The beginning and end of Anders Breivik
In this day and age of Islamophobia, Anders Breivik’s recent trial marks a significant shift in the way the word ‘terrorist’ is perceived. My perceived image of a ‘terrorist’ stems from my own country. Unfortunately, there is irrefutable evidence to prove this – be it the incidents external to Pakistan, such as the July 2005 London bombings and the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, or the list of internal suicide bombings. Since the 9/11 attacks, certain prominent characteristics have come to be associated with the word ‘terrorists’ including but not limited to: ‘Muslim’, ‘Pakistani’, ‘rightist’, ‘conservative’, ‘extremist’, ‘young’, ‘male’ and many others. July 22, ...
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No one wants to tour Pakistan
As someone who has watched Pakistan play cricket on numerous occasions overseas, as well as in Karachi, I can tell you the experience is enormously different at home. Overseas, the seats are comfortable, the stadiums in pristine condition, the crowds well-behaved, the food non-threatening and no eyesore security grill to separate the playing area from the spectators. At home, the seats will put your rear to sleep, the biryani is spicy enough to make you wish you brought antacid with you, and the frighteningly energetic crowd is so loud that you can’t speak to the person next to you without the aid ...
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Here’s the evidence on Hafiz Saeed
The US has been generous enough to announce a hefty $10 million bounty for information leading to Hafiz Saeed’s conviction. After the embarrassment the Americans faced by announcing a reward for collecting information about someone who lives like any free human being without any court-admissible evidence, I felt the need to enlighten them with some hard-hitting, and much needed, evidence. Listed below is what I found after a great deal of research. Some of the figures quoted are mentioned in media reports while a great deal of the record has been shared by JuD themselves, which they claim can be independently verified. Education Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) runs 140 ...
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Hafiz Saeed: Missing pieces?
Hafiz Saeed, a mujahid and philanthropist in the eyes of many Pakistanis is basking in the limelight thrown on him by the US State Department when it placed a $10 million reward for information leading to his conviction under the Reward for Justice Programme. Saeed’s followers point towards the fact that because he demanded for the closure of the Nato supply route, the personal vendetta has been unleashed. The reality, however, is not that simple. Lashkar-e-Taiba, believed to be a militant arm of Jamatud Dawa, was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation in December 2001 by the US while its ...
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Why announce a bounty on Hafiz Saeed?
Why now? At a critical moment in the US-Pakistan relationship, with parliamentary debate raging in Pakistan about how to realign relations with Washington, and with the United States desperate to forge some level of cooperation with Islamabad to help move toward the elusive endgame in Afghanistan, why announce a bounty for “information leading to the arrest or conviction” of living-openly-in-Lahore Hafiz Saeed? This is, after all, a man Washington and New Delhi regard as a terrorist, yet whom many in Pakistan regard as a heroic symbol of defiance toward the United States, an essential strategic asset, or both. In short, Washington’s ...
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Hafiz Saeed: The (10) million dollar man
Ten million dollars. Not one, not five, 10! This is it Pakistanis. If you don’t take this opportunity, you have no one else to blame but yourself for not winning this lottery. Easier than any question asked by Amitabh Bachchan on KBC, this is the fastest, surest way to the top guys. America has answered your prayers and you can get out of poverty – now! Even with the usual 10% ‘charges’, this would leave you with a cool $9 million. Move to Karachi, officially the world’s cheapest city, and live the rest of your life in a nice bungalow with ...
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Lizards and target killers
Up until the numerous innocent murders last week, I used to be afraid of the occasional common household gecko, or chupkali, that I would see on the walls of my home. Immediately, I would call for the housekeeper to come upstairs and remove this creature, either by ushering it outside or by simply killing it. But I wish not for the lizard to be killed anymore. It does not harm me. In fact, it eliminates the mosquitoes in my environment which might carry dengue fever or malaria. In a city where living things, be they human or reptilian, so frequently lose ...
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An American in Lahore: Pakistan saved me
About a year and a half ago, I made the decision to move to Pakistan. Since then, perhaps the most popular question my local friends ask is, “Were you scared to come to Pakistan, because you thought we were all terrorists like the Western media portrays us?” Honestly, no, I was not, and I did not. Even before coming to Pakistan, I found the notion that all 180 million people residing in Pakistan, the sixth most populous nation in the world, were terrorists or had extremist tendencies completely ridiculous. I figured that, as in every country, Pakistan had people from ...
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Pak-US ties: Don’t kick the hornet’s nest!
Pakistan and the United States are currently embroiled in one of their biggest squabbles since the start of the war on terror which has led to intense speculation of American ground troops in Pakistan. Senator Rehman Malik has come out and said that no American troops will be allowed within Pakistan: “Pakistan will not allow boots on our ground, never. Our government is already cooperating with the US … but they also must respect our sovereignty.” But it’s not like the Americans will listen to Pakistan or care for the sovereignty of one of its ‘allies’, as the Osama bin laden ...
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Black metal, white terrorists and what Norway taught me
When I was 17-years-old, I was a trouble child. I was oscillating between depression and rage, my teachers and parents had no control over me, and most of all, I had a profound sense of being an outcast from the society that I lived in. To offset this overwhelming sense of alienation, I turned to the internet, my only window into a world outside my own. It was here that I actively sought to find meaning and to fill the gaping hole that my own society and culture could not fill. What I found, (amongst other things), was a one-man black ...
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