End of the Line for Islamabad

If you chase the rout of all terrorist attacks it goes to Pakistan, Unfurtunately! Now i believe Pakistan is using name of Islam to achieve its controversial goals in the region. It plays a very negative role in Afghanistan now. ISI created Taliban, supported them and destroyed Afghanistan through them and it still continues. I think Pakistan need to hear again "stop otherwise you will be bombed to the level the you go to stone age". After they hear this and see some action then i am sure it will perform well , as it did after 9/11.

Mr. Zakaria, you are right. Pakistan has to indeed make a choice between anarchy-bankruptcy and prosperity-peace. But this won't be easy as it is an established fact that unfortunately Pakistan's dance towards its won destruction has always been choreographed by its Almighty Army and its rogue arm ISI. As you said, the so-called democratically elected governments have always been "innocent" (?!) bystanders. Otherwise, the time is not far when the country will implode irreversibly as it is already on the brink of total failure.

Though it is also an established fact that the recent dance of death and destruction could take take place in Bombay because of the incredible ineptitude shown by the Indian establishment: they all kept sleeping on the crucial precise and actionable intelligence on Bombay assaut since Feb'08 and let the city go into flames and along with India's global status as a safe destination for trade and tourism also got blown away as smithereens!

Now that the Indian government is finally ready to take tough stand against Pakistan's militant endeavors - under intense electorates' pressure - it will require the US' help as the latter has the maximum leverage in Pakistan. And the country will have to deliver. The other civilized countries also have to pressurize Pakistan to act to stop any further propagation of terrorism from its soil. Because, Pakistan's Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are involved into a global jihad though its primary target presently seems to be India - the nation with its famed resilience but not all that firm resolve! This is not India's battle alone.

Not only Pakistan, but India and the world also will have to make their choices soon - about Pakistan and terrorism.

As Fareed has rightly said Pakistan today stands on a cross road. Till now the military establishment was running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. The Terrorists who stuck Mumbai raised the stakes high by internationalizing the attack.They killed citizens of India, U.S.A., U.K., Canada, Australia and Israel. There has been an appropriate response from the international community. Islamabad has been told forcefully to bring the masterminds of this Terror Attack to books . Last time under pressure, Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned for the namesake but the leaders were allowed to operate under a different name. This time the investigation appears to be going in right direction . As per the media reports alleged Mastermind of Mumbai Attack has been arrested. Pakistan has an opportunity to get rid of the burden of Terrorists and start a new chapter as a democratic country which happens to be a recognised Military Power.

Recently I have come across many OPED in Pakistani newspaper, one thing comes out very clearly from Editorial, ???Pakistani is too much worried about treatment of INDIAN Muslim ???. It is funny that this terror breeding country is thinking about well being of other. Let me explain to you how wrong this perception is. In India a Muslim can walk on any street as fearless as any one. In democracy they have every right as other religious community and they have separate MUSLIM law too. They are more educated, more prosperous and more liberal then any Pakistani Muslim, Given an opportunity, 100 % of Indian Muslim stay with India rather then going to Pakistan. Given an opportunity to Pakistani Muslim, majority of them now thinking about moving back to there motherland INDIA. Only if they are not brainwashed. No but thanks. We don???t need anymore trouble. Repercussion of current event made many country in the world to STOP Pakistani migrant to enter into there country. Well in democracy there are open view and some time they fight with each other, But that is India???s INTERNAL MATTER .Most of, not all, communal fight Incite by ISI Agents in India. Also I have to mention here ,???Out of 1.3B Muslim in this world ,How many of them living under TRUE democracy ??? India has largest Muslim Population living under democracy .Before Pakistani start worrying about other muslim,they have to start looking at their home first .If anyone has to worry then It is Indian Muslim. They have to worry about Pakistan MUSLIMS. Not viceaversa.there are numerous Muslim out there in India well establish and well educated ,those who are not ,they have to find out what stopping them ,there are 850M other people in India and all of them are not Prosperous .Well we have seen Katrina aftermath IN richest Nation of the earth ,It says all. So in democracy some time you have to work hard and smart to be a prosperous, no one is going to give you a ready made Rich Life style. So my advice to this very Intellectual EDITORS of Pakistani newspaper ??? STOP wasting your INK on other nations Muslims and Start writing about GUN trotting Population of your country??? you have too many subject to write about. Pakistan has NO MORAL or otherwise ANY AUTHORITY to worry about Muslim elsewhere ???

To the writer: There is an abismal difference between the US and America. The way you use America sounds as if the whole continent will be invlolved. It is the United States of America the country that will be/is involved.

Recently I have read many OPED in Pakistani newspaper ,One thing comes out very clearly from Editorial, ??? Pakistani is too much worried about treatment of INDIAN Muslim ???. It is funny that this terror breeding country is thinking about well being of other. Let me explain to you how wrong this perception is. In India a Muslim can walk on any street as fearless as any one. In democracy they have every right as other religious community and they have separate MUSLIM law too. They are more educated, more prosperous and more liberal then any Pakistani Muslim, Given an opportunity, 100 % of Indian Muslim stay with India rather then going to Pakistan. Given an opportunity to Pakistani Muslim, majority of them now thinking about moving back to there motherland INDIA. Only if they are not brainwashed. No but thanks. we don???t need anymore trouble. repercussion of current event made many country in the world to STOP Pakistani migrant to enter into there country. Well in democracy there are open view and some time they fight with each other, But that is India???s INTERNAL MATTER .Most of, not all, communal fight Incite by ISI Agents in India. Also I have to mention here ,???Out of 1.3B Muslim in this world ,How many of them living under TRUE democracy ??? India has largest Muslim Population living under democracy .Before Pakistani start worrying about other muslim,they have to start looking at their home first .If anyone has to worry then It is Indian Muslim. They have to worry about Pakistan MUSLIMS. Not viceaversa.there are numerous Muslim out there in India well establish and well educated ,those who are not ,they have to find out what stopping them ,there are 850M other people in India and all of them are not Prosperous .Well we have seen Katrina aftermath IN richest Nation of the earth ,It says all. So in democracy some time you have to work hard and smart to be a prosperous, no one is going to give you a ready made Rich Life style. So my advice to this very Intellectual EDITORS of Pakistani newspaper ??? STOP wasting your INK on other nations Muslims and Start writing about GUN trotting Population of your country??? you have too many subject to write about. Pakistan has NO MORAL or otherwise ANY AUTHORITY to worry about Muslim elsewhere ???

Enter Your Comment

Its saddening to see many Pakistani readers claim this Mumbai incident to be an inside job, akin to their claims about 9/11 being an inside job. Why would any country kill its own civilians and blame it on Pakistan?, if they choose to do so, why do they unrelentingly pick Pakistan?, why not Papa New Guinea or Tajikistan?. Patriotism is one thing, rabid nationalism is totally different and unacceptable thing. It sucks to be a Pakistani these days, that much we can understand and we feel your pain and sympathize with your alienation. But, in the face all these mounting evidence (ISI nexus with terrorist units, attacks on Indian embassy, London bombings, Bhutto assassination, Marriott bombing,... ), don't you think you are doing your homeland a disservice by blindly accusing those afflicted by terrorism of being the culprits themselves? Doesn't that make you a brain-washed terrorist sympathizing nationalists?. Like Fareed Zakaria is saying, its up to you to change how the world views your country and you are only strengthening the world's ill views by talking this way.

To that learned one-ayesha02. As an Indian, I can with all honesty say that my country's army's handling of Kashmiri civilians was reprehensible. Will your brain-washed brought-up allow you to say anything against Pakistan or at least be neutral when it comes to your country?. Herein lies the difference between India and Pakistan. I don't know which cleric's sermon you have been listening to, we celebrate Javed Akthar as an outstanding poet, Amir Kahn to be our finest actor, Zaheer Kahn to be our stand-out cricketer, we view them as Indians not as Muslims and they love our country no less than what we do. Check their public statements and their fan following among Indians for evidence. Enough with your Muslim brotherhood non-sense. Like every other country, there are anti-Muslim elements in our country, but majority of us respect and cherish our Muslim folks and their contributions to the Indian society. Surely, these must be very hard concepts for you to understand, I hope in a few decades your Pakistan matures so that you can live in peace with fellow human beings. Good luck.

Its saddening to see many Pakistani readers claim this Mumbai incident to be an inside job, akin to their claims about 9/11 being an inside job. Why would any country kill its own civilians and blame it on Pakistan?, if they choose to do so, why do they unrelentingly pick Pakistan?, why not Papa New Guinea or Tajikistan?. Patriotism is one thing, rabid nationalism is totally different and unacceptable thing. It sucks to be a Pakistani these days, that much we can understand and we feel your pain and sympathize with your alienation. But, in the face all these mounting evidence (ISI nexus with terrorist units, attacks on Indian embassy, London bombings, Bhutto assassination, Marriott bombing,... ), don't you think you are doing your homeland a disservice by blindly accusing those afflicted by terrorism of being the culprits? Doesn't that make you a brain-washed terrorist sympathizing nationalists?. Like Fareed Zakaria is saying, its up to you to chance how the world views your country and you are only strengthening the world's ill views by talking this way.

