Karachi bombs: we must “understand”, not “condemn”…
“Effendi” of the excellent Spittoon site reports:
Two bombs were detonated within an hour of each other in Karachi, targetting the Shia.
A motorcycle fitted with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shias near the Nursery bridge in Karachi, killing 12 people and wounding close to 50. The injured were taken to Jinnah Hospital. About an hour later another explosion outside the (emergency) ward of the Hospital (where survivors were being treated) was detonated (killing another 20 or so)
Shia-hatred is a mainstay of hardline Wahhabi-inspired ideology as promulgated by those darlings of the Islam Channel, Yasir Qadhi and Anwar al-Awlaki. Advocates of this line of takfiri thinking maintain the Shia are heterodox therefore lesser Muslims or, worse, not Muslim at all and even just simply kfar (“unbelievers”). They (wrongly) claim the doctrine of takkiyyah or dissimulation is embedded into Shia liturgy, they regard the practice of mutah to be degenerate and claim their texts are heretical.
It is very depressing to see sectarian hatred of this kind spilling across Pakistan. The Shia-Sunni sectarian hatred is deep-rooted and is old as Islam itself. For once, this violence cannot be blamed on the presence of the US Military or civilian deaths caused by unmanned US Air Force drones in the NWFP. The most depressing thought of all is that no solution for containing sectarian terrorist attacks on civilians is being put forward by the stakeholders. The only certainty is that US Military presence in Pakistan in peace-keeping mode is the only containment option we have.
Unfortunately here in Britain, Shia-hatred and Saudi-inspired ideologies continue to be peddled in mosques and on, particularly those funded by Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states.
*****************************************************************
Charlie comments:
Of course, it isn’t done in polite left/liberal Graun-reading society to condemn the bombings of buses and hospitals – unless it is to condemn the “West”, doing it by remote control, of course.
What we have to do -as the Morning Star enjoins – is to ask the question, “Why?“
“So who should we believe (about whether Islamic terrorists hate democracy or not)? To begin to answer this question, it seems pertinent to look at the reasons those actually carrying out the terrorism give for their actions…”
Read the rest of this garbage here.
One would like to ask “Posh-boy” Milne and the author of the Morning Star‘s piece, Ian Sinclair, what exactly those Shia Muslims did, to deserve being blown up in a bus, or (if they survived) in a hospital? How were they agents of Western imperialism? You keep on about the “West” and “Westerners” as the victims of Islamo-fascist terrorism: the truth is that Muslims are the main victims. And yet people like you - Milne and Sinclair - keep excusing these barbarous, fascistic perpetrators.
anon said,
February 6, 2010 at 1:10 am
Why? Because those bastards hate each other even more than they hate us. It’s their only saving grace – unfortunately being the brave warriors that they are they send brainwashed kids to blow up innocent pilgrims rather than go for a good toe-a-toe Osama Vs Achmedinejad cage fight. Much like the rest of the ruling class, only slightly more blatant
luke said,
February 6, 2010 at 9:52 am
nowhere in the guardian article does the author say that he supports that terrorism, and his comments about yemen and somalia are spot-on.
resistor said,
February 6, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Of course, should Israel bomb Iran, killing thousands of Shia Muslims, it is the policy of the AWL not to condemn – or even oppose.
Mad Sean Margamna wrote this:
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/07/28/discussion-article-what-if-israel-bombs-iran
‘We do not advocate an Israeli attack on Iran, nor will we endorse it or take political responsibility for it. But if the Israeli airforce attempts to stop Iran developing the capacity to wipe it out with a nuclear bomb, in the name of what alternative would we condemn Israel?’
and
‘The harsh truth is that there is good reason for Israel to make a precipitate strike at Iranian nuclear capacity.’
As we now the IAEA has declared that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons programme, but that won’t stop Denham, Charlie etc ‘understanding’ rather than ‘condemning’ the mass slaughter of Iranian workers.
Hypocrisy-O-Meter said,
February 6, 2010 at 7:58 pm
(flashing lights)
(explodes)
charliethechulo said,
February 6, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Israel’s attack on Gaza was brutal and cost the lives of many innocent men, women and children. It was inexcusable and all decent people condemned it. As far as I’m aware, everyone who writes for this blog opposed it, and said so at the time.
This is not an AWL-affiliated blog and alone amongst our contributors, I’m a member of the AWL. I can, however, state that the racist and anti-semite “resistor” has grossly misrepresented the AWL and Sean Matgamna over the question of an Israeli attack on Iran. You can read the stuff for yourselves, on the AWL website. But, actually, I’m not much interested in debating anti-semitic scum like “Resistor”.
Contributors to this blog particularlty condemned Israel’s indiffererence to civilian casualties. But to compare Israel’s attack upon an enemy (Hamas) who are pledged to the total annihilation of the state of Israel, with the deliberate murder of civilians because of their particular version of Islam, is nonsense.
I shall have more to say about anti-semitism on the left tomorrow..
johng said,
February 7, 2010 at 3:16 am
Did anyone notice that the first comment was a racist one? Or don’t you care? I have friends in Pakistan suffering because of the growing sectarianism. And this site disgusts me. As it should disgust any decent human being.
Rebecca said,
February 7, 2010 at 5:15 am
Johng, do you think this blog posting condones the sectarian killings in Pakistan? No, in fact, it condemns those killings and asks why liberal papers like the Guardian don’t also energetically condemn killing of innocent people in Pakistan. You only commented on the first comment being racist because it’s so clear that the posting itself is anti-racist.
voltairespriest said,
February 7, 2010 at 9:05 am
John always seems to start yelling “racist” when he comments late at night on the weekends. Evening at ULU followed by a good old internet rant was it, JG?
