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review A
fresh take Zia
Mohyeddin column While I was travelling through the mid-western states — Indiana, Missouri, Illinois — I learned that the United States of America had endured its hottest summer in seventy five years and the second hottest summer on record. Not only that: the country (the continent, I should say) has had its worst flooding in forty years. The weather pundits say that many of the swollen rivers will take months to recede. A ghastly coincidence, for we too suffered our most devastating floods at the same time.
review Inside Al-Qaeda And The Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 By Syed Saleem Shahzad Publisher: Pluto Press, 2011 Pages: 280 Price: Rs 1395 Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban - Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 is a brave book— as was the author, Syed Saleem Shahzad. The book is brave as it dares to tell us about the exploits of those who are assigned to protect us, and Shahzad was brave as he reduced the facts in writing despite the knowledge that truth can be fatal. The book is a true reflection the quality of Shahzad as a journalist and the kind of outreach he enjoyed with militants and the military to the envy of many amongst other journalists. This outreach also invited criticism from within the media fraternity with people accusing him of walking both sides of the fence, a criticism to which he responded in an interview saying, a journalists is everyone’s friend, it is his ability to get to the facts that matters. The author takes the reader through the darkest phase of our history that started with the migration of Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan into Pakistan’s tribal region soon after 9/11. The move became a major milestone in the resistance against US-led attacks and drastically changed the tribal culture, brought arch rivals, for instance Wazir and Mehsud tribes in Waziristan, together, introduced suicide bombings, spread militants outreach beyond the border region into urban centres and contributed towards instability not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan but across the region. The process of radicalisation of the society that was initiated during the era of General Ziaul Haq, Shahzad notes, not only created an army of trained Mujahideen but also influenced the Pakistan army in support of Al-Qaeda and Taliban. He writes, “Al-Qaeda understood that Pakistan was fertile soil for ideological cultivation. There were at least 600,000 youths there who had been trained and had fought in Afghanistan and Kashmir since 1979. At least 100,000 Pakistanis were active members of different jihadi cadres. Over 1 million students were enrolled in various Islamic seminaries, and there were several hundred thousand supporters of Pakistan’s Islamic religious parties. The main handler of the Afghan jihad against the Soviets had been Pakistan’s army, which itself was not immune to the influence of radicalism. Several army officers had pledged their allegiance (bait) to different jihadi spiritual leaders, including Maulana Akram Awan of Chakwal. These groups were known in the Pakistan army as pir bhai groups. Although General Pervez Musharraf had purged some of these elements from the Pakistan army after 9/11, including his very close friend, the then deputy chief of army staff, Lt. Gen. Muzaffar Usmani, he was unable to completely eradicate the radical tendency, which had become deep-rooted in the Pakistan’s security services during the period from 1979 to 2001.” The author takes a deep
look into the lives of two brothers Captain (retired) Khurram Ashiq and Major
(retired) Haroon Ashiq and others like Major
(retired) Abdul Rehman, Commander Ilyas Kashmiri and Sirajuddin Haqqani to a
name a few whose commitment to Al-Qaeda’s ideology titled the balance of
conflict against the coalition forces. Captain Khurram, a member of the Special Services Group (SSG), Shahzad writes, was clear in explaining his religious viewpoints and political convictions on contemporary national issues, which made him popular among his colleagues. During a UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone in 2001 and 2002, he built a mosque and a madrassah, despite the opposition of his commander, Brigadier Ahmad Shuja Pasha (now a lieutenant-general and director general of ISI). Both the brothers left the army and initially joined the Lashkar-e-Taiba only to realise that “the LeT was only a civilian extension of Pakistan’s armed forces.” Khurram died fighting the NATO forces in Helmand in 2007 while Haroon, Rehman and Kashmiri went on to play a key role in strengthening Al-Qaeda and Taliban militant activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan and were also identified as the main strategists of the attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Shahzad explains how Major Haroon influenced Al-Qaeda and became one of its key strategists, introduced guerrilla warfare, targeted NATO supplies in Pakistan, brought sophistication to the militant hardware, introduced kidnap for ransom as a means to generate finances and stretched the canvas of the war as far as India. Major Haroon also successfully exploited his military