It's not rocket science to understand that unemployed young men make a deadly combination.

Most of Pakistan's problems are caused by massive unemployment. I have seen figures of 90% unemployment in NWFP (North Western Frontier Province) adjacent to turbulent Afghanistan. Unemployment and a bit of poisoning of minds from ill-educated or outright uneducated mullahs is all that is needed to turn these young men into jihadi fighters.

The answer does not reside in paper fatwas.

The real answer is in opening thousands, I mean thousands, of schools, internet kiosks and health clinics and permanently change the future of the young generation with compulsory education and basic job training, from carpentry to java programming, for the five to 25 year olds along with enticing $10 per month scholarship awards.

Military adventurism and paper fatwas are just a waste of time and energy.

send a truckload of these shirts http://www.damnineedajob.com

Meanwhile there is no US or Israeli jihad against our own never-ending terrorism.

Watch the rappers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwWaz6sx8Mo&feature=related

The link posted is incorrect (there is an 'S' in detail which shouldn't be there).
.
The correct link is: http://thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=28047
.
Article title: TTP, LJ may target Tahirul Qadri, Nadra, passport offices
.
In news terms, this is slightly old, but oh well. For those interested, here is the short article:
.
Monday, March 29, 2010
By Salman Aslam
.
LAHORE: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in connivance with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), has planned suicide attacks on the main offices of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and the passport issuing authority in Lahore and Islamabad to punish them for their role in identification of suicide bombers through DNA tests and fingerprints, says an official letter.

The Lahore commissioner has issued the warning to the Capital City Police Officer, Lahore, and others. The letter, quoting the reportof an intelligence agency, warned that Abu Bakar alias Abdullah Farooqi, a resident of Vehari, who is a TTP member, had entered Lahore, along with his two associates, for launching terrorist attacks in the city. The same group has also been tasked to target Maulana Tahirul Qadri for issuing a decree against the suicide bombings.
.
The letter further said that Abdul Mannan Muavia of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a resident of Muzaffargarh, along with his three accomplices, is planning to target some senior police officers and the police offices in District Jhang in the near future. The same group is also planning to launch terrorist attacks on the armed forces in Karachi Cantt.
.
CCPO Pervez Rathore told The News various precautionary measures had been taken to protect the marked targets and personalities in Lahore in view of the warning. He said the police had beefed up security in and around the buildings of Nadra and passport offices in Lahore and Islamabad. He said that additional security measures, such as increased surveillance through CCTVs, had been taken in view of the possible attacks from the TTP and the LJ.

If I can bring myself to stop laughing at the fact that over 1/6 of the world's population would take a 600 page "legal document" that is based on Islamic ideology seriously, I find what this man is doing courageous. It could very well precipitate a much needed civil war within the Muslim community in which the extremists would certainly lose.

complicated than just the message. First of all, divide the subjects of radical Islam's brainwashing campaign into its logical parts. One, the middle or upper class elites which genuinely consitutue "Terrorists." And Second, the largely lower-class masses in key pockets of the Muslim world who are roused up to fight insurgencies against "occupiers" or corrupt overlords.

Tahir Qadri's fatwa is more meaningful (so much as it is) in the former case, for they are the only ones, perhaps, that would read a 600 page rebuttal of terror in the name of Islam.

If networks of tens of thousands of Madrassas (effectively orphanges/boarding schools) in Pakistan are staffed, maintained, and funded by hyper-aggressive alpha-males who would just as soon leave Islam if they couldn't read it as a religion that justifies their Spartan-like outlook on the world, then sound Shaykh after Shaykh can (and has) issue fatwa upon fatwa with no impact.

At present, it's just re-inventing the wheel.

What needs to be attacked are the ground networks of fanatic-producing factories (called madrassas), that permeate Pakistan like its nervous system from border to border.

Unless Traditionalist Muslims find a way to eradicate the cancer that is the compounded ignorance that Tahir Qadri lays bare - we're nowhere.

Judging by the posts removed by FPs editors FP is an Israel intelligence operation

before some of us get all excited and try to paint this Tahir Qadri guy as "our kind of Muslim" and what not... we should also remember, he voluntarily resigned his parliamentary seat in Pakistan because, among other things, he was not permitted to freely debate and criticize Israel and possible official responses by the "Islamic Republic" to Israel's actions against other Muslims.