To that learned one- ayesha02. As an Indian, I can with all honesty say that my country's army's handling of Kashmiri civilians was reprehensible. Will your brain-washed brought-up allow you to say anything against Pakistan or at least be neutral when it comes to your country?. There is the difference between India and Pakistan. I don't know which cleric's sermon you have been listening, we celebrate Javed Akthar as an outstanding poet, Amir Kahn to be our finest actor, Zaheer Kahn to be our stand-out cricketer, we view them as Indians not as Muslims and they love our country no less than what we do. Check their public statements and their fan following among Indians. Enough with your Muslim brotherhood non-sense. There are anti-Muslim elements in our country, but majority of us respect and cherish our Muslim folks and their contributions to the Indian society. Surely, these must be very hard concepts for you to understand, I hope in a few decades your Pakistan matures so that you can live in peace with fellow human beings. Good luck.

Response to Dr. Ramachandra Guha's article "India's Dangerous Divide" in The Wall Street Journal:
==============================================================================

Firstly, I should thank Dr. Ramachandra Guha for his excellent article, "India's Dangerous Divide". However, I should also point out there are some points that he has taken out of context:

1) In the last paragraph, Guha says, 'Writing in 1957, the historian Wilfred Cantwell Smith pointed out that Indian Muslims were unique in that they shared their citizenship "with an immense number of people. They constitute the only sizable body of Muslims in the world of which this is, or ever has been true"'. Guha goes on to say that this is not true any longer.

Muslim rulers are permanently obligated by their religion to undertake jihad to bring about Prophet Mohammed's Islamic interpretation of the Universal Civilization of Rome. However, Prophet Mohammed made an exception for Christians and Jews. People of these two religious faiths were to be considered as 'protected people', and they could practice their respective religions freely after paying a tax. (see for example, Anthony Pagden's 'Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle between East and West'). Therefore, the Muslim rulers in India -- the Mughals, the Delhi sultans, the Deccan sultans, the Nizams and the Nawabs -- were actually required, as a religious duty, to conduct jihad until their subjects had been converted to the Islamic civilization. However, this could not be implemented in India, and the Muslim rulers had to settle invariably for a religious tax on the Hindus.

This fact is of great historical significance because everywhere else -- whether it be the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia or Central Asia -- the non-Judeo-Christian subjects of Muslim rulers had been converted to Islam. This successful thwarting of forced conversions is one of the great achievements of the Hindu civilization, and it is intimately related to how the world should respond in an enlightened manner to combat Islamic fundamentalism today.

Another point to note is that though the literal interpretation of Wilfred Cantwell Smith's sentence is no longer true, it is still true that India is the only country in the world, which was earlier ruled by Muslims for hundreds of years and yet (i) the state today is a secular Republic, not an Islamic theocracy, (ii) Muslims are not a majority. Note: Actually, William Cantwell Smith's way of formulating the problem of Muslim identity through shared-citizenship in modern nation-states could not have been true even in 1957 because the current population of China is about 1.2 billion of which about 11% (over 130 million people) is Muslim.

2) Guha suggests that the Western liberal tradition is the solution to 'India's Dangerous Divide'. Actually, this solution is quite dangerous because it continues the centuries-long suppression and misrepresentation of the achievements of India. Having lost trillions of dollars in the stock markets, the financial markets and the real estates, Western nations are no longer in a position to enlighten Indians about wealth creation or economic progress. Silicon Valley is dominated by highly intelligent techies from India. All over the world, Indians are being appreciated for their professionalism, civility and smartness. It would be a really big stretch for Guha to suggest that all this came about only through the influence of the colonial rule of the British in India. Above all, even 100 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi had established himself as among the most seminal thinkers the world has ever seen. So, the proper solution for India's Dangerous Divide and the World's predicament of a financial crisis is to recognize the strengths of the Hindu liberal tradition. Especially the Anglo-Saxon perspective of treating India as an outpost of Colonialism which only ever exists because of the benefits of the Western liberal tradition is not going to wash at this time when Western economies are bleeding trillions of dollars.

Overall, I would say that Dr. Ramachandra Guha's article is definitely much more professional than the India-baiting writings by people like Fareed Zakaria, Pankaj Mishra and Martha Nussbaum. For this, I should express thanks for his objective and balanced perspective.

What Fareed Zakaria's excellent article does not say is that this terrorism fire is continuously being stoked by Pakistan, its army and its intelligence services for last 20 years. They have been instigating its own population into these actions, then training and supplying arms and material as well as logistics to carry out these acts of terrorism against targets in India and since they can not enter India directly, they have set up operations in Bangladesh and Nepal. To western observers they say they are only morally and politically supporting these actions against India. The worst part is that America has supplied them 11 billion dollar of arms in last few years which Pakistan will use only against India, continuing Mayhem in future and keeping sub continent in turmoil.

