics on 11 14th, 2009 |
Recently, I met some jihadis who have been in the business of holy war since the 1990s. I was surprised to hear that even though they were in support of the jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmir, they were opposed to the idea of destabilising Pakistan itself. When asked who was responsible for the suicide bombings and target killings they had an overarching theory to explain the tricky business. According to them, India, the United States, and Israel had colluded resources to create a super-agency to dishevel this entire region. Though they admitted that convincing a hardened jihadi that the government of Pakistan was also part of the enemy collaborative wasn’t too much of a stretch, they also added that a true jihadi would not be involved in the killing of innocent people.

Surprisingly enough, this whole India-US-Israel theory has a lot of popular currency these days in Pakistan, a country whose national sports should be lounge room politics and conspiracy theorising instead of cricket and hockey. The myriad of television talk-shows on every news channel are heavily relying on this theory of a triangulated axis of evil out to destroy Islam and Pakistan with one nifty stone’s throw of insurgent terror.

I don’t mean to dampen Pakistan’s highly built up superiority complex laced with self pity at the whole world’s always being out to get us, but has anyone ever thought of questioning why we always situate Pakistan at the centre of our world view? It is true that Pakistan is in the news a lot these days, and that the location of our borders in terms of resources and trade routes present significant geopolitical interests. But isn’t it a bit much to consider the current conflict in terms of issues that lie beyond the immediately obvious uses of Pakistan’s soil, and therefore hurl the current conflict in to the realm of myth and conspiracy?

Islamic mythology has obviously played a huge role in the formation of our national identity. It is telling that the history books we’re taught in school start from Mohenjodaro and Harappa, jump to the life of the Prophet in pagan Arabia, and then an interlude of early Islamic history until the likes of Muhammad bin Qasim finally brings Islam to the subcontinent. After that, the Muslim personalities involved in South Asian politics are closely followed up until the creation of Pakistan as a homeland for the Muslims.

Given this strange mix of religious indoctrination and nationalist propaganda, it isn’t a shock that our national identity is hopelessly intertwined with religion. The great ups and downs of our history are also then viewed though the mirror image of early Islamic Arabian history, starting with the Partition of 1947 where the oppressed Muslims in the land of infidels partake in a hijrah-like migration to greener pastures. This is also responsible for similar coinages as mohajir’s for people who migrated from the other side of the border, and of course the Muttahida Quami Movement as well. Looking across the border with the same deeply rooted scepticism through which we historically view pagan Mecca also comes with the national identity combo-meal.

After two wars with our neighbour that have been cloaked in the same historical-identity mirror as jihads which the Prophet Muhammad participated in – the 1965 war, where a small number of Muslims beat a larger threatening army of infidels akin to the scenario in Jang-e-Badar, and the 1971 war being similar to Jang-e-Uhad, where the Muslims suffered heavy losses owing to their greed and indiscipline. Kargil would then be seen as the Battle of the Trench, had it not ended with such a national disaster.

The idea of martyrdom has been historically very close to these times of crisis when national unity is a must. The list of the dozen or so shaheeds who gave their life for the country is also present in every textbook. Unfortunately, the idea of the martyr as a member of Pakistan’s armed forces has become one that is hotly contested in recent times, as the right to declare a martyr isn’t the sole prerogative of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The ISPR’s version of a shaheed in Waziristan is diametrically opposed to that of the TTP’s version of shaheed.

The same mujahids who valiantly fought in Kashmir and Afghanistan for Islam and Pakistan, seem to have turned on the Islamic Republic as the very fabric of propaganda which binds Islam with Pakistan is ruptured beyond repair. With the popularly elected government being portrayed as infidel rule propped up by the Americans, and the culture of the modern, westernised elites is labeled as shamelessness and excessive debauchery, it seems we’re caught in the middle of a storm where the hero can no longer be told apart from the enemy.

For decades, the enemy image coined in our heads has been that of the Islam-hating, darker-skinned Hindu at the eastern edge of our border. One can imagine how much violence the average Pakistanis’ worldview must have been subjected to when the heroic mujahid suddenly became the enemy, in less than a decade. A painful readjustment of the conventional enemy image is needed in order to re-galvanize the nation behind these destroyers of the idea of Pakistan.

This interesting transposition was evident in an armed forces award ceremony in which shaheeds from the current conflict were inducted into the ranks of those martyred in Pakistan’s conventional wars. The reenacted footage telegraphing each incident showed a mysterious tribal as the concealed enemy. The army also seems to be relying on foreigners being involved in the tribal areas as a way to distance the conflict from civil strife. The circulation of reports of large containers of alcohol belonging to Uzbek militants also seems to be a way of distancing Islam from the enemy.

However, it appears that instead of reevaluating things through a more rational approach, we’ve stuck to our patchwork quilt of mythological identity through a couple of quick-and-easy adjustments. As a matter of convenience for our security establishment, the principal enemy obviously remains India. But those polygamous infidels couldn’t possibly be the solely responsible for such an ingenious plan that redirects our tactics against them and literally brings the country to its knees? No, that’s not possible. So who could they possibly be in cahoots with?

