| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Dhimmi Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
Here is the ultimate consequence of a series of "truces" with jihadists in the Northwest Frontier Province. "Pakistani city of Peshawar could fall to Taliban as fear and attacks grow," by Nick Meo for the Telegraph, August 30:
When the summer holidays end tomorrow, the parents of 1,400 pupils at the Badabher Government Girls' School will face a difficult choice.
Should they let their daughters go back to lessons in the rubble of their school, blown up by the Taliban in the middle of the night, or should they keep them safe at home?
Hashim, the caretaker who was held at gunpoint by masked gunmen, was warned that they would be back if the school is rebuilt. He fears that next time they could blow it up with pupils inside.
Yet this is not Kandahar, the Taliban capital of southern Afghanistan, but Peshawar - a city of 1.4 million people in neighbouring Pakistan, once celebrated as a cultural haven for artists, musicians and intellectuals.
A year ago schools were considered safe in the city, the capital of North-West Frontier Province. But the Taliban insurgency that has been growing in the wild mountains that rise in the distance is spreading into urban Pakistan.
Clerics and political leaders critical of the Taliban have been kidnapped and shot dead, around 15 suicide bombers have attacked inside the city, and to escape kidnappers businessmen are giving up and moving to the capital Islamabad, two hours drive away, or overseas to Dubai if they can afford to.
Nobody has ever known the city so fearful.
And signs of a backlash from local residents may be too little, too late, especially if government forces don't support them.
Musli Khan, a clerk who lives near the remains of the school, was disconsolately picking through the mess. The main building collapsed from the force of the explosion and the walls that were left were riddled with giant cracks.
Some chairs and schoolbooks had been pulled from the rubble, he said, gesturing at a damaged Koran.
"And these people say they are Muslims," Mr Khan muttered, shaking his head sadly before checking himself: it is dangerous now to be too critical of the Taliban, especially in suburbs on the outskirts of Peshawar. Here, at night, the police must lock themselves into fortified outposts for safety, and armed fighters prowl at will.
During a hasty and nervous drive to Badabher, only six miles from the city centre, The Sunday Telegraph passed three police stations which have been attacked with rockets in the past few weeks. "You must not stop for long at the school," said our guide, a local reporter. "Out here the Taliban have their spies everywhere."
On the same morning that the school was blown up last week, America's chief diplomat in the province narrowly escaped assassination when her car was ambushed as she drove to work. [...]
Taliban influence has even crept into Qissa Kawani, the street of the storytellers, in the heart of Peshawar's bazaars, where the mournful chanting of a Taliban CD was playing.
"I hate that noise," said Insanullah, the owner of a shop selling Pushtun music DVDs which he is now too scared to play.
Music store owners have been killed in bombings and he receives threatening letters but said he will continue because he has invested all his money in his little shop and has no other livelihood. On the city outskirts most have closed down.
"People still like music, but they are afraid for their lives and business is terrible," he said.
One of the city's most famous singers, Baryali, moved to Kabul to be safe and another, Wazir Khan, was briefly kidnapped by the Taliban and has gone into hiding since his release.
The city's cinemas are almost empty because customers fear bombs and even Peshawar's poets are censoring themselves.
Taous Dilsouz used to write songs about the war against the Soviets, then about Pakistani politics, but these days he sticks to safe subjects. "No poets will write songs about what is happening to our city," he said. "And even if they did they could not find singers who are brave enough to sing them."
Outside Peshawar it is much worse. Assadullah Khan, a watchman from the town of Mardan which is still nominally under government control, said: "Out of five brothers in my town, one will support the Taliban. The people are poor and illiterate, and they listen to what the clerics say. Some of my friends have joined the Taliban – they pay them for fighting."...
Posted by Marisol at August 30, 2008 10:53 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
|
"I hate that noise," said Insanullah, the owner of a shop selling Pushtun music DVDs which he is now too scared to play.
Music store owners have been killed in bombings and he receives threatening letters but said he will continue because he has invested all his money in his little shop and has no other livelihood. On the city outskirts most have closed down.
