Little sympathy for Mosque devils...areas of seething persist
Little sympathy for mosque rebels
ISLAMABAD: People in the Pakistani capital showed little sympathy for militants in a mosque compound that security forces stormed yesterday but feared for the safety of women and children believed to be in the complex.
“It had to happen one day, but thank God it’s over,” said Shazia Khurram, an Islamabad teacher, “Everyone’s worried about the women and innocent children. It will be very tragic if something happens to them.” (editor's note: these were the stick-wielding hijab wearing banshees that attacked discos, cd shops, massage parlors etc. pictured above.)
“The people in the Lal Masjid had become terrorists,” said Sohail Iqbal, a salesman at a book shop less than a kilometre from the mosque.“They held women and children hostage and even threatened to kill them if they left,” he said.
We have the Blame Bush crowd? Well, Pakistan has the Blame Pervez crowd - although it sounds like they DO have a point.
“If they acted then, a lot of lives could have been saved today,” said government employee Mumtaz Qureshi.Instead, the authorities had tried to appease the students after they mounted a vigilante anti-vice campaign, kidnapping women they accused of prostitution. They threatened shops selling Western films and abducted policemen.
Raja Asghar, 62, a retired government official, said he failed to understand how the militants stockpiled arms and ammunition in a mosque in the centre of the capital. “People would be right in thinking if such a thing can happen in Islamabad, how much worse is it elsewhere?"
Tailor Shaukat Ali in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, also blamed the government.“Almost every one agrees mosques and madrasas are for imparting Islamic education and should not be used for militancy ... (but) the government is responsible. Why did they allow it to go on for so long?” Ali said.
Warning: Muslim seething zone ahead.
In conservative areas on the Afghan border, where support for militants is rife, the assault was seen as an attack on Islam and an attempt to pander to the United States. “This is an attack not just on the Lal Masjid but on our religion, Islam,” said shopkeeper Malik Gul Maroof Shah in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.“We condemn the attack. Everything Musharraf does is to please the Americans,” said electronics shop owner Amir Hamza.–
ISLAMABAD: People in the Pakistani capital showed little sympathy for militants in a mosque compound that security forces stormed yesterday but feared for the safety of women and children believed to be in the complex.
“It had to happen one day, but thank God it’s over,” said Shazia Khurram, an Islamabad teacher, “Everyone’s worried about the women and innocent children. It will be very tragic if something happens to them.” (editor's note: these were the stick-wielding hijab wearing banshees that attacked discos, cd shops, massage parlors etc. pictured above.)
“The people in the Lal Masjid had become terrorists,” said Sohail Iqbal, a salesman at a book shop less than a kilometre from the mosque.“They held women and children hostage and even threatened to kill them if they left,” he said.
We have the Blame Bush crowd? Well, Pakistan has the Blame Pervez crowd - although it sounds like they DO have a point.
“If they acted then, a lot of lives could have been saved today,” said government employee Mumtaz Qureshi.Instead, the authorities had tried to appease the students after they mounted a vigilante anti-vice campaign, kidnapping women they accused of prostitution. They threatened shops selling Western films and abducted policemen.
Raja Asghar, 62, a retired government official, said he failed to understand how the militants stockpiled arms and ammunition in a mosque in the centre of the capital. “People would be right in thinking if such a thing can happen in Islamabad, how much worse is it elsewhere?"
Tailor Shaukat Ali in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, also blamed the government.“Almost every one agrees mosques and madrasas are for imparting Islamic education and should not be used for militancy ... (but) the government is responsible. Why did they allow it to go on for so long?” Ali said.
Warning: Muslim seething zone ahead.
In conservative areas on the Afghan border, where support for militants is rife, the assault was seen as an attack on Islam and an attempt to pander to the United States. “This is an attack not just on the Lal Masjid but on our religion, Islam,” said shopkeeper Malik Gul Maroof Shah in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan.“We condemn the attack. Everything Musharraf does is to please the Americans,” said electronics shop owner Amir Hamza.–
Labels:
afghanistan,
seething
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