This man's image in Pakistan is that he is by-and-large fiercely independent, and a principled pragmatist who has made political errors in the past -namely during Nawaz Sharif's premiership.

He is, while he categorically condemns terrorism, an outspoken critic of the US and Israel, and the Afghan and Iraq Wars.

While I do appreciate and like CHRISTIAN CARYL´s article in FP, APRIL 14, 2010; Sheikh to Terrorists: Go to Hell, he should have avoided some of his clichés and loose talk, such as;.
• “ Tehrik-e-Taliban, the most prominent of several militant groups trying to overthrow the government in Islamabad”.
• "war on terror" pales beside the war within Islam itself
Taliban in Pakistan is a dangerous and despicable, ill trained, illiterate and brainwashed bunch of young men who has never posed any threat to Pakistan’s security. To claim that 15 thousand Taliban are trying to overthrow the democratically elected government, backed by 170 million (including 35 million Pashtun) patriotic people and world’s 6th largest professional army, equipped with latest heavy armaments is, not only insulting to the nation of Pakistan but also shows how little western journalists know the reality on the ground.
Even Time Magazine, which was part of an ugly rhetoric against Pakistan, seems to have come to its senses. In its most recent article from the 16 April 2010, Time admits that;
“It took just a few months for the Pakistani military to clear the Swat Valley's lush, mountainous tribal terrain of its Taliban usurpers last summer, using some 30,000 troops to dislodge the guerrillas from the once-bustling tourist haven, 80 miles northwest of the capital Islamabad. Pakistanis have largely cleared militants from Swat, which is in the North-West Frontier Province, as well as the South Waziristan and Bajaur areas along the Afghan border”.
By the way, Taliban have never once claimed that they wanted to take over Pakistan. It is the western press, which advocates such silly notions.It would be interesting to ask Mr. Caryl, where are those Taliban now.

War on terror was and to a larger extent is, an ideological and physical battle between two camps. On one hand you have powerful state machinery with sophisticated means to kill from a distance and the other, who kill innocent people to advance their cause. Both parties indulge in terrorism and their geo-political aims are the same, namely-POWER. Terrorism is going on from Columbia to India but unfortunately, it has been given a label called Islamic terrorism. It is anyone’s guess why the West has such a fixation with Islam.

Dear Mr. Caryl, there is no war going on in Islam. What is happening is a healthy debate, exchange of ideas and Ijtahad – meaning progressive development. Terrorism is not part of that and should not be linked as such, with Islam.

Ahmed Quraishi's assertion that giving your life and fighting and dying in self-defense is not prohibited in Islam, is actually right. But t is not an Islam issue. Through out history, soldiers and civilians have sacrificed their lives in to protect their family, tribe, state, culture and religion. It is thus important to distinguish between taking an innocent life – non acceptable under any circumstance and whatever reason – and defending oneself, however one finds fit against a superior enemy and whatever means necessary, as Malcolm X so clearly stated 50 years ago. Russian citizens threw themselves in front of Nazi tanks during WW2 and Pakistani soldiers did the same in 1965 against Indian invading tanks. It is called sacrificing oneself for the sake of community. We may agree with this method or condemn it but many people may not.
Kind regards
Bashy Quraishy

Listen to the CIA guy charged with hunting Osama -- here is what he says:

"The young Nigerian in Detroit and the Jordanian bomber in Khost and his wife have told America’s Marines, soldiers, and CIA officers what they already surely sense, but what their political leaders deny. Both attackers cited motivations that pivot on U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians; U.S. occupation of Muslim lands; and U.S. attacks on their fellow Muslims. The three individuals’ words echo the components of U.S. foreign policy named by bin Laden in 1996 as the causes of war — which also include U.S. support for Arab tyrants and exploitation of Muslim energy resources — and which polls show 80 percent of the world’s Muslims identify as attacks on their faith.

While it is hard for Americans to hear, we are at war with a steadily growing number of young men and women in the Muslim world because of what the U.S. government has done in that arena since 1945. The current slate of U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world generates the basic and most compelling and uniting motivation for our Islamist enemies.

