Musli on Pakistan's Tribal Area
Contributed by John Werntz
This post concerns an extraordinary young American who blogs under the pseudonym Muslihoon. His friends and followers, of whom there are many [May his tribe increase!] call him Musli for short.
To introduce him to my reader[s] I can do no better than to quote from his "About," omitting a short whimsical passage at the end-- Of South Asian descent, American citizen by birth, and a college graduate, I study religions and languages as a hobby. I was born a Muslim but left Islam in 10th grade. Since then I converted to Christianity. I am unapologetically a Zionist, Jewophile, patriotic, hawkish, opinionated, and with regard to international relations a systemist. My primary interests these days are Islamic militancy (which goes by many names) and modern reformed fundamentalist Islam (the Salafi movement within Islam).
Everyone who has not been fast asleep these past few days is aware of the sharp disagreement between two of this country's Muslim allies: President Karzai of Afghanistan and President Musharraf of Pakistan. Karzai's indignation is easily understood. He cannot accept that Musharraf seems to have offered a permanent haven to the Taliban leadership and thousands of Taliban fighters in south-western Pakistan. In what follows, Musli offers us a remarkable insight into conditions in the Pakistan tribal area that shelters the Taliban remnants. One can only hope that our leaders possess at least a glimmering of Musli's knowledge of the area.
The rather extensive quotes that follow are taken from Muslihoon's post of October 1, 2006. The Pakistani province of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) consists primarily of Pashtuns. One part of the NWFP is special administratively: the Federally-Administered Tribal Area (FATA), which is in the southwest of the NWFP and borders Afghanistan. This is basically an autonomous area, where the tribal authorities basically rule without interference from the federal government of Pakistan or the provincial government of the NWFP. This area has become significant because they harbor fleeing members of the Taliban, fleeing Afghanistan and the Coalition’s assault on and attempt to eliminate the Taliban.
[snip] FATA had never been ruled by any force. Not even the British or any other invading force passing through has been able to subdue this area. As may be expected, Pakistani authorities have not had much success. In fact, Pakistan has basically given up. A treaty of sorts was signed between FATA authorities and Pakistani authorities, according to which Pakistani authorities would restore FATA’s autonomy with the condition that FATA will not harbor agents of the Taliban nor harbor foreigners nor harbor foreign entities or allow them room to operate.
But if anyone thinks FATA will turn over members of the Taliban, one would be sorely mistaken. For one thing, they can easily say: anyone who is a student is a talib-e ilm (student of knowledge); are they then required to turn over all students in every school? (“Taliban” means, literally “students”.) The other issue has to do with melamasti or hospitality. In the Pashtun code of living (called Pashtunawali), any guest has to be honored and protected, even if it is one’s enemy. A host must consider any offense to one’s guest as a serious offense against the host. (And recall how honor is restored in these societies: by violence.) As people in FATA (and the NWFP and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan) follow Pashtunawali, and is considered to be an essential and defining aspect to being Pashtun (thus, whoever does not follow it has essentially renounced his Pashtun-hood), there is no way FATA will refuse to assist members of the Taliban or surrender such members to Pakistani authorities. Furthermore, with regard to foreigners or foreign entities, many foreigners moved into the area and then married local people. If FATA were to expel these foreigners, it would have to deal with the anger and staunch resistance by families (and the tribes they belong to).
[snip] Pakistani authorities’ involvement in FATA has never been popular in Pakistan, seen as Pakistan attacking its own people on the order or behest of The United States, essentially doing The United States’ dirty work in Pakistan. And, sad but true, if Pakistani authorities wanted to exert authority and influence over FATA, it would need to fight a very violent, bloody civil war in that region: the people of FATA have not let Pakistani authorities succeed either. This agreement will shore up support for the government.
So, what does this agreement between FATA and Pakistani authorities mean for The United States and for Afghanistan?
At this point, Musli breaks off from straight exposition to consider the implications of the above facts on the ground for policy in wartime. His thoughts merit careful consideration. The entire essay should be read by anyone who wishes to be well informed. What really counts is what George W. [hijacked religion] Bush and Condoleezza [disturbances] Rice and Donald [stuff happens] Rumsfeld think. Do they or their advisors know what this youthful American of "South Asian" origin knows? Let us hope.
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