On Taliban, English education and Pakistani hypocrisy

Stumbled on this very interesting post by Abbas Zaidi yesterday: Taliban’s hypocrisy is in fact Pakistan’s national trait. Brief excerpts follow. Please note that emphasis (bold) has been added by me.

*** Excerpts from Taliban’s hypocrisy is in fact Pakistan’s national trait ***

Muslim Khan, the spokesman of Pakistani Taliban…has justified the bombing of schools on many pretexts, but one stands out: Muslims must not get “English” education. By which Muslim Khan means that any school which has anything to do with the English language must be demolished.

…At long last, someone found out that Muslim Khan’s own son is a graduate student at the University of Peshawar and the medium of his education is English. When the question about his son was tossed to him, the great Muslim Khan was philosophical: “My son is disobedient!” The filed closed.

…And yet Muslim Khan will not slaughter his son nor let any of his fellow Taliban do it. But he will flog and behead anyone else’s boys and girls for countless petty acts like a girl’s leaving home without being chaperoned by an adult male.

This is not just Taliban hypocrisy; this is typical Pakistani hypocrisy.

I have studied, visited, and lived in a number of countries. I have always tried to understand how Pakistani expatriate communities live. I can report a lot of incidents, but I will narrate only of which I have had the very first hand experience.

In a Muslim country there was a Pakistani who in the mid 1990s who terrorized not just the Pakistanis, but anyone he could get hold of. All in the name of Islam. Mullah F was his name, and he was a zealous member of the Tablighi Jamaat…

…Mullah F(‘s) favorite pastime, apart from proselytizing, was to embarrass and insult Pakistanis who had acquired permanent residence in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In Pakistani gatherings he would tell in a loud voice that those who had obtained permanent residence in “those infidel countries” would have their daughters turned into prostitutes and sons into pimps who would end up marrying the infidels. He would also say that in an infidel country like Australia or Canada, people lived haram lives.

To his credit, Mullah F’s made his wife and three daughters live in complete purdah, and you could not even see his wife’s hands which had gloves on all the time. And life went on till my friend Mr. Shah came over one evening and asked me to accompany him. He wanted to see Mullah F. I protested. I had never even spoken to him and vice versa. Besides, I wanted to stay away from the filthy mouth of the man. But Mr. Shah had breaking news: Mullah F had not only obtained Australian permanent residence, he had just returned from Darwin in Australia after settling his family there. Now, Mr. Shah had been one of the victims of Mullah F at a Pakistani function. The report from some Pakistan families in Darwin was that Mullah F’s wife and daughters had got rid of purdah and were living more liberally than any other Pakistani family.

Contrary to my fears, Mullah F was very kind and graceful as he opened the door. Before Mr. Shah could get even with Mullah F (he had predicted something ominous about Mr. Shah’s daughters in Toronto), this is what happened: “I am sure you have come to congratulate me over my permanent residence in Australia. It is Allah’s act. Allah must have wanted to use me and my family to something noble in Australia. Who can question when He gives you something. I only hope I succeed in the task that Allah will assign me and my family in Australia and I request you two brothers to pray for my success.”

Mr. Shah could not say a word and left like a gambler who had lost all he had.

…Typically Pakistanis are hypocritical, intellectually dishonest, and morally bankrupt. I challenge anyone to visit Pakistanis living abroad. Day in and day out, they denounce their host countries—Australia, Britain, Canada, etc—for being immoral and anti-Islamic, but will never leave and settle down in Pakistan.

…In Pakistan, an American drone attack will outrage the entire nation for killing a dozen people, but the beheading and burning alive of hundreds of Muslims and non-Muslims by the fundamentalists is condemned by only a handful of brave people. I can quote dozens of examples where little girls were raped in the mosques, but no one raised a voice against the rapes, and no one was ever punished for those rapes (All of the rapists were imams or pesh-imams of those mosques).

Look at the hypocrisy of Pakistan’s Urdu journalists and politicians: every time innocent people are killed via suicide bombing the standard response is: “Muslims cannot do it.” Matter closed. The fact is that those who carry out these crimes are hundred per cent Muslim and have impeccable Islamic credentials: They pray five times a day, read the Koran regularly, and most of them are hafiz. Muslims believe that on the Day of Judgment one hafiz will lead a dozen of people to Paradise…

Our national hypocrisy is one reason that Pakistan will always remain a heart of darkness.

*** End of Excerpts ***

Read the article in full here.