Should some of these policies be changed? I surely think so...."

http://thehill.com/special-reports-archive/699-homeland-security-january-2010/75531-when-troops-and-cia-officers-die-for-a-fantasy

When troops and CIA officers die for a fantasy
By Michael Scheuer - 01/12/10 06:25 PM ET

The men and women of the U.S. military and intelligence services are the most important part of America’s defense capital. When they enter the service of their choice they are well aware of the implicit contract between the nation and themselves. In return for their career, America has the right to call on them to go into harm’s way, very often at the risk of their lives. I have never known a Marine, a soldier or a CIA officer who did not accept this reality, and I have never known one who balked when called on to deploy. That said, each I have known — and I suppose all — hope that if defending America costs his or her life, the cause for which it is spent is clear and worthwhile. It is precisely on this point that the U.S. government’s executive and legislative branches are lethally failing these men and women.

The events of the past three weeks throw into sharp relief that we are sending our young men and women overseas to fight an enemy that does not exist. Among the first thoughts expressed by President Obama after the near-miss al Qaeda attack on Christmas — and then echoed by his lieutenants, various members of both parties in Congress, and numerous pundits — was that the young Nigerian bomber hated our way of life. And since seven CIA officers in Afghanistan were killed by al Qaeda on Dec. 30, the same thought has been expressed by the same people.

This central thought has been accompanied by additional assertions, among which are the attackers were nihilistic Muslim fanatics and the attackers’ motivation has nothing to do with Islam. The sum and substance of the U.S. bipartisan political elite’s response to recent events has been — as it has been since 1996 when Osama bin Laden declared war on America — that the Islamist terrorists hate us for who we are and how we live, not for what we do.

This contention is a fantasy. It is fair to say that all the U.S. Marines, soldiers and CIA officers who have died in Afghanistan since 9/11 and in Iraq since Saddam’s removal have died fighting an enemy that does not exist. In numbers now approaching 6,000, these men and women have bravely fought and died in combat against an enemy whose main motivation U.S. political leaders have consistently denied. No U.S. soldier, Marine, or CIA officer has been killed by an Islamist fighter who took the field because America has women in the workplace, beer is available in ample supply, and there are early presidential primaries in Iowa every fourth year. Indeed, Islamists motivated by such issues would not rise to the level of a lethal nuisance; they certainly could not stymie the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The young Nigerian in Detroit and the Jordanian bomber in Khost and his wife have told America’s Marines, soldiers, and CIA officers what they already surely sense, but what their political leaders deny. Both attackers cited motivations that pivot on U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians; U.S. occupation of Muslim lands; and U.S. attacks on their fellow Muslims. The three individuals’ words echo the components of U.S. foreign policy named by bin Laden in 1996 as the causes of war — which also include U.S. support for Arab tyrants and exploitation of Muslim energy resources — and which polls show 80 percent of the world’s Muslims identify as attacks on their faith.

While it is hard for Americans to hear, we are at war with a steadily growing number of young men and women in the Muslim world because of what the U.S. government has done in that arena since 1945. The current slate of U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world generates the basic and most compelling and uniting motivation for our Islamist enemies.

Should some of these policies be changed? I surely think so, but that is a discussion for another time and broad public debate, perhaps during the 2010 midterm elections. For now, the discussion must focus on our enemies’ motivation and the knowing failure of U.S. leaders in both parties to be honest with our fighting forces. If we fail to understand that motivation, America cannot shape a war-fighting strategy to either defend those policies or defeat the tenacious, talented, religiously motivated, and growing foe our soldiers, Marines, and CIA officers are now losing to in the field. Those men and women — and their parents, spouses and children — deserve to know they are risking their lives to defeat a skilled and enduring enemy, one who is motivated by the impact of U.S. policies, and one that genuinely threatens America. They are not fighting the cartoon-like foe described by their political leaders for the past 15 years.

Scheuer is a former senior CIA officer and adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University.

As I have said before: paper fatwas matter not; the Jews and Hindoos can try to spin anything about Islam, and it still matters not.