"People still like music, but they are afraid for their lives and business is terrible," he said.
One of the city's most famous singers, Baryali, moved to Kabul to be safe and another, Wazir Khan, was briefly kidnapped by the Taliban and has gone into hiding since his release."
-- from the article above
Meanwhile, Mark LaVine's little book on "the heavy-metal scene" in Muslim countries, and especially Pakistan, where according to LaVine that "heavy-metal scene" is better than anywhere else, may still be flying off the shelves.
Or is it?
![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 30, 2008 11:37 AM
What they need are some Vigilance Committees, armed and willing to do battle with the Taliban. Have armed patrols of parents around the school-grounds, and meet fire with fire. When a Taliban thug arrives in a shop to order the shopkeeper to stop selling music CD's, let the shopkeeper blow him away.
Posted by: ebonystone at August 30, 2008 11:41 AM
It's worse than that...The area of Peshawar is where some of Pakistan's nukes are kept. About two weeks ago I read where Pakistani officials had a panic meeting to discuss the possible break away of the Northen Province including Peshawar and those nukes. Now it looks like the overthrow may happen. If what I read about nukes is true, I hope they moved them by now...
Posted by: duh_swami at August 30, 2008 11:53 AM
the pak land of the pure islam will fall into itself, where will the naseems who wanted soft sharia,islam go to? appeasers dont get it till it bites them back.Good!
Posted by: ZenaWarriorPrincess at August 30, 2008 11:59 AM
It's hard to feel sorry for them. NOW there's a backlash? Where were they when the Taliban was killing others and putting burkhas on women in Afghanistan?
Pakistan is being devoured by the monster it created.
Even the music store owner and the poets who are now being portrayed as valiant opponents (and victims) of the Taliban - were they ever valiant opponents of jihad? We romanticize them now but did they ever make their voices heard when non-Muslims were being slaughtered? How many of them openly and proudly supported al Qaeda?
Did the school for girls preach the glories of jihad or did it tell young girls that martyrdom was not something they should want for themselves or their children and that killing others for the sake of killing others was not right? Did they talk to them about the burkha and why it was wrong?
at August 30, 2008 12:24 PM
About the only heavy metal flying in Pakistan is shrapnel.
And the way events are progressing in Pakistan,it would not surprise me to see the country taken over by the Taliban.
When that happens expect India to freak out, they know that are Islam's #1 target in the region. It would be interesting to see if India would launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
at August 30, 2008 12:26 PM
Thanks for reminding me, Zena: I haven't seen any comments from Naseem for quite a while now. Do we know what part of Pakistan she lives in? Does anybody know if she's OK?
Posted by: A_Nonny_Mouse at August 30, 2008 2:45 PM
But but but...
didn't they tell us the Islamists got only a tiny percentage at the last elections..?
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at August 30, 2008 2:46 PM
Islam is a peaceful religion
Islam is a peaceful religion
Islam is a peaceful religion
Nope, didn't work. It's still the religion of choice for homicidal maniacs.
Posted by: tanstaafl at August 30, 2008 3:12 PM
Since Heavy Metal is still one of the most popular musical genres ever since the late 60's and early 70's I believe the west should give more attention to metal bands in that part of the world. First, westerners might very well like their music, second, it might prevent the lunatics from targeting them if they become more internationally known as well as making it a platform for antijihad resistance.
Posted by: Robin_Shadowes at August 30, 2008 4:19 PM
Remember Mohammed's Dead Poets Society? - all the singer-poets he killed for criticising/ mocking him? Asma bint Marwan? Abu Afak? There were others, too.
One of the things that tells me that Islam comes straight out of hell is the fact that sharia formally and explicitly condemns and forbids music.
Here's an old posting by Hugh, on the subject:
"The doctrine concerning music in Islam is clear: music is haram, not halal.
"On-line one can find both the Qur'an (in four or five English versions, presented synoptically) and the Hadith from the most authoritative collections; put "music" into their respective search engines and see what comes up.