connections to strengthen the resistance against the Pakistan army. He was quick to realise that growing exchange programmes of personnel between Pakistan and the US would result in an increased resolve among the Pakistan military to fight the militants and went on to assassinate Major General (retired) Ameer Faisal Alvi, commander of the SSG during Angor Ada operations in October 2003. The assassination of Alvi in November 2008 in Islamabad, Shahzad writes, was not purely an act of vengeance, it was to serve as a reminder to the serving military cadre that one day they too would retire and could suffer a similar fate. Shahzad provides a unique insight into the knowledge sharing between the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda and militant elements in, Uzbekistan and Iraq. He writes about the exchanges between Taliban and Iraqi delegations during 2005 of know-how on the battlefield. Shahzad explains how suicide bombings became part of the resistance. He writes, “There was no precedent for suicide attacks in the history of Afghanistan as suicide had hitherto been strictly prohibited in Islam. It was therefore difficult to persuade the rigid Afghan society to use suicide as a strategy. There had been a few suicide missions in Afghanistan in the more recent past, but they were largely isolated incidents. (Mullah) Dadullah highlighted suicide as a legitimate form of attack, and spread audio and video messages to show how the Iraqi resistance had used suicide as its most effective weapon. He succeeded in impressing on groups coming from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Waziristan, and other cities of Pakistan, the importance of suicide attacks. The first squad of prospective bombers was taken into Kunar Valley for training shortly thereafter. Dadullah motivated an astonishing 450 suicide attackers, notably including 70 women, to rewrite history. While Afghanistan has a centuries-old tradition of fighting invaders, it had never seen a role for women in war. The suicide squad female bomber were mainly the widows of fighters from Arab and Central Asian states who had been killed either in Afghanistan or in Waziristan, but there were some from Waziristan too who had been persuaded by their husbands or fathers to join suicide squads.” Another element in the book which many readers would find of interest is how the Lal Masjid in Islamabad became a tool in the hands of Al-Qaeda and how instrumental its anti-military stance was in strengthening Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Shahzad narrates how Sheikh Esa Al-Misri, an Egyptian ideologue met with religious leaders such as Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the then Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of Jamaatut Dawa, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Dr Israr Ahmad with an aim to forge an Islamic political front in urban Pakistan to strengthen support for Al-Qaeda. However, the people who responded most significantly to Al-Qaeda’s call in both letter and spirit, he states, were two brothers, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, the prayer leaders of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid. Shahzad writes that during the South Waziristan operation in 2004, there was a time when the Pakistan army was well placed to defeat the militants but Al-Qaeda’s timely spin by using the Lal Masjid clerics clipped its wings and a large number of lower-ranking non-commissioned officers defied orders to fight while several resigned from service on being posted in South Waziristan. He writes, “On the advice of Al-Qaeda, Maulana Abdul Aziz issued a religious decree in 2004 which declared the South Waziristan operation un-Islamic. The decree prohibited the burial of the soldiers in Muslim graveyards. Funeral prayers for those who had died in the action against the Muslim militants in South Waziristan were forbidden. The decree was circulated throughout the country and 500 clerics signed it. That was all the spin needed to further ignite anti-American feelings in Pakistan. All the combined guns of the militants could not have been as useful in belittling the Pakistan Army as that religious decree.” The support for Taliban and Al-Qaeda exists at every level in Pakistan but by organisations such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a breakaway faction of Sipah-e-Shahaba Pakistan, stands out. The organisation was quick to support Al-Qaeda as it started militant operations inside Pakistan. It provided several trained militants which extended the outreach of Al-Qaeda ferocity to the urban Pakistan. Shahzad writes, “Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members were welcomed in South Waziristan and encouraged to support Al-Qaeda’s multifaceted operations in Pakistan. LJ was permitted to continue with its targeted anti-Shiite killings, but some members, like Qari Zafar (who was killed in 2010 in North Waziristan), were also used in Al-Qaeda operations such as the attack on the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) offices in Lahore. At the same time, other leaders like Qari Hussain were tellingly deputed to raise suicide brigades for Al-Qaeda’s anti-US operations.” Saleem Shahazd has tried to unravel some myths about Al-Qaeda, its operatives, those who worked behind the scene to turn the table on collation forces and enable it to spread its wings from North Africa to Central Asia as a global resistance movement. The book tells us that there is more to Al-Qaeda than just Bin Laden and in Saleem Shahzad’s words, “after many years of fighting, what stands out above all is that Al-Qaeda’s arsenal is not weaponry, but its uncanny ability to exploit unfolding events to engineer the collapse of its hi-tech enemies,” and this Pakistan has experienced in the wake of Lal Masjid. Inside Al-Qaeda And The Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 is available at Readings