For the immediate short term, to bring peace withing the Muslim world, 20% of the world's population, the Jews of Israle will have too end their occupation of Muslim Palestine; the Indian Hindoos will have to end their occupation of Muslim Kashmir and Russian Orthodox Christians will have to end their brutal occupation of Muslim Chechnya and neighbouring Muslim republics.

And American Christian simpletons (easily mislead by over-clever Jews) will have to end their occupation of Muslim Iraq and Muslim Afghanistan.

These are the prime movers of ALL Muslim resistance against the Invader/Occupiers.

The answer does not reside in paper fatwas.

Then for the long term, the real answer is in opening thousands, I mean thousands, of schools, internet kiosks and health clinics and permanently change the future of the young generation with compulsory education and basic job training, from carpentry to java programming, for the five to 25 year olds along with enticing $10 per month scholarship awards.

Military adventurism and paper fatwas are just a waste of time and energy.

Western press or intelligential always seem to fail to mention the crucial difference between oppressor and the oppressed:

Palestine: Muslims being oppressed by Jew oppressors.

Kashmir: Muslims being oppressed by Hindoo oppressors.

Chechnya: Muslims being oppressed by Russian Christian oppressors.

Iraq: Muslims being oppressed by American Christian oppressors.

Afghanistan: Muslims being oppressed by American Christian oppressors.

The Muslims have been the oppressed for the past 100 years and Jews, Christians and Hindoos have been the oppressors.

The oppressors are always wrong and are the real perpetuators of terrorism with resultant resistance. Spin controls of the oppressors are just spin control. Every thinking man sees through the propaganda.

I would like to salute Qadri. He is doing the world a service by once again condemning Islamic terrorism.

Terrorism is not just a Muslim problem. It is a world problem that affects all religions and all nationalities. Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, Islamic countries fare the worst. The head terrorist are psychopaths who are enjoying profiting from their illicit and violent ventures. They recruit and brainwash the poor and downtrodden.

To the other commentators who are arguing over who to blame, let us not waste time fighting over bygones. Instead, let us try to solve the issues and better the future.

Also, Pakistan is not yet a failed state. Somalia is a failed state, Pakistan is not. Do not compare the two.

While most Muslims are not ignorant to the fact that there is a very tiny but vocal group of people with Muslim background who do commit terrorism, reject democracy, are against gender equality, listen to anti-West Imams and are partly responsible for giving law abiding, integrated and peaceful majority of Muslims and their faith a bad name and ill will from Western societies. But it is not fair to use the actions of a fractional minority as a hammer to hit every one who belongs to Islamic communities.

To those in the West, who talk about the root causes of extremism, should imagine, Muslim populations throughout the globe – 1.5 billion strong, especially the youth in the West – watching CBS documentaries on 60 Minutes, CNN stories, BBC World reporting, Aljazeera TV coverage as well as a host of international TV channels from Various Muslim countries, about the stories of Iraqi civilians mistreated in Abu Ghraib prison, orange clad young men being paraded in shackle’s in Guantanamo bay camp, torture in Bagram Airbase, Western soldiers kicking doors of private homes in Afghanistan and Iraq and NATO forces foot patrolling streets or driving at high speed in armoured cars. Add to that threats and actual bombing by drones in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. To top all this devastating accruing, Muslims all over the world can daily read and watch degrading political statements, insulting cartoons, anti-Islam books, Islamophobic internet blogs, web postings and You Tube videos about Prophet Mohammed, Quran, Islam and Muslims in terms which resemble anti-Jewish propaganda in Nazi Germany period.

One click on a computer can bring all these information on the screen for a young man in a Somali town. What happens in a remote corner of the world is instantly transmitted through mobiles, twitter and face book. We truly live in a global village and it effects the opinions, mindset and way of thinking among those who feel under attack or mistreated. An Us versus Them mindset start taking hold among Muslim communities.
To top all this, the West holds all the cards of influence - media outlets, military power and economic resources.
This lack of parity is often used shamelessly in the West to demonise Islam and Muslims. Anyone who denies this fact is not only kidding oneself but alsoi have very little understanding of the prevailing geo-politicalrealities .
Kind regards
Bashy Quraishy

Listen to the CIA guy charged with hunting Osama -- here is what he says:

"The young Nigerian in Detroit and the Jordanian bomber in Khost and his wife have told America’s Marines, soldiers, and CIA officers what they already surely sense, but what their political leaders deny.

