Asia burning

Religious extremism and orthodoxy continues unabated in the Pakistan. The notorious Red Mosque brigade of the Islamic seminary students staged another coup, when they captured five Chinese nationals working as masseuses on the pretext of being indulged in obscene activities. Be it the zeal of religious skippers to enforce the medieval laws on the post-modern revolutionary progress of the society or a reaction against Musharraf’s military regime, the incidence is evidence of complexities in Pakistani society leading towards more and more lawlessness.

Suddenly, the Red Mosque seminaryJamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia, high schools for male and female respectively, have taken the lead to enforce so called religious morality in Islamabad. Last month, they abducted and punished three police officials present in the campus for security checking. And last week the Chinese were the victims.

The brazen escapade campaign has brought considerable pressure on the military led government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The Sino-Pakistan relations are under duress after the Chinese were taken hostage. The US is also concerned on the rising hood of religious extremism on Pakistani soil in one form or other.

To the embarrassment of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Red Mosque brigades profess its stout loyalty to Maulana Muhammad Abdullah, a famed preacher of jihad who got murdered in the mid-1990s. Led by the sons and siblings of the deceased, the seminary students also openly admire the Taliban and presumed to have links with Al Qaeda. They regularly condemn the Musharraf government for being secular and charge it of being a minion of the United States.

The school has a sprawling campus in Islamabad right under the nose military led government. The inaction of the administration against it led to the criticism that Musharraf is using the incident to distract international opinion on the commotion caused by the whimsical sacking of ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court.

However, after the stern reaction of Chinese ambassador to Islamabad, Luo Zhaohui, the Pak Interior Ministry issued a firm warning to the agitators. But the extremists seem to have scant regard for it. And Musharraf is yet not ready to risk another movement in Pakistan already plagued by the Lawyers uproar.

The complex problems of Pakistani society are increasing due to political and social commotion. Since the war on terror, the country is divided in to pro and anti-Islamist groups. The US support issue is another one where public is divided. There are often clashes between supporters and denouncers of military regime. For many in the Asia and west Pakistan is in the trap of Islamic militancy and heading towards a failed state.

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Via: NY Times