On 1/22/08, shiv sastry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Tuesday 22 Jan 2008 12:00 am, Anish Mohammed wrote: > > It might not be that bad to be a shia during muharram in Pakistan. > > Infact though a minority they have been in power in Pakisthan. > > regards > > >Anish - the "in power" bit is news to me. Jinnah was the only nominal > shia > >who held power in Pakistan.
From what I gather, Bhutto dynasty is Shia ( I could be wrong). >Pakistan has gradually become more and more anti shia. "Its not the people" > we > >like to say and that may be true. Then it is the hardline ahle hadith > >theologians with their army mentors. I dont know much about internal politics of pakisthan. Again I might be wrong, but blaming ahle hadith for all that goes wrong doesnt seem me as pointing at the right direction, it seems much more complex than that. There is a large population which is seen as fertile ground by both parties involved, both are trying hard to gain the ground, resulting in excesses(e.g. Iraq). An equation has two sides, I am sure we could find different analysis of things. >Musharraf was also known as the "Butcher of Gilgit" for having ruthlessly > put > >down a shia rebellion in that area (Gilgit and Baltistan) under his > mentor > >Zia. In recent years there have been bomb blasts in shia mosques, and > last > >week there were several Muharram related anti-shia clashes in Pakistan > and > >one in Kashmir in India. Having anti-shia clashes in Muharram, should not be suprising. Muharram is seen by one of the parties where thier rightful leader was killed by the deviants. >Frankly I believe India is the only country (perhaps next to Iraq under > >Saddam) in which shias, sunnis and ahmedis cannot get into pitched > battles to > >dominate the other. In the rest of the world sunnis dominate shias except > in > >Iran where shias rule. Iraq is looking like it is going to split on > >shia-sunni lines now. Ahmedis have been declared "non Muslim" in > Pakistan. Again I dont claim to know much, but Bahrian has majority shia population. Syria is ruled by shia rulers. Lebanon has a very strong shia group Hisbullah. The list goes on, I do recollect reading an article in foreign affairs about differnet sects in islam and political power. I guess in the end, I have to agree with Cheeni on xenophobia. regards Anish
