Pakistan on the Precipice

Pakistan's well-liked, populist leader Benazir Bhutto's return to her native country was the stuff of history. The word "triumphant" is a good start in describing the events of Thursday morning October 18. Greeted by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of elated supporters, the Muslim world's first female leader stepped off the jet on to her native soil for the first time since being exiled 8 years ago. The streets of Karachi were jam-packed, the entire nation of 160 million (and millions abroad) discussing the event unfolding as if this little figure was about to miraculously solve the nation's myriad problems with a wave of her hand.

The miracle never happened. Instead, there came a disaster.


In the wake of the double car-bombing, while corpses still lay on the street at this hour and the irrelevant death toll statistics climb, emotions flare and the naked truth of the situation this country finds itself in is laid bare for the entire globe to see.

Extremism is not the right word for what happened in Pakistan late this evening. Jihad is not correct either, nor its many variants and derivatives like terrorism or fundamentalism. This was the act of psychotics, of animals and savages, of beings who deserve no mercy and shall receive none from God or us vicegerents of His on Earth.

Those amongst the mujahideen in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere who claim that civilians are legitimate targets in their war are wrong. They are so wrong in fact, that they believe that God Himself is on their side. They believe somewhere in their minds, honestly believe, that their God wants them to machine-gun mothers, to explode vests amongst crowds of factory workers, to assassinate children and grandmothers for the right to ascend to Paradise.

These are not Muslims, nor Jews, Christians or Hindus. These are not even human beings.

And yet, of all the nations who have a fundamental responsibility to promote and defend a faith from aggressors, and to rescue it from incompetents and mushrikun, the United States of America has taken upon itself to save Islam.

No, I won't blame the U.S. for this decision. There are enough valid things to blame it for. Nay, I condemn the leaders of the Islamic states. I condemn Mubarak, al-Assad, Abdullah and Musharraf. I condemn Abbas and Abdullah II, al-Maliki and Zayed and al-Maktoum, and Aziz. These are the creatures who claim to be men and leaders while they sit in their palaces and estates as rivers of blood flow around them. These will all meet their Creator in the end.

This is it, oh sons and daughters of Jinnah and Iqbal, oh Children of the East. The last line's been crossed. Your fate lies at the end of two polar opposite paths, either salvation and glory or failure and anarchy. How you decide will affect your children and the children of every nation that shares your faith, your opposition to evil and your hopes for something better than the status-quo. Choose wisely.