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fresh take A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Love, Friendship and the Things that Really Matter By William Deresiewicz Publisher: The Penguin Press Price: Rs. 1495 They say literature is life and no other medium can train you on the most subtle aspects of human emotion. In A Jane Austen Education, William Deresiewicz, a professor at Yale, takes this sentiment to heart and shares with us how the tales of Austen have inspired some of the most critical events of his life. Make no mistake: this is not the didactic work of a stuffy and pretentious professor. It does not dwell on symbolism, attempt to be controversial or deconstruct literary works that have already been analysed to bits. This book is the true story of a young man who time and again faced dilemmas related to family, finding his true love and building his career. At some point, he discovered a love for everything Jane Austen and came to the stark realisation that many of her characters and motifs were directly applicable to his own life. The text is neatly divided into six sections. Each section is devoted to one major work of Jane Austen and related to a major inflection point in the life of the author. He suggests that Emma taught him how to deal with everyday matters. Pride and Prejudice forced him to realise how he needed to grow up. Northanger Abbey provided key lessons on learning how to learn. Mansfield Park groomed him on how to be good. Persuasion provided key lessons on friendship and Sense and Sensibility ultimately taught him how to fall in love. The book flows in the chronological order of his life and as such the ideas mature with every section. Like most writers, William
is at his best when he is discussing himself. In the section on Pride and
Prejudice he talks about his strained relationship with his father who
treated him as fragile and unworthy. In Northanger Abbey, he shares the
challenges he faced in completing his doctoral dissertation and how he
matured as both a teacher and a student. Perhaps the strongest section is
that on Persuasion when he shares how he found it difficult to stay in touch
with his friends as he got older and how his attempts to circumvent that
ultimately allowed him to find true love. Each story of his life is ultimately associated with a book by Jane Austen and some of its key themes. There is judicious use of extracts from the novels to support where he relates to errant characters and where he can draw parallels to the situations in his own life. In addition to the literary analysis, the author often digresses into interesting tidbits into the life and times of Austen. We learn that she herself was not an aristocrat and not a particular supporter of the upper class. We learn that others in her family attempted to emulate her writing achievements. And we learn how her final work may have been affected by her realisation that her own life was drawing to a premature close. William has an obvious flair for literature and his writing is sprinkled with allusions. He relates the moment of horror realisation to Oedipus. He brings in The Great Gatsby, Dante’s Inferno and Plato to illustrate his many points. The section where he juxtaposes the realism of Austen against the idealism of Bronte is a treat. But he seems to have modern taste too, given that he repeatedly brings up films like When Harry Met Sally and pictures Bonnie and Clyde when making an escape. If the book has a weakness it lies in the quantity of thoughts. Most of the chapters start on a slow and steady note as the writer sets the stage for a key decision point in his life. This gradually unfolds into a section of a Jane Austen book from where he attempts to draw inspiration to make the decision. He then meanders through a few biographical facts on Austen and somewhere midway through the section, experiences a flurry of thoughts related to the interpretation of the text. Some of these ideas are original, others fairly obvious but the sheer quantity of them can make some sections of the book quite overwhelming. At just about 250 pages, the book is not onerous and coupled with the author’s witty and sincere style, quite readable. None of the ideas are so profound as to leave an impact on you long after you have finished the book. But young students of Austen will regale at the thought that their coursework could have real world applicability. And those that imbibed these novels a long time ago will welcome a chance to re-live some of the memories and tackle them with a fresh perspective.
