So this really is Islamic justice?

The London Telegraph reports that the Saudis are preparing to behead a 19-year old Sri Lankan maid:

According to the Saudi authorities, Rizana Nafeek admitted strangling the four-month-old boy while feeding him with a bottle.

But Nafeek, whose job was not meant to include child care, has denied making any such admission. She claims the child had begun to choke before losing consciousness in spite of her desperate efforts to clear his airway.

Unless the Saudis reverse the courts decision, or the parents of the victim pardon the girl, Nafeek, as the Telegraph writes, "will have her head cut off by an executioner wielding a sword in front of a crowd of onlookers."

International human rights monitors are, not surprisingly, aghast that this girl is about to be executed. Not only was she just 17 at the time of the alleged crime, but she also didn't have a lawyer to defend her at her trial, and then there is the context. Saudi authorities are notorious for extracting confessions of guilt using torture. (And somehow I suspect the Saudis use harsher techniques than only providing "cheap, unbranded, unscented soap," and soccer balls that "hardly bounce.")

Recently, Saudi Arabia has permitted human rights into the kingdom.

Here is what one such locally-grown advocate had to say about the girl's predicament: "The workers commit big crimes against the Saudis," Suhaila Hammad of Saudi's Society for Human Rights was reported as saying. "Allah, our creator, knows what's good for his people," she said.

"Should we just think of and preserve the rights of the murderer and not think of the rights of others?" she wondered aloud.

So apparently this is Islamic justice - at least Saudi style. No wonder people shudder when they hear that Muslims in places like Britain want to establish sharia or Islamic law in the West.

Gaza: It's becoming a target-rich environment

Hamas may want to rethink this idea of allowing Gaza to become a refuge for terrorists. The Agence France Presse reports (via the ABC News):

An Egyptian security official says Al Qaeda members have revealed the head of the group in the country has fled for the Gaza Strip.

The official says the arrested members have revealed during interrogation that Khaled Mahmud Ahmed escaped to Gaza when Egyptian authorities began arresting members of his group in April.

Saudi Arabia's other major export product: Suicide terrorists

While the world can't yet figure out how to live without Saudi oil, some Saudis at least only want to live to kill the rest of us. The New York Times reports:

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.

Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.

He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.

That's 4,000 Iraqis. As the Times report continues:

The Saudi government does not dispute that some of its youths are ending up as suicide bombers in Iraq, but says it has done everything it can to stop the bloodshed.

"Saudis are actually being misused. Someone is helping them come to Iraq. Someone is helping them inside Iraq. Someone is recruiting them to be suicide bombers. We have no idea who these people are. We aren't getting any formal information from the Iraqi government," said Gen. Mansour Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry.

"If we get good feedback from the Iraqi government about Saudis being arrested in Iraq, probably we can help," he said.

While this sounds like a pretty lame excuse to me, the Iraqi government should make a dramatic gesture of stepping forward to give the Saudis names and photos so they can do something about this.

But wait, check this out:

U.S. officials had not shared with Iraqi officials information gleaned from Saudi detainees, but this has started to change, said an Iraqi source, who asked not to be identified. For example, U.S. officials provided information about Saudi fighters and suicide bombers to Iraqi security officials who traveled to Saudi Arabia last week.

Iraqi advisor Askari asserted that Vice President Dick Cheney, in a visit to Saudi Arabia in May, pressured officials to crack down on militant traffic to Iraq. But that message has not yet produced results, Askari said.

. . .Asked why U.S. officials in Iraq had not publicly criticized Saudi Arabia the way they had Iran or Syria, the senior military officer said, "Ask the State Department. This is a political juggernaut."

So it takes the Vice President himself to give the Saudis the bottom line here? Poor Cheney, he always has to be the bearer of bad news.

Not surprisingly, many Iraqis (Americans too, I might add) suspect that Riyadh knows very well who comprises their volunteer suicide bombing brigade. But they prefer these disgruntled souls to blow themselves up in Iraq as opposed to at home. (Can't say as I blame them.)

Many Shiites, on the other hand, think that what's going on in Iraq is the Saudi's proxy war with Iran.

But now consider this bit of information:

Al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliate groups number anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 individuals, the senior U.S. military officer said. Iraqis make up the majority of members, facilitating attacks, indoctrinating, fighting, but generally not blowing themselves up. Iraqis account for roughly 10% of suicide bombers, according to the U.S. military.

To do the math for you, that means 90% of the suicide bombings are the work of foreign jihadists.

