Meet A Pakistani about to be takfir'd - "it has indeed become imperative to separate the purely political from the religious", btw HE'S A YANQUI!

Best of luck Charlie.
Pakistan Daily Times:

The real threat --Syed Mansoor Hussain For most Muslims it is extremely difficult to separate politics from religion even under normal circumstances. But in these perilous times when terrorist attacks within Pakistan are becoming a major problem, it has indeed become imperative to separate the purely political from the religious

The other day, some of the people I work with were having a discussion about the Taliban and who exactly they are. Most of them were young professionals and many of them are quite devout and adhere to Islamic injunctions about prayer and fasting. When I was asked the same question I started to ponder on it. Luckily for me one of the people in my department walked in just then.

He is from the northern areas, wears a long flowing beard and is a practicing Muslim. I looked at him and asked him if his daughter went to school. He replied that she did; that perhaps is the defining action that separates the devout from the Taliban. And I pointed to this person and said that as long he was willing to send his daughter to a regular school, he would never be of the Taliban nor would he really support them.

That is the conundrum facing us today. How to separate the devout from the extremists and then rally the former to the cause of fighting against those very extremists. Unless we can mobilise those among us who are good Muslims, send their daughters to school and are opposed to extremism, we can never win the war against those that use our religion to intimidate and subjugate.

Yes, that's 'a standing O going on in the rest of the world.

Evidently, one of the interesting developments in extremist thinking based upon fatwas from their supporters is that it is acceptable if ordinary Muslims are killed in suicide attacks. The idea being that these victims are automatic participants in jihad and if they die they are martyrs and therefore destined for heaven.

For most Muslims it is extremely difficult to separate politics from religion even under normal circumstances. But in these perilous times when terrorist attacks within Pakistan are becoming a major problem, it has indeed become imperative to separate the purely political from the religious. Only then can the problem of extremism be tackled objectively. And yes, the government does need to get over with the irritants that confront its coalition partners and put its house in order to confront the real problems facing Pakistan.

What is clearly needed then is a coherent national policy about terrorism that is acceptable to even the most conservative Muslims within Pakistan. But the public face behind that policy has to be someone whose probity and Islamic credentials are impeccable. What Pakistan needs badly is a politician who is popular and at the same time is capable of mobilising majority of Pakistanis against the extremists. Right now, there doesn't seem to be anyone of that sort around.

Syed Mansoor Hussain has practised and taught medicine in the US. He can be reached at smhmbbs70@yahoo.com

Read it all, and send him applause.
If there were more men and women like this, our disputes could be solved politically.
Cue Loooooooooooiiisssssssssssssssssssssss.