Mr. Zakaria is being kind to the Pakistani government when he says that it is an "innocent bystander" in this affair. Bystander, probably; innocent, hardly likely. This is not the first time Pakistani intelligence agency and/or military has been accused of aiding terrorists. If the civilian government had no inkling at all that the ISI and military activities that aid terrorists in general, they are more gullible or incompetent than anyone imagined. More likely, they prefer the possibility of having plausible deniability. It will not change its ways, because that would be detrimental to the "grand game" played by Pakistan in south-central Asia to "to bleed India and influence Afghanistan".
The more immediate question is what should US do about this. Mr. Zakaria suggests that "we must keep the pressure on Islamabad, and get countries like China and Saudi Arabia involved". Well and good in principle, but what is the stick with which the pressure is to be applied? Block the $1 B per year "military aid"? Then Pakistan military will completely stop going after Al Queda and Taliban. Do we want that? Stop IMF from lending money to Pakistan and let the Pakistani economy tank? That will further destabilize the country and the civilian government. In reality we have no diplomatic options of any kind.Pakistan is a man strapped with explosives standing in a crowded room with a trigger in his hand. We can try to calm him down and stop him from doing the unthinkable for a while. But that is no long term solution. What we really need is a way to disarm him. For that we have no good ideas.
stion is what should US do about this. Mr. Zakaria suggests th....at "we must keep the pressure on Islamabad, and get countries like China and Saudi Arabia involved". Well and good in principle, but what is the stick with which the pressure is to be applied? Block the $1 B per year "military aid"? Then Pakistan military will completely stop going after Al Queda and Taliban. Do we want that? Stop IMF from lending money to Pakistan and let the Pakistani economy tank? That will further destabilize the country and the civilian government. In reality we have no diplomatic options of any kind.Pakistan is a man strapped with explosives standing in a crowded room with a trigger in his hand. We can try to calm him down and stop him from doing the unthinkable for a while. But that is no long term solution. What we really need is a way to disarm him. For that we have no good ideas.

I think to curb this ISLAMIC terrorist ideology in Fakisthan ,Nobody can do anything unless peace loving people of Pakistan stand up and make there voice heard. It is strange to know that when it comes to India all Pakistani looking for AK47 and when it comes to Pakistan???s own survival they are looking for "Bangles"( jewelry wear by Indian woman),They have to make sure that Military stay out of national politics ,let elected people run Pakistan. Stop this religious school (madrassa), start teaching Maths, science and True History in school. Remove all rouge elements from politics and Military .and jailed all those who spread hatred towards Hindu, Christian, and Jews. Teach them to respect all religions. I think this is basic thing they have to do to live as civilized society otherwise they will go back to stone age faster then speed of light.

You discuss independent states, each with nuclear weapons, each with differing cultural and religious beliefs that have prevented them from seeing beyond their historic prejudices and you continue to think that there is still time to play the game of border warfare. These are spoiled children playing with a fire that can spread around the earth.
We must either laugh at their infantile stupidity or slap them into a new reality.

Well now Pakistani govt have arrested LeT commander, where are this Pakistani mongers? looking for proof and talking about 'Blame game". I am sure as they have done before this operation of paki army is just eyewash to fool International community. They will go back to there nefarious business in month or two. Not only for India BUT for WHOLE international COMMUNITY this is a lesson and they have to learn ASAP to counter this Pakistani sponsor terrorisem.Otherwise days are not that far that we will see horror coming out of Pakistan will be far scary in comparison of 9/11. We as a human being have to stand up and take this issue upfront and diminish this ISLAMI C terrorist. Don???t let ourselves fool by eyewash of this Pakistani arrest. We have to make sure this ISI, Pakistani army and Taliban will be controlled by international community. Best way to stop money from Saudi to this terrorist. We have to stop our dependence on OIL and come up with Alternative energy solution. Once this flow of oil $$ will stop, this terrorist will go back to live in caves of torabora and Arab will ride Camel again. And we will live in a peace. I think it is not that far may be by 2017.

Nice to see a bit of reality-based thinking here. Slapping the 'terrorism' label on these well-orchestrated attacks conceals far more than it illuminates. Pakistan has for many years pursued a consistent policy of low-level warfare against India over Kashmir. Pervez Musharraf built his career in the Pakistani military by articulating a maximalist position on Kashmir in a series of essays and professional journals. In the aftermath of 9/11, surely one of the most egregious of of George W. Bush's numerous blunders was his puppy-dog eagerness to shovel military aid money at Musharraf, who promptly used it to buy more high-tech weapons for confronting India. The Bush/Cheney administration's almost willful blindness about Pakistan's interests and actions begs for redress under Obama.

If the Indian Government is to be believed, and there is no reason to doubt it, 7000 people have been killed by Jihadists since 2003 which makes Mumbai only one of many 9/11s.Possibly the Indians might consider acting like the United States did because only one such outrage occurred here since terrorist hangouts became a target whereas India's "introspection" appears to have turned its territory into a terrorist theme park