Charlie Wilson's Chair

Via Twilight of the Weimar Era, we learn that UT Austin is establishing a chair in Pakistan Studies in their South Asian Studies department. And its named after Charlie Wilson! Yes, that's right, I said Charlie Wilson!

What better way to encourage the serious study of, and promote the nuanced understanding of Pakistani society, history and culture by naming a post after this man? (Pic: Time)

But the kicker is that under our good General, the Pakistani government was 'extending its services' to help raise money for the endowment. Yes, the Pakistani government always was good at extending its services to good ole Charlie Wilson, wasn't it.

Lal Masjid Seige Continues

Even though I haven't blogged a great deal about it, I've been glued to the computer trying to follow the latest developments of the Lal Masjid siege over the last two days. I've found Reuters.com to have some timely updates and video footage, but the people at the Islamabad Metroblog has been a good source for the latest developments as well. Other than that, Geo News puts audio files of its hourly news round-ups on its website (there are in Urdu however), and also puts up articles in English.

Despite the giggles over Maulana Abdul Aziz's farcical escape attempt, and the relief that over 1100 people left the lal masjid compound voluntarily yesterday, a very serious potential for catastrophe still exists with the siege. Apart from the 17 people confirmed killed so far in the clashes between students and the the authorities since 3rd July, a large number remain holed up in the compound and the prospects of any attempt to storm the compound could lead to a WACO like bloodbath.

Jamia Hafsa students were in the midst of clashes between militants and rangers (courtesy: BBC)

Many of those who left yesterday were relieved to be away from the Madrassah. Others were unwilling to leave and had to be cajoled, pleaded with, and in some cases dragged out by concerned family members. There were a large number of relatives reporting that their daughters or nieces were being coerced to stay, their mobile phones confiscated so they could no longer communicate with relatives outside.

A Lal masjid militant clearly concerned about the fact that the girls might get caught between the crossfire as his fellow militants shoot at rangers (source: bbc Urdu)

An article in The News describes the agony of relatives desperate to get their girls out:

At about noon, the administration of the mosque stopped releasing or handing over any girl to her parents. This continued for about one hour. Some female students during their interview disclosed that this step was taken to force maximum number of female students to stay back.

"By having maximum number of girl students inside the Jamia, the administration could exert maximum pressure on the law-enforcement agencies for not launching an operation," a female student said. "However, the Lal Masjid administration was forced to take this decision back after the number of parents outside the mosque rose."

Abdul Saboor from Chattar said that his three nieces were inside the Jamia and he was unable to access them despite making efforts the whole day. "I have sent many paper slips to the Jamia Hafsa but the response was negative every time," he said, adding: "A response from the woman administrator was that my nieces have been admitted to the Jamia Hafsa and they have taken oath to sacrifice their lives for the cause of Islam, so they could not be allowed to go with you."

A reporter for Dawn who was interviewing students who were leaving made an interesting observation:

She estimated the number of girls under the age of 10 years to be at least a hundred. Nobody had come to get them so far. Another 19-year-old student from Peshawar, Naila, tended to agree with this figure. Both of them said these children were frightened and “Madam”, wife of the Lal Masjid Maulana, was taking care of them. Apparently quite a few of these children are orphans and had been deposited at the seminary by their relatives.

Which of course touches on the entire reason Madrassahs have become an increasingly popular feature of Pakistani society in the last few decades - they are virtually the only institutions that provide social service functions such as care for orphans and homeless migrants to urban centres.

To these rootless individuals, caught up in the gears of a changing society that hasn't developed the social mechanisms to care for them, the madressah provides more than an education. It also provides a sense of belonging, identity, structure, and self-worth. As a taliba, one is an empowered, educated, righteous individual on the right side of history, with a sense of purpose, and a sense of belonging to something that is Godly, worthy, and of benefit to your country. In a society that treats women as objects, of less worth than men, and the poor as little more than beasts of burden, these describe an emotional state very few girls in Pakistan have access to.

So its interesting what tactics the Mosque authorities use to get the girls to stay:

Most of the female students do want to leave, Mr Shaheen said, as well as several of the younger ones. But he said the leaders of the mosque, Ghazi Abdul Rashid and Maulana Abdul Aziz, commanded them to stay. "They said to the students that 'your lives are useless if they won't protect the sanctity of the mosque'."