Zia Mohyeddin column While I was travelling through the mid-western states — Indiana, Missouri, Illinois — I learned that the United States of America had endured its hottest summer in seventy five years and the second hottest summer on record. Not only that: the country (the continent, I should say) has had its worst flooding in forty years. The weather pundits say that many of the swollen rivers will take months to recede. A ghastly coincidence, for we too suffered our most devastating floods at the same time. From New York to the mid-west and from the mid-west to Texas in the South, I see more citizens flying the flag, more sports fans removing the hats during the National Anthems and more young people putting their hands over their hearts while singing the anthem or during the Pledges of Allegiance. Is it just because 9/11 is being remembered with greater fervour after 10 years, or has the nation become more patriotic since 9/11? If so, is USA a safer place now? It maybe so, but I sensed that there was far too much fear paranoia. Some of my American friends feel that that in accepting the absurd security measures they have lost too much freedom and that the “sneak and peek provision” of the USA Patriot Act is one of the examples of overreaction. Wherever I go, I find that the sluggish economy has caused far too many Americans to lose jobs, houses, dignity and hope. The public school system is haemorrhaging and poverty continues to make life unbearable for many. The National debt has increased enormously and some political analysts are saddened at the continuing cost (in lives and dollars) of the country’s misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. But such analysts are in a minority. There is a vast number of politicians and trend- setters who feel that the price tag of the two wars, 1.3 trillion dollars, is justified and that George W. Bush who started it all is their greatest hero. Most Pakistanis that I met on the trip — an enlightened crop of doctors, teachers, scientists and engineers — were deeply concerned about the growing lawlessness in Pakistan. Their hearts have been left behind in the old country but they were sensible enough to state that as they had become citizens of USA they must think of themselves as Americans first. Their children watch American sports, play American sports; they recycle garbage and play video games and engage in other activities much as other Americans do; they have a positive view of their communities, believe that hard work is the path to success, see life as better here than in Pakistan and, more pointedly, worry about Islamic extremism just about as much as non-Muslims. It was, therefore a bit of a surprise when I read in a newspaper that a survey conducted by the reputable Pew Research Centre showed that 49 percent of American Muslims said they think of themselves as Muslims first. Young Muslims in Europe — England in particular — find themselves without an identity, largely because Europeans countries tend to isolate immigrant populations rather than absorb them. As the second generation comes of age, many find themselves not only eager to separate from their parents’ community but also isolated — physically, psychologically and culturally — from their European homeland. It is a horrible thought that these young men who believe that suicide bombings are justified are primed for terrorist recruitment and self-immolation. And now in America too, some of the young Muslims from well-off, middle class background have begum to wear their Islam aggressively. Their parents are unable to cope with them. It is this phenomenon which makes the white majority of America feel that a radicalised alien force, hell bent to destroy them, is in their midst. For many people fear equals facts. According to the findings of the Pew Research Centre (margin of error is less than 5 percent) two thirds of the Americans now believe that Muslims — first or second generation — do not want to assimilate. This is a pretty alarming scenario for the hard-working, well-meaning Pakistanis-Americans that I have been talking to. * * * * * I had never been to the state of Missouri through I am familiar with it through one of its most illustrious sons, Mark Twain. This time I visited St. Louis, the main city of the state, and saw the big Muddy, the Mississippi, that famous river which inspired Twain to write his classic tales of frogs and runaway slaves, fallen humanity and Connecticut Yankees. Although the Mississippi figures prominently in many of Twain’s works, it is hard to find much of the man himself in St Louis. It may be because he was not born here. Charles Lindbergh was, and his name is to be seen everywhere. Mark Twain was born as Samuel Langhorne Clements. He came to St. Louis as a young man to work as a typesetter. He hopped form one job to another and then fell in love with the Mississippi, and learned everything he could about piloting a riverboat. He worked as a pilot until trade on the river came to a halt at the outbreak of the American Civil War. As a writer, Twain who boasted that he wrote “with a pen warmed up in hell” was hilarious and melancholic by turns. “Man is without doubt the most interesting fool there is,” Twain said. Mark Twain was arguably the first American writer to capture the everyday speech of common folk. Books, speeches poured and sketches from his pen with the same vitality and power as the river: “Paul Bunyon, whose perspiration as he toiled on the mountainside, flowed down into the valley and formed the Great Salt Lake” From youth to old age Mark Twain veered from poverty to wealth, to bankruptcy and back to solvency. He was a jester but the kind of jester who has a grin on his face but acid in his heart. He looked upon mankind as among the lowest of the species. When asked whether he dared to put a man on a level with a rat, he replied in all seriousness “I don’t…. that would be unfair to the rat.” An American from North Carolina who sat next to me on the plane felt that Samuel Langhorne Clements had not yet received his full measure of recognition. (to be continued)
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