It wasn’t 24 hours after the attack on Army Public School when Muhammad Khurasani, the spokesman of the TTP, pulled a surah from the Holy Qu’ran to justify their attack on children.
Within days of this hideous usage of the Holy Qu’ran, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan sent a video of one of their children to the US media, reportedly Maulana Radio’s own son, to explain that this was the first of many more attacks to come against children and schools. I quote:
“Regarding our battle today with the tyrants, which include the Pakistani government and its apostate army, I will clarify for you their reality. It is an American army and it has no zeal or morals. Those bastards, hypocrites, polytheists and agents of the Jews and the Christians, those thieves, highway robbers and drunkards… Our war will continue with them until the war meets its end.”
This is a child speaking. A child who lost his innocence because of his father’s penchant for destruction.
If this wasn’t enough, it was followed up with Maulana Radio himself releasing a 45-minute video full of threats and conspiracy theories that his supporters will devour and use as motivation to fight the Pakistan Army and the state, killing innocent civilians along the way. He promised a more “spectacular” attack in the near future that will make us forget Peshawar.
And to seal their threat against Pakistan, the TTP sent a suicide bomber to an Imambargah in Rawalpindi to kill Shias, with the message that “your laws and hangings do not scare us and will not stop us.”
In the periphery of all these things, Abdul Aziz invited the leader of ISIS to come to Pakistan and avenge Operation Silence, better known by us common folk as the Siege of Lal Masjid in July 2007.
I recount this past week in terror because we are at a watershed moment, that critical point where the next decision will either save us or doom us as a people, as a nation and as a religion. It is now that we must decide who our friends are and who our enemies must be. The words good and bad Taliban in all forms must be struck from our vocabulary. There is no such thing as good Taliban, even the Afghan Taliban aren’t good Taliban. Remember it was Mullah Omer who appointed Maulana Radio as the leader of the TTP after Baitullah Mehsud was executed by a US drone strike.
In a week, when the nation should have stood together to pass amendments to the Constitution and Army Act, we showed ourselves divided over our own interests.
The “religious parties” took offense to the specific naming of masjids and madrassahs in the amendments, because no madrassah or masjid would ever support terrorism. With a wink and a nod to Lal Masjid, Jamia Binoria and dozens of others that not only promote, but teach armed jihad as a requirement of being a Muslim. “Keep doing what you are doing, we’ve got your back,” was obviously the message given from those that control their strings financially and morally.
We showed ourselves divided over the definition of what is terrorism, even though the definition is clearly spelled out in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, 1998, and 1999. Not only have we defined terrorism, but we have also defined which acts fall under the purview of the anti-terrorism courts. Sadly, as I said in last week’s article, the anti-terrorism courts are just as ineffective as the civilian courts at delivering justice to its logical end. The Maulana that leads the party was quoted in a newspaper that he was saved from the sin of voting for military courts. Maulana sahib, wasn’t your father a vocal member of the opposition to the creation of Pakistan in 1947? So you father didn’t want Pakistan and your party didn’t vote to defend it. Is anyone surprised by this?
We showed ourselves divided because of politics, as one party boycotted the National Assembly session because there was no movement on the judicial commission they had agreed to when all their other options fell by the wayside. But didn’t that party submit their resignations as part of their grand strategy to remove the Prime Minister? So do they even have a right to sit in the All Parties Conference?
It’s also interesting that these same parties stood together against the military operation to clear Swat, Khyber and Waziristan in the past. Coincidence?
We showed ourselves divided because 25 days after the Peshawar attack, and the inaction of the government, not one religious leader from any of the thousands of masjids and madrassahs, nor one member of any of the “religious” parties, in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has stepped forward to counter their usage of the Qu’ran to justify the killing of children. Are there no Islamic scholars in these ranks? And if not, how are you teaching Islam to the future generations of Pakistan? If there are, why have they not spoken out about this misuse of the Qu’ran to justify violence?
At a time when the terrorists are binding themselves closer together, calling in reinforcements from like-thinking, more violent groups, we are finding ways to pull ourselves farther apart through disinformation, personal affiliations and political interests that won’t matter if there isn’t a Pakistan when this is all said and done.
Religion and Pakistan are two things that have not mixed well since 1947, when a leading religious party branded Quaid-e-Azam as Kafir-e-Azam because they didn’t want to follow a Westernized lawyer to create a Muslim country. That battle has continued for 67 years and today, we are fighting for the existence of Pakistan against those who would take it away from us.
We are living in a time when there is more Muslim bloodshed by Muslims than anyone else. We are living in a time when the requirement to be a strong Muslim is stronger than ever before. We are living in a time when every decision we make can either lead us to a brighter Pakistan or none at all.
It is now that we must decide if we will be Jinnah’s Pakistan or Fazullah’s Pakistan. That is the choice we are faced with and it is no easy choice for some. For some, they have already made their choice. For others, they are still on the fence waiting to see who is going to come out on top.
Unlike past weeks, I’m not writing volumes because you need to think about which Pakistan you want. I can’t make a case for either, because you need to decide based on what is in your heart.
This is the watershed moment for Pakistan.
Khalid Muhammad is an entrepreneur, published novelist, defense analyst and political strategist. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter