Lal Masjid: Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame it seems

r2666563211, originally uploaded by BHowdy.

Standing guard at Lal Masjid

Standing guard at Lal Masjid, originally uploaded by openDemocracy.

Calling all readers in Pakistan: Could this account be right????

Can you corroborate this Christian Science Monitor report? (A publication I might point out for readers who aren't familiar with it, doesn't have the Christian bias you might think it had from its name.)

What I'm interested in here is could this be true that President Musharraf's storming of the Lal Masjid is a move that's being more applauded than reviled? According to the Monitor:

By authorizing a raid against a rebel mosque in the capital city of Islamabad, he took decisive action against Pakistani extremists – something critics charge that he has so far been loath to do. The leaders of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, had taken hostages, preached anti-Western rhetoric, and for six months defied government orders to close.

The raid has already sparked outrage and violence in Pakistan's hinterlands, where the roots of Islamist extremism are deepest. But it has also accomplished something almost unheard of in recent months: an outpouring of support for the embattled president.

For those of you who missed the lead-up to this story, the Monitor provides this background:

Leaders of the mosque and students from an affiliated madrassah, or religious school, had barricaded themselves into the complex, protesting an order to destroy the mosque, which the government claimed was illegally built.

Government authorities say the assault began at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, when troops stormed the compound and were met with machine-gun fire and grenade attacks.

At press time, officials claimed that government troops controlled 70 percent of the compound, and were fighting the students from room to room.

They estimated that 70 militants had been captured, while as many as 60 had been killed, along with eight soldiers and the leader of the mosque, Abdul Rashid Ghazi.

Now here's the fascinating part of this story:

Despite the reports of bloodshed, the anger of most Pakistanis Tuesday appeared to be directed at the clerics of the Red Mosque, not the president.

"All those inside are terrorists and they have held innocent people and students hostage," says Bakht Rawan of Peshawar, whose relatives had sent their children to the seminary for studies. "Maulana [Abdul] Rashid Ghazi is responsible for all the killings and sufferings of parents and their children trapped inside the compound," he adds.

Even in Peshawar, about 100 miles west of Islamabad where the Taliban have exerted increasing influence, many agree with him. "We have earned a very bad name in the world because of some crazy people like [this]," says Naseeb Zada, a schoolteacher here. "What is happening should have happened much earlier."

Naturally not everyone the Monitor spoke to applauded the government. As the Monitor report continued:

Indeed, news of the mosque raid prompted violent protests in such remote regions. Militants and students from madrassahs burned and looted the offices of the French Red Cross and Care International in one district of Northwest Frontier Province on Tuesday. Army and paramilitary troops had to be called to stabilize the situation.

In Peshawar, there are those with their doubts about the government's intentions, too. "Musharraf is doing all this to please the Americans," says Muhammad Arshad, a graduate from a religious seminary. "He is killing fellow Muslims to earn dollars."

Anyway, email me if you have something to say to add to this report.

Rock da dHAKA

Check out the sound

Sufi Baul Bangladeshi rasta's somewhat harsh advice for the West

But only because I asked for it.

So take a break from all that unsolicited crap you are constantly inundated with and hear the direct scoop from Dhaka's greatest lead singer ever, Mac Haque of the band, Maqsood O'dHAKA. Yep, the greatest band to have ever emerged from the Bangladesh Delta. [Note to Mac: I mean dELTA.]

Mac: The first advice I would give is that the West is to climb off its high pedestal and start accepting advise especially from the third world, whose experience is far different from many in the first or second world - or for that matter many of the Islamic nations of the Middle East.

[Blogger's note: Ouch! But, even if it's painful, we should hear him out, folks.]

Mac: The West set a bad precedence post 9/11 in disregarding many people’s civil liberties and human rights. Even in many democracies, rulers have shamelessly taken advantage of this new reality. The denial of civil liberties mean that over time, the world will NOT be divided into Good versus Evil regimes, but Tyrants versus the Free World. . .

Mac: Thirdly and most importantly, pre-9/11 the West – and the UN - supported self- determination movements all over the world. Because of the WoT, many of these movements have been sidelined and unfairly accused of terrorism. . .‘Low intensity wars’ border wars, such as those India is experiencing, create refugee crises and are prone to escalate and provide an opportunity for lunatic Jihadists on either side of a porous border to link up and destabilize the region.

Scroll down to see Parts 1-7. And check out the YouTube video I'm about to post above.

Taliban poster guy

Taleban soldier, originally uploaded by nick rain images.

Are you one of the grown men targeting school children in Afghanistan?

More Taliban targets in Afghanistan

in the classroom, originally uploaded by janchan.

Taliban target in Afghanistan

Learning, originally uploaded by J the Super Cat Genius.

You see a girl student, the Taliban sees a target

Student from our schools in Afghanistan, originally uploaded by thechildrenofwar.

See post below.

