Pakistani Troops Moving In; Are the Taliban Even Muslim?

CNN and Dawn are reporting that Pakistani military troops are moving in to protect the capital city of Islamabad from the encroachments of the Taliban.

Pakistani troops rushing to protect government buildings and bridges in Taliban-infiltrated Buner district just 60 miles from Islamabad were met with gunfire Thursday that killed two police officers, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear if the gunmen were Taliban militants, but the clash in the district is likely to heighten concern about the viability of a government-backed peace deal with the Taliban in northwest Pakistan.

Uhm, ya think? Anyway, this is a good response to the threat Pakistan is currently facing. It might also be a good idea if the politicians, when they gain the requisite fortitude, send troops after the Taliban, instead of just protecting the borders.

Meanwhile, Fawzia Afzal-Khan is wondering whether the Taliban are even Muslims. A great question considering their complete intolerance and anger that leads to the murdering of fellow Muslims.

I walked out that day from the premises of the Red Mosque thinking that these “Muslimahs” had a point, at least regarding the deep class inequalities and injustices that marred the psychic, economic and political landscape of the country of my birth. Their anger against the “comprador elite” was justified—and hence also against Western, specifically US imperialist interests being shored up by this ruling class. Indeed, of late, the US itself has helped the case of the various Taliban groups by continuing to bomb the hideouts of these and Al-Qaeda outfits in the Northern Areas with their remotely-piloted Drone and Reaper predator missiles. But I no longer think of the Pakistani Taliban and their female counterparts as deserving of any empathy whatsoever. In fact, I am prepared to go as far as calling them non-Muslims.

What sort of Muslims—nay, human beings—can justify the public whipping of that poor 17-year-old Swati girl, Chand Bibi, which the world was shocked to see circulating on the net? What sort of Muslims—nay, human beings—kill and maim MUSLIM worshippers at mosques such as the one in Jamrud, a town in the tribal Khyber region, where a suicide bomber struck during Friday prayers, leaving more than 50 dead and over a 100 wounded, most critically, in one of the bloodiest recent attacks in the nation. And the 22 Shi’ites dead in another recent suicide bombing at a Shi’ite mosque in northern Pakistan? And the remote-controlled bombing of CD shops in Peshawer? And the attack on the Frontier Corps post in Islamabad leaving eight of them—all working class-- dead? And the attack on the police cadets in training on the outskirts of Lahore—all of them of poor backgrounds? What ire against them??

Yup. They are the Khwarij of our age.