Lal Masjid: Symptomatic of greater Islamic threat facing Pakistan

In one of these difficult days when the rising voices of unrest are sharpening in Pakistan owing to General Musharraf's firing of the CJ of Supreme Court, onslaught on the freedom of press and controversial stance of getting another term as President; fresh riots at Lal Masjid have yet again placed Pakistan in a dilemma - either to choose the modern and democratic or backward and bigoted Islamic state.

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It is one of these days when US expects 'free and fair' elections from its closest Muslim ally in 'war on terror' and when it seems that Pakistan is only getting worse and moving far from democracy and when fear of witnessing another Afghanistan is mounting.

Musharraf's failure to put reign on the Islamic radicals - and that too in the heart of the capital town - has smashed his credibility not only within the nation but also at the international front (as an important ally in the US led 'war on terror'), which breeds in Pakistan and thereafter spreads across the world.

President Musharraf taking the dramatic action against the fundamentalists while repeatedly saying that security forces cannot raid the mosque for fear of reprisal suicide attacks, is as ironic as US disgustingly believes one of the most distrustful regimes, which is nothing more than an effort to distract the public from other issues.

The behavior of the radical imams at the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), who tends to bring sharia law throughout Pakistan, is just the starting of what Taliban desired, then in Afghanistan. All-Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) Chairman Shahbaz Bhatti rightly asserted -

If extremism and Talibanisation were not stopped, Pakistan will become like Afghanistan.

President Musharraf's inability or rather unwillingness to limit the business of jihad that Lal Masjid breeds and exports in the name of so-called Islamic values has in fact created a Frankenstein's monster that sooner or later is likely to turn things up side down. Not to forget ISI - 'Pakistan's government with in a government' - that helped Musharraf to portray himself as an indispensable ally in the 'war on terror' so as to enjoy US financial backing.

Mosques: Tarnishing the image of (Holy) Islam

It's such a pity to remember those days when people used to visit Mosques in search of peace and eternal salvation from haphazard and mundane routine of life but with the passage of time, after people claim to cover the so-called complex path (from ignorance to knowledge), the holy places in most of the Muslim nations - barring a few liberal ones - are turning out to be the battlefields for Islamic radicals against the social order that is not only tarnishing the image of holy Islam but exporting terror across the world.