#1
I think the number one reason is Arab petrodollars. Some politicans want to protect their funding and others don't want to cut-off any future funds that might come their way.
[DAWN] At first, Sunday's terrorist act seemed like just the latest in a long line of horrific attacks on religious minorities in Pakistain. Pakistain has developed a new concept: the sectarian state.
Talibs assaulted two Christian churches in Lahore. At least 15 people were killed, and more than 70 were maimed. Targeting them is so much easier when they're all kneeling in their pews.
But then, all of a sudden, the targeted became the targeters. Oops. The dog you kicked can bite.
Scores of enraged Christians marched through Lahore. They lynched and murdered two men. As they lay dying, some members of the mob gleefully took out their mobiles and captured photographs for posterity. They prob'ly shoulda sold tee shirts.
It was sickening and macabre. That's what it feels like on the other side of the sectarian divide.
This is not how victims usually respond to terror attacks in Pakistain. We've noticed that.
Typically they grieve quietly, even if defiantly. Recall those Hazara Shias in Quetta standing in the cold rain, flanked by the bodies of the dead and refusing to bury their loved ones until receiving assurances of protection from the state. And how many Hazaras have been killed since? How many Shiites of all ethnic persuasions?
This is in marked contrast to the violent retaliations in Lahore. I'm surprised the madrassas haven't erupted in counter-riots yet.
Ominously, this reaction could mark the start of a dangerous yet sadly logical new phase in Pakistain's sectarian conflict -- one that deepens the fault lines of an already fractured country, and that could one day, bring it to the cusp of all-out civil war. Makes sense to me. Y'got this Islamic paradise where Sunnis are pushing for religious purity. And then y'got everybody else. Throw in a tribal culture where everybody's looking to murder everybody else. See what comes out in the bowl.The only question is whether it sinks or floats.
I've argued previously that sectarianism poses the greatest threat to Pakistain's long-term stability. Sectarian militancy -- even after the much-ballyhooed North Wazoo counterterrorism offensive -- enjoys broad reach. The North Wazoo offensive is being diligently executed so that the wrong bad guys don't get banged. Reports of corpse counts have dwindled to nothing much. Mullah Fazlullah isn't dead. Mangal Bagh isn't dead. Even Mumtaz Qadri's not dead. When a big turban gets bumped off it's usually by accident and a couple thousand followers turn out for the funeral. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , after all, has staged attacks in all four Pak provinces. Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... many Paks embrace the underlying views of sectarian Death Eaters; witness the polls that find that majorities of Paks do not regard Shias as Moslems. This isn't surprising, given how the Pak state has essentially institutionalised sect-based discrimination -- from the second constitutional amendment to the blasphemy laws. Then there are the troubling links between sectarian bully boyz and the state. Lashkar-e-Taiba -- The Army of the Pure -- remains in business at the same old stand. There's not enough evidence in the entire world to even bring Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to trial, much less to convict him.
In essence, sectarian bully boyz benefit from nationwide reach, ample public support for their views, and some support from the state. Which would imply that Pakistain deserves everything it gets. And more.
Hence the dire predicament faced by Pakistain's imperiled religious minorities -- and the extreme measures to which some of them resorted to in the aftermath of the Sunday church bombings in Lahore. In a secular state they'd all be of the same nationality. But the term "secular state" is verboten.
The Christians that killed those two men did not commit premeditated murder. They were retaliating, and for a simple reason: Like so many other religious minorities in Pakistain, they have been terrified, traumatised, and terrorised for too long, and they know the state will not protect them. If you treat them like dirt their only recourse is to fight dirty.
So on Sunday, they decided to take matters in to their own hands. Maybe next time an imambargah gets kaboomed the streets will fill with Hazaras with blood in their collective eyes.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] As the self-styled Islamic State (IS) gains ground in the Middle East, key commanders of the fractured Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are submitting to the overtures of the violent global movement that is slowly making inroads into Pakistan. At the same time, regrouping of some of the deadliest outfits in the country could signal great trouble, even as the TTP and allied Al-Qaeda fighters are perceived to be struggling to hold fort against a military onslaught and the country-wide National Action Plan. IS gained ground, now it's losing ground. Unless something changes dramatically they've peaked thanks to the Kurds. But the export version is dangerous, too.
