In case you needed an excuse to feel depressed the Times Online has a story up right now about the ongoing fight between soldiers of the Pakistani military and fanatical militants currently holed up in the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. There’s only one problem: some of the fanatics are mere children.
SAIMA KHAN wants to die a martyr. Life is transient, she told her father in a telephone call last week, and the real glory is to sacrifice it for Allah. Her statement would be alarming at any age, but Saima is only 10.
As she spoke, rifle shots rang out, the acrid smell of tear gas drifted over Islamabad and hundreds of troops surrounded the pro-Taliban Red Mosque, a religious school complex in the heart of Pakistan’s capital where Saima was among hundreds of children being held as virtual hostages in a stand-off between militants and the government.
Saima and her 14-year-old sister, Asma, were embroiled in a struggle for the soul of Pakistan in which up to 70 militants died last week and more than 100 were injured, according to mosque officials.
Holed up inside the complex behind the lines of troops and razor wire, the children – many of them girls whose families had sent them to the mosque to receive a strict Islamic education – repeatedly rejected relatives’ entreaties to leave before a threatened army onslaught.
There was evidence that many had been brainwashed into a cult of martyrdom, and the authorities feared last night that some were being prepared to be suicide bombers. In barely eight weeks, Saima had been transformed from a religious but fun-loving girl to a jihadi, grimly craving martyrdom.
[...]
For one family at least there was a happy ending of sorts. As a gun battle raged late on Friday, with snipers on the roof of the mosque forcing the army back to its lines 100 yards away, Khan, the father who had been pleading with his two daughters to leave, called them on their mobile phone and told them their mother was outside. She had been taken ill and lay unconscious on the pavement, he said.
It was a lie but it worked. The two girls quickly left the compound and found their waiting father in the crowd. “I’m taking them back to our village,” said Khan. “They were ready for martyrdom and they’re very angry with me. I’m just happy I’ve got my daughters back, and sorry for those whose daughters are still in there.”
Saima, in a bitter, fanatical voice that belied her 10 years, told The Sunday Times her father had cheated her of martyrdom. “The teachers taught us about martyrdom and that it is a great achievement,” she said.
“I could see the fighting was in front of me and I could understand that we would die. I felt real anger about what my father did. He tricked me.”
At least things have ended ‘well’ for one family… the same can’t be said for those still inside.
Despite their evident fire-power, the military, many of them drawn from special forces, were playing a waiting game. They wanted to avoid the bloody confrontation apparently being sought by the mosque’s firebrand leader, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who said he was determined to fight to the last.
Ghazi (the Mosques leader), who claimed that 1,800 children remained inside, said yesterday he had divided the boys and girls into two camps. “The boys are the first line of defence, then the girls,” he said. “They have all sworn an oath on the Koran that they will fight to the death.”
Truly the words of an evil man…
Author and blogger Ali Eteraz gives a stinging critique of the teachings and methods of Ghazi and the Red Mosque:
The way these madrassas work is that the parents usually bring the children in, tempted by the “quality” of education and based on word of mouth. Then the parents go home and the mullahs start having mystical dreams involving the death of their students and the parents are left outside, grieving.
The rest of the article is well worth the read, especially for those of us in the West not familiar with Islamic law.
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Other blogger reactions (thanks in part to MemeOrandum): Allahphundit (Hot Air); Radiant Times; W Zip (Weasel Zippers); Martin S Gill (Digital Soapbox)
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1:19 pm on July 9th, 2007 1
This kind of thing is nothing new. Hitler youth, Children’s crusades…take a bright impressionable tabula rasa and mold it into an ichor-encrusted vessel of hate and stupidity.
makes me sick.
7:03 pm on July 9th, 2007 2
mullah cimoc say this a perfectly good example of the cia’s domination of pakistan.
please scan: inside the company, a cia diary by phillip agee for an introductory course in subversion of nations, except the satanic forces are even more skilled now.
the usa is self destructing both psychologically and physically as the women of the ameriki takes the LBT (low back tattoo) and while killing their children through mass abortions.
8:36 pm on July 9th, 2007 3
Yet another example of how we, in the west, never really understood that which we were fighting when we took a war on..
Radical Islam can convince those who ‘want’ to believe, as easily as radical Christianity can allow those who ‘have faith’ to handle poisonous snakes.. The point we missed though, that which the snake-handlers only hurt themselves, a Radical Muslim will happily die to further their cause, towards the return of the Caliphate.
A simplistic comment, on a complex issue, but the gist is conveyed..
9:18 pm on July 9th, 2007 4
Mullah, welcome, but please adhere to our commenting policy if you are going to participate at The GTL. Our policy isn’t that tough: we simply do not allow anybody to come here and make personal attacks against ANYBODY who comments here — regardless of their point of view as long as it is legal. Sames goes for verbal assaults against minority groups — not allowed here either
That brings up the second part of your post you’ll find was also edited — the part where you threatened (a veiled threat, but a threat just the same) a world leader’s life. We don’t allow that either and in fact, if you do it again, I’ll turn it over to a three letter agency or two.
That said, please feel welcome to comment here. You can say whatever you want as long as it falls under the categories of “playing nice” and “legal”
3:52 am on July 10th, 2007 5
The problem is that we never learn and keep repeating the mistakes of the past. We can hardly blame Pakistan for having “faith schools” when the UK is littered with them and parents in the US remove kids from school because the US is constitutionally denied them (at least I think that’s right, from my view-point as a foreigner).
Whenever we allow children to be taught by anyone with an obvious bias (religious or political) then we are setting them up for trouble. Education should be impartial and honest.
It was the Jesuits that so succinctly summed up why any form of biased education is simply brainwashing, no matter if the purpose is for “good” or “evil”.
“Give me the child until the age of seven and I will give you the man”
If what you believe is worthwhile, true, honest and consistent, then if you give children the tools to evaluate and decide for themselves they will join you regardless. If you teach a pack of lies, then brainwashing is your only recourse.
7:17 pm on July 12th, 2007 6
mullah cimoc say predicting the demise of a obedient slave of the ameriki through the rotting of organs cannot be a threat unless of course the rotting of the organs could be chargeable to one or another.
the blog man simply fears truth and the uncomfortable realization that ameriki society is on a course leading to a dangerous crash landing.
What makes you think mullah cimnoc is not working for a three letter agency as did emir bin laden.
7:25 pm on July 12th, 2007 7
Dude you’re American. You know English; act like it.