Pakistan’s Dive into the Sewer of Religious Intolerance

The religious zeal and violence we see in Pakistan has nothing at all to do with religion, it is simply a function of manipulation of ignorant masses in order to get control of the country. It appears that even the leaders, the so-called “scholars of Islam” who whip up mass hysteria, do not understand the very basics of Islam. Often the very respected “religious scholars” themselves are too illiterate to even understand the local language, let alone the Arabic of the Quran. The most illustrative example of ignorance and illiteracy that drives fanaticism in Pakistan is the picture below. It is a recent demonstration led by a large sign that is supposed to declare, “Punishment for rudeness towards the prophet is beheading, beheading”. On the sign, however, they omitted a crucial accent which changed the meaning to read, “Rude prophet’s punishment is beheading, beheading”. It should have started with, “Gustakh-e-nabi…” but it was printed as “Gustakh nabi…”.

The demonstrators themselves, are guilty of “blasphemy”!

Tragically, even as we discuss Pakistan’s situation, we run the risk of being accused of “blasphemy”; no idle accusation for, it can carry a death sentence or, result in a lynching death before the trial takes place. Anything can be twisted such that it becomes an accusation of blasphemy in fact, simply an accusation without evidence, can result in a guilty verdict (or pretrial death) from judges who are terrified that THEY will be killed by some mob or, their families will be attacked by an ignorant public whipped into a murderous frenzy, justified by religion and led by “religious scholars”.

Trumps’ Speech on Afghanistan…and Pakistan

Yes, Donald Trump, the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of its overwhelming military decided to give a speech on Afghanistan. I would give it zero points for a well thought-out plan and full points for high rhetoric, bluster, fake bravado and other brave-appearing but meaningless, sounds.

Let’s take a closer look…

• “Love for America requires love for all of its people. When we open our hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry, and no tolerance for hate.”

Unless of course, we talk about MUSLIMS who do not deserve any protections against prejudice, bigotry or, hate. Note that most naïve Muslims are still sitting out there waiting and hoping that Trump will condemn the bombing of the Mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota; they have a long wait in front of them.

ALL Terrorists are Muslim…I Know Why!!!

By now, I’ll bet every Muslim has heard the bigotry-loaded term, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all Terrorists are Muslim“, it just dawned on me that this saying is absolutely RIGHT!!!

When the only “terrorists” one wishes to recognize, are Muslim, then of course, all terrorists are going to be Muslim; QED.

The story below was forwarded to me by a friend, it shows how an act of violence or a threat by a non-Muslim is waved off as “stupid”, “deranged” or even “an isolated incident” and essentially, “Unrelated to terrorist groups”, while the same act, committed by  Muslim brings to trial, said Muslim, his family, his friends, his Mosque and his faith, as one, broad conspiracy, driven by the Quran and the prophet Mohammed. Naturally, since the perpetrator below, is not Muslim, he is automatically not a “terrorist”, but off his rocker. Every week, I get “The TSA Blog“, a weekly report that details all the firearms and explosives that people try to get through an airport…the ones who get caught! Did anyone in Seattle know there were two incidents in February, where people got caught at Sea-Tac airport, one with a 9 mm gun and one with a .45? No, I didn’t either. Who’s betting they were Muslim? you’d lose.

Now for my never-ending chant: These attitudes against Islam and Muslims are ONLY possible because we Muslims cannot get past our parochial and sectarian, (Takfiri) differences and because even the best of us cannot be bothered enough to work together and use our massive political clout. we like to work “behind the scenes” with “calm discussion”, to “engage”, politicians and law enforcement. We don’t like to appear to be “aggressive” or “Controversial”.

I am sharply reminded of this because just yesterday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, during his visit to the US, THANKED US service men and women, for their “sacrifices”. No mention at all, of how it was the US, that completely destroyed Afghanistan, slaughtered possibly hundreds of thousands of Afghanis, maimed probably forty-fifty times more and is now marching out of the country, leaving it in total, violent, anarchy. The same, by the way, has been done to Iraq.

Muslim & American; The Two Faces of the West

Sometimes, I think God has a macabre sense of humor. He allows us to firmly place ourselves in a self-righteous position and then deftly pulls the rug away from under us by presenting  an entirely contrary situation.

Take the case of the mass-murderer in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, March 11, 2012, the soldier slaughtered 4 Afghan men, 3 women and 9 children, dragged their bodies into one place and set them on fire. Then he calmly walked back to his base and surrendered saying, “I did it”.  For the next FIVE days, all we were allowed to know about his identity was that he is a Staff Sergeant from Joint Base Lewis McCord (JBLM) in Tacoma Washington. The military said they were keeping his identity quiet in order to protect his family.

Killing Afghans, ‘Pakis’, Iraqis, Somalis…WHY???!!!

Updated March 13, 2012…

When the news of a US soldier going out to kill Afghans, first broke, American media were focusing on TWO deaths even as they also reported that the Afghanis were saying about 17 had been killed. Almost immediately other diffusers and excuses began to pour forth, giving “News Coverage” a new meaning.

The New York Times can STILL not bring itself to report the 16 murders without offering some softening words; in the headline, the US soldier is said to kill civilians even as NYT goes on to describe what the soldier (from our Puget Sound area) did:

New York Times: “U.S. Sergeant Is Said to Kill 16 Civilians in Afghanistan”

• “…the soldier, who had walked more than a mile from his base, tried door after door, eventually breaking in to kill within three separate houses. The man gathered 11 bodies, including those of 4 girls younger than 6, and set fire to them, villagers said.”