IS, which is led by Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi, is currently based in Iraq and Syria and occupies border areas. It is accused of killing hundreds of Muslims and some American and UK citizens, which include journalists and aid workers. They're vicious beasts, but disciplined troops and air power can roll them up.
Reports of IS activity inside the country emerged in 2014 against the backdrop of two ongoing military operations against the TTP and its affiliates in North Waziristan and Khyber Agency. And so on, blah blah blah, until finally:
TTP Jamaatul Ahrar ...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough... , a powerful group that has claimed many of the recent devastating terror attacks in Pakistain has yet to decide on Baghdadi's offer.
TTPJA front manEhsanullah Ehsan ...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, now the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency... said the organization would consider the offer, given that both TTP and IS were fighting for a common cause.
"We will see whether we can fight better for the cause on our own or by joining IS...if the offer is serious, the matter will be decided by our political shura," he said.
Ehsan added that the TTP was divided into several factions over administrative matters, but they were now regrouping.
Some evidence of this regrouping has emerged only recently, with holy warriors belonging to the Jamaatul Ahrar and Lashkar-e-Islam ...a group of Islamic bandidos infesting Khyber Agency. It's headed by a former bus driver.... (LI) pledging allegiance to the Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan... -led TTP, even as there is heightened speculation that the TTP is slowly fading away.
Mohammad Umar Khorasani, spokesperson for the TTP, denied speculation that groups had split away, saying: "So far no proper group has defected from TTP to join any other murderous Moslem faction. However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... there have been certain instances where a few individuals have either left the main group or they have been expelled. A big chunk of Mehsud Taliban is still with the TTP."Khorasani said considerable portions of Mohmand and Orakzai agencies are still part of the TTP. He further said TTP's presence in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... and Sindh is also playing a role in strengthening the organization.
"Some people were expelled owing to their incompetence hence they started to politicise the issue," he alleged, adding that a majority of people are returning through the jirga system which, in turn, is strengthening the movement.
Alluding to IS' Baghdadi, Khorasani added that, "We hold our alliance with Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality in a country already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... and will continue to do so until his death. There is no question of choosing a new leader while he is alive."
Of those who left the movement, one was the leader of Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... while the rest were commanders who worked under Hafiz Muhammad Saeed Khan of Orakzai Agency, he said. "The places made vacant by those who left the movement have been filled by more compatible and experienced leaders."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
A number of allegedly pro-ISIS Militant Groups have repor been accepted into alliance wid the Pakistan Taliban.
* WAFF > IS THE TALIBAN TARGETING TURKEY IN AFGHANISTAN?
Because Turkey is Muslim + one of the four Coalition powers still remaining in the country???
Speaking of Vlad/Russia-vs-the-Hard-Boyz ...
* TOPIX > [NewsMax = Various] UN + RUSSIA WORRY THAT ISIS IS IN AFGHANISTAN.
VERSUS
* GROONG > RUSSIA COMMITS [itself] TO THE NEUTRALIZATION OF ARMENIA.
Ditto the CRIMEA???
* TOPIX > [The Blaze] GLENN BECK SAYS THIS IS HOW EUROPE COULD BECOME A "UNION OF FASCISTIC STATES", IN A BATTLE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE ISLAMIC STATE [ISIS/ISIL].
ARTIC > GLENN BECK on Darth Vlad = argues Vlad believes that ...
> CHRISTIANITY HAS "LOST ITS WAY".
> US IS NOT STANDING UP OR TRYING TO PROTECT CHRISTIANITY ANYMORE.
> Iff the ISIS does attack PARIS = EUROPE?, it is more likely to strike at sites strongly or directly linked to the development of Christianity in France, e.g. NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL IN PARIS, OR SIMILAR IN AVIGNON, NOT SECULAR SITES LIKE THE EIFFEL TOWER.
[Hurriyet Daily News] For centuries, ideologues and politicians in the West have positioned themselves regarding Islam in a defensive way.