Here's what a Shiite-militia controlled neighborhood in Iraq looks like

From today's Washington Post on the area in Baghdad controlled by the Jaish al-Mahdi, the Arabic name for the Shiite militia controlled by the pudgy, baby-faced cleric with the legendary father, Moqtada al-Sadr:

In the 10-square-mile district of West Rashid, the Mahdi Army also controls the housing market, the gas stations and the loyalty of many of the residents, according to the soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. . . Its fighters are willing and able to attack Americans with armor-piercing bombs, mortars, machine guns and grenades...

U.S. soldiers estimate that a year ago, Sunnis made up about 80 percent of the population there and Shiites 20 percent. But those numbers have now reversed, after a concerted effort to cleanse Sunnis from the area, according to U.S. military officials...

American soldiers who oversee West Rashid -- a district of about 700,000 people that includes the al-Amil, Bayaa and al-Jihad neighborhoods -- described an organized, well-financed Shiite enemy that rules ruthlessly and distributes the spoils of war to the area's impoverished residents.

"Now that the Sunnis are all gone, murders have dropped off," the battalition's intelligence commander Capt. Jay Wink was reported as saying.

Here's an American Iraqis can count on

Forget retired generals and politicians in Washington. Here's what Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the "American general directing a major part of the offensive aimed at securing Baghdad" says according to the New York Times):

“When we go out there, the first question they ask is, ‘Are you staying?’ ” he said. “And the second question is, ‘How can we help?’ ” He added, “What we hear is, ‘We’ve had enough of people attacking our villages, attacking our homes, and attacking our children.’ ”

General Lynch said his troops had promised local people that they would stay in the areas they had taken from the extremists until enough Iraqi forces were available to take over, and said this had helped sustain “a groundswell” of feeling against the extremists. He said locals had pinpointed hide-outs of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, an extremist group that claims to have ties to Osama bin Laden’s network, that had been used to send suicide bombers into Baghdad and they had helped troops locate 170 large arms caches. The general said the locals had started neighborhood patrol units called “Iraqi provincial volunteers” that supplied their own weapons and ammunition.

The general declined to be drawn into what he called “the big debate in Washington” over the war, saying American troops would continue to battle the enemy until ordered to do otherwise. But he made it clear that his sympathies were with the Iraqis in his battle area....

“Everybody wants things to happen overnight, and that’s not going to happen,” he said.

Clerics who would be deal killers

From today's Financial Times:

An initial public offering, launched on Tuesday by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding was this week the target of the kind of attack that is increasingly common in business in the region – a critical religious edict or fatwa.

The fatwa criticised some of the company’s investments as un-Islamic, underlining the influence of Islam on the conservative kingdom’s financial system.

Cleric Mohammed al Ossaimi, who has pronounced on the religious credentials of other IPOs, said on a website that some of Kingdom Holding’s investments were in businesses inimical to Islamic values, such as usury and alcohol.

The Prince, however, is by all accounts, undaunted:

"With this IPO, we will give the people of Saudi Arabia a chance to invest in its number one company,” said Prince Alwaleed, whose company had $25bn in assets at the end of 2006.

Al Qaeda is powerful? What you're supposed to read is that Republicans are losers

Here's a tidbit. The Christian Science Monitor notes that "the Al Qaeda media wing, known as As Sahab, ....has released at least 63 audio and video messages so far this year, compared with 58 in 2006, according to the Associated Press." The Monitor continues:

Some analysts say that this new technological prowess by Al Qaeda indicates that its leadership has recaptured the reins and it is far from being cut off and on the run.

This assessment is bolstered by a report from the US intelligence establishment that Al Qaeda has been gaining strength in many areas. Last week, AP reported a leak of a US intelligence summary titled "Al Qaeda better positioned to strike the West." That summary effectively declared that US operations against Al Qaeda since 9/11 have been a failure.

It says the organization has "regrouped to an extent not seen since 2001," that it has established effective havens in Pakistan for training and operational planning and that it has improved its ability to infiltrate operatives into Europe.

Now I have to admit, I don't happen to share this view - that Al Qaeda is now stronger than ever. In fact, my perception is that Al Qaeda is ever more desperate. It lost Saudi Arabia a long time ago. Sunnis in Iraq have been turning against it in droves. Lebanese Muslims cheered when the army began routing out an affiliate organization. Even in its alleged strongholds in Pakistan, I don't buy the fact that the locals are loving them.

Why? Well for starters, they've shot too many of their daughters for the crime of attending school, kidnapped their young sons because apparently they're not seeing the tens of thousands of volunteers they'd like to pretend there are signing up for suicide missions. For once I won't even mention the bit about their insisting that merchants segregate the vegetables by sex.

