[Reader-list] "The Taliban are here" - Samad Khurram

Mon Apr 20 19:42:59 IST 2009

Dear Rahul

Actually MQM has been the only political party that has consistently spoken against the NAR-2009 (Nizam e Adl Regulation) Swat deal.

Apparently there was mayhem in the Pakistan Senate (Upper House) today with the MQM asking for notice to be taken of TNSM's  Maulana Sufi Mohammad having declared that Pakistan's Parliament was unlawful because it was not Shariah compliant.

Kshmendra  

--- On Mon, 4/20/09, Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] "The Taliban are here" - Samad Khurram
To: "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>, "Kshmendra Kaul" <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
Date: Monday, April 20, 2009, 7:20 PM

"Other than Ayaz Amir, not a single Pakistani leader
> has spoken out against the Taliban."

It would have been funny if it was not so pathetic.This is Ayaz Amir writing in
support of the Swat deal 
http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=163592
And here he changes his tune 180 degrees.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=21505

This is a Pakistani liberal journalist.I know many list members cringe when
someone suggests that India and Pakistan have gone the opposite way,but
anyway,here is some more interesting news.
http://thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=172210
India should prepare itself for a Talibanized Pakistan.It could,in some ways,
be better than dealing with Pakistani liberals who speak from both sides of
their mouths.

--- On Mon, 4/20/09, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] "The Taliban are here" - Samad Khurram
> To: "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Monday, April 20, 2009, 5:05 PM
> Samad Khurram, the writer of the piece "The Taliban are
> here" is a celebrity in Pakistan. He is a poster boy
> for the widespread Anti-USA feelings in Pakistan. Pakistanis
> who are fed up with being toyed with by the USA would want
> their government to stand-up to the Americans in a manner
> similar to Samad Khurram's.
>  
> In a widely televised function, Samad Khurram " ...
> Pakistani student ....at Harvard University ...snubbed the
> U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, by refusing
> to shake her hand or accept an award for Pakistani students
> from the Roots Academy - a top-notch private school - who
> are studying in leading U.S. universities."
>  
> That was in July 2008
>  
> Kshmendra
>  
>  
> "The Taliban are here"
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Monday, April 20, 2009
> By Samad Khurram 
> 
> 
> 
> Back in 2002, I was returning from Friday prayers when I
> saw an unusual gathering of singing and quasi-dancing
> mullahs. Unusual because I had always assumed mullahs to be
> against all types of kufr (art). The amused crowd were
> listening to chants of “Taliban aa-gae! Taliban aa-gae!”
> I smirked: As if! Pakistan is a nuclear country with the
> seventh-largest army. We’re safe.
> 
> The mullahs’ songs have been answered – the Taliban
> indeed are coming. And with them the cowards are bringing a
> lifestyle that destroys everything Pakistan.
> 
> Oh, no! Wait! This guy is on the paycheque of those who are
> trying to break Pakistan. The Taliban are our heroes, it is
> America which is in the wrong. Yes, this is the typical
> self-defence mechanism coming to full force. Having nothing
> to lose, and having been already declared a CIA agent
> earlier in life, I suppose I’ll continue. Continuing with
> a genuine fear that these words are falling on either deaf
> or hostile ears, it may well be that Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s
> Pakistan is over in a year if all this chaos continues.
> 
> Perhaps, if Jinnah knew that the country he founded was
> going to become an arena for public flogging, where the
> laughs of sadist barbarians will mingle with the screams of
> women and children, he would not have decided on creating
> it. Had he known that there would be more suicide bombs in
> his country than any other place in the world, where
> militants and bigots would go around threatening women to
> “dress properly,” where schoolchildren would have to
> undergo security checks as if they were in a war zone, he
> would be extremely upset.
> 
> All our talk shows discuss the merits and demerits of the
> 17th Amendment, or bash America and India. Yes, American
> drones and Indian statements are a threat to our
> sovereignty. Yes, the balance of power is important, but it
> is the Taliban who have killed more people than India or the
> US drones combined, and have made us feel more unsafe than
> anyone else in the past thirty years. What other definition
> of sovereignty is there than provision of protection to
> people and maintenance of the writ of the state? Why can’t
> we have some programmes that discuss the atrocities of the
> Taliban, acts of terror that they do and how they have
> destroyed Pakistan? 
> 
> No, it’s not the “Hindu Zionists” working on a
> CIA/Mossad-sponsored conspiracy to break Pakistan. And for
> the sake of argument, even if they are foreign-funded, does
> that not mean we should double our efforts to counter them?
> Remember when India briefly occupied some land in 1965 and
> how the whole country rallied to defend this invasion? My
> grandfather had stories of people going with sticks to
> support the army. I am afraid I will not have any such
> stories of patriotic resistance to tell anyone when another
> enemy has taken control of, say, a fourth of the NWFP and
> roughly one-twentieth of Pakistan. 
> 
> But remember the great Pakistani Fauj which, under the
> Ameer-ul-Momineen, Zia-ul-Haq, crushed the Russians? This is
> only a plan to make America taste the same fate! Yes, thank
> you Zaid Hamid. For a nation which already lives in denial,
> your conspiracy theories are all we need to turn us
> completely schizophrenic. 
> 
> For the love of God, can anyone explain to me why the great
> army whose laurels we sing from the day we are born has
> still not been able to jam radio stations pouring terror in
> Swat? How is it that these Taliban leaders can appear before
> journalists in broad daylight and roam freely without any
> trouble even when they claim responsibility for a suicide
> bombing?
> 
> Perhaps the real question I should ask is, why do I even
> care? When I took time off from Harvard to be part of the
> lawyers’ movement I had seen a ray of hope. There were
> concerned citizens and lawyers who stood for what was right,
> no matter what the consequences. We fought for a principle
> and won, with the hope that things will slowly improve.
> Today the very judges we had faith in released the Lal
> Masjid cleric whose crimes everyone knows about. If the
> judiciary was going to release people whose crimes were
> recorded on TV, perhaps it does explain why the Taliban are
> growing popular. 
> 
> Having said that, rays of hope like Afzal Khan Lala, who
> has refused to move from Swat while he is alive, appear
> every now and then. However, he stands alone in facing the
> storm. Other than Ayaz Amir, not a single Pakistani leader
> has spoken out against the Taliban. Will the real leader who
> can get rid of these monsters stand up, please? Imran Khan?
> Qazi? Nawaz Sharif? This silence is criminal! 
> 
> What’s worse is that these leaders of ours have
> unanimously approved a state within a state run, which is
> not accountable to anyone, absolved the Taliban of all
> crimes and provided them a safe haven to kill more
> Pakistanis. The so-called Nizam-e-Adl Regulation was
> endorsed by the National Assembly without any proper debate.
> 
> The sad story, friends, is that the Taliban are here, and
> unless we stand up against them in every possible way,
> Pakistan will be lost for good. And it will not be lost
> because of Zardari’s real or perceived corruption or
> anything else like that, but because of the silence of the
> lambs – we ALL will be responsible if Pakistan fails.
> 
> The writer is a student at Harvard University and turned
> down an award from the US ambassador as a mark of protest
> against killings of Pakistanis by US drone attacks. Email:
> skhurram at fas.harvard.edu
> 
> http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=173372
>  
> 
> 
>       
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