Dawn admits: Every terrorist incident has a Pakistani connection
Stereotyping Pakistanis
FOR Pakistanis living or visiting abroad, July 2005 was a particularly embarrassing month. It was bad enough for their country of origin to be known as a place where terrorist acts were common. Worse now, they were being stereotyped as international terrorists.
The image of Pakistan and its people abroad suffered a new round of bashing with the July 7 and 21 bomb incidents in London and the July 23 bomb attack at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. In all the three incidents, officials and the public alike abroad were quick to point the finger at Pakistanis.
Have Pakistanis become the convenient scapegoat for every terrorist act that takes place in any corner of the world? Or, as some governments claim, is Islamabad still not doing quite enough to stamp out the breeding of terrorists within its own territory? The answer seems to lie somewhere in between.
Two days after the Sharm el-Sheikh resort bomb blast in which some 90 people were killed, Egyptian security sources said that six Pakistanis who entered the country earlier in the month were being sought over the bombings. Pictures of the six Pakistanis were even widely published in Egyptian newspapers, and were among those of dozens of suspects posted in police stations in the Sharm el-Sheikh area and in Cairo after the bombings.
Although the Egyptian interior ministry (as well as the ambassador to Pakistan) later denied police reports about the possible involvement of the six Pakistani nationals (five of whose passports had apparently been found in a Sharm el-Sheikh hotel and photocopies in a Cairo suburb hotel), and it also denied ever distributing the pictures, the damage to Pakistan’s image had already been done.
In the case of the botched July 21 London blasts, BBC had interviewed an eye-witness to the point-blank shooting of a suspected suicide bomber by British security in a London Tube, first over the telephone and later in person. The eye-witness, named Mark Whitby, initially said over the telephone that the person who was shot dead by British security looked like a Pakistani!
Later on, when interviewed in person, he changed it to “South Asian”, and in subsequent BBC reports about the incident, the “South Asian” tag remained, although it is now well known that the poor man was an innocent Brazilian!
But the effort, if there is an effort, to pin the blame on Pakistan for the July 21 incident continued. Last week, American television NBC reported, quoting British authorities, that the July 21 bombers were linked to Pakistan because the apparent leader of the bombing suspects travelled to Pakistan late last year on a British passport. A terrorism analyst told NBC that the leader of the July 21 bombings was in Pakistan the same time as two bombers of the July 7 incident who were reported to have been seen arriving in Karachi in November 2004.
In the case of the July 7 London bombing, although all the four culprits were British nationals, media attention was immediately focused on the fact that they were all of Pakistani descent, and even more damaging for Pakistan, that two of them had visited their country of origin before the bombing.
As if these three incidents last month were not enough to stereotype Pakistanis as suicide bomber terrorists, reports also emerged that Hollywood producers were making a comedy/satire film entitled American Dreamz in which the plot involved a squad of Pakistani suicide bombers, attempting to assassinate a mentally frail US president!
Soon after the two London bombing incidents, the producers were said to be planning to change the script, but last week it was reported that the producers were stick to the original script featuring Pakistanis as the terrorists out to kill the US president.
Unfortunately, there is a strong basis behind this kind of stereotyping. A combination of past government policies that encouraged armed struggle in neighbouring areas; the officially admitted presence of many Al-Qaeda fugitives on Pakistani soil, even possibly Osama bin Laden himself, and the strong nexus between them and the banned extremist groups here; and the existence of thousands of madressahs with local and foreign students, all serve to mould the impression of Pakistan as a breeding ground for international terrorists and of Pakistanis abroad as fifth columnists of some global religious movement with no loyalties to the countries in which they reside in.
What has not helped our image either are the frequent reports about Pakistanis being arrested in one country or the other for Al-Qaeda links or for planning terrorist attacks, as well as reports about foreign nationals being arrested in one Pakistani city or the other for their Al-Qaeda links.
During the past year, Pakistanis have been reported to be arrested in Afghanistan, Britain, Spain, America, Australia, Turkey, and Poland for terrorist related activities. Two months ago in June, a Paris court sentenced a 64-year old Pakistani together with two other Frenchmen to imprisonment after they were found guilty of aiding the convicted shoe-bomber Richard Reid.
Even Uzbekistan, which has just given an ultimatum to American troops to leave its base, had said that the suspects arrested for a series of recent suicide bombings in the country including the capital, Tashkent, were based in Pakistan.
Shaking off the fifth column image is a difficult task. During the 1950s, 1960s and right into the 1970s, ethnic Chinese in capitalist Southeast Asian countries were often stereotyped as fifth columns of communist China. This impression only petered out slowly in the 1980s after Beijing renounced spreading communism through armed struggle in the region, and adopted an open, pragmatic and friendly foreign policy.
Islamabad has a long way to go in shaking off the image that Pakistanis by nationality and Pakistanis by origin living abroad are potential, would-be terrorists of a global religious movement. The process is a delicate one that involves a battle within the community here (as well as within the Muslim communities in Western democracies), with moderates, progressives and traditionalists taking on the extremists in their midst.
It would help a great deal for Islamabad if modern democracies the world over also work to withdraw military forces from territory the terrorists view as their homeland, whether it be Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine.