Hey Taliban: Pick on somebody your own size

Did their siblings and peers never tell them this?

Apparently not, as the New York Times reports on a recent school shooting in Afghanistan in which six students were killed:

With their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road.

The staccato of machine-gun fire pelted through the stillness. A 13-year-old named Shukria was hit in the arm and the back, and then teetered into the soft brown of an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl’s precious breath and trying to help her stand.

But Shukria was too heavy to lift, and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, sped closer.

As Zarmina scurried away, the men took a more studied aim at those they already had shot, killing Shukria with bullets to her stomach and heart.

And this was no isolated incident, the Times goes on to report:

Shootings, beheadings, burnings and bombings: these are all tools of intimidation used by the Taliban and others to shut down hundreds of Afghanistan’s public schools. To take aim at education is to make war on the government.

Of course the U.S. is to blame here too as since Americans ousted the Taliban from power, school enrollment has skyrocketed - the Times quotes Afghanistan's Ministry of Education statistics that 6.2 million children - half the school-age population - now attends classes. And, as the Times continues:

A third of these students are girls, a marvel itself. Historically, girls’ education has been undervalued in Afghan culture. Girls and women were forbidden from school altogether during the Taliban rule.

I hope the locals realize that the next step on the Taliban agenda will no doubt be segregating vegetables for sale in the marketplace...Now that will be real cause to revolt against these totalitarians - if Anbar Province in Iraq is any example.

The U.S. in Iraq: Occupiers or peacekeepers

The New York Times reports, you decide:

The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, warned today that an early American withdrawal from Iraq could bring on an all-out civil war and regional conflict, pointedly telling the United States that it had responsibilities to continue lending support to the Baghdad government. . .

Asked if the Iraqi government’s was aware of the growing pressure on President Bush from Congress to impose a timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq, Mr. Zebari said his government was holding a “dialogue” with some congressmen.

“We explain to them the dangers of a speedy withdrawal and leaving a security vacuum, and the dangers vary from civil war to dividing the country or maybe to regional wars,” he said.

Remember when Colin Powell warned, in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, about the Pottery Barn rule - that if we did indeed proceed and did any real damage, we'd be responsible for fixing it?

Well, this wasn't the Pottery Barn's policy after all. In fact, the Pottery Barn just writes off broken merchandise. Sounds like Congress wants to do the same thing - that is, write off Iraq.

I wonder if now is the time Iraqis should hold a referendum. Should the U.S.-led coalition forces stay? Vote yes or no.

If Iraqis voted yes, well, hopefully that would silence all the noise about an occupation. That would have to be a morale boost for the coalition forces increasingly in the line of fire.

And if Iraqis voted no? Well, then Iraqis could carry on and fight this civil war of theirs to their hearts' content and without the U.S. imposing all these ridiculous rules of war to make everyone feel guilty. (As if war can be fought by rules!)

And no doubt the 140,000 Turkish forces now amassed on Iraq's border would be happy to step in and act as, um, peacekeepers. But I have to admit, I think Turkey would only do this after getting rid of everyone they perceived to be troublemakers. Now would this mean the entire Kurdish population in Iraq?

And in the south, I'm sure that should the Shiites need help - and even if they didn't - Iran would also happily step up to the plate. The question here would be would Tehran simply want the southern oil fields in exchange for their services or the entire country?

And what makes me think that the Islamic regime in Tehran would care even less about the brotherly rights of Iraq's Sunnis than the infidel U.S.-led forces? Not to mention the rights of the Iraqi Kurds - were any to survive the Turkish peacekeepers.

And, what's really frightening about this scenario is that I doubt most Americans, even ones in Congress, wouldn't bother looking back - and certainly not in regret - once we pulled out.

I mean how many Americans - or Europeans for that matter - have any idea of what happened to the South Vietnames - or the Cambodians, or the Laotians, for that matter - after we pulled out of Vietnam?

Oh no, Pol Pot seizing power had nothing to do with a "domino effect." I'm sure he was indeed totally nervous about the U.S. coming back to help his country people who he was busy exterminating after having been humiliated in Vietnam.

Almost everyone that I know who advocated an American withdrawal from Vietnam remains proud of their position. Did we not exit this war so that everyone could make love, after all? While the seventies did end up being pretty fun in America, I don't think they got this memo in Vietnam or Cambodia or Laos.

Maybe the person in the State Department responsible for sending it out was, I dunno, too stoned to remember or something.

Hey, but we have text message, so we could definitely contact everyone in Iraq. How would something like this work:

We're outta here. No more civil war for us. And if you get this message America hopes you'll decide no more for you too.

Now this is news: Arab League to visit Israel

And the moderates just keep on snatching headlines.

CNN reports:

The 22-country Arab League will send envoys on a historic first mission to Israel this week to discuss a sweeping Arab peace initiative and how it might prop up embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Arab diplomats said Sunday.

