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| India-Pakistan |
| Lal Masjid declares jihad on electronic entertainment |
| 2007-05-26 |
| The Lal Masjid administration on Friday announced that its students would attack audio and video shops, massage centres and brothels in Islamabad if their owners did not wind up their businesses immediately. “Our students can attack these outlets anytime because the deadline given to their owners had already passed,” Lal Masjid khatib Maulana Abdul Aziz said in his Friday sermon. The deadline ended last month and the owners fear attacks from the mosque brigade anytime. “We are insecure and need government protection,” the owner of a CD shop in Abpara market told Dawn. He said that a group of 40 to 50 baton-wielding people, some of them covering their faces, had visited different markets two months ago and asked owners of CD, audio and video shops to switch over to other business. The CD shop-owner said he had been in the business for 30 years and had no expertise to start another business. When contacted, Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy in-charge of Lal Masjid, said the one-month ultimatum had ended last month, adding that owners of some of the shops had assured that they would wind up their business. Two months ago some people went to various markets in the capital and issued notices, signed by slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah, to owners of CD and audio/video shops, asking them to wind up their businesses. However, Maulana Ghazi denied that those who had distributed the notices were students or supporters of Lal Masjid. Our Correspondent in Kohat adds: In a telephonic address on the occasion of the inauguration of the basement of a mosque in Kohat, Maulana Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid asked the Taliban to continue their jihad against obscenity, prostitution, video shops and other social vices and expand it to every nook and corner of the NWFP. He said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal secured votes in the name of Islam and Quran but failed to enforce Sharia and curb un-Islamic practices. “Therefore, it is now the responsibility of all believers to support the activities of the Taliban in the province against CD shops and obscenity.” He advised the Taliban to also help the weak and helpless segments of society in getting justice. He said the government would have to enforce Islam soon because they could not stop the movement of the Taliban which had got the support of millions of people. “People are fed up with the rulers and want immediate change for which time is ripe.” He regretted that the MMA government had got involved in purely political matters which resulted in social degradation. “The sale of drugs and liquor has increased and dancing, prostitution and music are on the rise in the NWFP which is being ruled by graduates of seminaries,” he added. He said: “We have set the example of enforcing Sharia in Islamabad and, therefore, the MMA government cannot justify its inaction this regard.” |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #5 "..and issued notices, signed by slain Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah," Hey, it's just an 'X', but in a couple of years it should bring at least Rs 15 on E-bay! |
| Posted by: Andy Snoluper3315 2007-05-26 15:44 |
| #4 The Neanderthal nature of Islam is its own reward. As each non-Muslim holiday sees a peak in terrorist attacks and all forms of entertainment are banned by these sanctimonious Islamic cretins, the world gains further insight into the sterile and mute vistas that await us should a global caliphate be put in place. This world must come to understand the tremendous loss of culture and artistic patrimony that Islamic ascendancy would precipitate. Bamiyan's giant Buddahs are only the iceberg's tip when it comes to what would be lost for all time. The dour and humorless world of Islam is exactly what Muslims deserve for their troubles. Few are more deserving of such a dull and monotonous existence. As to the story in post #2: Salar sounds like a very decent chap. How sad that he is an anomally as opposed to being a typical specimen of Muslim manhood. It is rather heartwarming that his devotion to Fatima will now result in the vast improvement of their lives together, which is as it should be. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-26 15:14 |
| #3 Actually, the story of the street-vender putting his wife through college/tech training is terribly sweet, and reassuring. Not all Moslem males are threatened by an intelligent, ambitions woman! Thanks for another side of the story, John. |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2007-05-26 13:30 |
| #2 Meanwhile, across the border, a muslim couple embraces the electronic world... Visakhapatnam, May 24: The wife of a poor pani puri vendor has become a software engineer in Infosys, thanks to her husband’s support. Sheik Salar, 26, a street hawker, used every rupee he earned to help his wife Fatima Bibi Sheik, 21, achieve her academic ambitions. And it was not in vain. Fatima completed her course at Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering with high marks and was given a plum posting by the software giant in a campus selection. In fact, she is the first student from the college to get into Infosys. Fatima and Salar stay in a slum at Rajendranagar. While Fatima went to college, Salar roamed around the city with a pushcart selling puffed rice, corn, chilli bhajjis and pani puri, earning Rs 150 per day. When she was married off to her distant relation Salar by her parents in 2001, Fatima was just 15 and felt that she would never achieve her dream of being a software engineer. “I did not want to marry since I wanted to study further and achieve something,” she said. She was crestfallen since Salar merely nodded when she told him about her dreams. But his nod meant a lot and he started saving money to help her study. By living frugally, Salar somehow got together Rs 60,000 to pay Fatima’s fee for the first and second year of her engineering course. The Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Finance Corporation helped the couple pay the rest of the fee. “At the time of our marriage I was not sure how serious Fatima was about her studies,” said Salar. “But when I realised that she got 536 marks in her SSC exams and stood first in her school, I decided to help her study.” The pani puri vendor was adamant that her future should not get spoilt because she married him. A junior college in the city provided her free intermediate education. She secured a decent rank in the Eamcet exam and opted to join the electronics and electrical engineering branch in college. “We decided not to have kids till she got a good job,” said Salar. “For this, I took much criticism from my parents.” Fatima’s eyes moisten when she talks about her husband. “You can’t imagine the hardships he suffered to help me,” she said. “In the last six years, he was my strength. He sacrificed all his joys for me.” “Fatima was always first in our class,” said Asha Kanthi, her classmate. “We did not know her story then. Now she is our inspiration.” Though happy at the turn of events, the couple is a bit sad when thinking about their being apart for three months, when Fatima would go to the Infosys campus in Mysore for training. Have they ever quarrelled? “When we have issues, we sit together and discuss and sort it out,” said Fatima. She plans to take her husband along with her when she gets her posting. Salar too is proud, for he has proved that behind every successful woman there is a man. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2007-05-26 12:31 |
| #1 If the deadline passed last month and the shops are still open, then it means that Lal Masjid's local Mafia must be earning the protection money it receives from those shops. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2007-05-26 04:14 |