File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2002/postcolonial.0204, message 176


Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 01:29:02 +1000
From: saeed urrehman <think-AT-riseup.net>
Subject: RE: Islamist textbooks currently published by the US



Well, there was a time when the Afghan Mujahedeen were invited to the White 
House and compared to the founding fathers of America in public as heroes 
who were ensuring the continuity of America (Eqbal Ahmed talked about this 
incident in his lecture "Terrorism: Theirs vs. Ours.").

I have also heard some stories of some top gun American politician 
addressed the Mujahedeen in Aghanistan, holding a copy of the Quran in one 
hand and an AK47 in the other - as two symbols of freedom, dignity and 
emancipation.

So probably American politicos also took upon themselves the task of 
spreading militant Islam. No wonder everybody is talking about "blowback" 
and "chickens coming home to roost" and other harsh things.

The bitterest thing about this whole Afghan saga is the way guns and 
militancy spread all over Pakistan and Afghanistan. The rise of jehadi 
madrassahs, the combination of corruption and Islamization of the Zia ul 
Haq era. the Talibenization of the army and secret services of Pakistan, as 
if they were very pleasant before. The legalization of the Hudood 
Ordinances. Persecution of non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan and 
Afghanistan. These were some of the effects of the great game between 
capitalism and communism. As they say in Urdu, when elephants fight no one 
counts how many ants are trampled to death. We were third world ants, even 
Allah did not seem to care much.




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