Hoping, Without Hope

Urstruly:

Your defence is bogus. At best it can be used to defend attempts on Musharaff as an individual. What does killing a 5 year old in a mosque have to do with top brass lying down in front of US?

Stuka

It is simple as 2 plus 2.

Mullah Shamzai was the staunchest supporter of Talibans in Pakistan and as a matter of fact this 79 year old lead hundereds if not thousands of Paksitanis across the border to fight Unietd State`s state terrorism on the state of Afghanistan. And even after the war he was supporting Afghan freedom fighters against crusaders occupation army. The man was strictly a non-sectarian mullah and actually strived for sectarian harmony. The man was a direct CIA hit because he was opposing Afghan collaborators and puppet regime who happen to be shia. Given the sectarian nature of this violance in city of karachi CIA tried to kill two birds in one stone:

1. They killed Mullah Shamzai in a targeted killing

2. Tried to shift the blame on shias of Karachi of that murder by plotting a bomb in their mosque giving an impression that it was sunni retaliation. It will further the rift between shias and sunnis of Afdghanistan and thus help occupiers to divide and conquer.

The shia sunni violence in Pakistan should be viewed with this perspective.

You have to understand the undertones of the western propaganda machinery who started paroting the phrase ``a sunni scholar`` as soon as Mullah was murdered. Why would they characterize Mullah Shamzai as ``sunni scholar`` while his non-sectarian credentials are well estableished they could have just said `` a mulla, a taliban supporter, or a scholar``. And then within 24 hours a bomb explodes at a shia mosque which leaves everyone wondering why.

``Who will stop this? Or rather, what will stop this?``

For all other violent deaths in the world, do people in general have ready solutions to offer? I suspect yes.

For dead Afghans - Since you drove out the Taliban, don`t expect us to protest your deaths now.
For dead Indians, well you deserve to die anywhere anytime until we declare that you have stopped oppressing Muslims.
For dead Saudis, well drive out the infidels from Muslim lands and quit the global capitalist system then we will see. (western-educated alternative - it is justified to keep killing you until you are allowed to vote)
For Iraqis killed in bomb blasts, stop cooperating with the occupier Americans, simple.
For dead Thais, you need to let Muslims secede or keep dying.
For dead Indonesians, all the bombers want you to do is to wind up your nation and submit to a SE Asian Khilafat, what is so bad about that?
For dead NY`ers - in a democracy people need to take responsibility for the actions of their government and Army.

So similarly, to those who die violent deaths in your own country it should be AS easy to say what to do, no?

As always, my best wishes to my pakistani friends. In the immortal words of Omar R. Qureishi, your ``freedom struggle`` has now begun for real. Enjoy it ! So far your ``freedom struggle`` was limited to us useless pagans. But now it has finally arrived in your cities and in your homes. Mubbarakein, Buddhaee !

And please do not condemn this violence as some of the short-sighted people are doing on this list. Imagine the dedication and frustration of the people behind this! Why would anyone give up their lives, unless they were terribly oppressed???

Do not condemn them without understanding the ``root cause``. Be sympathetic and loving towards the wonderful (if slightly misguided) people behind all this. I hope no one will suggest use of police or military to control this problem. Those atrocities will only naturally lead to need for more ``freedom``.

Why not call in the UN and see if a referendum is needed in Karachi? It seems to me that is the best way to proceed. Let justice prevail. Remember, there is never any smoke without fire....

[Sorry, I ran out of the cliches that are daily used to justify violence against indians in Pakistani newspapers. Next time I promise to do a better job]

First Comment:
Dear writer and others -

Karachi, despite all the Shi`a-Sunni-Shi`a killings is cautious and wary at the moment. The question that the ordinary citizens (who largely outnumber any ``bad`` elements) are asking: where is this leading us to? And isn`t that exactly what we should NOT be led into? That is, rioting, mindless mob attacks, panic, chaos. Apart from the perpetual discussion about Mush, terrorists, cross-border hangamas, etc., there is another angle to these particular KHI incidents - which is of ``planted`` riots.

If you study the pattern of the incidents you will note that.... there is no pattern! Sadly, the situation is a little worse than any one or two parties fighting each other out. All at once, this is political, religious, economical, and simply a civic situation. The rioters out there - they have varied motives. And they are instigated by varied elements.