Sure there have been some terror plots intercepted recently. But did you notice how sophisticated they all were? Sure doctors and engineers are sophisticated...But ramming a jeep into an airport gate??????

Case in point: The above cartoon wasn't the work of an infidel Westerner. This was done by somebody who you would think would be Al Qaeda's core base: the cartoonist is a pious Sunni Muslim, Somalian refugee in Egypt.

Al Qaeda has lost it. This they've never been so powerful business is just American domestic politics as the nation moves into gear for the next presidential elections.

Here's a scary statistic

From the Washington Post:

On a list of 32 suspected al-Qaeda attacks since 1995 compiled by the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, nine occurred from June to September.

Here's a reason you wouldn't want to be Al Qaeda's third-in-command

Quote of the week:

"Being No. 3 in al Qaeda is a bad job. We regularly get to the No. 3 person."

Thomas Fingar, Deputy Director of National Intelligence.

Mac's last word

Before he has to yield the headlines back to the extremists....


And now, for our last part of this 10-part interview with Mac Haque, our favorite Sufi rasta Baul jazz rocker singer.

The last question I asked Mac was what advice he would give humanity.

I mean, why not? If anybody should know what the secret of life is, surely a Sufi rasta Baul jazz rocker would, right?

And so, here is what he said:

Humanity has never been game for good advice!

[Me: Ooops! That was a dumb question on my part. Nevertheless, he was kind enough to continue.]

While we talk about humanity – the forces of betrayal will always make inimical forces stronger. Now even the virtues of democracy are being viewed as some kind of institutionalized thugocracy.

As Gil Scott Heron said ‘Peace can never be found if war is considered a solution’. And yet, too often it is ONLY war we think that will bring peace.

The state of the world post 9/11 is nothing more than a legacy of hate. Unless we remove the hatred, the xenophobia, the racism, the future of mankind is certainly doomed.

We also need to get over the prevailing perform or perish retinue and stop reckless consumption.

For every citizen of the West to survive, a thousand Bangladeshis are imperiled to the spectre of Global Warming. In fifty years time – although I will not be a witness to it – scientific studies suggest that half of Bangladesh will be consumed by the sea.

Once Bangladesh goes, and if humanity still doesn’t change its ways, mankind itself will be wiped out. And long before the year 3000 AD appears on our calendars.

So there you have it folks, the final word from Mac.

Now while admittedly I don't see things quite the same Mac does, I know an awful lot of people who do. And they don't live on the same dELTA he does or come from the same tradition or blah, blah, blah. So these types of details can't be the source of any of our differences, can they?

Because let's face it, if you didn't know where this Mac person was coming from - or anything about his cultural or religious orientation - I bet you'd never guess what his coordinates were.
And that was my point: to show that all this culture gap, this conflict of civilizations business is really just in our minds.

On that note, now it's time to blast some music......To those of you in Waziristan, be sure to use your headphones instead of the speakers - you never know where those Taliban and Al Qaeda guys might be.

And if they ask what's up with the Bluetooth, just say you're on a conference call or something. Tell them some people from a place called Langley are trying to interest you in a couple of $25 million business propositions.

Another New York Times headline that makes no sense

Unless, of course, you consider the political context.

I refer to today's article entitled, "Bush Distorts Qaeda Links, Critics Assert." The Times writes:

But while American intelligence agencies have pointed to links between leaders of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the top leadership of the broader Qaeda group, the militant group is in many respects an Iraqi phenomenon.

Now try and reconcile these two paragraphs with the headline:

Just last week, Mr. Zawahri [Al Qaeda's second-in-command after bin Laden] called on Muslims to travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia to carry out their fight against the Americans and appealed for Muslims to support the Islamic State in Iraq, an umbrella group that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has established to attract broader Sunni support.

The broader issue is whether Iraq is a central front in the war against Al Qaeda, as Mr. Bush maintains, or a distraction that has diverted the United States from focusing on the Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan while providing Qaeda leaders with a cause for rallying support.

Maybe a more accurate headline would have read: "Bush and the Al Qaeda Leadership Distort Qaeda Links."

I do give the Times credit for including this statement:

War critics have often played down the significance of the group despite its gruesome record of suicide attacks and its widely suspected role in destroying a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that set Iraq on the road to civil war.

And for all you fashionistas out there

Who crave even more fashion news than you can get from this blog, check out Alef Magazine the fashion magazine that was launched last year by Sheikh Majed al-Sabah, a member of Kuwait's royal family.