A truly interesting photo of one of the lal masjid militants. He is brandishing a Heckler & Koch MP5 which is not a commonly available weapon in Pakistan at all and is only issued to the SSG commandos and special forces, and wearing a gas mask of the kind worn by Pakistani special forces. [Edit: Please see below] Where did he get these do you think? (Source: BBC Urdu)

The government, claiming the girls are being used as human shields, has this to say:

"A large number of women and children are being held hostage by armed men in room," Khan told a news conference, adding that the brother of the captured cleric was hiding in the basement of an attached madrasa with 25 "women hostages".

"Yes, they're using them as human shields, because the people who have come out, they told us that they're telling women and children not to worry because as long as you're here forces will not attack us," he said.

And what did Maulana Aziz have to say about this?

"They are not being used as human shields, we only gave them passion for jihad," said Aziz, who was later remanded in court.

Needless to say, while Maulana Auntie's stomach may have been of noticeably larger dimensions than that of the girls in the madressah, his passion for jihad seems to be of a much smaller order of magnitude.

Let's hope this turns out okay.

IZ

Post-script: A number of knowledgeable readers have pointed out that the pictured gun the militant is holding is not an MP-5 and that this is now limited to SSG forces in Pakistan. Please read the comments for a debate on the issue.

The Art of Stick Fighting

(Image copyright Dawn)

So exactly what kind of education are these 'students' of the Lal Masjid Madrassah getting? Commentators in the mainstream press in Pakistan were appalled when the government seemed to cave in to the demands of the fundamentalists without resistance. The humiliation seemed to be all the more complete given the ability of the Masjid students to kidnap policemen at will whenever they needed to put extra pressure on the government for some reason or the other. Why, they asked, is the government so reluctant to send in the police to clear the miscreants out once and for all? After all, baton-armed police were being used with impunity on various protest rallies and demonstrations in favour of the chief justice at around the same time. How much trouble would a rabble of stick-wielding fanatics be?

Quiet a lot actually. From the photograph it would appear that the students of the Madrassah are learning a one stick style of 'Silat'. Silat is the name of a family of martial arts that is predominant in South East Asia and in recent years has acquired a reputation in the Muslim world as being a genuinely Islamic martial art. (This would differentiate it from such recent developments as 'Ninjabi', which is basically modern western self-defence techniques adapted for yuppie hijab-wearing Muslim women.) Its history of use against various colonial armies, particularly those of the Spanish, Americans and the Japanese also made it more popular and relevant than the more stylised Chinese Muslim martial arts.

Here's a video of a couple of students practicing disarming techniques:



Recently various silat forms have also started becoming more popular in the west. It is particularly popular in the Netherlands, which came in to contact with the style during the colonial rule of Indonesia. This is someone's sparing video and demonstrates just how effective the silat techniques can be against other stick wielding opponents - such as the lathi armed policemen who might be expected to raid the Lal Masjid.



Silat is primarily about reflexes, speed and balance. Hence its supposed to be a good martial art for women as well. From an Indonesian silat training institution, we learn about an 104 year old female silat master who demonstrated the art at a tournament back in 2003. So these folk may well have benefited from a silak-inspired education as well (Image from the Telegraph)


The spiritual aspect of a martial art is often an important (some would say most important) component. Traditionally Islam spread through South East Asia through sufi teachers and traders. Many of the silat training institutions trace their routes to sufi orders and see the practice of silat as a path to enhancing one's spiritual consciousness and its relation to the dancing exercises of Turkic sufi traditions.

More recently, however, the spiritual traditions of Islam have been losing ground to modern, legalistic and literalist ideologies and this has been reflected in modern silat training centres which, while still emphasizing chivalric codes, don't emphasize sufi ideals. What's interesting is that sites such as these still repeat sufi traditions while de-emphasizing their more esoteric meanings. Silat and Islam are still seen as intertwined, but it seems some of the essence is lost. This story, for example, extols silat as a way to bring converts into the fold.

So going back to the question of any confrontation between the madrassah students and police, one wouldn't imagine that the police would have an easy time of it. Quiet apart from the fact that the madrassah students are trained in stick-fighting, the difference in morale would be telling. While the students believe they are fighting for God, the policemen are disaffected, poorly paid and really not too sure why they are there. Today, for example, over a thousand policemen who had been bused in to surround the Lal Masjid disobeyed orders and marched in protest, after one of their sick colleagues died of an illness. During the march they turned on their superior officers and beat up several other policemen who were trying to film them.

