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Suicide Bombings, there is nothing Islamic about them!

13 March, 2007

Suicide Bombings, there is nothing Islamic about them!

Let’s get one thing clear at the outset, Muslims and Islam are two different things. Not every thing that all Muslims do is Islam. Islam is what’s in Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet (PBUH) and my apologies but we rather not take the interpretation of Daniel Pipes and Pat Robertson. Majority of our present day religious scholars as well as classic scholars from the past has unequivocally rejected suicide bombings as an acceptable tactic against a combatant-enemy. Barring some fringe elements almost all of our learned scholars condemn indiscriminate killings of innocent civilians especially in a country like Pakistan or even a country that hasn’t been captured by non-Muslims, militarily. And by the way Islam doesn’t have a copyright on fringe fanatics, every religion posses quite a stock full lest we forget. The point that Islam bashers are conveniently missing is that Suicide Bombings has less to do with a religion and everything to do with deprivation. I have a feeling that the suicide bombers are not in a rush to get to paradise, they are just really eager to check out from the hell that we have created for them on planet earth. It’s a psychological problem rather than a religious one. Most commentators make this error because of immense bigotry and hatred that they have for Islam and some make it out of ignorance. Nevertheless they are unable to understand this phenomenon, henceforth to this day are unable to nip it in the bud.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, behind these heinous acts, like the one’s recently in Pakistan , the root cause is usually some form of injustice. Does this injustice make the crime justifiable? Absolutely not! But the resourceful and the influential of the world has to come to this stark realization that till they deliver justice, peace and prosperity to the majority oppressed, harassed and persecuted masses all over the world, their glass houses shall always remain vulnerable. That’s just a fact of life, sooner we reach this conclusion, better it will be for all of us.

What happened in Quetta the other day or in Peshawar earlier is truly deplorable. Every sane human being with a shred of civility, an ounce of compassion would condemn it in the strongest terms possible. Islamic jurisprudence has no room for this haphazard struggle and surprise attacks where the unarmed civilian population is the target goes completely against any and all teachings of our beloved Prophet (PBUH). I am no sheikh but just a little bit of reading history would make it obvious that Islam is categorically against the killings of women, children, senior citizens and non-combatants, even in a state of declared war.

I am utterly disgusted with this inhumanity. The ironic reality is that the rhetoric from, both, the supposed holy warriors as well as the champions of enlightened moderation in Islamabad are pretty much the same. Our General Rambo misses no opportunity to exude bravery and tough talk while sitting pretty behind the Iron fort of his presidency while the rest of country is burning. Religious zealots and “Mullah’s” prepare the already poor, uneducated and ravaged youth to go fight their war on the streets while their own sons and daughters lay claim to either the Party president ship or seat in the Parliament, they inherit it like the seat is an ancestral estate.

The most depressing aspect of this whole fiasco is the numbness of the population at large. Where is the outrage? We expect this cold, cunning & ruthless demeanor from Islamabad , it’s a requirement of their residency, but where is the outcry in the rest of the country? When our innocent brothers and sisters are being brutally murdered in FATA, how come there isn’t a whimper from Karachi ? Is this a payback for the numbness that the country at large showed in early 90’s when Karachi was red at the hands of our “BRAVE”? How sad and how pathetic! We remained quiet when Bangladesh was burning, we didn’t raise hell when our sisters in faith were being raped because we were Punjabi and those were Bengali traitors and it served them well for going against “amirul-momineen” Gen. yahya khan and Zulfikhar Bhutto. We didn’t say a word when teen-hatti Karachi became a battle ground and a graveyard for hundreds of innocent civilians, their crime? They supported the sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah against the Superman Ayub Khan, we were silent because we were pathans and it served those mohajirs right by going against the self-proclaimed Field-Marshall. We are silent again as the gunship helicopters of the Army of Pakistan drill holes in the bodies of “Taliban’s” as young as 8 in the northern areas of our own country. We are quiet because we are Urdu-speaking and it serves those pathans right for standing up to a Mohajir Army chief! What goes around comes around right karchiites? Shame on you! Utterly despicable! Can we get any lesser as human beings? It becomes easier to justify killings when you put label on human beings like Taliban, Hamas, MQM, Mukti-Bahni etc. But we live in an age of information; it should be much harder to sell dung, but for some odd reason we keep on queuing up to buy crap from the administration. Imran Khan is dead on when he says that India has 7 indigenous resistance movements going on, still not once they have used gunship helicopters against their own citizens, and as a matter of fact no civilized nation does. But I guess civilized is the keyword here.