There are no clear agendas. Most of what is happening is by the mindless, for a thoughtless purpose. At once, there are many elements that are active - terrorism has been franchised and branched out far and wide. On the one hand it is supported by mindless folks who only use religion as their only reference to authority and the only-worthwhile-thing-they-did-in-their-otherwise-idle-lives... and on the other hand, by the equally shapeless panic and fright of the sufferers.

What can one say? It is a sad if not hopeless situation.

There was a time not too long ago, when such violence was blamed on India. The general public would channel its rage to these ``foreign agents`` and our incompetent rulers would continue on with their rule. But since in the current climate of ``pak-india friendship`` it is not politically expedient to blame india, Islam has emerged as the scapegoat of choice. The place of ``foriegn agents`` has been taken by ``religious zealots``.

We should take a step back and ask our incompetent rulers what have they done to provide security to Pakistanis? If they can mobilize 100,000 pakistani army on the border with Afghanistan for the security of America, why can`t they mobilize same resources and energy and vigor for the security of Pakistanis?

We should tell these enslaved and feeble rulers that it is THEIR incompetence and THEIR misplaced focus and THEIR ``form of`` democracy that is to be blamed for our crisis. We will not continue to accept the ``foriegn agents`` excuse to overlook THEIR loot of our national resources and playing havoc with the security and inegrity of Pakistan. We will not let these tragic events take away our attention from the fact that these american installed rulers have been good for america and bad for Pakistanis.

Farheen - As unfortunate and tragic the sectarian violence in Pakistan is, the theme of your essay - which seems to look at these events as `maligning` Islam, is rather unfortunate too.

This trend and fashion that has emanated from West of blaming EACH AND EVERY SINGLE issue in muslim world to Islam is also being further propagated by Muslims themselves. This kind of thinking will not lead to any solution. I have yet to see writers like yourself blaming the teachings of Christianity for the Holocaust, the widerspread pedophilia in churches, widespread racism, or the widespread murders in streets. Even though these problems seem to be more acute in `christian` countries, bringing the religion of Christianity into discussion while discussing these would be stupid, wouldn;t you agree? And how many times have you brough the religion of Judaism into discussion when talking about the cold-blooded murders of non-jewish children in Palestine?

These tragic events of shooting at the mosques will not be eradicated by bringing Islam into discussion. These are POLITICAL problems, not religious problems. Yes, we need to look at the way we practice Islam. But that is an ENTIRELY separate issue. There is a genuine political turmoil in Pakistan dating back to 1947 - we must recognize that fact. There are young disenfrnachised people in millions who are hopeless without hope. Pushing every problem under the rug of Islam might score us brownie points with West in the short term, they will not lead to any viable solution.

However, our leaders are happy with this approach, because this way we do not look at the mischiefs they have spread through out our lands.

it will stop...someday....
when this city will loose all his glory and charms :)

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whts hapning in karachi its not sectarian killing or shia sunii fight , once strong hold of mqm is now totaly under controle of fanatic so called jihadies n the idiots who r ruling this city r trying this way to devide them n destroy them n as farheen zehra has mentioned tht (These men were protesting against terrorism that led to the death of their spiritual leader. Their protest was a message to the government to mend its ways before these men turn all their anger loose) this protest was against govt the real govt to stop this nonsens and may alll these continous incedents r hapning jus to build and imresive charge sheet against ????

DAWN editorial says this sunni mullah was a good guy, ``divine`` in fact. He had ties with Mullah Omar but didn`t approve his methods of violence.

``Shamzai ...... A venerated scholar and divine, he had never preached sectarian hatred. ``

So what`s the deal here!

arjun at # 26:

Its Zubaid Jalal who calls herself a fundamentalist in Pakistan, but its in democratic, secular, super-successful, shining India that elected moderates and seculars like Modi kill Muslims and Advani and Joshi destroy symbols of tolerance.

Farheen:

I am taking a short interval from family meets and get-togethers.

You have written an emotinally charged article.

Please understand that at people to people level there is total solidarity and unity against the terrorist attacks. Listening to the folks from MMA and MQM one things come out loud and clear (at least there is a unity of viewpoint here) - there is an unknown force unleashed on Pakistanis by the powers that be who want to divide Muslims along Shia - Sunni lines. As soon as the terrorism occurs, BBC and CNN run the same story culminating in their twist, ``Karachi has seen frequent sectarian riots``. This line is also being unrealistically towed by yourself. We all know that this is not true. There have been no mob violence or Sunni-Shia feuds at people to people level. Actually, the unity has increased. The designs of the evil doers are destined to fail. To divide Pakistanis, they will have to come up with a better idea. This one is bound to fail.

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