
This is good to see. It would be better if they backed up assertions such as “the Taliban is the enemy of Islam” with some reasoned response to the Taliban’s use of Islamic texts and teachings. Peaceful, secular Muslims who accept Western notions of human rights are on the defensive everywhere, and have formulated no effective response to the jihadists’ claim to represent pure and authentic Islam — it is ironic that all the learned analysts in the West take the existence and power of this response for granted, and yet no one has actually ever seen it. It is the great unicorn of Western public policy.
“Students, musicians fight and fear Taliban,” from CNN, May 1 (thanks to all who sent this in):
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) — Angry protests are a common sight in Pakistan. Crowds often gather to denounce the United States or the Pakistani government, which critics accuse of being an American puppet.
But in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore this week, several hundred protesters gathered on a scorching day to take on a very different target: the Taliban.
“I will fight them to my last breath and the last drop of my blood in my body. I’m not scared,” vowed newspaper publisher Jugnu Mohsin.
She was leading a crowd of several hundred students, artists, writers and others, chanting “the Taliban is the enemy of Islam” in Urdu.
Public protests against the Taliban started cropping up in various Pakistani cities after a video emerged showing militants publicly flogging a teenage girl. The Taliban’s recent declaration that the Pakistani government and judicial system are “unIslamic” has also outraged many educated Pakistanis.
Neha Mehdi moved to Lahore to study. Now, she fears her way of life is being threatened by the Taliban.
“I cannot give up my education, and I cannot give up the way I’m living,” the 23-year-old student said. “These Talibans have ruined the reputation of Islam.”…