"We are fighting for the enforcement of Islam"

Yet another hearts-and-minds initiative comes to naught. An update on this story. "Released cleric's son-in-law rules out truce," from AP (thanks to Morgaan Sinclair):

Peshawar: A fugitive militant leader yesterday welcomed the release of a prominent pro-Taliban cleric but vowed to continue an armed struggle to press for Islamic law in the country's northwest. The cleric, Sufi Mohammad, was released on Monday after six years in jail.

The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government said Mohammad's group had signed a pact renouncing violence in return for permission to pursue a peaceful campaign for Islamic law.


So in other words, they didn't ask him to renounce Sharia supremacism. They just asked him to go about it nicely.

It was the first major step by the new government to talk peace with militants and break with US-backed President Pervez Musharraf's policy of military force.
However, Muslim Khan, a spokesman for Mohammad's son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah, whose supporters battled security forces for control of the northwest's Swat Valley last year, said fighters allied with the wanted militant would not cease their battle.

"We welcome the release of Sufi Mohammad, but we will only lay down arms when the government would enforce Sharia," Khan said....

"We are fighting for the enforcement of Islam. If the government enforces Sharia today, we will stop our struggle," he said. "But we want to see practical steps from the government, and not just the promises."


"We are fighting for the enforcement of Islam." Uh oh, another Misunderstander. No doubt Khan will be hearing from the EU, the OIC, Ali Eteraz and Ibrahim Hooper forthwith.