This is the screen of a customer service agent’s desktop at a property dealer. The wallpaper lists 9 different combinations of Islamic letters forming opening letters to different chapters in the Quran. No one has ever been able to say with conviction what they mean; people just seem to attach heavy religious significance to them for reasons they’ll never really be able o stand by themselves. And I’ll be chastised for questioning their blind faith. But as Pakistan fights for its life in South Waziristan, I am bound my faith in God, an love for country to raise this issue; this issue of complacent Islamicness, and blatant perversion of all things professional with all things ritual. The fear that’s been instilled in people post-mujahideen era has produced this sort of “Yes, I’ll play along on your side because you know God better than I do, so you’re a good person to start following” mentality that has snowballed into the Taliban today. What Pakistan is fighting at this minute- is this mutated Taliban that is immensely different from the Afghan Taliban ‘grown’ by the ISI and Army back in the day.

As the haves and have nots get further and further apart in our society, the easier it becomes for anyone being anti-establishment, to rally he have nots against the haves. In the case if the Taliban, their prehistoric, cave-man agenda automatically puts them into a have-not leadership position. And the weakness of true faith breeds the inability to be open and honest about your discomfort with a certain point of view that may be a but too fervent for your own liking; our silence, and fear of speaking out against the abuse of religion has slowly produced the situation we face today.

This is my long rant, but meager stance on the first day of Operation Rah-I-Nijaat.

Pakistan Zindabaad