Taliban in Pakistan

[ScottSA]

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?en..._Mountains&only

[DogOnPorch]

See this? World's largest gun market.

http://www.influks.com/post1064.html

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Happiness in a warm gun.

---The Beatles

[Guest chilipeppers]

What happens if the Taliban and other assorted radicals manage to overthrow the Pakistani government. There is a group demanding total Sharia Law now, the Prez might not be able to contain them.

[DogOnPorch]

What happens if the Taliban and other assorted radicals manage to overthrow the Pakistani government. There is a group demanding total Sharia Law now, the Prez might not be able to contain them.

A nightmare scenario...terrorists not only armed with nuclear weapons, but ICBMs as well.

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The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.

---J. Robert Oppenheimer

[ScottSA]

The danger is not isolated groups of taliban on the border...or even the entire tribal border region. The danger is the urban masses who are largely fundamentalist. But not to worry...it's only a few extremists.

[Guest chilipeppers]

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/52/009.html radicals in Pakiston and Sharia Law

[VJ2]

The danger is not isolated groups of taliban on the border...or even the entire tribal border region. The danger is the urban masses who are largely fundamentalist. But not to worry...it's only a few extremists.

Any proof that the urban masses are largely fundamentalist? Not doubting just would like credible information backing that up.

TYVM

[ScottSA]

The danger is not isolated groups of taliban on the border...or even the entire tribal border region. The danger is the urban masses who are largely fundamentalist. But not to worry...it's only a few extremists.

Any proof that the urban masses are largely fundamentalist? Not doubting just would like credible information backing that up.

TYVM

This is a Marxist analysis predating 911, just to head off the accusation that it was Iraq or whatever that caused it. I could look for harder data, but soi can anyone else...I just grabbed the first thing I could find:

Social base

In the 1970 general election, the first election held on an adult franchise in Pakistan, the fundamentalist parties won eighteen seats. In the last election in 1997, they secured only two seats. In the intervening elections, their results were: 1988, seventeen seats; 1990, eighteen seats; 1993, nine seats.

But this does not show their real social strength. In 1970, they had a large parliamentary representation but their social weight was far less. In the last election, they had a far smaller representation in the parliament but they are a far bigger social force. They command a big influence in the army and trade unions and among students. Above all, most of these parties have their own armies of fanatical guerrillas. They can mobilise hundreds of thousands of people.

The last ijtama (party congress) of the Jamaat Islami, the biggest fundamentalist party, was attended by 300,000 people. Similarly, half a million people attended the ijtama in 1999 of Lashkare Tayyaba. The student wings of these various fundamentalist parties, especially Jamaat Islami, control many college and university campuses. At these campuses everything from the appointment of teaching staff to student admissions is done according to their will. No student group opposing them can survive; they are heavily armed and trained in fighting. They simply kill their opponents. Similarly, their influence in public sector trade unions has grown, especially during the 1980s, thanks to the patronage of General Zia ul-Haq.

http://www.dsp.org.au/links/back/issue18/S...m#Social%20base