As if to justify the murders or at least, to minimize the tragedy, Super-Patriot, Angry-Bird John McCain shamelessly shifted the focus to 9-11 instead of offering even a few grudging words of regret or sympathy.

“We should not forget that the attacks on the United States of America originated in Afghanistan,” Senator John McCain told CNN. Inferring of course, that a few deaths of the unwashed, here or there, should not be a cause for concern.

Marines Urinating on Dead Muslims

The latest outrage against Muslims is the scene shown in the video of Marines in Afghanistan, urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans.

 

In the interest of facing truth, please let us not blame the kids in the above video, who are urinating on dead Muslims!

 

Consider the facts first:

1. The Military, along with the Police, FBI and other American security agencies, is actively trained to think of Islam and Muslims as the greatest threat to America and the West and this training continues. They use self-styled “experts” on Islam and “terrorism” who only talk about how terrible and murderous Islam and Muslims are.
2. “Our boys and girls in uniform” are trained the defend this country against an enemy that is portrayed as being inhuman; if we don’t stop (kill) them there, they will kill us all here!
3. In their minds (as they have been taught), they killed a few disgusting rats, just as they do every day out there…men rats, women rats and children rats…RATS all.
4. American political parties not only ignore us Muslims, they get better ratings if they bash Muslims and Islam.
5. There is no action against the anti-Muslim hate-mongering climate in this country because we Muslims do not do anything to make ourselves politically significant so, why should anyone care about us?

I am willing to BET this is neither the only such event, nor the worst or even the last…as long as our continuing silence signifies we don’t care.

 

In view of the fact that our President ordered the murder of American Muslims without any due process and he signed into law, a bill (National Defense Appropriations Authorization…NDAA) that authorizes the indefinite detention of Muslims (Section 1020 is unlikely to fit any other group) by the military, we should not be shocked that our soldiers are expressing the growing American sentiment towards Islam and Muslims.

 

Bottom line?

If Muslims don’t gather themselves and start voting en bloc to make their concerns known to our poliotical leadership, nobody is going to give a hoot for how Muslims are being persecuted and hurt.

Congress Okay’s Indefinite Military “Detention” of Muslims

So, who’s going to vote against the Holy Grail of Defense Appropriations, especially to protect “Muzlems“?

 

“Defense” has become such an ultra-patriotic issue that nobody dares speak against “Defense” and all sorts of evil is justified behind the screen of “Defense”. Our idiotic “War!”s have morphed into a “Defense” issue where being against the Iraq “War!” and the Afghan “War!” means we are weak on “Defense” and we are against “our boys” who are out there sacrificing their lives to protect us. Nobody dares ask how this protection became necessary or why and why opposing the idiot “War!”s means we hate “our boys in uniform”.

 

“Defense” has become a racket where millionaire have become billionaires but the appetites are not yet sated.

 

It is this atmosphere that the latest Defense Appropriations bills came up in the House and in the Senate. I suppose it is fine that they did, after all, once we are in a “War!”, there is little choice but to continue funding the “Defense” forces. This is where “earmarks” slither into the picture. These are supposedly “minor” attachments to the larger bill such that in order to vote against the earmark, one has to vote against the entire bill. In matters of important bills, it is very difficult for a Senator or a Representative to vote against an entire bill, just to take a stand against an earmark.

This must have been the line of thinking when they inserted provisions in the Defense Appropriations Bills (H.R. 1540 and S. 1967), provisions that could almost be overlooked unless one were reading the bill (which most Congress members don’t); sections 1031 and 1032 allow the Administration to imprison (“Detain”) people indefinitely.

Droning on the “Af-Pak” border

The story was terrible, 28 (later corrected to 24) Pakistani soldiers killed by US attack helicopters and other aircraft.

 

To soothe the shock, US forces said they were responding to cross-border firing, but the story looks thin and stinks of cover-up, arrogance and lies.

 

The first point of issue would be to ask how it is that the US, fighting across Pakistan’s border and launching continuous attacks at Pakistan’s people along the borders, was so completely unaware of where Pakistani soldiers are deployed…fighting America’s war by killing their own people! US forces, euphemistically called “NATO forces”, have to be completely incompetent if they don’t even keep track of the military movements of its ally of convenience in this idiotic “War!” against and unseen, unknown enemy.

Pakistan’s JF-17 Presentation in Dubai Air Show

Guns or butter? that has been the single driving question throughout history.

 

Pakistan’s JF-17 is a nice fighter jet that speaks well for Pakistan’s military assembly and production plants. The aircraft is a Chinese design, made up of components from many countries (mostly Chinese, some Russian and Western) and assembled in Pakistan, I doubt if it is better that the US F-16 and F-18s in any respects except for being cheaper. By next year, it is estimated that Pakistan will be producing 58% of the components itself.

 

It is a national disgrace, that these aircraft were first used against the people of South Waziristan.

 

That said, it is a national tragedy for Pakistan to be so involved in building war machines that cost BILLIONS and become obsolete after just a few years

Is Pakistan the problem?

Out-going Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen accused Pakistan  of not only aiding terrorism against the US, but of fomenting it by supporting and directing the militant Haqqani network. By the way, the Haqqanis are located among the semi-autonomous, Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and are a US-manufactured group dating back to the days of our war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Not to be out-done, calls are coming from Congress to take military action against Pakistanand to send US troops within Pakistan to resolve the “Haqqani problem”; it is, after all, time for elections.

While such strong statements may pander well to the American public, they do nothing to help ease the increasingly worsening situation in the “Af-Pak” region in fact, such speeches only underscore the dismal state of understanding of the problems in that region. America defines problems exclusively as they relate to itself and attempts to define the origins and broader impacts of the underlying issues, are regarded as treason.