I have no idea who even wrote the first comment, and as Rebecca says, you’re only even mentioning it because you want to avoid commenting on Jim’s post. As for being “disgusted”, well why don’t you just fuck off then?
Nick Jones said,
February 7, 2010 at 10:38 am
“This is not an AWL-affiliated blog”
Doesn’t matter to ‘resistor’. (Neo-)Nazis aren’t bothered by lttle details like the truth.
Expect ‘resistor’ to invade Poland to protect himself from a war of ‘extermination’ being waged against him by Britain and ‘the Jews’ any day now.
Rosie said,
February 7, 2010 at 11:53 am
Oh, God, Johng in full outraged Victorian matron mode. To her footman:- “This young person is not respectable. Perkins, show her out and if she returns, remember, I am not at home.” Then staggers to the sofa and summons her paid companion to fetch the smelling salts.
resistor said,
February 7, 2010 at 6:14 pm
‘This is not an AWL-affiliated blog and alone amongst our contributors, I’m a member of the AWL. ‘ So Jim Denham isn’t a member of the AWL? What a liar.
Funny how the AWL people here pretend Matgamna’s refusal to condemn any attack on Iran didn’t happen. Ashamed are you?
ps How interesting that Charlie, Denham, Dunbar etc all use the Nazi ‘big lie’ technique to smear me. Previously I challenged them to provide any proof that I was racist or anti-semitic. When they couldn’t, they resorted to making stuff up. What nice people you are.
Jim Denham said,
February 7, 2010 at 11:53 pm
“This is not an AWL-affiliated blog and alone amongst our contributors, I’m a member of the AWL. ‘ So Jim Denham isn’t a member of the AWL? What a liar.”
“resister”: Is English your first language? If not it may account for quite a lot of misunderstandings over the years. Though probably not for your hatred of Jews.
resistor said,
February 8, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Denham indulges in repeating a lie for which he has no evidence. He has been challenged repeatedly to provide evidence for his smears, but can’t. So he prefers to carry on his childish name-calling. A bizarre lending of the Nazi big lie technique and the Stalinist school of falsification. More proof that the combination of Trotskyism and alcohol is a terrible curse, look what it did to Christopher Hitchens.
Rosie said,
February 8, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Gosh, Jim, are you going to:-
write prolifically for a load of big name magazines;
have a regular column in Slate;
be mentioned in those lists of Top 100 World Intellectuals;
live in an apartment in New York with a classy wife; and
have a worldwide reputation?
As the waiter said to George Best when he found him in bed with two super models and bottles of champagne, “George, where did it all go wrong?”
resistor said,
February 8, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Rosie overlooks
Hitchens’ role as a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq
his betrayal of his former friends
the fact he left his first wife when she was pregnant with their second child
and his worldwide reputation as a complete shit
ps George Best wasted his talent as footballer, used violence on women, was robbed of £2,000 by two prostitutes and drank himself to death after having a liver transplant which could have saved the life of someone more deserving.
Otherwise a good point.
maxdunbar said,
February 8, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Also, Hitchens sells poisoned milk to schoolchildren
Phomesy said,
February 8, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Boy, the antisemite and racist resistor sure gets around a lot these days…
voltairespriest said,
February 8, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Also, Hitchens pulls the legs off spiders and eats live kittens
Rosie said,
February 8, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Rubbish Volty – he pulls the legs off live kittens and eats spiders. I wish you’d stop spreading such unsubtantiated smears.
resistor said,
February 8, 2010 at 4:46 pm
ps
Rosie believes it is admirable the Hitchens lives ‘in an apartment in New York with a classy wife’ – I suppose that makes you a ‘new’ socialist feminist?
pps
Thanks to all the Hitchens and Best fans for their intelligent contributions to the debate – I couldn’t have expected more
maxdunbar said,
February 8, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Why shouldn’t feminists and socialists have good apartments and happy relationships, Resistor?
Oh and Hitchens runs over badgers in his tractor for fun
charliethechulo said,
February 9, 2010 at 1:29 am
“resister”: “More proof that the combination of Trotskyism and alcohol is a terrible curse.”
Yes, nearly as terrible as the combination of Stalinism, stupidity and race hatred.
resistor said,
February 9, 2010 at 10:05 am
Ever read this piece by your hero?
http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/07/iraq-arab-saddam-iran-hitchens
‘And it has a leader — Saddam Hussain — who has sprung from being an underground revolutionary gunman to perhaps the first visionary Arab statesman since Nasser.’
‘Saddam Hussain will rise more clearly to the top. Make a note of the name. Iraq has been strengthened internally by the construction of a ‘strategic pipeline’ which connects the Gulf to the northern fields for the first time. She has been strengthened externally by her support for revolutionary causes and by the resources she can deploy. It may not be electrification plus Soviet power, but the combination of oil and ‘Arab socialism’ is hardly less powerful.’
maxdunbar said,
February 9, 2010 at 7:05 pm
The piece is from 1976.
You can see why Resistor is so baffled and outraged by the concept of changing one’s mind and moving on.
(also, Hitchens drinks Martinis laced with orphans’ tears)
resistor said,
February 10, 2010 at 1:09 pm
More recent works of genius from Max’s favourite neo-con. I’m afraid the second leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/01/hitchens200701
Why Women Aren’t Funny
What makes the female so much deadlier than the male? With assists from Fran Lebowitz, Nora Ephron, and a recent Stanford-medical-school study, the author investigates the reasons for the humor gap.
by Christopher Hitchens
January 2007
and
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2006/07/hitchens200607
As American as Apple Pie
Fellatio has a long and storied history, but not until 1972—with the release of Deep Throat—did it come out, so to speak, in polite company. From the Wild West to the Wild White House, the author explores the blowjob’s emergence as the nation’s signature sex act.
by Christopher Hitchens
July 2006