He says: "What kind of Islam do these people represent? In the garb of Islamic teaching they have been training for terrorism." But they seem to have some support, as thousands chanted, "Go, Musharraf, go!" -- which is not a chant of support.
"Musharraf declares war on Muslim extremists," by David Blair in the Telegraph (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
President Pervez Musharraf pledged to combat Muslim extremists across Pakistan yesterday as furious crowds demonstrated against the storming of the Red Mosque and two suicide bomb attacks left six dead.In a televised address to the nation, Gen Musharraf said that those inside the mosque and its adjacent madrassa, or Muslim college, were "terrorists" who directly threatened Pakistan's security. They had also tarnished Islam's reputation as a tolerant and peaceful religion.
"What do we as a nation want?" he asked. "What kind of Islam do these people represent? In the garb of Islamic teaching they have been training for terrorism. They prepared the madrassa as a fortress for war and housed other terrorists in there."
Gen Musharraf praised the army for wresting the mosque and its madrassa "from the hands of terrorists" and said: "I will not allow any madrassa to be used for extremism."
But thousands gathered for the funeral of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the radical preacher who died inside the Red Mosque, and chanted "Go, Musharraf, go".
Yet the unrest has not spread beyond known centres of extremism nor have the demonstrations grown strong enough to threaten Gen Musharraf's grip on power.
Moderate Pakistanis generally support his decision to crush the fundamentalists who had taken control of the mosque in the centre of the capital, Islamabad.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who serves as Osama bin Laden's deputy in al-Qa'eda, urged an uprising against Gen Musharraf in a taped message released on Wednesday. His message of militancy struck a popular chord in Pakistan's extremist strongholds.
Two suicide bombers hit government targets yesterday. Three soldiers were killed when a driver detonated his car outside the town of Mingora in the Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province.
In North Waziristan, the tribal area where both Zawahiri and bin Laden are believed to have found sanctuary, a suicide bomber walked into a government compound and blew himself up, killing three officials.
On the other side of the country in Punjab province, thousands attended Ghazi's burial.
The radical preacher's death in the Red Mosque has made him a "martyr" in the eyes of extremists. Ghazi's elder brother, Abdul Aziz, who escaped the siege, told the crowd that "God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon. The blood of the martyrs will bear fruit"....
"The radical preacher's death in the Red Mosque has made him a "martyr" in the eyes of extremists."
....it is as he wished it to be.....he was not happy with his life....as it is with Muslims....
Islam is for losers....
He is effectively declaring war on true Islam.
Good for Mushy Raff. Maybe now, at long last, he'll finally take on A-Q and their Taliban buddies. But I won't hold my breath on that-when it comes to Islamania, anything crazy can happen.
> Ghazi's elder brother, Abdul Aziz, who escaped the siege, told the crowd that "God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289051,00.html
Photo of Ghazi's small group of followers at his funeral.
Uh, Newsflash, Musharraf - Islam does NOT have a "reputation as a tolerant and peaceful religion." What, are you delusional, mushy?
I wonder if Abdul Aziz attended waering his burka.
Message to Abdul Aziz - Man, you people are Barbarians!
Although there are doubts about Musharraf, it is important he remain in power at this time, otherwise Pakistan will be turned into a seething dump full of jihad.
sounder, I thought Pak was already a "seething dump full of jihad." !
If Pakistan descends into civil war, it will be between people who want to reside in the 21st Century, and people who want to live in the 7th Century
The big problem is that there can be no long term compromise. Mixing clean water and sewage results in sewage
I wish Mr. Musharaff Godspeed in his efforts to curb the jihadists. What he did bought him more time, which is needed to prevent an all-out civil war, one in a country with nukes. This at a time when it has come out yesterday that AQ has regained strength and could even be in the USA.
Musharref missed a valuable opportunity at the target rich funeral for this terrorist lunatic to have "a competing al-Qaeda cell" to set off "scores of IED's", elminating all of these sympathizers.
But, I guess only the enemy has that kind of resolve.
sounder, I thought Pak was already a "seething dump full of jihad." ! Posted by: darcy
Darcy, my sentiments exactly! Mush's supposed anti-jehad stance is nothing more than a chimera meant to help bolster himself in the eyes of the West (translate; give him more money). Mush is as jehadi as any of his co-religionists.
"I will not allow any madrassa to be used for extremism."
the leader(?) of Pakistan
This guy is hysterical. Well, if he escapes the "extremists" he'll have a new career as a stand-up comic. I'd love to hear his bit on extremism.
Extremism is in the eye of the beholder.
Musharraf is full of it. His lemon scented pledges are better served cleaning furniture. He will do nothing to combat radicals. If he were serious, he'd clean his own house first and that includes the ISI.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19734160/site/newsweek/
Why would elements of ISI be interested in destabilizing Afghanistan?
Unfortunately, ISI from the very beginning had the idea of having an orthodox state in Afghanistan, backwards, and then using it in the wars against India and Kashmir, recruiting and creating an army of these zealots and sending them to Kashmir. They were pursuing this policy during the era of the Taliban, but that tendency within the ISI still remains. They don't want to see a strong, stable and developed Afghanistan.
U.S. continued support of Pakistan is another case of us feeding the hand that bites us.
The tragic thing is this islamic state is sitting on a powderkeg of nukes and instead of deterrence they believe in fatah and jihad!
"God willing, Pakistan will have an Islamic revolution soon. The blood of the martyrs will bear fruit"....
So President Musharraf pledges to combat Islamic extremist across Pakistan. A
‘War on Extremists.’
And he is either unable or unwilling to stop the martyrdom leader’s brother from giving an inflammatory speech at the funeral.
Things that make you wonder.
Ignorance is the brother of extremism. This is a war across time. No one in the West wants to return to the Dark Ages.
However, if you still live in the Islamic Dark Ages, I suppose it isn't regression.
Totally agree with you, Razdan.
Musharraf is filled with "taqiyya" - and if Pres. Bush and his ivory-tower colleagues could lower themselves enough to really learn about the Islamic world, they might see through Musharaff's charade, too.
Unless Musharraf comes up with a generally-accepted 21st century reformed islam, how will he even distinguish radicals from moderates???