Wednesday, January 09, 2008

"Do you think I am mad? I won't be alive an hour after I say this in public"

An Indian reporter asks a Pakistani TV host, "As a believer, why are you afraid of shari'ah law?" His answer is illuminating in many ways. For one thing, it indicates how much violent intimidation underlies popular support for Sharia. Most people, given a free choice, would not choose to live under a draconian totalitarian system. They might choose to do so if they're convinced it is the will of the One who created them, and to whom they will be accountable. Or they might choose to do so if they know they'll be killed for choosing differently. But that, of course, exposes the weakness at the heart of the jihad movement. They can win the hearts and minds of a few, but most will be going along because they're too afraid not to. That situation could be exploited by the non-Muslim West, but only by someone who had the courage to stand up to Sharia and declare explicit opposition to it. No such Churchill, however, is on the horizon.

"Islamists taking over Pakistan," from The Pioneer (thanks to Andrew Bostom):

Sushant Sareen, recently in Pakistan, explains the onward march of radical Islam in this first of a series of despatches

If Pakistan is an Islamic country, what is your objection to imposing shari'ah as is being demanded by the mullahs? As a believer, why are you afraid of shari'ah law?" I asked a former editor of an Urdu daily and currently the host of a TV programme. His answer: "As an Indian, you obviously would like to see Pakistan go into the Stone Age". I persisted: "Isn't the ideal concept of state in Islam the city state established by the Prophet in which Islamic law was the basic law?" He replied: "That would mean going back into the stone age". I pushed a little further and asked: "Are you willing to say this outside the confines of your office, and stand up in public for what you believe". He looked horrified and said: "Do you think I am mad? I won't be alive an hour after I say this in public".

Clearly, the Islamists are winning the ideological debate on the role of Islam in Pakistan. The liberal, and moderate, sections of Pakistani society are unable to present any convincing argument against the Islamists. Partly because of this, and partly as a result of the persecution complex that Muslims around the world have developed, Pakistani society is getting more and more Islamised and radicalised.

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