Pakistan: ‘The Flag of Jihad is Fluttering’
In Pakistan, more alarmingly even than usual, the flag of jihad is fluttering and extremists are marching on the state, says The Economist. “Amid a worrying surge in Islamic militancy, a fight between rival radicals may not be the good news Pakistan says it is.”
“Of several concurrent—partly co-ordinated—dramas involving Islamist militants, the bloodiest is in South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal region on Pakistan’s north-western frontier. In three weeks of high-altitude battle there between local Taliban and foreign—mostly Uzbek—Islamists, more than 250 foreigners are reported to have been killed.
“The army, which has failed to clear the foreigners from South Waziristan in four years of trying, announced on April 9th that the Talibs had done so. Yet quite why this fight began, whether it has ended, and what it means for Pakistan and the broader ‘war on terror’ all remain unclear.
“A less obscure struggle was launched in Islamabad on April 6th by a mullah named Abdul Aziz. He gave the government a month to close the capital’s brothels and music shops, and tear down advertisements depicting women. He also declared sharia law within the high walls of his mosque and the adjoining madrassa. If the government were to respond with force, he promised it suicide-bombings.
“After hearing this sermon, Mr Aziz’s followers, allegedly more than 10,000 bearded males and burqa-clad females, set fire in the street to a pyre of music videos and CDs extracted from local traders.
“The mosque, Lal Masjid, on the roof of which these young zealots can be seen practising martial moves with staves, is barely a mile from Pakistan’s supreme court, parliament building and the headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).
“For much of Pakistan’s history, the ISI, the army’s main spying outfit, has mobilised Islamists to fight its wars, in Afghanistan, Kashmir and elsewhere. This was consistent with a broader policy, pursued by successive—especially military—governments, of pandering to Islamists.
“Because it had made common cause with the fanatics, the army thought it could control them. If this were ever true, it is not now…”
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3 Responses to “Pakistan: ‘The Flag of Jihad is Fluttering’”
Great article. It’s nice to read some detailed commentary on the war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But according to Krauthammer, it doesn’t really matter in the War on Terror because liberals think it was more moral than the war in Iraq. Or something like that.
Swaraaj, I thought the guys with the pancake hats were on our side? Like the Afghan Northern alliance. These guys are all wearing different hats. I see a pancake hat, two Afghan sailor hats, an Organ Grinder Monkey hat, the standard doily, and, in the back what looks like a Rasputin nappy sack hat. What is the significance of the different hats?
Great article. Being a Pashtun myself I know one thing that we have been the most moderates of the people in Pakistan till the so called “War on terror” started, people now seem to have more sympathies with the so called jihadists and Taliban . In a Pashtun society there had never been a place for a Mullah or Talib. A mullahs’s jurisdiction had always been limited to the walls of Mosque only, a Talib was some one who would knock on peoples doors for food and that’s all. Even during the Zia’s era of eleven years, when he with the help of America and some middle eastern countries glamorised, trained and fed these jihadists to fight against USSR in afghanistan and eventually defeated them majority of the Pashtuns were still not veery impressed with these jihadists. But just after 9/11 when Pakistan took a U turn on there policy and abandoned Taliban the general public didn’t like this and a consequence for the first time, in Pakistans history, NWFP a predominently pashtun province was ruled by a Islamists political party. The only way that in my view to neutralise this “Taliban Mentality” in the mainstream Pashtuns and other Pakistanis would be by holding a real free and fair elections and a democratic govenrment which would be not threatend by these Generals in uniform. Untill and unless Army ans ISI stop there involvement in shaping the governments in Pakistan there will aleays be a room for a “Islamic Revolution”. I am not a Political scientist or analyst so please ginore my ignorance in this regard.