FOR Pakistanis living or visiting abroad, July 2005 was a particularly embarrassing month. It was bad enough for their country of origin to be known as a place where terrorist acts were common. Worse now, they were being stereotyped as international terrorists.
The image of Pakistan and its people abroad suffered a new round of bashing with the July 7 and 21 bomb incidents in London and the July 23 bomb attack at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. In all the three incidents, officials and the public alike abroad were quick to point the finger at Pakistanis.
Have Pakistanis become the convenient scapegoat for every terrorist act that takes place in any corner of the world? Or, as some governments claim, is Islamabad still not doing quite enough to stamp out the breeding of terrorists within its own territory? The answer seems to lie somewhere in between.
Two days after the Sharm el-Sheikh resort bomb blast in which some 90 people were killed, Egyptian security sources said that six Pakistanis who entered the country earlier in the month were being sought over the bombings. Pictures of the six Pakistanis were even widely published in Egyptian newspapers, and were among those of dozens of suspects posted in police stations in the Sharm el-Sheikh area and in Cairo after the bombings.
Although the Egyptian interior ministry (as well as the ambassador to Pakistan) later denied police reports about the possible involvement of the six Pakistani nationals (five of whose passports had apparently been found in a Sharm el-Sheikh hotel and photocopies in a Cairo suburb hotel), and it also denied ever distributing the pictures, the damage to Pakistan’s image had already been done.
In the case of the botched July 21 London blasts, BBC had interviewed an eye-witness to the point-blank shooting of a suspected suicide bomber by British security in a London Tube, first over the telephone and later in person. The eye-witness, named Mark Whitby, initially said over the telephone that the person who was shot dead by British security looked like a Pakistani!
Later on, when interviewed in person, he changed it to “South Asian”, and in subsequent BBC reports about the incident, the “South Asian” tag remained, although it is now well known that the poor man was an innocent Brazilian!
But the effort, if there is an effort, to pin the blame on Pakistan for the July 21 incident continued. Last week, American television NBC reported, quoting British authorities, that the July 21 bombers were linked to Pakistan because the apparent leader of the bombing suspects travelled to Pakistan late last year on a British passport. A terrorism analyst told NBC that the leader of the July 21 bombings was in Pakistan the same time as two bombers of the July 7 incident who were reported to have been seen arriving in Karachi in November 2004.
In the case of the July 7 London bombing, although all the four culprits were British nationals, media attention was immediately focused on the fact that they were all of Pakistani descent, and even more damaging for Pakistan, that two of them had visited their country of origin before the bombing.
As if these three incidents last month were not enough to stereotype Pakistanis as suicide bomber terrorists, reports also emerged that Hollywood producers were making a comedy/satire film entitled American Dreamz in which the plot involved a squad of Pakistani suicide bombers, attempting to assassinate a mentally frail US president!
Soon after the two London bombing incidents, the producers were said to be planning to change the script, but last week it was reported that the producers were stick to the original script featuring Pakistanis as the terrorists out to kill the US president.
Unfortunately, there is a strong basis behind this kind of stereotyping. A combination of past government policies that encouraged armed struggle in neighbouring areas; the officially admitted presence of many Al-Qaeda fugitives on Pakistani soil, even possibly Osama bin Laden himself, and the strong nexus between them and the banned extremist groups here; and the existence of thousands of madressahs with local and foreign students, all serve to mould the impression of Pakistan as a breeding ground for international terrorists and of Pakistanis abroad as fifth columnists of some global religious movement with no loyalties to the countries in which they reside in.
What has not helped our image either are the frequent reports about Pakistanis being arrested in one country or the other for Al-Qaeda links or for planning terrorist attacks, as well as reports about foreign nationals being arrested in one Pakistani city or the other for their Al-Qaeda links.
During the past year, Pakistanis have been reported to be arrested in Afghanistan, Britain, Spain, America, Australia, Turkey, and Poland for terrorist related activities. Two months ago in June, a Paris court sentenced a 64-year old Pakistani together with two other Frenchmen to imprisonment after they were found guilty of aiding the convicted shoe-bomber Richard Reid.
Even Uzbekistan, which has just given an ultimatum to American troops to leave its base, had said that the suspects arrested for a series of recent suicide bombings in the country including the capital, Tashkent, were based in Pakistan.
Shaking off the fifth column image is a difficult task. During the 1950s, 1960s and right into the 1970s, ethnic Chinese in capitalist Southeast Asian countries were often stereotyped as fifth columns of communist China. This impression only petered out slowly in the 1980s after Beijing renounced spreading communism through armed struggle in the region, and adopted an open, pragmatic and friendly foreign policy.
Islamabad has a long way to go in shaking off the image that Pakistanis by nationality and Pakistanis by origin living abroad are potential, would-be terrorists of a global religious movement. The process is a delicate one that involves a battle within the community here (as well as within the Muslim communities in Western democracies), with moderates, progressives and traditionalists taking on the extremists in their midst.
It would help a great deal for Islamabad if modern democracies the world over also work to withdraw military forces from territory the terrorists view as their homeland, whether it be Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine.
posted by India News Watch at 8:40 AM
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