The results on the poll on Geert Wilders (Do you agree with the English decision of declaring Wilders “persona non grata”?) are:
A total and absolute error: freedom of speech must be preserved 94% (15 votes).
While I think that freedom of speech is important, I believe that religious sensitivities must be respected 6% (1 votes)
Who is Geert Wilders? 0% (0 votes)
This week poll is about the agreement between the Talibans and the Pakistani Government in Swat’s valley. Fareed Zakaria discusses it and says that while the Talibans are “bad guys”, we don’t have to worry about them as they don’t want to achieve the Global Caliphate:
The groups that advocate these policies are ugly, reactionary forces that will stunt their countries and bring dishonor to their religion. But not all these Islamists advocate global jihad, host terrorists, or launch operations against the outside world — in fact, most do not. Consider, for example, the most difficult example, the Taliban. The Taliban have done all kinds of terrible things in Afghanistan. But so far, no Afghan Taliban has participated at any significant level in a global terrorist attack over the last ten years–including 9/11. There are certainly elements of the Taliban that are closely associated with Al Qaeda. But the Taliban is large and many factions have little connection to Osama bin Laden. Most Taliban want Islamic rule locally, not violent jihad globally.
Pakistani Taliban militants announced on Tuesday an indefinite ceasefire in the Swat valley in the northwest of the country, a day after the army said it was ceasing operations in the region.
In the neighboring Bajaur region on the Afghan border, the government announced a four-day ceasefire in response to a unilateral truce called by militants there on Monday.
The ceasefires are likely to compound concerns among Western countries which fear truces allow militants to create sanctuaries in Pakistan where they can regroup and intensify their insurgency against Western forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.
You recently said NEWSWEEK might have gotten it wrong when we said that Afghanistan could be Obama’s Vietnam. Why? We could lose Afghanistan, and it would be bad but it would not present an existential threat to this country. If you “lose Pakistan”—and by that I mean if Pakistan collapses or is taken over by Islamic extremists—you face the prospect of Islamic extremists having nuclear weapons. That’s Al Qaeda’s dream. It’s our nightmare. That’s why Pakistan is Obama’s potential Vietnam. There’s no clear solution there. What you may try to do for several years is simply manage it. Kicking the can down the road in both Iraq and Pakistan is not an emotionally satisfying outcome, but it may be the most mature and even best scenario we can come up with.
For me, one of the failures of Bush Administration was an actual lack of logic and of real understanding of what IS going on. The necessary confrontation with Iran was not followed by an also necessary confrontation with Saudi Arabia and its funding of both terrorism and wahabbism. US support for Musharraf was also not very logical, specially taking into account the ISI’s support to the Talibans.
Days after the Pakistan government and the Taliban inked a peace deal in Swat following a failed military operation in the picturesque valley, three major Taliban groups in Pakistan have formed a new alliance – Shura Ittihadul Mujahideen (Council for Unity of Holy Warriors) – in the twin agencies of North and South Waziristan after burying the hatchet, declaring the ameer of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Omar as their supreme leader and al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as their role model.
(…) “As Jews, Christians and Hindu infidels stand united against the Muslims particularly Mujahideen under the leadership of United States, Mujahideen have set aside internal differences and have joined hands, the Taliban announcement said, adding: “In order to make happy the Muslims in general and Mujahideen in particular, the three Taliban groups have formed a 13-member advisory council to run the affairs of the new alliance which would be led by the three Taliban commanders on rotation basis.
The three senior-most Taliban leaders in North and South Waziristan have joined forces to wage jihad against Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the US…
…The new alliance further stated it was waging war “in an organized manner’” to “stop the infidels from carrying out acts of barbarism against innocent people” just as Omar and bin Laden were waging war against Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the US.
The creation of the Council of United Mujahideen and the Council’s open support of al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban has finally put to rest the Pakistani government’s claim that Bahadar and Nazir are “pro-government” Taliban. While Bahadar and Nazir opposed fighting the government for tactical reason they had openly supported al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban is demanding an amnesty for jailed militants and the withdrawal of the armed forces from the Swat Valley in the country’s north-west before it endorses a peace agreement in the region. Taliban sources told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the Taliban’s shura, or tribal council, was expected to finalise its position late Friday and announce its response at the weekend.
“Demanding an amnesty for jailed militants and the withdrawal of the armed forces from the Swat valley“. They are preparing themselves for “Taliban regime Reloaded“.
Reporters Without Borders today urged the Pakistani authorities to act effectively to protect Kamal Asfar, journalist on the magazine Ash-Sharq (The East), who yesterday escaped a murder attempt. His brother, journalist, Aamir Wakil, was killed in Rawalpindi on 24 January 2009. “I am lucky to be alive today”, Asfar told the worldwide press freedom organisation. Two bearded men had fired several shots at his car near Kundyali in the Kohat district on Sunday, he said. “I was returning to Rawalpindi when a white car overtook us and tried to make us pull up. Two armed men turned towards us and opened fire. They first time they fired I didn’t stop. Then they shot again shattering the windscreen. I lost control of the vehicle and we left the road. Luckily we got out safely”, Asfar said, adding that he had reported the attack to police in Ghumbat, Kohat district. Asfar said he thought the attack may have been motivated by articles he wrote recently about the Pakistani Taliban in Ash-Sharq.
Meanwhile an official in Swat has been kidnapped by the Talibans, while the latter have said they have him as a “guest”.
Following the administrator’s disappearance a Taleban spokesman, Muslim Khan, in Swat told Reuters: “He is our guest. We have to discuss some issues with him. We will serve him with tea and then free him.”
Well, I wouldn’t be too comfortable having tea with this inviting Talibans, would you?
Pakistani President Asif Zardari has said he will sign an order implementing Sharia law in Swat valley only after peace has been fully reached there.
