07-11-2007, 08:13 PM
No link sorry -
<b>The Lal Masjid affair </b>
<b>The Pakistan report card</b>
By Fasi Zaka
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In all likelihood the Lal Masjid situation would have continued indefinitely had it not been for the crucial mistake to abduct the Chinese from the massage parlor. The Chinese government came down heavily on Pakistan because it wanted the assurance that the life of its citizens would be safe, no matter how blue collared their profession in Pakistan. Contrast that with the behavior of the Pakistani government who did not act when a woman was abducted and made out to be a brothel Madame and paraded to the public. She deserved the benefit of doubt until it was proved otherwise.
<b>Had Lal Majid been in E-7 or F-6 rather than the relatively less posh G-6, it is likely that action would have been taken sooner against the two brothers leading the mosque because the targets for kidnapping would have hit closer to home in the government circles.</b> After the Chinese, the government must have also been scared that the<b> brothers had their sights set on some of the western expatriates living in the capital; the brothers' Abdul had been giving statements against the "nudists" who roamed the streets with their UN and diplomatic license plates. If that had happened it would have been political suicide for Musharraf</b>.
Durrani may have kept his job as information minister, but its time he capitalizes on it with a stellar job. The images of Maluana Aziz in a burqa are a Godsend. They are the striking evidence of the cowardice of the Ghazi's and Osama's of the world happy to use the poorest of the poor as cannon fodder for their ideological purposes. The shootout taking place can either be romanticized as a holdout of the believer against the stooges of the west, or a cornered coward hiding behind women and children. If the fallout is to be minimized then it is imperative the latter narrative wins in the battle of spin.
Even if the standoff is resolved correctly with the brothers' of the Lal Masjid made to pay for their crimes, it would be a shallow victory. The underlying problem would remain, that is the poverty that drives people to be appropriated by the vendors of militancy and the inability of the government to implement the madressah reforms project.
But, frankly, the whole Lal Masjid operation now has helped save Musharraf's beleaguered presidency. Attention has been diverted from other crises, <b>the militants are demonized rather than sympathized with, and finally Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has been knocked off the front pages of newspapers</b>. If this whole crisis at the Lal Masjid is actually staged as some suggest, then the playwright deserves an Oscar, especially for the escape scene that made one of the Lal Brothers look positively yellow. Maulana Aziz's cross-dressing seems to have allowed Musharraf to pull the trigger against all his targets in the political crosshair.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>The Lal Masjid affair </b>
<b>The Pakistan report card</b>
By Fasi Zaka
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In all likelihood the Lal Masjid situation would have continued indefinitely had it not been for the crucial mistake to abduct the Chinese from the massage parlor. The Chinese government came down heavily on Pakistan because it wanted the assurance that the life of its citizens would be safe, no matter how blue collared their profession in Pakistan. Contrast that with the behavior of the Pakistani government who did not act when a woman was abducted and made out to be a brothel Madame and paraded to the public. She deserved the benefit of doubt until it was proved otherwise.
<b>Had Lal Majid been in E-7 or F-6 rather than the relatively less posh G-6, it is likely that action would have been taken sooner against the two brothers leading the mosque because the targets for kidnapping would have hit closer to home in the government circles.</b> After the Chinese, the government must have also been scared that the<b> brothers had their sights set on some of the western expatriates living in the capital; the brothers' Abdul had been giving statements against the "nudists" who roamed the streets with their UN and diplomatic license plates. If that had happened it would have been political suicide for Musharraf</b>.
Durrani may have kept his job as information minister, but its time he capitalizes on it with a stellar job. The images of Maluana Aziz in a burqa are a Godsend. They are the striking evidence of the cowardice of the Ghazi's and Osama's of the world happy to use the poorest of the poor as cannon fodder for their ideological purposes. The shootout taking place can either be romanticized as a holdout of the believer against the stooges of the west, or a cornered coward hiding behind women and children. If the fallout is to be minimized then it is imperative the latter narrative wins in the battle of spin.
Even if the standoff is resolved correctly with the brothers' of the Lal Masjid made to pay for their crimes, it would be a shallow victory. The underlying problem would remain, that is the poverty that drives people to be appropriated by the vendors of militancy and the inability of the government to implement the madressah reforms project.
But, frankly, the whole Lal Masjid operation now has helped save Musharraf's beleaguered presidency. Attention has been diverted from other crises, <b>the militants are demonized rather than sympathized with, and finally Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has been knocked off the front pages of newspapers</b>. If this whole crisis at the Lal Masjid is actually staged as some suggest, then the playwright deserves an Oscar, especially for the escape scene that made one of the Lal Brothers look positively yellow. Maulana Aziz's cross-dressing seems to have allowed Musharraf to pull the trigger against all his targets in the political crosshair.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->