Shiv Malik went into the Beeston ghetto in Leeds to do research for a BBC documentary on the lives of the four 7/7 bombers, 3 of whom were from Beeston. What he found was a self-isolated Pakistani community in which a large proportion of the secondg eneration, having become alienated from the traditionalism of their parents, but unable to integrate into British society, found a spiritual home in the transnational Islamist movement of the Salafi-Jihadists.
After months of digging around and still unable to find anyone willing to honestly talk to him Shiv found out about Khan’s cabbie brother and took a couple of cab rides with him. Then finally more information was forthcoming from other sources and Shiv was able to piece together the story of Khan’s gradual radicalisation that finally led him to become a suicide bomber.
Serious problems started in Beeston some ten year ago, when the whole neighbourhood became increasingly infested with drugs. The community did not know how to deal with it. Then a group of second-generation Pakistanis emerged, known as the Mullah boys, who became a vigilante community work squad. They would forcibly take drug-addicted Pakistani youths off the street and detox them. Mohammad Sidique Khan was a part of this group and was looked up to in the community. But as the group’s religiousity increased so did their militancy. Meanwhile Khan came into conflict with his family over his Salafism and his choice of girlfriend, who was from a different sect (she was Deobandi, which is similar to Wahhabism, while his family was Berelvi, which is a type of Sufism). Read the rest of this disturbing story here.
You probably won’t be surprised to know, by the way, the documentary was never made. The BBC deemed the script to be too “Anti-Muslim”. Reality has become too anti-Muslim to talk about in Britain.
One other random fact that jumped out at me in the article:
Among those who study British race relations, there’s an informal theory that states that 30 years after the establishment of any sizeable ethnic minority community, there will be riots.
I wonder how the theory translates to other countries? The last 10 years has seen a level of migration all over the world unprecedented in human history, particularly into the First World. And 20-30 years from now will coincide with the West’s catastrophic demographic slump, which is likely to decimate a number of Western economies. I think Europe in particular is going to be seeing bigger trouble than just riots.
No, this one is not about Iran.
Vanity Fair has an edited excerpt from Ronald Reagan’s diary, which is going to be published this month, containing this entry:
Tues. Dec. 7, 1982 • The weather turned out fine for the official greeting ceremony for Pres. Zia of Pakistan. We got along fine. He’s a good man (cavalry). Gave me his word they were not building an atomic or nuclear bomb. He’s dedicated to helping the Afghans & stopping the Soviets.
(via Judith Klinghoffer, who draws attention to the potentially catastrophic trouble brewing in Pakistan)
Speaking of broken promises, here’s another entry from the diary:
Fri. July 22, 1983 • Today was Pres. Gemayal (Lebanon) day. We had a good meeting & lunch. I think he is reassured that we are not going to abandon them. While we were meeting word came that Beirut was under rocket attacks by the Syrians. We are going to send them the latest in Radar art which can zero in on exactly where the rockets are coming from.
If you’re wondering what “Islamic Revolutionary state” in the title has to do with Pakistan, here’s one more entry for you:
Thurs. June 16, 1988 • Zia has declared Islamic Law is law of Pakistan. That puts them into the Fundamentalist Revolution with the Ayatolah & Qaddafi.
And onward round the circle we go.
From the Malaysia Sun:
‘The crises confronting the Islamic world are not only external but also internal, flowing from our own weaknesses, our own vulnerabilities, our own divisions within,’ he said. ‘The Islamic world is on a downward slide and we must face this.’
General Musharraf said Islamic countries have failed to invest in education and lag far behind the rest of the world in literacy and economic growth.
The president also lashed out at Muslim hardliners who he blamed for fueling Western fears of the Islamic world.
‘While the world views Islam as a militant, intolerant religion, this thought is reinforced by our own extremist forces,’ he said. ‘We are in a state where these semi-literate clerics are closing the minds of people.’
Unfortunately when someone is on a “downward slide” you often need to allow them to hit rock bottom before the lesson is really learnt.
And talk about creating a monster. Pakistani intelligence agencies and military have been encouraging a zombie army of “semi-literate clerics” and Islamist militants at home and abroad for decades, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh and continued to do so even as the above lecture was being given. So best of luck facing a problem you yourselves helped create and should have faced a long time ago. Ironically at the same Musharraf has actually made some decent progress in modernising Pakistan’s economy and education system. Can’t have it both ways though - either you build medieval Deobandi madrassahs or you build modern liberal universities.
(H/t Saint)
Further down the rabbit hole they go:
Islamabad (AsiaNews) – A draft bill adopted in first reading by Pakistan’s National Assembly is now before a standing committee. Tabled by a six-party politico-religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or MMA, the Apostasy Act 2006 which the government sent to the committee would impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam. It would also force them to forfeit their property and lose legal custody of children.
As Musharraf’s position grows weaker by the day the Islamists grow bolder still. And there are few sings of any possibility of a reversal on the horizon.
