Imran provides detailed policy solutions, Israel bombs mosque

Posted on by
Reply

After years of giving hollow promises of eliminating corruption in mere days, retired cricket play boy Imran Khan has returned from his trip to Lords and provided detailed plans for solving the nations problems.

Speaking after the inauguration of his party’s Lahore office on Thursday, Mr Khan said the ‘Naya Pakistan’ would only be created after coming out on roads as was the case of winning the cause of independent judiciary. “The Azadi March (from Lahore) will be a final battle to root out the corrupt and bring in a fair system in the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Israel continued killing Muslims and even bombed an 8th century mosque built on the birth place of Prophet Younis (PBUH) while the entire world gave tacit approval with its silence.

Iraqi lawmakers elected a veteran Kurdish politician on Thursday to replace long-serving Jalal Talabani as the country’s new president in the latest step toward forming a new government. But a series of attacks killed dozens of people and Islamic militants destroyed a Muslim shrine traditionally said to be the burial place of the Prophet Jonah

Actually, as is clear from the actual reports, the truth is that Imran Khan still has nothing to offer but empty promises and street politics, and Israel’s atrocities are condemned loudly while the similar acts by jihadi militants have become so common place as to be unremarkable. But never mind the facts. It is the headline that we want to hear that will be re-Tweeted.

Mainstreaming Extremism In KP Primary Schools

Posted on by
Reply

Madrassa

Yesterday, Government KP announced that 2000 madrassahs will be given Primary School status:

What this means is not exactly clear. It could mean that 2000 madrassahs will be brought under state curriculum in effort to eliminate radicalising forces and improve the education of all students. However the reality is probably different.

In the best case scenario, this is a scheme to cook the books on education in the province by making it appear that the provincial government has increased number of primary schools. This is more of an accounting trick than anything else, moving schools from the madrassah column to the primary school column to boost numbers. Supporters of the move will argue that this will have a positive effect by bringing them under official curriculum and increasing lessons on maths and science for madrassah students.

More likely is that the result will be mainstreaming of extremism in KP primary schools. It should be remembered that one year ago KP government changed the official school curriculum to include lessons on jihad.

“Jihad is a part of our faith and every child should have knowledge about it and its true spirit,” said Farman, who was flanked by Elementary and Secondary Education Additional Secretary Qaiser Alam. “In the curriculum we will include whatever we consider correct. We are not going to appease anyone,” he stressed.

Such statements suggest that the influence is more likely to come from the madrassahs than the other way around.

Pakistan faces an education crisis, and KP is in many ways suffering the worst as hundreds of state schools have been destroyed by militant extremists. The solution however is not to turn education over to them.

The Disturbing Familiarity of Zionist Extremism

Posted on by
Reply

Zionism and Jihad

A week ago, The Nation published an editorial that briefly caused confusion for me. The piece which was about the atrocities in Gaza noted that, ‘Muslims are losing ground, homes and lives in Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka. An unending list.’ What struck me as strange was the inclusion of Iraq and Pakistan in this list of countries where Muslims are facing persecution as a minority. Muslims are not a minority in Iraq and Pakistan, and those countries are not suffering from attacks by non-Muslims. The more I thought about this strange list, however, I began to see that perhaps there was a deeper and more disturbing truth that The Nation had touched on, even if it was unintentionally.

According to The Nation’s editorial:

‘Israel does not want peace; it wants total control of land. And this battle for land holds religious meaning for them, and symbolic meaning for the west. It is not just about territorial power but a grand destiny.

Replace the word ‘Israel’ with Taliban. Or al Qaeda. Or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Or Lashkar-e-Taiba. Or any other jihadi militant group and the sentence holds perfectly true.

In Gaza, Muslims are being slaughtered in the service of an extremist ideology. In Iraq and Pakistan, Muslims are also being slaughtered in the service of an extremist ideology. One group justifies their killings by calling it ‘Zionism’ and the other by calling it ‘Jihad’.

The slaughter of innocents in Gaza disturbs us deeply. It should. If we look deeper, though, at what is behind the atrocities, we may see an all too familiar face looking back at us. That should disturb us also.

 

Gaza Can’t Be Saved With Religion

Posted on by
Reply

Religion and War

Israel escalated it’s attack against Gaza yesterday by launching a ground invasion, adding tanks and soldiers to the already indiscriminate air strikes. Hamas has refused any offer of cease fire and warns of ‘heavy price‘ for the latest invasion. Meanwhile, the world is struggling to find a solution that will stop the unnecessary killing. Well, most of the world. In Pakistan, our leaders and supposed ‘security experts’ are trotting out well worn emotional responses without a hint of reason.

I have already discussed the insanity of PTI’s suggestion that Pakistan nuke Israel, though I did not even bother to mention then what such an irrational policy would result for Pakistan itself.

Ansar Abbasi has made a similar suggestion recently, except not just for Pakistan but for all Muslim countries to launch a joint military operation against Israel.

Maleeha Lodhi, may be more sophisticated, but she appears to have the same suggestion also, although presenting it in a more subtle, plausibly deniable way.

Maleeha Lodhi obviously doesn’t mention war by name, but since Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan have all been working to try to negotiate an end to the violence, it is not unreasonable to assume that diplomacy is not a satisfactory means for our ex-diplomat.

Details aside, the idea is always the same – that the Ummah is under attack from Jews and all means necessary to secure the Ummah against the Jews is justified. Ironically, this is essentially the same idea that is guiding Israel’s policy of state terrorism against Gaza – a religious obligation to kill.

Gaza can’t be saved with religion. That does not mean we should not pray to Allah to intervene and stop this madness, but it means that giving the same prayers that the Israelis are giving – ‘Oh God Kill Our Enemies’ – is part of the problem not part of the solution. In the meantime, we need to start looking for solutions that do not involve religious violence. Both for Gaza, and for ourselves.

PTI’s Modest Proposal: Nuke Israel!

Posted on by
3

AQ Khan and Imran Khan

While atrocities continue to take place in Gaza, several countries are trying to stop the killing. America offered to help broker a cease fire last week, but with its history of unquestioning support for Israel, the US is not seen as a neutral broker. Egypt has been trying to negotiate its own cease fire, but has not been able to get Hamas to agree to stop its rocket attacks. As the body count rises with no end in sight, however, PTI has a modest proposal of its own. Start a nuclear war with Israel!

Here is Senior PTI founding member and spokesman for Imran Khan:

 

Bloody good idea! And I do mean bloody. After all, Israel is only 114 km wide at its widest point. For those unfamiliar with the actual geography, it looks like this:

Israel map

So let us imagine what would happen if we followed PTI’s advice and nuked Israel. Obviously, we would kill millions of Jews including innocent women and children. This might be considered a small price to pay for stopping the killing of the Palestinians, though – never mind that killing innocents with disproportionate response is exactly what we’re protesting Israel for.

Because of the small geography and the large impact of nuclear weapons, though, we would also kill all the Palestinians, too. But we can rationalise this because they will embrace martyrdom in effort to kill all the Jews. The important thing to remember is that after our attack, Israel will no longer be able to kill innocent Palestinians! Because, of course, we will have killed them all ourselves.

Another fool proof plan courtesy PTI!