Why can't we refuse Saudi Arabia's "request" for military assistance in Yemen? Because we sold our soul to the devil a long time ago, says Fayes T Kantawala
I was reading an article online the other day about the victims of religious extremist nutjobs in this country (what else is new?). Published in a local newspaper, it was mainly a factual recounting of statistics showing how journalists and Shias and Christians are all targets and have been killed or attacked with apparent impunity for years. Preach, I said.
Then came the comments. Barring a few readers who genuinely want to engage with what they’ve read, most contributors to online comments sections are poisonous beings that roam the dark trenches of the interwebs, waiting with impatience to launch their bilious “opinions” like murderous darts. For the most part they just want to be heard and use the anonymity of online comments to vent.
In this piece the first few comments were actually conciliatory, in the how-awful-things-are-now or we-must-do-something vein. These usually come from desi housewives in New Jersey and/or Texas. Other comments were angry (‘How can the government let this happen!’) and one or two were depressed (‘Let’s just move’). But the majority – almost 3 out of 5 - were vitriolic diatribes against the writer, ranting on about how people like him are DEFAMING the country (caps are popular in these sections) while insisting how The West is responsible for all the troubles that are decimating Pakistan today. There was no mention of target killings or suicide bombings or the general atmosphere of intolerance that prevails here, no real acknowledgement of what they’ve just read. Just blinding anger against a perceived, faraway enemy.
As it turned out, I could see each commenter’s Facebook profile next to their statement. So I did what any self-respecting person in 2015 with wifi would do and started stalking them shamelessly. Who are these people? Where are they from? What do they do? Are they mad or just part of a cult that bans critical thinking? Both? In a separate note, it always surprises me bigots like them have no qualms having a profile on Facebook at all, that most Western of inventions run by a (gasp!) Jewish guy.
I am shocked by how many "hater" trolls are actual women and not ISI cyphers
I was shocked by how many of these trolls were actual women and not ISI cyphers. Their profiles boasted selfies at weddings, selfies at Mecca and illustrations of roses next to saccharine, vomit-inducing messages of gratitude. Looking at their pudgy cheeks I couldn’t fathom how they actually thought Malala was a stooge or that a Pakistani journalist targeted by the LeJ ‘had it coming’. Did they not see how they would be the most vulnerable if the anti-women Taliban theology were to truly take root here?
As for men, most had pictures of themselves either posing with guns or praying. One guy in particular, the author of the most hateful of the comments, had only one album on his page. It showed him and his three small sons at ummrah, all wearing Arab headdresses with pride. They wore them on the flight there. They also wore them on the flight back. They wore them at the party thrown for them when they returned. The guy lives in Multan, own an electronics store, and is clearly not an Arab. His profile did confirm for me that there are people here who truly believe this place should be more like Saudi Arabia and and are willing to kill anyone who thinks otherwise.
By now we all know people who share that view. They want a repressive society of Islamic theocracy because it means they can continue thinking they have been ordained by some higher power to wear their holy outfits and run their electronics stores and are not, in fact, a lost people on the wrong side of history. It’s part of what makes the current “debate” about whether we will be involved with sending troops into Yemen semi-ridiculous.
There are people here who truly believe this place should be more like Saudi Arabia and are willing to kill anyone who thinks otherwise
What makes any of us think that Pakistan is sovereign enough to refuse a Saudi Arabian “request”? I’m honestly asking. We may have a more developed military but they have oil, money and bankroll us in ways the general public can’t even fathom. In this country, where Shias are being killed basically for sport, what makes you think, even for a second, that we won’t take sides in a Saudi vs. Iran proxy war fought in (ugh) Yemen? The Saudis have actually released a statement saying they are gathering a “loose coalition of Sunni states”. When did we become Sunni state? Answer that and you’ll figure out why we don’t have a choice. I’ve become cynical living here and don’t for a second believe that the pretense (hope?) of free will is the same as actually having it. We’re just not that kind of country.
We are living in the Matrix, Neo. Don’t you forget it.
