Re: Pakistani nationalists! Please stand up and be counted.
Nationalist and otherwise Pakistanis must stand up, against **misguided **Mullahs in general, but against the Afghan insurgency in particular who are fighting their war in OUR homeland. Let me clarify what I mean.
** There is no Mullah movement going on in Pakistan. Let's put the politically correct B.S. aside and see the current terrorist movement for what it really is: A Political movement being run by tribal warlords to regain their power structure in Afghanistan. No matter how radical the ordinary Mullah is, there still isn't enough public support in 90% of Pakistan for them to run a violent struggle against the state of Pakistan on the whole. The current wave of terrorism is primarily being run from and executed in tribal/Pushtoon areas of our country. The conservative and liberal circles from rest of the Pakistan may come on the streets when they misunderstand Govt's action against the terrorist element in NWFP as an attack on Islamic movement, but they aren't very interested in engaging in any terrorist activities themselves. Allow me to generalize this terroris movement. Don't point to the rare Punjabi/Sindhi/Siraeki/Balochi terrorist. For every suicide bomber from Punjab/Sindh (of any ethnicity), you find 200 from NWFP/Fata/Afghanistan. ** Afghanistan was (rightly) attacked by the U.S. because they were harboring international terrorist who were plotting terrorist activities from within Afghanistan. Taaliban govt was attacked and overthrown and outsted for their ill advised refusal to hand over Bin-Laden.
When Taaliban came under attack, it was considered by the local Pushtun and tribal populations to be a direct against them (and against Islam). What can you say, with their limited world exposure and 2nd century civilization, that makes all the sense to them. It it populations of these areas who are running a 'politcial movement' through 'terrorist acts' and is mistakenly labeled and supported by the conservative circles of Pakistan as being misguidedly done in the name of Islam.
Ask yourself, what was Abdullah Mahsood fighting for, Palestenian independence? Nah. Shariat Enforcement in Pakistan? Nah. He's just on a revenge mission against the overthrow of Taalibans in Afghanistan, and now want to maintain some influence in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
It is time that all Pakistanis, MULLAHs or NOT, Secular or Ultra-Islamic, recognized this evil force rising from the tribal areas. How much Islam Pakistanis want enforced by the state is something we can continue to decide through the democractic process. It's not like we were all having sex on the streets before Taaliban came here and showed us how to live.
Taaliban tried to enforce the strictest form of their 'tribal culture' as Islam, but in reality, it's just another political movement comprised of various warlords fighting together because of a loose bond of similar ethnic and religious background. When they were outsted from Afghanistan, they expanded their influence in our tribal areas so as to continue fighting their war in Afghanistan.
So I urge Pakistanis, Muslims or NOt, conservative or liberal, pro Musharraf and anti Musharraf, pro Nawaz and pro Bibi, pro Mullah and pro MMA, let's continue to resolve our differences through peaceful democractic means, while simultaneously fighting together against this menace in our tribal areas. **
We must act on our Nationalistic urges, for this is a Nationalistic fight. The former govt. of Afghanistan is exploiting their ethnic and religious ties in Pakistan to fight THEIR war in our country. NO MORE. Let's fight against the evil Afghanistani influence, and liberate our Pushtoon population from the Afghan and Arab warlords.**
Pakistan Zindahabad
Good post!