Uploaded on January 20, 2006 by ..£m@r/\tiaprincess(R@b sh@)- /\ touch of roy/\lty

From the magazine's website:

Alef's mission is to showcase a progressive vision of the Middle East and to spotlight the cultural contribution of people of Middle East origin.

As the "chic sheikh" justified opting for a life in fashion over politics to a reporter when the magazine was being launched last year:

"I am doing more for the exposure of my country than my cousins who are in politics," he says. "I want to change people's views of the Middle East and I could not do that if I was in politics."

Or as he told another reporter:

"I want the magazine to be an ambassador from the Middle East, something that reflects the beauty of the region and shows that it's not only about Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and terrorism."

Yes, indeed. Let's see, one down, two to go, and then we can all focus on the really important things in life.

Sick of jihad? Here's a place you can follow the good news coming from the Middle East

The Middle East Media Research Institute, otherwise known as MEMRI announces a new blog that will cover economic news from the Middle East. In their introductory email, MEMRI writes:

The Middle East has been on everyone’s radar screen for a very long time, and often for the wrong reasons. For most readers of the Western press, the Middle East is perceived as an arena of conflicts, wars, religious extremism and intrigues.

But there is another Middle East emerging-particularly among some of the small, oil-rich Gulf countries. With unprecedented cash flow, these countries are racing to catch the train of globalization. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar epitomize this change; their progress so far is breathtaking. For most Middle Eastern economists, they are subjects of grudging admiration, and a model for emulation.

Even among the less fortunate countries in terms of natural resources-Jordan and Morocco, for example-there is a palpable shift from a state-controlled national economy to a market-driven economy. These countries seek foreign direct investments wherever possible. Entrepreneurial spirit is on the rise. Though these countries still face many obstacles in catching up with the advanced economies of the West, their progress thus far gives observers a measure of confidence about the general direction of their future.

Indeed. The freeing of markets, the unleashing of entrepreneurial spirit, unprecedented economic opportunities, some of the world's boldest projects: There's a lot going on in the region besides all the depressing and violent jihad. See fashion news in the post above.

Check out their site.

Mac, the guy who just keeps grabbing headlines away from the extremists

says we all have to get out there and touch someone.

Uploaded on February 12, 2006 by babasteve.
The rickshaw is Mac's favorite form of transportation.

Today our moderate Muslim (oops, did I just refer to him as a moderate? Sorry about that Mac), Mac Haque, none other than Bangladesh's legendary singer, responds to the question "Is there a role here [by that he means this jihad mess we're all in] for music? For poetry? For artists in general?"

This 10-part series of interviews I'm conducting with him, as regular readers know, is part of an on-going series, Alternative Voices from the Islamic world.

I bring you this because, well, who isn't getting sick of all this bloody jihad? Drop me a line and, well, I'll arrange for the police to pick you up.

Anyway, so this was Mac's response to the question about the role artists can play in countering extremism:

Music and poetry have played pivotal roles in Bangladesh’s political history and social revolution. Whether it was the hymns of the Sufi revolt and renaissance against the British or the works of the rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, art has been successfully used here as a weapon against all form of oppression. And it continuously reestablishes and embellishes the secular nature of our culture and our people. . .

The intermingling of the greatest religions in South Asia is a clear indicator of the possibilities yet available to the world.

What is of paramount importance is closer people-to-people interaction. While technology today permits us to reach out and meet people from all countries of the globe, what is sadly lacking is the human touch.

Yes, indeed, but, I have to say, even in spite of the lack of touchy-feely, I for one still love my Internet fRIENDS.

Now be sure to scroll down and see parts 1-8 of this interview - and check out the various links to his music.

Little Girl in Mosul

Little Girl in Mosul, originally uploaded by mattfenn.

Michael Yon talks to former Sunni insurgent Abu Ali

Intrepid blogger Michael Yon reports from Iraq on his July 9th talk with the leader of the 1920s Revolution Brigades in Baqubah, Abu Ali. As Yon writes:

Just months ago our forces would have shot Abu Ali on sight, and he surely would have done the same to us. . .

We had certainly killed a lot of his people, and the 1920s certainly had killed many American soldiers. During severe fighting with al Qaeda in April 2007, the 1920s reached out to American soldiers, and together they have been dismantling al Qaeda here in Baqubah and other places. If we had to fight an allied force of 1920s and al Qaeda, there is no telling how many soldiers we would have lost. . .

In talking with the soft-spoken Abu Ali, his manner is similar to that of experienced American combat leaders. He is direct and clear in his speech (through an interpreter), and his intelligence is evident. An intelligent enemy who knows the dangers—who is not part of an insane death-cult promising 72 virgins and eternity with God to martyrs—and yet stands his ground against Americans over a long period, must possess great courage and annealed strength. . .