"For those whose practice conforms with the doctrine, see Afghanistan, where the Taliban murdered those Afghani wedding-singers, and even killed those who defied the ban on listening to music on radios.
"See what the True Believers of the F.I.S. did to singers of Rai in Algeria.
"See the role of music -- non-existent -- in Saudi Arabia or other Sharia-compliant states.
"There is music in Muslim societies, but its appearance is despite and not because of Islam.
- Posted by: Hugh at November 20, 2007 2:19 AM".
And here, unearthed and shared by jihadwatch poster 'del', is what the 'Reliance of the Traveller', an authoritative handbook of Islamic law, has to say about music - *all* music (the focus is on 'musical instruments' but vocal music is also condemned):
"...19. Musical instruments are unlawful
pp. 774-775
r40.0 MUSIC, SONG, AND DANCE
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
r40.1 (Ibn Hajar Haytami:) As for the condemnation of musical instruments, flutes, strings and the like by the Truthful and Trustworthy (Allah bless him and give him peace), who
“does not speak from personal caprice: it is nothing besides a revelation inspired” (Koran 53:3-4),
let those who refuse to obey him beware lest calamity strike them, or a painful torment. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:
(1) “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”
(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.”
(4) “This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.” Someone asked, “When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said, “When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.”
(5) “There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful ….”
All of this is explicit and compelling textual evidence that musical instruments of all types are unlawful (Kaff al-ra’a’ ‘an muharramat al-lahw wa al-sama’ (y49), 2.269-70). "
- Posted by: del at April 23, 2007 12:56 AM
at August 30, 2008 5:20 PM
In the material from Hugh that I quoted above, he mentioned purist Muslims attacking music-makers in Afghanistan and in Algeria - music-makers who were practising not western styles but, it is clear, traditional 'folk' musics.
To that list may be added many other miserable examples of Islamic party-pooping. I have just gone through my file entitled 'no music in Islam', and it has news stories, garnered here over three or four years, about purist Muslim assaults on music shops and music makers and music both 'western' and 'local traditional/ folk', from...Afghanistan and Pakistan [reports aplenty], but also from Gaza City, Somalia, Iraq [death threats levelled at the Baghdad City symphony orchestra, and - from May this year - a report on the assassinations in Iraq, by jihadists, of 115 singers, 65 actors and 60 painters], and Indonesia [Muslim purists threatening a young Muslim woman who was singing traditional erotic songs].
In Geraldine Brooks' 'Nine Parts of Desire' she describes traditional 'belly-dancing' in Egypt - the classic erotic women's dance form of the Middle East, which is most likely a cultural survival from pre-Islamic times. Brooks attempted to learn it and found it was as intellectually and physically demanding as western ballet, and as complex. She also found that the purist Muslims, jihad-and sharia-minded, were conducting a campaign to stamp it out.
In 'From Cairo to Damascus', in Beirut Carlson saw a 'belly-dancer' perform; she sang, mesmerisingly, what he called a 'torch song', as well as dancing. But again, we must conclude that this art, however appreciated behind closed doors, was a survival from the pre-Islamic world, rather than an integral part of the Islamosphere. For Carlson also makes the following observation, as he describes a boat-load of Jewish Shoah survivors making their way to Israel:
"They were an ill-clad, ill-fed lot of refugees. Many were survivors of Auschwitz who bore their death number tattooed above their wrists. Most were from southern Europe – Rumania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. I had expected to find them elated at their homecoming. But there was no elation. Pain, hunger and frustration had been their lot for a decade and they were benumbed.
"Among the bedraggled children a half dozen carried violin cases.
"I thought it significant that these harassed Jews thought of music as well as survival;
"at no time during my stay among the Arabs had I seen anybody with a violin, or with any musical instrument of any kind."
Got that last bit? - "At no time during my stay among the Arabs had I seen anybody with a violin or with any musical instrument of any kind".