Both attackers cited motivations that pivot on U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians; U.S. occupation of Muslim lands; and U.S. attacks on their fellow Muslims.

The three individuals’ words echo the components of U.S. foreign policy named by bin Laden in 1996 as the causes of war — which also include U.S. support for Arab tyrants and exploitation of Muslim energy resources — and which polls show 80 percent of the world’s Muslims identify as attacks on their faith.

While it is hard for Americans to hear, we are at war with a steadily growing number of young men and women in the Muslim world because of what the U.S. government has done in that arena since 1945. The current slate of U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world generates the basic and most compelling and uniting motivation for our Islamist enemies.

Should some of these policies be changed? I surely think so...."

http://thehill.com/special-reports-archive/699-homeland-security-january-2010/75531-when-troops-and-cia-officers-die-for-a-fantasy

When troops and CIA officers die for a fantasy
By Michael Scheuer - 01/12/10 06:25 PM ET

The men and women of the U.S. military and intelligence services are the most important part of America’s defense capital. When they enter the service of their choice they are well aware of the implicit contract between the nation and themselves. In return for their career, America has the right to call on them to go into harm’s way, very often at the risk of their lives. I have never known a Marine, a soldier or a CIA officer who did not accept this reality, and I have never known one who balked when called on to deploy. That said, each I have known — and I suppose all — hope that if defending America costs his or her life, the cause for which it is spent is clear and worthwhile. It is precisely on this point that the U.S. government’s executive and legislative branches are lethally failing these men and women.

The events of the past three weeks throw into sharp relief that we are sending our young men and women overseas to fight an enemy that does not exist. Among the first thoughts expressed by President Obama after the near-miss al Qaeda attack on Christmas — and then echoed by his lieutenants, various members of both parties in Congress, and numerous pundits — was that the young Nigerian bomber hated our way of life. And since seven CIA officers in Afghanistan were killed by al Qaeda on Dec. 30, the same thought has been expressed by the same people.

This central thought has been accompanied by additional assertions, among which are the attackers were nihilistic Muslim fanatics and the attackers’ motivation has nothing to do with Islam. The sum and substance of the U.S. bipartisan political elite’s response to recent events has been — as it has been since 1996 when Osama bin Laden declared war on America — that the Islamist terrorists hate us for who we are and how we live, not for what we do.

This contention is a fantasy. It is fair to say that all the U.S. Marines, soldiers and CIA officers who have died in Afghanistan since 9/11 and in Iraq since Saddam’s removal have died fighting an enemy that does not exist. In numbers now approaching 6,000, these men and women have bravely fought and died in combat against an enemy whose main motivation U.S. political leaders have consistently denied. No U.S. soldier, Marine, or CIA officer has been killed by an Islamist fighter who took the field because America has women in the workplace, beer is available in ample supply, and there are early presidential primaries in Iowa every fourth year. Indeed, Islamists motivated by such issues would not rise to the level of a lethal nuisance; they certainly could not stymie the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The young Nigerian in Detroit and the Jordanian bomber in Khost and his wife have told America’s Marines, soldiers, and CIA officers what they already surely sense, but what their political leaders deny. Both attackers cited motivations that pivot on U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians; U.S. occupation of Muslim lands; and U.S. attacks on their fellow Muslims. The three individuals’ words echo the components of U.S. foreign policy named by bin Laden in 1996 as the causes of war — which also include U.S. support for Arab tyrants and exploitation of Muslim energy resources — and which polls show 80 percent of the world’s Muslims identify as attacks on their faith.

While it is hard for Americans to hear, we are at war with a steadily growing number of young men and women in the Muslim world because of what the U.S. government has done in that arena since 1945. The current slate of U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world generates the basic and most compelling and uniting motivation for our Islamist enemies.