While we were driving in the belly of the Stryker into Buhriz, I asked Abu Ali, “What did you do to al Qaeda?”

Abu Ali said that on 1 April 2007, he and his people attacked al Qaeda in Buhriz for their crimes against Islam. He also said something that many Muslims have said to me: al Qaeda are not Muslims. (Both Sunni and Shia have said nearly the exact same words, at times on video.) Abu Ali said they fought hard against al Qaeda, and on 10 April, they asked the Americans to join the attack. It worked.

. . .I asked Abu Ali why he and the 1920s turned against al Qaeda in Buhriz. Speaking through LT David Wallach, a native Arabic speaker, Abu Ali said that “al Qaeda is an abomination of Islam: cutting off heads, stealing people’s money, kidnapping . . . every type of torture they have done.”

The recent stories of baked children came to mind. I asked if Abu Ali had heard about children being baked. Ali said no, he had not heard such a story, but he would not be surprised if it were true because al Qaeda had done so many crimes, such as cutting off a man’s head, putting it up on a stick and parading it around town. . .

Ali thought for a moment as some local people tried to interrupt him with greetings, and he said, “I ask one thing,” and now I paraphrase Ali’s words: “After the Iraqi Army and Police take hold and the security forces are ready, we want a schedule for the leaving of the American forces.”

“I will tell the Americans this,” I said.

And so he has.

Here's a theory as to why most suicide bombers are Muslims

In the latest issue of Psychology Today the authors of the book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters, Alan S. Miller Ph.D., Satoshi Kanazawa Ph.D, make the following case:

What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.

So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.

But polygamy alone is not sufficient to drive one to want to kill themselves - not to mention lots of others, the authors argue. This is why you don't see many suicide bombers coming from, say, sub-Saharan Africa. As the authors write:

The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser. . .

Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.

Why can't the West allow Tehran to have nuclear weapons?

It isn't fair! To give you some context for the West's unevenhandedness, mull over this news in today's New York Times:

The Iranian government confirmed Tuesday that a man was executed by stoning last week for committing adultery, and said that 20 more men would be executed in the coming days on morality violations. . .

A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told reporters on Tuesday that a death sentence by stoning had been carried out last week near the city of Takestan, west of Tehran, despite an order by the chief of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, not to permit such executions. . .

He said the 20 additional executions were for such things as “rape, insulting religious sanctities and laws, and homosexuality.” Most executions in Iran are hangings, often in public and at the scenes of the alleged crimes.

The police arrested about 1,000 people in May during a so-called morality crackdown. Mr. Jamshidi said 15 more men were being tried on similar charges and could receive death sentences.

The daily newspaper Etemad Melli reported Monday that Jaffar Kiani, 47, who had been convicted of adultery, was executed by stoning on Thursday in the cemetery of a small village near Takestan. “Villagers said the sentence was carried out by the local judge and authorities,” the newspaper reported.

As RFE/RL reported last October:

Under pressure from the European Union, Iran was said to have introduced a moratorium on stonings in 2002. But activists accuse judges of perpetuating the practice. . .

Women's rights activist Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh tells RFE/RL that one of the reasons new stonings are being ordered is because the moratorium was not enshrined in law.

"Since under our laws, judges are independent, one reason [for continued stonings] might be that with the new government [of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad] coming to power and the change in the political atmosphere, judges who are in favor of such sentences have become more active," Abbasgholizadeh says. "Therefore, we think stoning should be banned by law -- otherwise judges can issue such sentences as they desire."

As the RFE/RL report continued:

Women are buried up to their chests in a pit; men are buried up to their waists. And their hands are tied behind their backs.

Then, as lawyer Elham Fahimi explains, they are struck with rocks until they die.

"They put them in a hole and they wrap them in a kafan [a white sheet used for burial] -- this is how it should be done, according to the law," Fahimi says. "Then they call on those who have not committed any crimes to come and throw stones."

Death by stoning is slow and painful. Islamic code prescribes that "the stone should not be so big as to kill the offender with one or two stones" and "nor should it be as small as pebbles."

All the European pressures seems to have done is force stonings underground, so to speak. From the RFE/RL October report:

"Currently they don't carry out stoning in public. I don't know [why], maybe because of public opinion or international pressure," Abbasgholizadeh says. "Now it seems that they do it in the prison courtyards by prisoners or prison guards [casting the stones]. I even know...a political prisoner who was detained three or four years ago and had seen from his cell that they brought a woman and forced other female detainees to stone her."

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.