Once again the answer is conveniently available from early Islamic Arabia, where the Meccan pagans were conspiring with scheming Jewish tribes. A simple transposition of the historical onto our mythological identity yields the result of India and Israel collaborating for the destruction of Pakistan, with the US sitting on the fringes like the Holy Roman Empire.

I think it’s time we quit hiding behind the convenient curtain of myth, and take the bitter pill of reality. For once, for that might help us frame this conflict in more rational terms and possibly lead us closer to a solution, rather than further feeding propaganda to the conflict. If the present reasoning of global evils out to destroy Islam and Pakistan continues, then the only answer is the apocalyptic war which is talked about in fringe mythologies related to the arrival of the Antichrist.

The last thing we want is for this to be a self-fulfilling prophecy! We need to step away from viewing this as a clash of civilisations, in terms of Islam versus the West. This is a misinformed dichotomy, since the West is not a religion, and Islam isn’t a geographical location. The more hopelessly intertwined our nationality becomes with a faux mythology, the more susceptible it becomes to being hijacked by those wishing to extract temporary gains from this vulnerability.

http://http://blog.dawn.com/2009/11/14/the-convenient-curtain-of-myth/
 
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Farooq Sulehria

Conspiracy theories, by oversimplifying complex political questions, save you mental labour. Why strain one's nerves to understand Marx's dull essays on economy to understand the current financial meltdown when we know ''Jewish bankers'' have engineered this crisis? Al Qaida has never denied a hand in 9/11. Yet we keep accusing the United States of plotting to attack itself. For some in the Arab media, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair was a Jewish plot to teach the White House a lesson for Clinton's refusal to meet Netanyahu during the Israeli prime minister's 1997 visit to the United States.

Viewing everything as secretly plotted by a clique, conspiracy theorists poison the political culture and marginalise informed analysis. A conspiracy theory presents political structures as an inaccessible and impenetrable secret. It reduces state structures, even imperialism, to a supernatural power commanded by an ethnic/religious minority or social/political elite over ''the people", instead of focusing on the systematic exploitation of the oppressed through, for instance, control of relations of production. The notion of a not-so-distinctive elite beyond anybody's reach and exerting complete control renders either effective resistance impossible or necessitates desperate measures (suicide bombings, for instance).

A secretive minority is capable of ruling a majority partly because of conspiracies and secret alliances. But their power and rule are structural on institutional injustices in the system. The unequal distribution of power, capital, and resources do not constitute conspiracy. This is what we call capitalism (and imperialism when it comes to the North-South disparity). One need not assume that the state is the direct instrument of a hidden ruling class.

Conspiracy theories are often based on wrong or incomplete information from dubious sources. Dependent on unnamed origins, untraceable data, anecdotal evidence, inadequate documentation for evidence, a conspiracy theory makes broad claims while remaining speculative. For instance, in a systematic way, Chomsky's study of Kennedy's foreign policy record rejects simplistic conspiracy theories connecting his murder with the Vietnam war. Using publicly available record, Chomsky attacks the notion that the assassination took place because of Kennedy's desire to pull the American military out of Vietnam. His sane advice: ''The available facts, as usual, lead us to seek the institutional sources of policy decisions and their stability... People who wish to understand and change the world will do well, to pay attention to it, not to engage in groundless speculation as to what one or another leader might have done.''

Conspiracy theories also give rise to racism, creating scapegoats. Similarly, they give rise to personality cults. Since dominance is attributed to certain individuals and, therefore, removal of an individual or a secret group will transform society.
 
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I belive in God,,, but I also understand that all religion is su·per·sti·tion.

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An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome.

A belief, practice, or rite irrationally maintained by ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance.
A fearful or abject state of mind resulting from such ignorance or irrationality.
Idolatry.

The idea that religon is going to solve Pakistans proplems has not worked well in the past and is not likely too in the future...
 
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murphys law is slightly different.

"if something can go wrong, it will"

If any thing did go wrong for the USA as many in here seem to hope,,, its not going to help any one....matter fact it might make things a lot worse for a lot of the world...
 
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Is it really India?
Pervez Hoodbhoy

FOREIGN Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says that Pakistan is “compiling hard evidence of India’s involvement” in terrorist attacks on Pakistan’s public and its armed forces.

If he and the interior minister are correct then we must conclude that the Indians are psychotics possessed with a death wish, or are perhaps plain stupid. While India’s assistance for Baloch insurgents could conceivably make strategic sense, helping the jihadists simply does not.

As Pakistan staggers from one bombing to the other, some Indians must be secretly pleased. Indeed, there are occasional verbalisations: is this not sweet revenge for the horrors of Mumbai (allegedly) perpetrated by Lashkar-i-Taiba? Shouldn’t India feel satisfaction as Pakistan reels from the stinging poison of its domestically reared snakes?