Christian Europe always met with Islam through war. First of all it was the Umayyad reign in Iberia, also with a Jewish presence, that was brutally crushed by the Catholic inquisition in the 15th century. Then, starting in the 14th century through the Balkans, the Turkish Empire under the Ottoman dynasty finished off the remnants of the Roman Empire, took Constantinople, and made Istanbul its capital, controlling major trade routes of the Old World.
The Turks were held back at the gates of Vienna by a coalition of Christian armies, and left behind the heritage of coffee and croissants. The rise of the Russian and British Empires pushed the Turkish/Islam presence back in India, the Caucasus and Europe until the First World War, in which Turks were on the losing side.
The Arabs were among those who revolted against the Caliph in Istanbul, who was also the Ottoman Sultan. The British (and the French to a lesser extent) managed to manipulate the Arab revolt against the Turks. It was the beginning of the oil age and there was a lot of oil where the Arabs have been living for centuries.
After the Turks managed to fight an Independence War against Western invaders and a civil war against the Ottoman dynasty under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, (later, Ataturk), and transformed the sultanate into a republic, the West managed to establish control over the Arab lands, and their oil. Not all of the Arabs and Moslems across the world - from India to Indonesia and Iran - were happy about this, and since the 1920s radical movements have shown up on the political scene, as well as underground.
As radical Islamist movements started to emerge, politicians in the West - from the Nazi government in Germany to the British, the French, and later on the Americans - tried to recruit "moderates" against them.
Without realizing or bothering to understand that Islam is also a political religion, for them recruiting the "moderates" meant serving Western interests and not having a gun pointed at the West. So they armed and trained the moderates against the radicals, again without realizing or bothering to understand that they would become the new snuffies in the coming decades.
This was the story in Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistain, Iraq, Egypt, and now in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... the Turks under Ataturk shelved the Caliphate and adopted secularism, separating the state from religion. Despite a certain radicalism in the implementation of secularism, especially in the earlier stages, (though never getting close to the bloodshed that history recorded after each and every revolution in the West), secularism provided a fertile climate for economic development and, in later stages, the fledgling of democratic life in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... It is true that this was a separating curtain between the Turks and the Islamic world, but it did also prevent Turkey from the sectarian fight within the Islamic world.
Today, Turkey is up to its neck with infections spilling over from that climate of sectarian fights and terrorism.
And the West is still in a blind search for "moderate" Islam as a cure to the "radical" version. Isn't that enough, for God's sake? Is it too difficult to understand that the anti-thesis of radical Islam is not "moderate Islam," but rather separating state affairs from religion: The secular option, perhaps an updated form that does not antagonize true believers?
Is it not worth trying to update what Ataturk did almost a century ago, as main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu suggested in parliament on Jan. 13? At least, this has fewer risks than arming and training people who actually have the same ideology as those who they fight against for your money today, with no guarantee that tomorrow they won't turn against you.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
classify Islamic Law as a political movement foremost because no one may decide on the proper Islamic law.
#2
f you make a secular country but don't doi anything to malkk epeople leavins Islam either to agnoticism (not the same thing than atheism) or to a benevolent reliogion then any day all you did can be rolled up. Just think in what happened to the secularist Turkey of Mustafa Kemal. Lack of political strength or because he died quite young the fact is he was unable to stop the hydra's head of regrowing.
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[DAWN] At first, Sunday's terrorist act seemed like just the latest in a long line of horrific attacks on religious minorities in Pakistain..png)
Wazoo
[DAWN] As the self-styled Islamic State (IS) gains ground in the Middle East, key commanders of the fractured Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are submitting to the overtures of the violent global movement that is slowly making inroads into Pakistan. At the same time, regrouping of some of the deadliest outfits in the country could signal great trouble, even as the TTP and allied Al-Qaeda fighters are perceived to be struggling to hold fort against a military onslaught and the country-wide National Action Plan.
Orakzai Agency
[Hurriyet Daily News] For centuries, ideologues and politicians in the West have positioned themselves regarding Islam in a defensive way.