Should some of these policies be changed? I surely think so, but that is a discussion for another time and broad public debate, perhaps during the 2010 midterm elections. For now, the discussion must focus on our enemies’ motivation and the knowing failure of U.S. leaders in both parties to be honest with our fighting forces. If we fail to understand that motivation, America cannot shape a war-fighting strategy to either defend those policies or defeat the tenacious, talented, religiously motivated, and growing foe our soldiers, Marines, and CIA officers are now losing to in the field. Those men and women — and their parents, spouses and children — deserve to know they are risking their lives to defeat a skilled and enduring enemy, one who is motivated by the impact of U.S. policies, and one that genuinely threatens America. They are not fighting the cartoon-like foe described by their political leaders for the past 15 years.

Scheuer is a former senior CIA officer and adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University.

dont bother with LAL QILA, he is one of the unfortunate people who thinks they were educated, but really isant. Why else do you think every argument he starts with is bomb israel or destroy israel, even on a Pakistan thread.

The problem is these people who are so resistant to change that they are willing to manipulate the weak minded to spill blood for them. Why do they not want change, obviously the loss or lack of power over weak minded people.

Religion has a strange tendency to take stupid people and make them blindly stupid.

There needs to be more people like this standing against terrorist or jihadist acts. Its not the people who need to be blamed, it is the religion. The religion is somehow giving power to people who are filled with hatred and fear of what is different. The religion needs to be altered to be less hateful of non-Islamic people. Its called living in peace and working out differences. Try it instead of threatening lives like a child the next time things dont go your way.

... and to invoke any religion as good or bad or worthy of consideration in a rational argument such as this forum is meant to be is fundamentally (no pun intended) flawed. Now, irrational arguments are another matter...

As far as I know, no religion advocates violence unconditionally or even as a matter of excusable exceptions, but all religions have language that can be manipulated by the fringes of the faithful for whatever political or social purpose or malice. (which it way too often is...)

(See : The Crusades, the current problems with Islam's interpretation by a select but virulent few, Hindu/Muslim mob violence, and even infighting amongst Buddhists).

Since we don't live in a police state (not overtly, anyway) and can't realistically outlaw religion (and wouldn't want to as that would make us guilty of the same intolerance of which we accuse extremists from every religious camp), can we please agree to exclude it from supposedly legitimate arguments and limit our discussions and friendly (or pseudo-friendly) repartee to facts, historical precedents and patterns, and common sense ? Or at least tone it down and try to stick to the facts in a non-denominational manner ? The year is 2010, for those that didn't know.

No one wants a stale or flat forum, but it seems every string has replies from those that expect non-believers or those not from their faith to be swayed by pleas invoking The Koran/The Bible/The Talmud/The Bhagavad Gita/etc. Trust me, there's plenty of secular material on which to put forth a valid argument for whichever side you're on, and heathens and atheists or non-politically motivated believers will listen - because we do actually believe in a free exchange of ideas and healthy and respectful discourse despite our lack of faith or rigidity of personal interpretation.

This contention is a fantasy. It is fair to say that all the U.S. Marines, soldiers and CIA officers who have died in Afghanistan since 9/11 and in Iraq since Saddam’s removal have died fighting an enemy that does not exist. In numbers now approaching 6,000, these men and women have bravely fought and died in combat against an enemy whose main motivation U.S. political leaders have consistently denied. No U.S. soldier, Marine, or CIA officer has been killed by an Islamist fighter who took the field because America has women in the workplace, beer is available in ample supply, and there are early presidential primaries in Iowa every fourth year. Indeed, Islamists motivated by such interwetten,issues would not rise to the level of a lethal nuisance; they certainly could not stymie the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.The young Nigerian in Detroit and the Jordanian bomber in Khost and his wife have told America’s Marines, soldiers, and CIA officers what they already surely sense, but what their political leaders deny. Both attackers cited motivations that pivot on U.S. support for Israel against the Palestinians; U.S. occupation of Muslim lands; and U.S. attacks on their fellow Muslims.Sazky The three individuals’ words echo the components of U.S. foreign policy named by bin Laden in 1996 as the causes of war — which also include U.S. support for Arab tyrants and exploitation of Muslim energy resources — and which polls show 80 percent of the world’s Muslims identify as attacks on their faith.