[DAWN] WHILE Pakistain has been ravaged by militancy for many years, there have not been enough efforts, neither at the state level nor within academia, to discover what makes a holy warrior. While blanket terms such as ’extremism’, ’fundamentalism’, etc have been employed to explain the triggers that drive people to commit violence against others, a more scientific approach is required to find out the causative factors behind militancy, and develop measures to address these. To this end, the Sindh Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department has made a small effort in a recent survey that discusses the profiles of some 500 forces of Evil lodged in the province’s jails. Some interesting facts have emerged: for example, the survey says that most forces of Evil suffered from psychological problems, while economic hardship drove over 40pc to take up the gun. Most incarcerated fighters belonged to the low-income group; moreover, while nearly 200 said they were motivated to join banned groups due to a "hatred of the West and India", 125 forces of Evil said they signed up in order to take advantage of the opportunity to collect extortion money.
While the sample is quite small, the CTD survey does offer a peek into the murky world of militancy. Indeed, what is needed are bigger studies across the country to determine the profiles of holy warriors, and formulate workable counter-extremism policies. Nacta, which is underutilised at the moment, is ideally placed to carry out such research. A one-size-fits-all approach to counterterrorism is not likely to stem the tide of militancy in Pakistain due to a variety of factors that drive people towards militancy. Perhaps greater research will reveal clearer links between forces of Evil operating in different parts of the country, and how to counter them. While some hard-core fighters are unlikely to want to join the mainstream, others could be prevented from walking down the path of militancy if the state makes a greater effort to address the factors contributing to it.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] MASHAL Khan was neither the first nor is he the last victim of the religious bigotry that has become so pervasive in our society. The gruesome lynching of the young Mardan university student shows how easy it is to inflame a mindless mob in the name of faith. The men who pumped bullets into Mashal and beat his lifeless body were mostly his fellow students.
Most horrific was the alleged role of some faculty members and university employees in inciting the students to violence and that too on trumped-up blasphemy charges. A seat of higher learning was the venue of the incident and a mob of educated men were involved in this beastly act. This kind of medieval barbarity is unprecedented even in this country where human life comes cheap.
It was murder most foul and the motive was to silence a brilliant student who dared to speak his mind and question what was going wrong at the university and in the country. It apparently angered some in the university management and they sought to teach him a lesson for being so outspoken. The charge of blasphemy came in handy to inflame sentiments.
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Posted by: Fred ||
04/20/2017 00:00 ||
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[NYT] "I just wanted to check," the teacher said. "Your child wants to be called a boy, right? Or is she a boy that wants to be called a girl? Which is it again?"
I cocked my head. I am used to correcting strangers, who mistake my 7-year-old daughter for a boy 100 percent of the time.
In fact, I love correcting them, making them reconsider their perceptions of what a girl looks like. But my daughter had been attending the after-school program where this woman taught for six months.
"She’s a girl," I said. The woman looked unconvinced. "Really. She’s a girl, and you can refer to her as a girl."
Later, when I relayed this conversation to my daughter, she said, "More girls should look like this so it’s more popular so grown-ups won’t be so confused."
My daughter wears track pants and T-shirts. She has shaggy short hair (the look she requested from the hairdresser was "Luke Skywalker in Episode IV"). Most, but not all, of her friends are boys. She is sporty and strong, incredibly sweet, and a girl.
And yet she is asked by the pediatrician, by her teachers, by people who have known her for many years, if she feels like, or wants to be called, or wants to be, a boy.
In many ways, this is wonderful: It shows a much-needed sensitivity to gender nonconformity and transgender issues. It is considerate of adults to ask her -- in the beginning.
#2
My sister was also a tomboy who was frequently thought to be a boy, which frustrated her greatly until she hit adolescence and people stopped making that mistake. People can be idiots.
#6
It's the media. They want you to believe that everyone is perverted just like they are.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/20/2017 12:27 Comments ||
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#7
Daughter likes and studies bugs, hunting frogs, baits and pulls her own hooks, gets in the mud, likes archery, groups her BBs in a quarter at 10 yards, find The Hobbit (the book) more interesting than pretty princess crap. Call her anything other than the sweetest girl ever and she may put you in a double-chicken wing - I'll take pictures and wipe my eyes with pride.
And her requirements before getting her own phone - be able to: mow the yard. clean the gutters. change a tire. Each one all on her own, me spotting, but she gathers and returns the equipment. Then it will be a corded rotary phone until she proves she can maintain grades and chores and keep a numbers list or even better memorize numbers.
And pardon me if I refuse the advice from a caste of society which prides itself on graduating architects who cannot disassemble an office max desk with an allen wrench.
I do not think I need to get into what happens if I catch someone straight bald face lying to my children.
[American Thinker] I am as opposed to Radical Islam and the barbarian actions of these 7th century throwbacks as anyone. However, I am tired of hearing from so called pundits and tea leaf readers that "If we don’t stop them in (pick a country) that we will have to fight them here in this country". Let’s be realistic -- this is not a uniformed army with tanks and howitzers and ships being loaded in some foreign port preparing to invade this country through the harbors of Boston or New York or Savannah or the beaches of Long Island. These are not people with sophisticated logistics systems ready to resupply this imaginary army over thousands of miles of ocean.
What we are faced with are small numbers of homegrown or smuggled terrorists ready and willing to cause havoc and die for their beliefs. These are the people we should be concentrating our defensive efforts against. Although the Liberal Democrat judges of this Country are willing to allow these people into the country with no effort to identify them, that is a problem not related to any overseas adventure requiring American military personnel on the ground. I am all in favor of dropping munitions of one type or another on specific ISIS targets as was recently done with MOAB in Afghanistan but I am vehemently opposed to subjecting soldiers and Marines to ground combat in situations without a clear objective of winning. Korea, Vietnam and other misadventures in the Mideast have shown the folly of "nation building" "limited objective warfare" "regime change" and other political euphemisms for lack of will as a substitute for victory.
The recent call by the commanding general in Afghanistan for thousands of more troops on the ground is frighteningly reminiscent of the call for more troops in Vietnam. The ego of some of these generals results in the deaths of untold American military. "Just give me a few more thousand troops and I will defeat the enemy" has been the cry since the time of Caesar. Unfortunately, many of these generals disregard the politicians' overwhelming fear of defeat at the polls which will cause them to make fatal decisions, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Millions, yes millions, were lost by the French and British in World War I because of the same ego-driven stupidity of the generals and politicians.
Now addled politicians Lindsey Graham and John McCain are calling for ground troops to be sent to Syria in addition to Afghanistan. We were advised many years ago to stay out of any ground combat in Southeast Asia -- advice that was ignored with horrendous consequences. Take a look at recent events in Iraq, a manufactured artificial country. Must we relearn the lessons of history with the blood of our military?
#1
Munitions of one type or another? Well then two to 300 megatons out to get the job done. I'm not advocating using nukes but in the end I fear it is going to end up there. Eventually some non state actor, be it ISIS, al Queda or one of the groups they will spawn (they breed like cockroaches and have more doctrinal disputes than Menonites) will get their hands on one or more nukes. And use them/it in the belief that either we will not know where to hit back or retaliate and generate even more holy warriors.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.