Friday, May 22, 2009

On Taliban, English education and Pakistani hypocrisy

On Taliban, English education and Pakistani hypocrisy

post by Abbas Zaidi Taliban’s hypocrisy is in fact Pakistan’s national trait. Brief excerpts follow. Please note that emphasis (bold) has been added by me.

*** Excerpts from Taliban’s hypocrisy is in fact Pakistan’s national trait ***

Muslim Khan, the spokesman of Pakistani Taliban…has justified the bombing of schools on many pretexts, but one stands out: Muslims must not get “English” education. By which Muslim Khan means that any school which has anything to do with the English language must be demolished.

…At long last, someone found out that Muslim Khan’s own son is a graduate student at the University of Peshawar and the medium of his education is English. When the question about his son was tossed to him, the great Muslim Khan was philosophical: “My son is disobedient!” The filed closed.

This is not just Taliban hypocrisy; this is typical Pakistani hypocrisy.

I have studied, visited, and lived in a number of countries. I have always tried to understand how Pakistani expatriate communities live. I can report a lot of incidents, but I will narrate only of which I have had the very first hand experience.

…Typically Pakistanis are hypocritical, intellectually dishonest, and morally bankrupt. I challenge anyone to visit Pakistanis living abroad. Day in and day out, they denounce their host countries—Australia, Britain, Canada, etc—for being immoral and anti-Islamic, but will never leave and settle down in Pakistan.

…In Pakistan, an American drone attack will outrage the entire nation for killing a dozen people, but the beheading and burning alive of hundreds of Muslims and non-Muslims by the fundamentalists is condemned by only a handful of brave people. I can quote dozens of examples where little girls were raped in the mosques, but no one raised a voice against the rapes, and no one was ever punished for those rapes (All of the rapists were imams or pesh-imams of those mosques).

Our national hypocrisy is one reason that Pakistan will always remain a heart of darkness.