Dispatches - Monday April 23rd 2007 - I was advised to watch Dispatches and I thought, oh well, let’s give it a go. What else can it teach me about Islam? I was pleasantly surprised and shocked by the honest reporting of this program by a British Muslim, who returned to Pakistan to review what was happening post 9/11. Honest reporting is something policing is not good at, corruption in police reporting is rife.
And what was revealed was shocking news for the West. The reporting was not militant biased. It was moderate and real, something which Dispatches is really quite god at. To describe the existence of a civil war in Pakistan is not an understatement. The documentary was titled, "The Army versus the Mullahs." Islamabad was under siege during the time of the reporting with a constant surge of suicide bombers bombing an Islamic country. This was Muslim against Muslim. The West cannot fight the war on terror alone. The West need Pakistan by their side and so have Musharraf. Anyone else and the West would be losing the war against terror. We hear about the threat of terror in this country but would we hear about the threat of assassination against the leader of this country? Bar 7/7 and the failed attempts we do not have daily suicide bombings by "Jihadists." The role of Musharraf, therefore, cannot be underestimated, though in the West I feel we routinely underestimate the goings on in Pakistan and this great man.
An ex Pakistani General described how he could not understand why Muslims were killing Muslims and why the British and Americans were in Afghanistan. This is the type of view Musharraf must put up with. To suggest that there are no views of Islamic supremacy in Pakistan is unreal also, and if these views exist there, then they are sure to exist in this country also.
The reporter did not understand the "Jihadists," and I have to say neither do I, but these "Jihadists" consistently mention oppression by the West. One of the worst mistakes of the US Government was the release of one individual from Guantanamo bay. I cannot understand why he was released as he appears to be preaching "Jihad." Much must be said of the compassion, feeling and ethics with which the reporter produced his work. Suicide bombings continue in Pakistan and Afghanistan as a daily occurrence. Raids continue daily in stronghold areas for fundamentalists. We do not have the same issues here at least on the same scale. If there is any hope for us it is that there are many Muslims in this country that hold the views of this reporter, they are not "Jihadists," but people like you and me who wish to live and let live. But somewhere from within Islam comes a "Jihadist" with a tainted view of Islam. I really do not believe we, in the West, realise how much of a God send Musharraf really is.
5 comments:
Sorry Bro, but I really to not see the following statement as positive ‘I really do not believe we, in the West, realise how much of a God send Musharraf really is’.
‘General’ now President Pervez Musharraf has been cited by Amnesty International as guilty of breaches of human rights (well so has Blair, Bush and many other cronies too!).
The ‘General’ does not quite grasp of the fact that the Sovereign state of Pakistan is not one vast military machine where its citizens have no human or civil rights and should not be afforded due democratic process in the face of the law.
Some may even see Musharraf as an oppressive puppet of Bush and Blair and only retains power because of the immense support that specifically Bush is providing Pakistan to fight its unjust ‘War on Terror’. If there was no such ‘War on Terror’ then I would suggest that ‘His Excellency’ would actually be see as part of ‘The Axis of Evil’ for harbouring all those ‘Islamist’ types.
If there is such a divine being as a God, then I would certainly hope that they would send someone more enlightened to do their bidding rather than a puffed up peacock who has a craving to dress in very flamboyant uniforms with masses of medals and uses torture as a means of seeking the nationals answers to its present strife.
I suspect the ‘War on Terror’ would actually cease if only the ‘West’ and specifically the United Stated and the United Kingdom kept their nose out of other countries affairs and stopped supporting people who clearly have no understanding of common decency (just like Blair, Bush and their many cronies too!).
It's OK Serendib. The President may be a puppet, but my point is there is a hell of a Civil war out there, and here, we have no concept or clue what is going on in Pakistan. I wonder why that is. I was not aware of Human Rights Breaches. I think, though, he is is his own man, the President that is. We can disagree, but we need to understand that the PM here will not have a threat on his life, nor are the suicide bombings so common here, yet we are blase about Pakistan and Pakistani's in this country. The reporting was excellent.
All these chaps have at times has the sentence ‘he is is his own man’ laid on their shoulders as well: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair, Winston Churchil, Pol Pot, Gengis Khan, Vladimir Putin, Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-il, Idi Amin, P.W. Botha, General Augusto Pinochet, Ian Smith.
Which of these would you have round for dinner then?
President Pervez Musharraf will no doubt use heavy handed and extremely autocratic means to ‘put down’ any insurrection. This does not make him a good chap and certainly no role model for others leaders in the world.
My point is simple state ‘Terrorism’ merely sponsors the same it does not eradicate it, only getting to the causes of such actions can we change things. I am not aware of anywhere in the world where the use of extreme violence on the part of the State has resolved civil unrest? And the support of such a response on behalf of the State by another is unjust and a breach of the Human Rights Act which we within the UK have signed up to and should defend.
Serendib, for dinner, only you, and a few others on the blog sites would be invited, but whatever happens, in the Northern cities rather than referring to asians with the derogitory "P" word per se, we need to look closely. I am not sure that Musharraf is in the same league as those others. You are your own man and mostly right, as am, mostly right, and my own man,(sarcasm about the mostly right bit).
as I am I mean...
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