The Pakistani Madrassah and Terrorism
Published on the e-journal Perspectives on Terrorism as 'The Pakistani Madrassah and Terrorism: Made and Unmade Conclusions from the Literature', which covers many points on a quick scan earlier:http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/...=130&Itemid=54
Parallel is an article on Madrassah in Indonesia 'Muslim Education, Celebrating Islam and Having Fun As Counter-Radicalization Strategies in Indonesia':http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/...=128&Itemid=54
Not all gloomy!
What do the locals think - in the FATA?
I know I missed this, so hat tip to Melissa Payson for the reminder. This is a CNAS product, using a local NGO (CAMP) for the polling in the FATA.
Quote:
Few places in the world have assumed as much importance for the United States and its allies since 2001 as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal regions, which have served as a base for the mix of militants seeking to attack the governments, militaries and civilians of the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan and others. Yet our understanding of this region – its politics and history, U.S. involvement there, and the opinions of those who call it home – is painfully limited.
This project aims to help bridge that knowledge gap, by combining three streams of work from the New America Foundation’s Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative: A first-ever poll of sensitive political issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (FATA); New America's on-going monitoring of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, and our series of of in-depth analyses on politics and militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas, written by local Pakistani researchers and other regional experts.
Link:http://pakistansurvey.org/
Linked in is the definitive, open source map of drone strikes.
Militancy in Pakistan’s Borderlands: a report
Full title of a new Century Foundation report: 'Militancy in Pakistan’s Borderlands: Implications for the Nation and for Afghan Policy' by Hassan Abbas and link:http://tcf.org/publications/2010/10/...han-policy/pdf
A summary by the author on his website:http://watandost.blogspot.com/2010/1...pakistans.html
FATA: continuity or change?
Thanks to Melissa for picking this article up, written by Dr Maleeha Lodhi, ex-Pakistani Ambassador to the UK & USA, following a conference on:
Quote:
Advancing policy implementation in Fata” ranged over security issues, Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, effectiveness of state governance, economic development, the international community’s role in stabilisation and most importantly, building a national consensus on Fata.
Link:http://www.thenews.com.pk/02-11-2010/opinion/13335.htm
No surprises, but an airing of the issues in the region.
Why Pakistan's anti-terror courts don't work
This article fits here and hat tip to Circling the Lion's Den; citing a think tank report and starts with:
Quote:
For example, the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act does not apply to residents of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, no matter where in Pakistan they are arrested. Instead, they must be dealt with under the Frontier Crimes Regulations, drawn up by the British in 1848 and designed to enforce collective responsibility. As Yusuf notes: When suspected militants are repatriated to FATA, they often rejoin the insurgency.
Link:http://circlingthelionsden.blogspot....urts-dont.html
The report itself:http://www.eastwestcenter.org/filead...s/apb077_2.pdf
While the world looks to Pak hinterlands, AQ is swarming its largest cit
From FP a short article on the role of Karachi, not Quetta:
Quote:
In fact, NATO sources say, most of the Afghan Taliban frontier leadership -- known as the Quetta Shura -- had for at least three years been sheltered in Karachi under an ultra-secret program run by the Pakistani security establishment and known as the "Karachi Project." The idea that most of the leadership of Taliban's was stationed in Quetta was a "smoke screen," a top NATO source told me. "In reality, it's Karachi Shura," confirmed a top NATO commander.
Then the apparent lessons learnt from the US FBI interrogation of David Headley, who did recce for Mumbai and other places:
Quote:
While analysts have for years accused Pakistan's security establishment of playing a double game with militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba -- disavowing responsibility for their actions while retaining them as "strategic assets" to be deployed against India -- recent revelations emerging from the interrogation of David Headley, a Pakistani-American accused of complicity in the Mumbai attacks, threaten to blow the game wide open.
In Headley's telling, Pakistan is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between "good" jihadi groups -- those that launch attacks in India or Afghanistan -- and "bad" ones that wage against the Pakistani state. Indeed, that may have been the motive for the Mumbai assault.
Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...wn_on_al_qaeda
Curiously this suggests that ISI and maybe others - politically - had a strategy; which is strongly contested by others, no that there is no national CT strategy. See the various articles on:http://watandost.blogspot.com/ and for example this article:http://watandost.blogspot.com/2010/1...-pakistan.html
From which I quote:
Quote:
Pakistan has proven that it is a country that cannot protect its own citizens -- in mosques, shrines, universities, shopping centers and police stations. How can it possibly protect the citizens of other countries?
Punjab Governor Assassinated
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/wo...n.html?_r=2&hp
The killer has a very popular fan page already, at http://www.facebook.com/Malik.Mumtaz.Qadri
I know people are trying to have this page shut down, but I think the page should NOT be shut down. People are not "radicalized" on this page, they come to this page because they are "radicals". let others see them and see what the mindset is really like. Otherwise, we will be forever plagued by Westoxicated liberals whose only frame of reference is postmodern western academia and who only know radical Muslims through the eyes of some professor in Columbia University or Berkeley...little brown children, bravely struggling against the hegemonic discourse of the west or some such...
For background on the blasphemy business, you can see my article at http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd...s-to-come.html
Sorry for the rant, but its not a good day.