Re: Lal masjid/ISI drama: 5 Chinese kidnapped
I was pretty shocked to here this. I don't know if its so much the Pakistani gov't using them to get attention off their backs. That's a pretty sad method. Typically, if you want to distract attention, you do it by creating a problem and then actually getting rid of it, showing thereby that you are so highly competent, and raising public morale of the gov't. But, in this case, the gov't was strangely silent and the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa are still operating, and moreover giving edicts (as if that's their job!) to have every massage center shutdown.
Um, last I checked, massage centers give massages. How is that haraam now? You can't shut down every massage center because you think, without bringing forth any proof, that some centers are providing "haraam" services.
In fact, the news was saying that their problem with the massage center was that women were giving massages to "na-mehram" men and that was wrong. Never said anything about sexual encounters.
I think Musharraf's gov't doesn't want to create too much attention on this subject - they're doing the "hopefully, if we ignore it, it'll go away" approach. That hasn't worked. This is the second kidnapping case.
Moreover, any strict action on Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa, and we already know what will happen:
They'll put up a strong fight with the police officers - remember how they abducted 2 officers?!?
They'll get all the maulvi's in the country to rally behind them. Any attack will be seen as an attack on masjids around the country and an attack on Islam. You'll have our own religious maulvi's and maulanis here raising a ruckus over how Musharraf is feeding into Western hands by fighting Islamic "clerics".
I'm not surprised that Musharaff's government is sitting mum. I don't know if I'd do anything different.
If Pakistan's people could recognize a chor from someone genuine, maybe the government might operate differently. But people get jazbati over ridiculously illegal things. They'll rally behind a friggin thief, but they wont give an honest man time of day.