No, you're wrong

Submitted by Don (Pakistan), Jan 16, 2008 at 01:13

No, no one put a gun to my head. I love what I do and it gets me around the world to actually experience other cultures, almost all of which I appreciate. I even have a good life here in Lahore for the next five months - if I'm not blown to bits before then.

I have very good Pakistani friends, who, coincidently, call themselves Muslims but don't actually practice their religion (thank God). As for the Haddod Odinances, it's unpopular with much of the citizenry and one of the reasons many people hate this government - because it's not "Islamic." The Islamic parties like Jamaat-i-Islama, who want Sharia law enacted and side with Taliban, are popular here.

Osama bin Laden is a virtual hero and role model to millions of Muslims in Pakistan, and Musharrif knows bin Laden has more support here than he does. Isn't that nice? Yes, there is a small community of expats here, but all of them here for their jobs and for the extra pay they get for coming to a country like Pakistan.

That expat community got a lot smaller after 9/11 and is shrinking daily because of the radicalization of Pakistanis. I know, you'd probably America or Israel for their radicalization. I blame Islam. And by the way, how many Westerners are moving into Islamic countries as opposed to Muslims trying to get into Western countries. It's only the Islamic countries that radicalize in such a way as to kill innocents, hate the rest of the world, blame everyone else for their problems, won't take responsibility for their own faults, and can't separate their religion from politics.

As for being proud of your religion, I'm sure you are. What's there NOT to be proud of? Literally thousands of acts of terrorism over the world just since 9/11 and tens of thousands of innocent people now dead in the name of Islam and Allah, beheading people on film and celebrating it in Muslim communities, calling for the deaths of cartoonists and putting fatwas on their heads (yet no fatwas for Osama bin Laden?), fatwas on authors and polititions throughout Europe, stonings and hangings of homosexuals and adulturers, hate crimes against scores of Hindus (India) and Buddhists (Thailand), honor killings on a daily basis, opprerssion of the poor women born into this religion, and earning the hatred and fear of the other 4 billion people on this planet that are really just sick and tired and to their limit with your religion and what it is doing to our planet and to humanity. So I don't disagree with you there: I'm sure Muslims are quite proud of that.

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