Carlson doesn't connect that conspicuous absence, that lack or gap, with Islam and the sharia. But anyone who is aware of this passage from the Hadith - "Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me [Mohammed] as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with *musical instruments, flutes, strings*, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance” knows exactly why Carlson saw no musical instruments among the Arabs.
at August 30, 2008 5:45 PM
I just googled "heavy metal + pakistan", and came up with this link.
http://blackwarrant.com/main.php
Black Warrent has the graphics and sound of a typical western heavy metal band, but their lyrics seem designed to please Islamic literalists. This is from their upcoming album, "Decade of Destruction":
Vulgar Society
(Lyrics by: Ali Raza Farooqi)
Lead by greed, life of lies
Numb conscious, that slowly dies
Feeding on interest, lacking trust
Diabolic lifestyle, GOD .. everyone defies
Shades of disgust and anxiety
Unredeemed vulgar society
Promoting nudity and disrespect
Corrosion fills their eyes
Human pile of scum they are
yet no one realize
Shades of disgust and anxiety
Unredeemed vulgar society
at August 30, 2008 7:49 PM
Peshawar - a city of 1.4 million people in neighbouring Pakistan, once celebrated as a cultural haven for artists, musicians and intellectuals.
No way. I have been to Peshawar in the late sixties, several times.
The last thing anyone could find there was artists, musicians or intellectuals.
A craphole, nothing more, nothing less. They must be talking about pre-Islamic times...
Posted by: sheik yer'mami at August 30, 2008 8:40 PM
DDA,
Meanwhile, there are many sites saying there is nothing in the quran that forbids music and that the hadith are false.
One such site seems heavy on the peaceful verses and the beautiful music. Its first sentence on the subject:
Music is one of the purest and most beautiful creation of God Almighty who set the tone and rhythm of every sound in the universe.
My head was spinning as I read. Of course, toward the end, they put in the qualification, which would be used by any radicals to ban the music:
As long as they do not call on the people or encourage them to commit sins, they are for the TRUE BELIEVERS TO ENJOY while remembering God with every beautiful note or rhythm.
Have you seen this website before? It made me dizzy.
http://www.submission.org/music.html
Their reasoning is that anything not expressly forbidden in the quran is allowed.
Posted by: PMK at August 30, 2008 10:01 PM
PMK - yes, the sharia ban on music is so cruel and stupid and totally antinatural, one would expect there to be people trying to find ways to wiggle out of it. The fact that folk music of various kinds has survived and persisted in different parts of the Islamosphere, especially in Africa (just take a look at some of the websites to do with music in Nigeria, for example - even the Islamised regions have had, up till now, a proliferation of styles and performers) is testimony to the capacity of human beings - even humans trapped within a totalitarian cult like Islam - to get around crazy restrictions.
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at August 31, 2008 2:27 AM
What they need are some Vigilance Committees, armed and willing to do battle with the Taliban. Have armed patrols of parents around the school-grounds, and meet fire with fire. When a Taliban thug arrives in a shop to order the shopkeeper to stop selling music CD's, let the shopkeeper blow him away.
ebonystone
The path of least resistance for a "moderate" Muslim, when faced with severe repecussions from militant Muslims, is to become more compliant with the Koran , Sharia, and the Hadiths. The militants have the Koran, Sharia, and the Hadiths and therefore Allah on their side.
It is for this reason that I have little faith that "moderate" Islam will ever take hold.
Posted by: Spot on at August 31, 2008 5:38 AM
...Did the school for girls preach the glories of jihad or did it tell young girls that martyrdom was not something they should want for themselves or their children and that killing others for the sake of killing others was not right? Did they talk to them about the burkha and why it was wrong?
PMK
The reason that I see the situation in Pakistan as hopeless, is that "moderate" Muslims are guilty of "deviant behaviour" according to the Koran, Sharia, and such. As a result, the Taliban has the high moral ground in this fight. The path of least resistance for a "moderate" Muslim is to follow the Koran, Sharia, etc. more explicitly.
Posted by: Spot on at August 31, 2008 5:48 AM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)