Religious extremists
In a column "The Pakistani-American conundrum," Dr. Syed Mansoor Hussain, a Pakistani American physician living in the US, wrote in Lahore's Daily Times on July 26: "Born-again Muslims and some of the recent immigrants have however adopted a style of Islam that is quite different from what many of us were used to while growing up in Pakistan. ... As a result we are seeing a dichotomy within the Pakistani-American community. The concept of a Pakistani culture is now being replaced for a segment of this group by an Arab-Islamist culture driven by religious extremism. Unfortunately, this style of religion puts considerable emphasis on the concept of 'violent' jihad. The consequences of this evolving change in attitudes is sadly becoming manifest in rather tragic ways and influences the reputation of the community at large." In fact, this is what is happening in Pakistan where the Taliban are slaughtering fellow Pakistanis in the name of jihad.
It is said that if you live in a madhouse, you must behave like a madman to survive. In this sense, Pakistan is essentially a madhouse where everyone is up against everyone in the name of Islam. Sunnis are slaughtering Shias and vice versa. The Taliban are slaughtering Sunnis who don't share their interpretation of Islam. They have been bombing schools, hotels, hospitals and even mosques -- all in the name of their brand of Islam. Recently, they bombed Sufi shrine of Data Darbar because they consider Sufism heretical. As Zaair Hussain, a columnist for Daily Times, wrote on July 23: "Sufism resonates with the human hearts in a way that no fascist can ever hope to replicate. It espouses inner strength, acceptance, charity, humility and the joy of the divine. It finds converts through love and not coercion, through charity rather than bribery. It breathes a living truth into the claim that Islam is a religion of peace, of tolerance, of love and learning, of devotion and divine. It is everything the Taliban are not."
It is time that Pakistani-Americans realise that the victims of Muslim extremism are Muslims themselves. They must come to their senses to understand that the Taliban are slaughtering fellow Pakistanis and Afghans who don't share their version of an exclusive and hateful Islam. Apologists in Pakistan seem not to realise that if the Taliban were successful in imposing their version of Islam, Pakistanis will be the biggest losers in the same way the Afghans suffered during the Taliban rule.
Pakistani-American community should wake up to the lethal danger the Taliban are posing to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Otherwise, both Pakistan and Afghanistan would become proverbial madhouses where everyone will be slaughtering everyone in the name of religion.
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