Swat is Burning

The Pakistan report card
Tebbit's Taliban test
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Fasi Zaka

Norman Tebbit, the conservative English politician, inadvertently caused controversy when he suggested the Tebbit, or "Cricket" Test. He thought one could gauge an immigrant population's loyalty by checking which side they supported in a game of cricket between England and the British immigrant's country of origin. Under Tebbit's simple check, if England is playing against Pakistan and British Pakistanis root for the Pakistan team then they are not true to their adopted country.

It is a ridiculous assertion that one can tell if a citizen is a potential traitor simply if he or she doesn't support the home team. There is some value in it only as far as maybe using it as a suggestion of the degree of comfortable assimilation.

But I guess we need a small Tebbit "Taliban" test. In a country at war with the murderous hordes of the Taliban where there are numerous apologists for them. A Tebbit result won't be accurate, but would be indicative.

Follow up:

See, most of the hardliners who are asked fundamental questions obfuscate by bringing up other issues. It was a shameful performance of the new amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hasan when asked on television what he thought of the video of the girl being flogged in Swat. Rather than answer the question he went on a rant about the drone attacks and the lack of media interest in it. There were many others who wouldn't condemn the flogging because they made elaborate theories of how the video was supposedly faked.

While Imran Khan may have written an impressive and eloquent defence of his position in his article "Where I stand", statistically only five per cent is spent condemning the Taliban, 48 per cent is spent chastising the players in the government for not allowing the peace deal to go through. Smoke and mirrors. Imran Khan's stance makes little sense especially since he pursues the MQM citing the rule of law and then makes fluid his position to allow the Taliban their Nizam-e-Adl through extrajudicial means, effectively justifying their methods.

The MQM says the right things and then does the shameful by urging restrictions of those tragically made homeless. The PML-N does the same. The PPP goes even further by passing a resolution in the assemblies under public threat by the Taliban, despite their stance against them.

The question here really is, to paraphrase Norman Tebitt, is just whose team are these people really supporting? Pakistan's or the Taliban's? And why are they providing the Taliban excuses, especially when Muslim Khan of the Taliban believes that his Sharia allows for people to have their throats slit like animals?

So the loyalty or truth test for the amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami would be, "If we are certain that the video is not doctored and the girl is innocent, does the Taliban have a right to flog her?" Just because the amir is eager to see flogging as a punishment he allows someone else's daughter to become a victim to unsanctioned and imperfect justice. Islam is not about flogging, and one cannot condone what is wrong to see their revivalist dreams come true.

Imran Khan's Tebbit question would be, "Should murderers be punished or handed out territory and peace deals?" The MQM's question would be a slight variant of the original that spawned this test "Do you support the Pakistani team only if all the players are Mohajirs?"

The PPP should be asked, "Is your government in the business of the supremacy of the constitution, or the ascendency of self-preservation?" And to all of those who believe in strategic depth by supporting the Taliban for eventual use in unconventional guerrilla warfare against India, the question would be, "Does strategic depth mean digging yourself into a deep hole that undermines you domestically forever?"

The nation, and people like Shahid Masood, need to realise this is our fourth war. The others we fought against India, and we must remember that India has far more true Muslims who have never harmed anyone as a percentage than the Taliban have. It's time to support the troops and the beleaguered people of the Swat region, not to fan egos who have bet their ill-thought-out Islamic ideals on vicious groups.

The writer is a Rhodes scholar and former academic. Email: fasizaka @yahoo.com

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=181981


Tebbit's Taliban test
Thursday, June 11, 2009
This is with reference to Fasi Zaka's column titled "Tebbit's Taliban test" (June 9). While one can forgive his poor percentage calculations, I am sure he is as aware -- as most of us are -- of the now-famous little book titled "How to lie with statistics". Furthermore, his inability to understand Imran Khan's very clear-cut condemnations of Taliban brutalities and his support for punishing those violating the writ of the state and peace deals is inexplicable. Surely even if he has missed out on most of the statements, he would have read the front page headline of Imran's condemnation of Sufi Mohammed as having gone against the Quran for backtracking on his peace agreement. As for the Nizam-e-Adl, Imran Khan has supported the concept but never voiced support for implementing it through extrajudicial means. It may pain Mr Zaka but Imran has never supported the violence of the Taliban just as he has opposed all military operations within Pakistan. What he has said is that one needs to understand the root causes of extremism and why people join the militants.

After all, we need to be careful not to go the Zionist way of first robbing our marginalised people of all security, dignity and belongings and then wonder why they are adopting the militant path. Surely Mr Zaka should have been able to distinguish between a call for understanding and thereby eliminating the root causes of militancy and extremism on the one hand; and support for the Taliban creed on the other. But I guess ignorance exists even among the most educated; or perhaps it is easier to do Imran-bashing than to actually understand what is really happening in this country.

Omar Sarfraz Cheema
Central information secretary,
PTI,Lahore

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=182334