But most Indians are probably less than enthusiastic in stoking fires across the border. In fact, the majority would like to forget that Pakistan exists. With a six per cent growth rate, booming hi-tech exports and expectations of a semi-superpower status, they feel that India has no need to engage a struggling Pakistan with its endless litany of problems.

Of course, some would like to hurt Pakistan. Extremists in India ask: shouldn’t one increase the pain of a country — with which India has fought three bloody wars — by aiding its enemies? Perhaps do another Bangladesh on Pakistan someday?

These fringe elements, fortunately, are inconsequential today. Rational self-interest demands that India not aid jihadists. Imagine the consequences if central authority in Pakistan disappears or is sharply weakened. Splintered into a hundred jihadist lashkars, each with its own agenda and tactics, Pakistan’s territory would become India’s eternal nightmare. When Mumbai-II occurs — as it surely would in such circumstances — India’s options in dealing with nuclear Pakistan would be severely limited.

The Indian army would be powerless. As the Americans have discovered at great cost, the mightiest war machines on earth cannot prevent holy warriors from crossing borders. Internal collaborators, recruited from a domestic Muslim population that feels itself alienated from Hindu-India, would connive with jihadists. Subsequently, as Indian forces retaliate against Muslims — innocent and otherwise — the action-reaction cycle would rip the country apart.

So, how can India protect itself from invaders across its western border and grave injury? Just as importantly, how can we in Pakistan assure that the fight against fanatics is not lost?

Let me make an apparently outrageous proposition: in the coming years, India’s best protection is likely to come from its traditional enemy, the Pakistan Army. Therefore, India ought to now help, not fight, against it.

This may sound preposterous. After all, the two countries have fought three and a half wars over six decades. During periods of excessive tension, they have growled at each other while meaningfully pointing towards their respective nuclear arsenals. And yet, the imperative of mutual survival makes a common defence inevitable. Given the rapidly rising threat within Pakistan, the day for joint actions may not be very far away.

Today Pakistan is bearing the brunt. Its people, government and armed forces are under unrelenting attack. South Waziristan, a war of necessity rather than of choice, will certainly not be the last one. A victory here will not end terrorism, although a stalemate will embolden jihadists in south Punjab, including Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Mohammad. The cancer of religious militancy has spread across Pakistan, and it will take decades to defeat.

This militancy does not merely exist because America occupies Afghanistan. A US withdrawal, while welcome, will not end Pakistan’s problems. As an ideological movement, the jihadists want to transform society as part of their wider agenda. They ride on the backs of their partners, the mainstream religious political parties like the Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat-i-Ulema-Pakistan. None of these have condemned the suicide bombings of Pakistani universities, schools, markets, mosques, police and army facilities.

Pakistan’s political leadership and army must not muddy the waters, especially now that public sanction has finally been obtained for fighting extremism in Swat and Waziristan. Self-deception weakens and enormously increases vulnerability. Wars can only be won if nations have a clear rallying slogan. Therefore the battle against religious extremism will require identifying it — by name — as the enemy.

India should derive no satisfaction from Pakistan’s predicament. Although religious extremists see ordinary Muslims as munafiqs (hypocrites) — and therefore free to be blown up in bazaars and mosques — they hate Hindus even more. In their calculus, hurting India would buy even more tickets for heaven than hurting Pakistan. They dream of ripping apart both societies, or starting a war — preferably nuclear — between Pakistan and India.

A common threat needs a common defence. But this is difficult unless the Pakistan-India conflict is reduced in intensity. In fact the extremist groups that threaten both countries today are an unintended consequence of Pakistan’s frustrations at Indian obduracy in Kashmir.

To create a future working alliance with Pakistan, and in deference to basic democratic principles, India must be seen as genuinely working towards some kind of resolution of the Kashmir issue. Over the past two decades India has been morally isolated from Kashmiri Muslims and continues to incur the very considerable costs of an occupying power in the Valley. Indian soldiers continue to needlessly die — and to oppress and kill Kashmiri innocents.

It is time for India to fuzz the Line of Control, make it highly permeable and demilitarise it up to some mutually negotiated depth on both sides. Without peace in Kashmir the forces of cross-border jihad, and its hate-filled holy warriors, will continue to receive unnecessary succour.

India also needs to allay Pakistan’s fears on Balochistan. Although Pakistan’s current federal structure is the cause of the problem — a fact which the government is now finally addressing through the newly announced Balochistan package — it is nevertheless possible that India is aiding some insurgent groups. Statements have been made in India that Balochistan provides New Delhi with a handle to exert pressure on Pakistan. This is unacceptable.

While there is no magic wand, confidence-building measures (CBMs) continue to be important for managing the Pakistan-India conflict and bringing down the decibel level of mutual rhetoric. To be sure, CBMs can be easily disparaged as palliatives that do not address the underlying causes of a conflict. Nevertheless, looking at those initiated over the years shows that they have held up even in adverse circumstances. More are needed.

The reason for India to want rapprochement with Pakistan, and thus end decades of hostility, has nothing to do with feelings of friendship or goodwill. It has only to do with survival. For us in Pakistan, this is even truer.
 
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