The announcement came the same day Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, hoping to bolster Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic militant Hamas.

An official League visit would be a diplomatic coup for Israel. The League historically has been hostile toward the Jewish state, but has grown increasingly conciliatory in response to the expanding influence of Islamic extremists in the region -- a concern underscored by Hamas' violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.

Jordan's foreign ministry said the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers would arrive in Jerusalem on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli officials.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the foreign ministers would lead an Arab League mission to Israel to discuss the Arab peace plan, which would trade full Arab recognition of Israel for an Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and the creation of a Palestinian state.

"This is the first time the Arab League is coming to Israel," Regev said. "From its inception the Arab League has been hostile to Israel. It will be the first time we'll be flying the Arab League flag."

The Sufi musician who just keeps snatching the headlines away from the terrorists

Well, at least on this blog he does.

In part 7 of my 10-part interview with one of Bangladesh's most popular musicians, Mac Haque, lead singer of the band Maqsood O'dHAKA, I ask him whether the global jihad movement will change Islam in the world. See the Intro to this series and Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the interview here.

This was his response:

It is only a matter of time that a ‘truce’ of some kind will be declared in this WoT, which many liberals and conservatives regard as a war against Islam. I don’t know how or when this will happen, but perhaps it will require a ‘regime change’ in Washington.

The examples being set in Bangladesh are unique and many Islamic nations would benefit from emulating our model. Bangladesh can lead the Islamic world importantly by showing how it always helps to go that extra mile to defuse friction and strife.

Be sure and check out one of his concert videos on the YouTube link provided below.

And stay tuned, tomorrow Mac will be giving some advice for the West.

Maqsood - Tomake Khuji

See my 10-part interview with lead singer Mac Haque.

Off-topic but is this really the eye of God?

You may have gotten this photo in your email, along with its caption "The Eye of God." While it is pretty incredible, this is what one fact-checking website, Truth or Fiction, writes:

According to the Hubbel Telescope site, this particular picture if of the HELIX NEBULA, which is about 650 light years from earth.

It is said to be the nearest planetary nebulae to earth.

A planetary nebula is gas around what used to be a star much like our sun.

The photograph is not just from the Hubble telescope, but is a composite of data from the Hubble telescope and from Kitt Peak in Tucson, Arizona.

That duly noted, it's still a pretty cool photograph.

More cousins than you know what to do with

Quote of the, well, history of humankind from Dr. Spencer Wells, population geneticist, director of The Genographic Project. Together the National Geographic Society and IBM are collecting DNA samples from around the world in order to map human origins and early movements of the human race.

"We're all effectively cousins," Wells pointed out, "separated by no more than 2,000 generations."

See www.national geographic.com/genographic for more information.

Braveheart returns!

Fashionistas: It's the catwalk in Iran!

Even Natan Sharansky is beginning to compare Iraq to Vietnam

Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident writes in today's Washington Post:

As the hideous violence in Iraq continues, it has become increasingly common to hear people argue that the world was better off with Hussein in power and (even more remarkably) that Iraqis were better off under his fist. In his final interview as U.N. secretary general, Kofi Annan acknowledged that Iraq "had a dictator who was brutal" but said that Iraqis under the Baathist dictatorship "had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school."

As he continues:

Following in the footsteps of George Bernard Shaw, Walter Duranty and other Western liberals who served as willing dupes for Joseph Stalin, some members of the human rights community are whitewashing totalitarianism.

. . .Consider one 2005 Amnesty International report on Iraq. It notes that in the lawless climate of the first months after Hussein's overthrow, reports of kidnappings, rapes and killings of women and girls by criminal gangs rose. Iraqi officers at a police station in Baghdad said in June 2003 that the number of reported rapes "was substantially higher than before the war."

The implication was that human rights may not really be improving in post-Hussein Iraq. But the organization ignored the possibility that reports of rape at police stations may have increased for the simple reason that under Hussein it was the regime -- which includes the police -- that was doing the raping. When Hussein's son Uday went on his legendary raping sprees, victims were not about to report the crime.

Sharansky is now forced to wonder if in Iraq, we're repeating Vietnam - though not for the reasons you might think. As he writes:

[T]he debate over Iraq is beginning to look a lot like the debate about the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s. Then, too, the argument in the United States focused primarily on whether U.S. forces should pull out. But many who supported that withdrawal in the name of human rights did not foresee the calamity that followed, which included genocide in Cambodia, tens of thousands slaughtered in Vietnam by the North Vietnamese and the tragedy of hundreds of thousands of "boat people."

Tzipi Livni sums up what Israelis and Palestinians need to focus on

Israel's foreign minister - and possibly next prime minister - Tzipi Livni, as quoted in today's New York Times:

We cannot solve who was right or wrong in 1948 or decide who is more just. The Palestinians can feel justice is on their side, and I can feel it is on my side. What we have to decide about is not history but the future.”