Why Do They Hate Us? Playing Soccer With Severed Heads

A few days ago, a friend sent me a link to a YouTube video that turned my stomach. It showed some Pathans (Pashtuns, Taliban, take your pick) with several severed heads that they displayed by holding them by the hair, then they dropped the heads and kicked them around like soccer balls, giggling and laughing as they did so.

My first reaction was of utter disgust, I turned it off. Then I replayed it and paused it at different points and thought about it and suddenly I no longer saw animals, fanatical brutes doing inhuman things to their victims, I saw something entirely different; I saw a worldwide problem that gives life to such.

The people holding the severed heads were no older than children, they giggled in a childish way when they kicked the heads around…they WERE  children! These children were doing horrific things, probably shutting their minds to the reality of what they were doing, but doing them in order to be “In”, to belong to their group, rather than to risk being “Out”. The scene was not much different from a school bullying scene where the bullies do the bad things, a few kids join them to be among the ‘in” crowd and others remain silent because they do not wish to stand out or, to be rejected. The fact that they were Muslim, had nothing to do with the matter, they had been manipulated and controlled by the fanatics, they were no different from the child soldiers of Congo, Liberia, Angola and Uganda for whom the entire “Civilized” world shows compassion and care and whom the entire “Civilized” world wants to reform and rehabilitate. But these were kids that the entire “Civilized” world wants to kill in any way they can, utilizing Drones, special Forces and even the armed forces of the host nations (Pakistan, Afghanistan etc.,) to slaughter them with impunity…”in order to keep the world safe” they say.

How did these children come to such a state of affairs and what can be done for them?

These children are the product of deliberate neglect and corruption in Pakistan AND in the so-called, “Civilized Family of Nations” led by the US.

The problem in Pakistan is that almost without exception, the top levels of politics, administration, Police and military are dedicated to looting the country as much and as fast as they can, so they don’t pay any attention to the deteriorating condition of the country; their goal is to take the money and run…and settle in the West which welcomes them with open arms. The country itself is left to the tender mercies of the faith-groups, people and Imams (“Ulema”) with little or no knowledge of their own faith (Islam), even though they can recite the entire Quran and talk with authority about Islam.

The Twentieth Century gave rise to massive numbers of Muslims who lived under colonial rule from the West and the during the early century, the Ottoman Empire. The illiterate masses were easy prey for anyone who could claim to be a “scholar” of Islam, anyone who could claim to have studied in some Islamic University or, under some well-known Alim (scholar). These scholars hammered their own philosophies on the masses and threatened them with hellfire if they questioned or in any way, failed to disobeyed their edicts. Study of Islam was ignored and the doctrine of blind obedience to the “Ulema” was elevated to high piety, which was all the poor and the illiterate wanted to understand; a guarantee of a better life in the Hereafter.

When Pakistan’s leaders started their rush to the gutters of corruption, they left the country to the faith-leaders who at first took tiny steps but as their power consolidated, they became tyrannical and intolerant, resorting to taking their people to violent expression in the name of God. This mentality of blind obedience to Imams and “Ulema” is very much a part of much of Muslim culture today, even in enlightened and educated circles, people who are clearly uncomfortable with the preaching of their imam of scholar, still remain silent and obey because to do otherwise is not something they were brought up to do. In such a climate, most faith leaders become autocrats, issuing edicts and enforcing them with strong words and depending on their location, with harshness.

The missing key was and remains, education. Instead of spending money to educate the youth of Pakistan so they grow up to be productive, intelligent members of society, the money is skimmed off by political leaders and by each of the lower levels of administration in the education infrastructure of the country. The children are left to either not study or, to go to the madrassas conveniently provided by the growing levels of intolerant “Ulema” and the budding youth become fully-functional fanatics who bring more children into the fold and the cycle goes on…

Violent fanaticism got its first major boost when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The United States, not wishing to declare open war on the Soviet Union, decided to fight the Soviet union to the last Afghan. The CIA poured hundreds of millions of dollars to establish madressas (schools) for Afghan children where they were taught to hate the “Godless unbelievers” (Russians) who occupied Afghanistan. As the children grew up they were transferred to Mujahedeen Training Camps and sent into Afghanistan until the Russians finally abandoned the country. The dust from the departing Russians had not started to rise when the US also abandoned Afghanistan and the Afghans. The country was left to tribal and sectarian wars which gave rise to the Taliban who then enforced their brand of brutal intolerance on the people of Afghanistan.

In the meantime, Pakistan was struggling with its own Taliban-style thinkers and leaders who were also a product of America’s war to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Pakistani politicians paid little heed to the growing intolerance as the politicians, the Police and the Military pillaged their country with impunity. infrastructure was ignored, as was the social fabric of the nation. Pakistan’s leadership at all levels, stretched out one hand to the West to get aid as they stole most of the aid with the other hand, yet the aid continued to pour in. Billions of dollars have been siphoned off by the top ranks of politicians, law-enforcement and military in Pakistan and “invested” in Western countries. For the West, led by the US, the “investing” of such money is met with unquestioning welcome. Leaders of the United States and other Western countries are fully aware that the hundreds of millions of dollars by many of the top leaders is stolen from the people and likely, from Western aid.

No questions are asked as the money cascades in.

Western short-term thinking only helps them gain short-term allies, while in the long term, the West is breeding enemies at a scale that has never been matched in human history…or even in human fiction. The true nature of destruction these fanatics can wreak, not only on their immediate areas, but all over the world can not even be imagined until it happens, by which time it will be far too late.

Today, we have the ability to allow the exponential growth of violent fanaticism or, to stop it in its tracks, it is not easy, but it is effective. Our passive, gaping will take our future generations into horrors not even described in Hell, while our action can take us to w world where people can live in peace and harmony with each other….education IS key.

During times of distress, good decisions are always available, but they are seldom easy.

The first step can be to either inform all madressas they they must either shut down or, every one of their teachers must be educated in general studies as well as in all faiths and all sects of Islam. Then too, all madressas must conform to declared curricula that guarantee an educated youth.

Success also requires the cooperation of the “Judeo-Christian Family of Nations”, they must shut down the corridors through which corrupt folks in countries like Pakistan can freely bring millions and hundreds of millions of dollars into the US and other Western countries, without hindrance or questions. People bringing money into any country in the West must be able to prove it is not a product of corruption or, the money must be frozen until it can be proven clean. This will stop the corrupt from being able to take the money and run to places where they cannot be caught, it may not stop all corruption, but it will stem it to bearable proportions.

Short of that, nothing will work unless a Chairman Mao emerges in Pakistan, commits wholesale slaughters of people even suspected of corruption and violence (I know, there is an ironic contradiction here).

Not to worry about any threat to Islam in Pakistan, from someone like a “Godless” Mao. Islam in Pakistan has already gone from being a religion and a way of life that leads people through peace and cooperation, to being a blunt cudgel to bash in the brains of all who oppose the fanatics.

Tragically, “Islam” in Pakistan can only be found in empty slogans in full mosques; the underpinning faith is almost a figment of a wishful imagination.