My two bits on the muddied narrative in Pakistan on Malala Yousafzai, a favourite for the Nobel Peace Prize being announced on Oct 11: Those who so easily buy conspiracy theories about Malala being a “US agent” or who go against Malala are usually the same people you will find justifying the murderous, criminal acts of the Taliban (who are fasadis not jihadis, in my mind) in some way, absolving them of responsibility by terming it a response to the US invasion of Afghanistan or the drone attacks. These people conveniently forget that the mindset that attacked Malala is the same as the one that was attacking women NGO workers and teachers and girls’ schools in the western border areas BEFORE 9/11. It’s the same mindset that was target killing Ahmadis and Shias since the 1990s. It was not just the Taliban’s bullets that targeted Malala and all that she stands for – it is this mindset that the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia cultivated and developed in the 1980s in order to counter the Soviets in Afghanistan.
After the Soviets and the USA left, the mindset remained and has continued to mutate because it was considered useful in pin pricking India especially in Kashmir. Textbooks, laws, and unofficial official narratives continue to promote it – and there is confusion because on the one hand Pakistan is fighting these fasadis, and on the other we continue in some way or other to propagate their ideology.
Jumping into this land dispute between the Lagharis and Khosos, members of the criminal Ahle-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), a banned militant organisation did an inhuman thing: they dug out Bhooro Bheel’s body and dragged it on the streets.
There is no precedence in the history of Sindh, that body of a Hindu Dalit has been dig out from the grave #BhooroBheel @beenasarwar — javed ahmed qazi (@jvqazi) October 9, 2013
But Sindh is Sindh. Another landlord, Mir Masood Talpur, provided some land to bury the body in, and Bhooro Bheel now lies there, says the activist singer Saif Samejo. See the discussion on his public post on his facebook page. Other activist singers like Arieb Azhar and Aftab Ali Saeed of Beghairat Brigade are also firmly on board this fight for a progressive Pakistan.
Meanwhile, it is heartening that young people are speaking out. There have been demonstrations in solidarity with the Christian community, condemning the attack on the church in Peshawar. A new group called Pakistan for All initiated this series of symbolic human chains around churches during Sunday mass, starting with Karachi a couple of weeks ago. The demo in Lahore was held last Sunday and another one is planned in Islamabad on Oct 13. See details at their facebook page. Postscript: It seems that we keep reacting to one horrific incident after another. Human chains, candlelight vigils, signature campaigns, outrage on facebook and twitter, seminars, meetings… This Fasadi menace needs more than that, though we should keep doing all that too. We need to demand that the authorities arrest, charge, try and and punish the perpetrators of any criminal act, even if they are committed in the name of religion.
Filed under: Human rights | Tagged: Bhooro Bheel, church attacked, forum for secular pakistan, Javed Qazi, Laal, Malala, Nobel, Pakistan, Saif Samejo |
Journeys to democracy 
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Beena thanks. Nasir
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Thank you Beena ji!
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Good write up. Thank you. iqbalalavi
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I stumbled upon this and thought I should say something.
The very term “conspiracy theory” is so utterly loaded and indeed itself indicative solely of propaganda.
Lets take a common conspiracy theory.. “the US perpetrated 9/11 upon itself in order to steal Iraqi oil and control Afghan heroin revenues”.
Lets now contrast this with the politically correct alternative: “some religiously motivated Saudi citizens hijacked and flew planes into WTC resulting in the US retaliating against the states that sponsored them”.
Lets now contrast both statements with one of those non-falsifiable ones such as “most world governments are actually controlled by purple polka-dotted, winged Orangutans, who live in the clouds and can only been observed by me and people who pay me large sums of money “.
Setting aside factual, logical and other extraneous issues and inconsistencies etc. in relation to both of the first two statements, we find that both statements are in fact falsifiable and thus both statements are potentially true as opposed to the third statement, which can never be proved false and thus is by default false and is also thus properly closer to what people describe as “conspiracy theories”. No matter what arguments you raise against statement three, its proponents can always retort.
That said….proponents of “both” sides of the argument presented in the first two statements above will lie, cheat, manufacture, misinform and ‘widen the goalposts’ simply to make their case more viable.
This tendency although similar in practice to that of proponents of statements like number three above does not detract from the falsifiablity of the central kernal of either statements one or two.
Establishmentarian propagandists effectively rely on superficial similarities between falsifiable alternative (and undesirable) explanations as to phenomena and unfalsifiable fictions such as statement three above, in order to discredit them rather than falsify them. This is not to say that proponents of the alternative are any better.
The propagandists however should successfully be able to falsify “falsehoods” as they tend to have more information on the ground, greater employable resources, bargaining power and indeed usually government…. as opposed to the proponents of the “conspiracy theory” but in certain cases (such as that above) fail to do so, relying on crude mud slinging, defamation and other ad hominem type arguments. Interestingly and noteworthily disputes about issues such as milk prices, inflation and exchange rates are resolved without much ado at all.
It is in fact the behaviour of establishmentarian propagandists, which sets out a simple test as to the veracity of a statement. The use of the term “conspiracy theory” itself in relation to its alternative is indicative of the falsehood of an assertion, particularly because as such the asserting accusers tend to have a greater vested interest derivative of the issue in dispute rather than the conspiracy theorists.
Therfore it seems to me that the onus to prove that Malala isn’t an evil, treasonous, CIA sponsored, crypto-Zionist and anti-Pakistan fifth colomnist etc. etc. should be upon the proponents of the opposite veiw, who should be able to happily falsify any aspersions upon her character rather than upon the “conspiracy theorists” to prove their case.
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if somebody wants to write a report about any incident must have some proof, some statement by eyewitness, some video/pic, sitting in drawing room, u can build any story, hard to believe….
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People either believe in demons and demonology or they believe in the reality that the controlling forces in the world are tied to global capitalism, its regional governments, and its agents of repression and/or change. All of the cretins who foster atrocities share their love of global capitalism and are just hankering for a piece of it, even if it is as a terrorist thug. Just look at Iraq and all that’s followed and preceded it on the global agenda. Acquisition and control is the game, not ignorant, craven demons.
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