President Zardari’s spokesman said that this would require the laying down of arms by Islamic militants.
Meanwhile, pro-Taleban cleric Sufi Mohammad has arrived in the Swat valley to try to convince local Taleban leaders to agree to the deal (they were the ones who asked for Sharia Law to be implemented and now they have to be convinced about laying down their weapons? Are they kidding?).
Locals have largely welcomed it but critics say it is unacceptable (Gee, just the same… weren’t they the ones who asked for Sharia Law to be implemented. Another example of reality: terrorists are never going to stop asking if they see they can obtain more. They have obtained this without many insistence, so they are going to ask for more. And remember they asked for the Sharia Law to abrogate ALL civil laws).
Sufi Mohammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, the current head of the Taleban in Swat (everything is done inside the family).
(…) They believe introducing a separate system of justice sets a dangerous precedent for other militias in parts of Pakistan.
Information Minister Sherry Rehman denied the government had made any “concession”.
“It is in no way a sign of the state’s weakness. The public will of the population of the Swat region is at the centre of all efforts and it should be taken into account while debating the merits of this agreement,” she said (no, of course not, it’s a sign of the strenght of the Government. This woman is absolutely idiot).
(…) The NWFP government now hopes that a grand jirga (council) led by Sufi Mohammad will be able to persuade all the factions to comply.
The Taleban have said they will examine the document before ending hostilities permanently.
More than 1,000 civilians have died in shelling by the army or from beheadings sanctioned by the Taleban. Thousands more have been displaced.
Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Muhammad, who signed a controversial peace deal with the NWFP government on Monday, said he hated democracy and wanted supremacy of Islam over the entire world.
“From the very beginning, I have viewed democracy as a system imposed on us by the infidels. Islam does not allow democracy or elections,” he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur in an interview held a few days before the government accepted his demand of enforcing sharia in the region.
THE Pakistan Government and Islamic hardliners have signed an agreement to enforce sharia law in the northwestern Swat valley, a provincial minister says.
“Today an agreement has been signed between the government of NWFP (North West Frontier Province) and Maulana Soofi Mohammed,” provincial information minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said.
“All laws against sharia will be abolished and sharia will be enforced under this justice system.”
The agreement will cover Pakistan’s northwest Malakand area, one of the districts of NWFP and of which the troubled Swat valley is a part.
Take my word this is first successful step of Taliban’s in Pakistan and in coming days we will see the some more steps similar to like these from Pakistan government, as all these truce policies between Taliban’s and Pakistan government will give more strengths to Jihadist and will make Pakistan so called democratic government more weaker.
I agree, and the perspectives in a country with nuclear weapons do not make me smile really…
Meanwhile, in South-American IPS Noticias they report that “in Pakistan, civil society is against honor killings“:
The campaign against “honor killings” in Pakistan wins supporters among lawyers and legislators who are making pressure to modify the Law and preventing the culprits from evading justice.
Wonder how, if they are supporting the enforcing of Shariah Law in one of its regions, where even the boys and girls have their lies threatened if they go to school.
Poland has joined the ranks of countries accusing Pakistan of inaction, if not outright complicity in terrorist activity, following the beheading last week of a Polish national by the Pakistani Taliban.
In a furious response that has stunned the international diplomatic community, Polish justice minister Andrzej Czuma on Monday blamed Pakistan’s ”apathy” in tackling terrorism for the killing of a Polish geologist who was kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban from Attock town in Punjab.
“The structure of the Pakistani government is behind this apathy. The Pakistani authorities encourage these bandits,” Czuma told a Polish news agency, even as the horrific killing recalled the similar beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
You can see the video here. It’s not the complete video, though, as the ending (terrible ending) has only been posted in several jihadist websites. Piotr Stanczak was a geologian, kidnapped some time ago in Punjab and before beheading him, he was made to chant the “marvellous things” Islam has.
Neither he, nor the millions who were shocked by his murder, could have possibly predicted that seven years later his abductor, Omar Saeed Sheikh, according to several South Asian reports, would be planning terror acts from the safety of a Pakistani jail. Or that his murderer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, now in Guantanamo, would proudly boast of his murder in a military tribunal in March 2007 to the cheers of sympathetic jihadi supporters. Or that this ideology of barbarism would be celebrated in European and American universities, fueling rally after rally for Hamas, Hezbollah and other heroes of “the resistance.” Or that another kidnapped young man, Israeli Gilad Shalit, would spend his 950th day of captivity with no Red Cross visitation while world leaders seriously debate whether his kidnappers deserve international recognition.
The Taliban welcomed President Barack Obama’s order to close Guantanamo but said peace would only come if he reverses the “satanic policies” of his predecessor, George W. Bush.
In a message posted on online jihadist forums, the Taliban also called on Obama to close all “evil” US detention centers for militants (sic), “completely withdraw” from Iraq and Afghanistan and “stop defending Israel.”
If you remember, Obama promised to raise the number of soldiers deployed in Afghanistan. The problem is that European leaders are not so willing.
they are proving just as reluctant to contribute more soldiers or money to the NATO-led operation as they were during President George W. Bush’s last years in the White House.
And:
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warns European leaders that the United States can’t be expected to give on Gitmo, climate change, and other European issues in exchange for nothing additional besides encouragement in the war against the Taliban.
Uuuhhhh, what strong words!! Is he really implying that European leaders are asking too much of USA? Well, it’s not that… it’s just that European leaders do not see this as their war, they see this a Bush’s or, at least, as a US war. So why on earth they have to contribute??
This fortnight’s poll: priorities in the fight against Islamism
Fareed Zakaria says we don't have to be very worried by the Talibans as they don't advocate Global Jihad. Do you agree? Vote in this fortnight's poll!!
Bookmark/share a post
Entries (RSS)