As the colonial edifice of the Pakistani state continues to crumble, one wonders if it wont be the highly organized and disciplined cadres of the Islamists who might carry the day in any confrontation.

IZ

The Elocution Contest

Back in my school days, the annual elocution contest would roll around towards the end of the school year. Class by class, the whole school would be marched down to the large covered ‘shed’ in the yard and seated on mats laid out before the stage. The event would be greeted with a mixture of relief and indifference. Relief from escaping the usual routine of classes and indifference because of our complete lack of interest in what we were supposed to witness.

The elocution contest was also referred to as a ‘debate’ by some, but that was a debatable label. Picked students would prepare speeches on a given topic and then recite them before the bored and listless crowd. The point was not to debate with, or in any way engage with the ideas of the other speakers, rather it was to speak loudly, passionately, and clearly. While the judges then tallied up points, the podium would be handed over to any one from the student body who wished to add a few comments.

This was undoubtedly the most exciting part of the whole affair. Heads would go up as people strained to see who was volunteering. Groups of friends would try to cajole, flatter, bribe or threaten one of their band to go up and say something. Volunteers would spring up and set forth, grinning impishly at some inspired witticism they had thought of, or clutching a piece of paper with a few scrawled words on it nervously to their chests.

These volunteers were driven primarily by one of two impulses: to seek to impress the headmistress and senior teachers in the hope of getting noticed for plum posts of responsibility or, more often, to seek to impress their peers by providing some kind of relief from the tedium of the whole affair. This second group was the one that really sparked the audience's interest. Outrageous statements were made, witticisms passed on something a previous orator had said and absolutely nothing was added to the understanding of the topic on hand. The audience would roar its approval and clap loudly – the more provocative the statement, the louder the applause - and the volunteer would return to the crowd to appreciative slaps on the back and giggles from his friends.

I was reminded of this sordid ritual of my youth when reading about the Pakistani parliament’s passing of a resolution to condemn the knighthood of Salman Rushdie. MNA after MNA came up to the floor to make one outrageous statement after another. One can imagine the appreciative back-patting and giggles when they returned to their seats. The level of ‘debate’ is obviously not very different from what it was in my school all those years ago.

But in the whole distasteful affair there is a silver lining. Ten years ago, even five years ago, this ‘debate’ would have been mostly hidden from the eyes of the public. Newspapers might carry the highlights, but in a country where newspaper circulation has always been pitifully low, even amongst the 40-odd percent of the population that is literate, there was little awareness of what our elected representatives said or did on our behalf. Furthermore, parliamentary correspondents could be leant on to present sanitized accounts of proceedings. The proliferation of television news channels has had a major impact on political reporting and the impersonal eye of the camera is difficult to contradict or discredit.

In days gone by, Mr. Ejaz-ul-Haq would simply claim that he was misquoted. Now he has to backtrack and offer “clarifications” and perhaps, be a little more guarded next time with what he says. At least that’s a step forward. Its no longer just his superiors in the administration, or the bored, listless crowd seated in the National Assembly, that he is addressing, but the world.

IZ

The Debate Club

The lower house of parliament in Pakistan once again covered itself in glory by passing a resolution condemning the knighthood of Salman Rushdie. In the National Assembly the Minister for Religious Affairs, Ejaz-ul-Haq, the son of the former American-backed military dictator, Zia-ul-Haq, and a stalwart of the Musharraf government, said that if someone blew up Rushdie in a suicide bombing, they would be justified.

After this caused an uproar amongst the opposition, he once again took the floor to say that he did not condone terrorism and hadn't meant to justify it.

One shakes one's head in wonder at the sheer stupidity of it all. Lets first take a look at Ejaz-ul-Haq. The man is an imbecile, whose personal contacts with the ISI and Jihadist establishments are questionable to say the least. In his position as Minister of Religious Affairs he has received millions of dollars of funding from the U.S. and Britain to "reform" Madressahs. These reforms consisted of convincing Madressahs to register with the government in return for being recognized as universities. A Madressah "degree" is now on a par with a degree from Karachi University as far as employment opportunities go. He proudly appeared on TV to proclaim that he was the man responsible for having terrorism charges dropped against Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi (of Lal Masjid fame) and having him released from custody two years ago. (One of the participants in a plot to assasinate Musharraf had used one of Rashid's cars to move about.)

