Damned Because He Did - Finally
The complaints have come long and hard and consistent against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, that he and his ruling elite have not been sufficiently helpful to the battle against terrorism. President Musharraf did decide to sign on - however, tenuously, however tentatively - in the battle against terrorism.He knew and those whose allies he carefully became knew that he wasn't himself impervious to the same kind of military putsch he had himself initiated to become Pakistan's latest dictator, through the Islamic tendencies of his close cabinet members, and his military. So yes, an ally, but no, no U.S. emplacements on Pakistani soil, thank you very much.
He's been skilled at playing both ends against the middle, to keep himself installed as leader of Pakistan. Knowing full well that if he clamped down too hard, too swiftly, he would pay the price. In fact, it was his ongoing flirtation with and mobilization of religious parties, militants, foreign 'freedom' fighters and others that enabled him to obtain power and to retain it. Any seriously precipitous steps to upset the balance and his tenure would be abruptly detached.
Pakistan is the single most responsible geography for the brewing of Islamist jihadism, for grooming the young to accept their place in Islam's future plans to drive out any vestiges of secular rule in Muslim countries, and to extend Islamic rule well beyond those countries traditionally considered Muslim territory. Success depended not upon gentle suasion and kindly remonstrations but rather on the speedier and more potent messages contained within strikes at a perceived enemy - all those who deny the primacy of Islam.
Outside the capital of Islamabad, fundamental Islam is practised fervently in rural tribal settings, and it is from these areas that future suicidists for the cause are assembled. General Musharraf sought to set the tribal chiefs against the insurgent Taliban on the border between Afghanistan, but the chiefs' authority was gradually diminished by the more incendiarily acceptable messages of jihadist mullahs to have the tribes find common cause with the Taliban.
The very Taliban authorities who gave succour in their time of need to al-Qaeda and its principals. When you dance with vipers you never know when one will strike. Since General Musharraf permitted the presence of politically fascist Islam as long as it made no move to unsettle his state, he has finally reaped the inevitable result of the viper of Islamism turning upon him, leaving him no option but to remove the snake pit.
Now hard-line Pakistani opposition chiefs have been enabled to launch a new campaign for the installation of Islamic law, in the aftermath of the final deadly assault on the Islamabad Red Mosque and the death of its insurrectionist leader and his fellow militants, claiming that Musharraf's 'dictatorship' was solely responsible for stoking the extremism of Islamism.
Anti-Musharraf demonstrators in the conservative Afghan-border city of Peshawar marched through the streets shouting "Musharraf is a dog!", a signal Muslim insult, usually reserved for infidels and Jews. Armed border tribesman have sworn revenge on General Musharraf and his entourage. Additionally, none other than Osama bin Laden's deputy has been urging Pakistanis to revolt against their president.
"I call upon the Ulama (Muslim clergy) in Pakistan...Musharraf and his hunting dogs have tarnished your honour in service of the crusades and the Jews," pronounced Ayman al-Zawahri, speaking on the "occasion of the criminal aggression" on the mosque. "If you do not revolt, Musharraf will annihilate you", said Mr. Zawahri. "Musharraf will not stop until he uproots Islam from Pakistan."
Islam, no. Islamism, ardent, fundamentalist, blood-berserk fanaticism, perhaps. It is militant, fanatic Islam that the country is targeting. Or at least that's what NATO and the U.S. is hoping for, to encourage General Musharraf to continue, now he's been forced to begin, to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas who have found shelter in the tribal areas of Pakistan, from which they launch their attacks in Afghanistan.
Here's a nice one: a senior leader of Pakistan's major alliance of religious parties has pronounced that: "If Musharraf can demolish mosques and madrases to please the American infidels, all madras students, clerics and even moderate Muslims should come out on the street and demolish his dictatorship." This man is stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
The idea being to establish an Islamic state under Sharia law in Pakistan - purely by democratic means for fundamentalist Islam is, ipso facto, democratic in nature, pursuing its goal of establishing Allah's domain, and in the process performing the will of the people. All Islamic states are anti-authoritarian, anti-dictator, purely democratic; for the people, of the people.
We have the sterling examples of Iran, of Saudi Arabia, of Somalia, of Syria, Sudan and Libya.
Labels: Political Realities, Religion, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 12, 2007
<< Home