I am awe-struck when I hear supposedly “Educated” Pakistanis support this draconian Martial-Law in Pakistan . I am no fan of Benazir and Nawaz Sharif and let’s pretend that they were the worst rulers in the history of civilization ever, but it should be the prerogative of the people who elected them to kick them out of power, its too convenient for the armed forces to be the police, prosecution, judge and tara masseeh at the same time, especially since they are the sole benefactors of the absence of civil-rule in the country. It’s not a revelation that no other institution in Pakistan is as influential and as prosperous as Pakistan Army. They have an unprecedented stake in the status quo. If you belong to armed forces and are the recipient of their influence then your support and rhetoric makes sense, still petty but it sticks. Population at large however must decide once and for all that for how long the 98% majority will suffer to safeguard the lopsided advantages of our “BRAVE”?

People who present the low education rate in Pakistan as a justification for necessity of “Einstein’s” rule in our country, needs to have a conversation with a sabzi wala in Pakistan , I assure, you will be pleasantly surprised by his politically savvy intellect. But even if he’s a complete idiot my question is that haven’t we tried and tested Army for the past 60 years at the helm of our affairs, shouldn’t we, I don’t know maybe give the people of Pakistan the chance to govern their own lives for once? How can they be any worse? It’s literally not possible to sink any deeper as a nation, unless our benchmarks are Banana-Republics in Africa .

Rest assure that I am under no illusion that free and fair election and the true democracy would be a magic wand that will resolve all ill’s of the society over-night, but don’t you think it would be a long due step in the right direction? I mean after all the claims of transparency and accountability, according to Transparency International our administrative authorities are more corrupt now than when the savior took over 7 years ago. But to be fair, Pakistan stole Transparency International’s “Mujh” (Cow) so there beef against us is quite fathomable. I am not suggesting that Musharaf is corrupt himself, he doesn’t need to be; Army’s higher brass doesn’t have to steal, some of them still do but they really don’t have to. When they retire, legally they are worth about 450,000 US Dollars because of the lucrative real estate amongst other compensation that they receive as a Thank you from people of Pakistan . Whether anyone has asked the poor, ravaged and molested masses of Pakistan at this uncanny generosity at their behest is a million dollar question, for which the answer is obvious. Are we also treating our University professors with the same munificence? Actually is any other governmental department able to bestow this sort of kindness upon their retirees? I’ll let you call that one.

I know I come off as an Army-Hater sometimes, but I swear to you that I have utmost respect for THOSE soldiers who put their lives at stake just to make sure that our borders are protected. However I am deeply troubled by the sense of disenfranchisement of the poor, youth and a great majority of civil society. People blame Armed forces for their depravity, because visibly higher brass of Armed forces seem to be the most prosperous, there hospitals are cleaner their societies are better, civilians are not able to find one job and Army officers can’t even retire after retirement, if you know what I mean? All in all they stand out as the lone rose in a pile of garbage and i don't mean that in a good way. Voices of discontentment are stemming from all quarters. It is high time that the Armed forces of Pakistan pay heed to the advice of Quaid-e-Azam and leave the matters of running the affairs of the country to civilians and go back to their duties of safeguarding the borders for which they were HIRED for. Allah SWT says in Quran “When it is said to them: Make not mischief on the earth, they say: We are reformers only.  Indeed, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realize (it) not.” All the mischievous are duly warned.