The situation is particularly affecting women who refuse to adhere to the stricter Islamic codes demanded by the medievalists (via 3 Quarks Daily):
Just the other day Tahera Abdullah was driving down the spiffy Margalla Road in Islamabad, the windows rolled down to enjoy the evening breeze. A development worker, her silvery hair could tell anyone she’s 50 plus. Tahera stopped at the traffic signal; an eight-year-old boy accosted her: didn’t she know Islam required her to cover her head? Tahera immediately rolled up the window. “How do you argue with an eight-year-old?” she asks. But the encounter with Pakistan’s religious extremism, at once frightening and puerile, has prompted Tahera to choose sweating inside the car over letting in the breeze. “We women are feeling more threatened today,” she says.
The streets of Islamabad are menacing women, compelling them to be what they are not, what they have never been. Consultant Sara Javeed realised this when she lit a cigarette in her car recently. “I quickly stubbed it. I don’t want strangers asking me why I’m smoking. This is the new me,” she says dolefully. Sara feels the emerging extremism could Talibanise Pakistan. “I don’t want to live in such a state,” she declares.
You can hear the winds of extremism whistle eerily even in Parliament. This week, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman, as progressive as she’s glamorous, wrote to the speaker of the lower house asking him to stop her monthly stipend as she wasn’t anyway being allowed to speak on vital issues. “I’d never want to wait for anything to happen to me personally before I stood up to speak for women who are today in a far more dangerous situation than even during Zia-ul Haq’s times,” she says.
Sherry should know, she has experienced the destructive passion of the country’s religiosity. Two months ago, she was in a truck leading a PPP procession. An assailant stabbed her in the neck with a sharp object, to express his anger against women in politics. “The person who attacked me hasn’t been apprehended yet,” she said. “We are in a state of anarchy today. It’s a dangerous retreat of the state. There’s simply no check on the vice and virtue vigilantes.”
Comments from other women in the same article:
Sherry Rehman, politician
“Women today have more to fear than even in Zia’s time.”
Sara Javeed, Consultant
“When I drive, I don’t smoke now. I don’t want people accosting me.”
Rehana Hakim, Editor, Newsline
“It’s open season on the women of Pakistan.”
Moneezae Jehangir, TV journalist
“There’s a feeling of discomfort…Pakistani women are vulnerable.”
Rabab, Model
“Earlier, we had lots of shows in Oct-Dec. There’s less work now.”
More on Pakistan’s “virtue vigilantes” in this recent post.
I didn’t even realize mobile phones were Unislamic. I would have just said its a peace-spreading revolutionary device and pointed at the IED in the back.
Extremists harass villagers in Pakistan
KHAR, Pakistan, May 6 (UPI) — About 250 armed Islamist extremists went on a rampage of censorship in the Bajaur area of Pakistan, it was reported Sunday.
Wearing masks and carrying guns, the extremists set up checkpoints and prohibited men without beards from riding in public vehicles, the news agency Dawn reported Sunday.
The armed extremists also removed and destroyed mobile telephones, tape recorders, audio cassettes, CDs and CD players from cars stopped at the checkpoints in Baddi Saya, Kamar Ser, Umari and Tani areas of Mamond tehsil, Dawn reported.
In Inayat Kali, a group of men carrying automatic assault rifles shut down music stores and warned the stores’ owners not to reopen, the report said.
Earlier in the week, five more audacious attacks on the aural imperialists:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 4 (Reuters) - Suspected pro-Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan attacked music shops with explosive devices early on Friday, destroying at least five outlets but causing no casualties, police said.
Thats so backward. Couldn’t they just settle for a “Warning: May contain music. Not suitable for people.” sticker on the front?
Yvonne Ridley ducks, weaves, splutters, lies, goes berzerk on the ABC’s AM radio program last Saturday:
JANE COWAN: Can you categorically condemn suicide bombing?
YVONNE RIDLEY: You know, the greatest purveyors of suicide bombing are the Tamil Tigers, a Marxist-Leninist organization, largely of the Hindu faith; I’m not really quite sure why it is being attached specifically towards Muslims.
JANE COWAN: But if you’ve been reported as saying you support suicide bombing, would you now here condemn it, no matter who perpetrates it?
YVONNE RIDLEY: I condemn shoddy journalism and poor research, and people like you should know better than to try and tackle people like me over things that have allegedly been said or not said.
ANE COWAN: But this is an opportunity for you to clarify your views, and …
YVONNE RIDLEY: I’ve clarified them. What don’t you understand?
Listen, I have told you exactly what I have said, now you tell me why you need me to condemn something that is as plain as, you know, as the language that I’ve just said. What didn’t you understand about what I have just said?
JANE COWAN: My question is, do you or do you not support suicide bombing?
YVONNE RIDLEY: Of course I don’t.
Feel free to read the whole thing, just to make sure she is not being taken out of context and that it still makes no sense what-so-ver. There is not much mor