The funny thing is that this isn't the first time Ejaz-ul-Haq's big mouth and love for suicide bombing have come out into the open. Here's a quote from Pervez Hoodbhoy's article 'Waiting for Enlightenment':

The federal minister for religious affairs, Ijaz ul Haq, speaking at the launch of a book authored by a leading Islamic extremist leader on “Christian Terrorism and The Muslim World,” argued that anyone who did not believe in jihad was neither a Muslim nor a Pakistani. He then declared that given the situation facing Muslims today, he was prepared to be a suicide bomber.

Now perhaps we shouldn't expect anything better from a buffoon like Haq, but what about the Assembly as a whole? What possible business is it of the parliament of Pakistan who the British government confers a knighthood on? Does Ghana pass judgement on who receives the sitara-i-imtiaz in Pakistan?

Partially this kind of stupidity is the result of Musharraf's rape of the constitution over the last 7 years. The Parliament, which is meant to be a legislative body, has been stripped of its legislative functions and has become little more than a pulpit where people rant and rave about whatever might get them on to the news. This is why it spends its time routinely condemning, amongst other things, plays, wedding feasts, Indian missile tests, renovation works in Jerusalem, American air strikes in Afghanistan, newspaper cartoons and people who destroy mosques in Iraq even though they don't know who they are. When minority representatives complained about government apathy over the vandalisation of the Sikh Gurudwara Nankana Sahib temple in September 2004, the National Assembly manfully swung into action and condemned the desecration.

What else could they do?

IZ

Edit: This article has been significantly edited from its original.

How to Escalate Civil Wars 101

Here's an interesting article from the International Herald Tribune: 'U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies'. Essentially it relates how the U.S. military, delighted by infighting between Sunni nationalist militias and Sunni Jihadist militias has decided to arm the nationalists and turn a blind eye to their activities according to the dictum 'the enemy of my enemy, who is also my enemy and the enemy of my allies (who are also allies of another of my enemies) is my friend'. Guardian photojournalist Sean Smith witnessed the phenomenon which he recorded here amongst a series of other disturbing photos from Iraq.

After quoting glowing reports of success from American military commanders, the IHT article goes on to note:

But critics of the strategy, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans' arming both sides in a future civil war. The United States has spent more than $15 billion in building up Iraq's army and police force, whose manpower of 350,000 is heavily Shiite. With an American troop drawdown increasingly likely in the next year, and little sign of a political accommodation between Shiite and Sunni politicians in Baghdad, the critics say, there is a risk that any weapons given to Sunni groups will eventually be used against Shiites. There is also the possibility the weapons could be used against the Americans themselves.

The question is: who will the militias use these weapons against? Will it be the Americans? Or Shiites? Several months ago I had linked to this article which chronicled how many Sunni militias are leaving off attacking the Americans in order to attack Shiites. Last month, we learnt that Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Shiite Mahdi army was looking to forge ties with Sunni militias to try and build a pan-Iraqi movement to oppose U.S. occupation.

One suspects that once the weapons and money are in the hands of various local militia leaders, there will be no control over how they are used and who they are used against. In the fluctuating political landscape of a chaotic post-invasion Iraq, today's ally can be tomorrow's enemy and vice versa. And of course one would be naive to assume that armed gangs only use violence for political ends. Armed robbery, kidnappings, turf wars and vendettas are always going to be the primary use of weapons in a land where there so so much physical and economic insecurity. The Americans' claim that creating more armed gangs would help "to stabilize Iraq, and to speed American troops on their way home." Obviously, the second goal is the main one, the first, merely lip-service. After all, what does the Iraqi government have to say about this?

An Iraqi government official who was reached by telephone on Sunday said the government was uncomfortable with the American negotiations with the Sunni groups because they offered no guarantee that the militias would be loyal to anyone other than the American commander in their immediate area. "The government's aim is to disarm and demobilize the militias in Iraq," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a political adviser to Maliki. "And we have enough militias in Iraq that we are struggling now to solve the problem. Why are we creating new ones?"

But who cares what the Iraqi government wants? They should just shut up and enjoy the freedom they have been given.

IZ

Missing Nuclear Material

Well this just makes me feel so much safer. I'm sure there is nothing at all to worry about. Just a small matter of some radioactive material that could be used to make a dirty bomb (possibly) gone missing. Even the Pakistani government says that its no big deal and just an exercise in raising public awareness. So if the Pakistani government says theres no problem, then it must be true. Nope, no worries at all...

IZ