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A peaceful protest was held at FAST today. Around 500-600   students gathered backstage after Jumma Prayers for a Peaceful protest. All the students were Wearing Black Arm Bands as a sign of protest. Few faculty members also addressed the student gathering.

Source: Ale Natiq

Just read an Editorial on todays DAWN newspaper by By M.P. Bhandara.

Really excellent article woth reading.

Click Here to go to Lal Masjid: our day of shame

Since 9/11 slowly but surely the rift and polarization in Pakistani society was occurring>the Fundamentalist the moderates and the liberals, 3 classes were fast growing apart from ach other. Now the events of past 6 months have taken this polarization into overdrive. The extremists angered by the lal Masjid episode, the moderates and extremists angered by the response following the episode which has killed 200 people in last 20 days, So when Musharraf says that there is a Internal conflict in Pakistan between moderates and extremists I do agree with him to some extent. Its not just people with poor educational Backgrounds that the turning to extremism and fundamentalism but also people with good education background having bachelors and masters degree who are following the trend, which really is a dangerous sign for Pakistan.

Pakistan is standing at a critical stage in its history, this struggle between liberals and moderators will determine the future of Pakistan over the coming years. Moderate ratio whose voice may not be loud yet have a far greater majority than the fundamentalist.

Many people have different point of views but I think it is only through open mindedness and ability to hear others in a civilized way with exchange of ideas is the way forward. The fundamentalist thinking of we are right and everyone else is wrong wont work.

It will become more apparent in coming weeks which side will dominate, and the outcome of this clash of ideas will be vital to the future and survival of Pakistan.

Just saw these 2 videos of Jinnah Addressing then nation on YouTube.

 It’s a sad time in Pakistani History. Not in past 60 years since creation of Pakistan we have seen devastation, chaos and anarchy like this. Muslim killing Muslims, targeting there own brethren like country is tearing itself apart from inside. Everybody knew that lal Masjid incident would have fall out and far reaching effects even before the final operation started but excessive and merciless use of force by Pakistani security forces and rigidity of government, and failure to save innocent lives has really spurred up the religious extremists and jihadi groups against the security forces. More than 50 deaths due to suicide bombing in past 1 week, mainly targeting security personnel and latest in the heart of capital itself and huge explosion killed 16 yesterday. So where are we heading. We don’t want to become Iraq, but for a past 1 week we have been no different.

And it is rumored that government is preparing for a tough military action in North West province and this would only complicate matters. It’s a critical point in the history of Pakistan; government has to be careful not to create another blunder like lal Masjid.

Religious parties and leaders should also play there role instead of fueling the fire they should send out message of peace and brotherhood. After all we are all Muslims and we should be living like brothers instead of going for each others throat.

Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Man who started as being a moderate force from Lal Masjid, Ended his life as a hardliner fundamentalist, and the transition from a moderate to an extremist came in a very short time. As now lal Masjid Crises/unfortunate event is over its time to ponder over the reasons why this all happened.

Rashid Ghazi was a moderate from very start, he didn’t had his formal education from a madrassa in fact he studied International relations and got is masters Degree from a moderate Quaid-E-Azam university and even after that he was a government employee in environmental department. So how a normal man 10 years ago has such an end is a question we ought to ask from ourselves. What were the reasons that made him in Rashid ghazi of today? 

Maulana Abdullah, Late Ghazi’s father was assassinated in 1998 and from there the turning point started, ghazi became more and more involve din madrassa and eventually spearheaded the Lal masjid saga.

To say Rashid Ghazi demands were inappropriate is wrong. Demanding an Islamic system, raising voice against injustice and illegal activities is right of every Muslim. It’s the approach Ghazi used to fulfill his demands which led to his demise. So in all lal Masjid Saga Government is much responsible as lal Masjid Administration. 

If Pakistan government had acted upon the concern of Lal Masjid administration in first place, against the demolishing of mosques, illegal clubs in Capital, Whole crises could have been avoided. So one can say Lal Masjjid is a direct consequence of failure of Law enforcing agencies which prompted the lal Masjid Officials and students to take the law into there own hand inspired by Jihadist Concept, which was wrong action to take as forming state within state and taking law into ones own hand is not a smart move, but the underline point is that ghazi who may be misguided in execution of his plans had solid and valid base points on which government of Pakistan should have acted to save lives, and when government acted it was too late and it had no other option to handle the issue in the way it conducted the operation. 

Now this crises is over with lives lost, bullets fired and loss of life of Ghazi Rashid and Lt.Colonal Haroon, let’s hope both parties learn there lessons. Government learns its lesson that’s upholding of the law at every level should be first and foremost priority and Madrassas Learn that taking law into there own hand is not an option, otherwise more of Lal Masjid situation will arise which will be really disastrous for the future of Pakistan.

Pakistan was made in the name of Islam. People wanted a saperate place to practice their religion freely. The early years of Pakistan probably saw great Muslims, and better practicing Muslims, but is Pakistan the same today. Does Pakistan have the same ideology today? Do we practice religion freely today? Do we even practice religion in Pakistan? Does the young generation of Pakistan even know the basics of Islam? We probably don’t, but whose fault is it? Who is responsible?

Probably no one is responsible. Not me atleast. I never stopped anyone from practicing religion. I just do what I want to do, and obviously I don’t want any interference in my private doings. I cant afford to have people telling me what to do and what not to do. Neither would I want to interfere in others life and see if what they are doing is right or not, I just spend my life. Is this what we fought for? Is this what we gave lives of our forefathers for?

Well, each of us is responsible. We have made Pakistan face whatever it is facing today. We bribe government officials, we break the law, and very proudly say that the government is corrupt. I think we only need the rules of Islam implemented on both the individual level, as well as on state level. Otherwise, we ourselves are responsible for whatever is happening in Pakistan today.

I was just reading a news website and came to know that a Army Captain along with 7 other security officials have died in the Full fledge military operation to rid Lal Mosque to terrorists. It’s been a week now since this all started and there has been nothing but killings, and one fails to understand the logic behind the stand of Mullana Ghazi and his motives. He is still hiding in a basement inside mosque with children as his human shield. 

3Days back I heard Mullana saying that there are no children inside mosque on Geo.tv and yet in morning today 20 children’s fled from the mosque. So don’t understand the logic of Mullana stand.

Even now he could save lives by coming out and surrendering but it seems highly unlikely and he seems intent on dying. Mullana had a very genuine point 5 months back about the upholding of Islamic Law and sanctity of mosques but in past 6 months he and his brother have done all that what they stood against.

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Regards

Abdul Azeem Khan