The special back issue of Radiance (19-25 March 2000) devoted to terrorism is even more relevant today than when published nine years ago!
Since then, the ominous shadow of terrorism and Muslim extremism has descended upon Swat, adjoining areas of NWFP and large swathes of North-eastern Afghanistan, plunging them into an era of pitch-black darkness under the brutal rule of the Taliban.
Under the false pretext of Islam, female education has been totally banned, more than 170 girls’ schools destroyed, numerous CD and barber shops blown up, amid dire threats to throw acid upon any woman or girl who dares emerge outside her home, all forms of entertainment and cultural activities prohibited, the death-sentence invoked for anyone opposing them, going so far as to publicly exhibit the corpses of offenders hanging from street lampposts.
So unbearable is Taliban rule, that everyone who can is leaving, creating thousands of displaced destitute people.
Under the rule of Taliban, terrorism thrives. Youthful suicide bombers, both male and female, prowl everywhere in Pakistan, sowing death and destruction. Among these are those guilty destroying the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad together with all its many casualties and without doubt, to a large extent, responsible for the recent atrocities in Mumbai.
Taliban is notorious for kidnappings and beheading captives, especially foreigners.
Bearing in mind the terrible times in which we live, a genuine Islamic order must express compassion and mercy as it did during our greatest days in the past. In any modern Islamic state, the Hudud punishments must never be first – rather, the very last on the Shari’ah’s agenda.
Maryam Jameelah
Lahore, Pakistan