Halfway Crazy

Here is an example of why the Pakistani media may be among the laziest and most dishonest in the world.

From Dawn newspaper

Man held for ‘desecrating’ Holy Quran



By Our Correspondent


SIALKOT, July 8: Badiana police arrested a man for desecration of the Holy Quran on Saturday night.

Talib Husain took some copies of the Holy Quran from the village’s mosque and burnt the same in front of his house in Panwana village, Badiana, Pasrur tehsil.

The area people became infuriated and thrashed the accused. Police reached the spot and arrested him

The headline, through it use of scare quotes, seems to imply that the Quran was not desecrated, yet the very first sentence of the story presents this supposed desecration as fact. The second sentence, with equal credulity, narrates the point of view of someone who is clearly opposed to the alleged perpetrator.
Given that there have been numerous such cases that turned out to be fraudulent, a little skepticism is in order here. And don't even mention the fact that maybe tearing up a book isn't a crime. This is Pakistan after all.

Wag The Dog

I believe Aamir Ahmed Khan (one of Pakistan's finest journalists) is mistaken when he attributes the government's decision to finally take on the Lal Masjid extremists to Chinese pressure. The Chinese 'madam' had already been released when the operation began. See this earlier post for what I think really explains the timing for this much-needed action.

Why I Hate Mullahs Part LXVII

Few people have criticised Pervez Musharraf as much as I have. I even lost my job because of his draconian control over the press. But I sincerely hope he prevails in the showdown at the Lal Masjid. Read this BBC story to see how cowardly the Islamo fascists are. Just yesterday Maulana Abdul Aziz had insisted he would fight to the death. Today, when it seemed that the government might finally take him on, he tried to escape in a burqa. On one level I am heartened by the cowardice of the Islamic leaders but, the fact remains that there are thousands of people who have been so brainwashed that they will continue to 'martyr' themselves and refuse to recognise the true nature of their brainwashers.

Dumb and Dumber

Granted she faces very stiff competition, but Shireen Mazari may be the vilest op-ed columnist in Pakistan. I think its time to start a weekly fisking of her obnoxious lies.

"Even in Britain, the Blair government has managed to increase the polarisation between its Muslim citizens and the rest of British civil society. After all, it was Jack Straw, a member of the Blair cabinet, who asked his Muslim constituents to come to him without the veil if they wanted to seek his assistance."

Of course it's Blair who has polarised Muslims. How dare he decry terrorist attacks in his country and how dare he say the problem is not with Islam but with a minority of extremists. And the gall of that evil Jack Straw who doesn't personally like the veil but has not stopped his constituents from wearing it when they visit him.

"Even more terrifying were developments in Scotland after the Glasgow airport attack when wall chalkings appeared declaring 'kill all Pakis'. Such is the level of hatred Blair's Britain now harbours."

Because the real problem in Britain is a few hooligans who vandalise public property with hateful words and not many Muslims who want to take innocent British lives with murderous actions. We all know that someone who says Kill all Pakis is worse than people who have actually tried to kill all Britishers.

"In October 2006, The Lancet published the findings of research undertaken by Johns Hopkins University, into the number of deaths that had taken place in Iraq since the US-UK invasion and the figure they came up with then was around 655,000."

This faulty research has been thoroughly debunked (here for example).

"Pakistan has suffered particularly on this count, especially at the hands of the Brits who find it so convenient to label their errant Muslim citizens as British Muslims of Pakistani origin."

The problem identified by the Blair government is not that the overwhelming majority of terrorists are British Muslims of Pakistani origin but that they have received training in the multitude of terrorist camps in Pakistan, But heaven forbid if Mazari would advocate strong action being taken to close down these camps. She finds it far more convenient to blame perceived British racism.

Lal Masjid Showdown: The End?

At around 2 am the government imposed a curfew in the G-8 area of Islamabad, where the Lal Masjid is located. Apparently, the special forces were called in and given instructions to shoot on sight. The students at the mosque were told to surrender or action would be taken. I've been hearing intermittent gunfire from my apartment, which is close to the mosque. There's going to be a lot of carnage today as this plays out.

Long Arm of the Law

Wasi Zafar, our cultured law minister, scratches his balls on a television talk show. In his defense, the shalwar kamiz is notorious for causing constant testicular itches.

Hat tip: Huma Imtiaz

Sexy Supreme

This BBC report shows that things are about to get a lot tougher for General Musharraf in Pakistan. After ousting Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Peter Sellers) for "abuse of office", Musharraf has faced what can only be described as a popular revolt. It now seems that he is basing his case against Chaudhry solely on some illegally obtained photographs. This is purely conjecture on my part, but it seems as if the photographs must have some sexual content. So is Chaudhry about to be "lewinskied"? Interesting times ahead.