Car bomb in crowded Pakistan market kills 100

Thursday 29th October, 06:23 AM JST

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tkoind2 at 10:00 AM JST - 29th October

SBBarnes. One note. It was inevitable that the Taliban and their political system would become an issue in Pakistan. The Taliban were born in the slums and refugee camps around Peshawar and have been working to build their hold on these tribal regions long before 911.

The difference is that now the world is paying attention. It should have done so earlier when the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan. That was the golden moment to work for stability. And the world just looked away.
SBBarnes at 11:22 AM JST - 29th October

tkoind2: It was inevitable that the Taliban and their political system would become an issue in Pakistan.

Not necessarily. Some groups thrive on violence and instability. As soon as peace breaks out they fall into decline. The Taliban seems like just such a group. Had they been allowed to stay focused on Afghanistan and busy and bottled up there I don't believe they would be in control of the Swat valley today for example.

As with others I believe we should have stayed out of the nation building business and focused on getting bin Laden. Taking on the Taliban directly in Afghanistan was and is stupid. A policy of containment would have been far better although not perfect either. Oh well. You cannot build a man's house for him, or rather, should not.

And a golden moment for stability in Afghanistan? A nuthouse is a nuthouse my friend. Hiring the world's finest administrator is not going to make the people any less nuts, even if the world's worst administrator is on his way out. All the Afghans have ever known is fighting. The Taliban way is the only way they will even know peace, as brutal a peace as the Taliban promised. Now we have just stirred up the hornets nest, much like oppression of the first Muslims turned Mohammad from peacenik to general. And look what happened.
nandakandamanda at 12:40 PM JST - 29th October

The Taliban are not inevitable, and they are not unstoppable. They are like a cancer that grows with its own inner logic at the expense of the healthy body. Sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker. There are ways and means to avoid, prevent, even cure cancer, but there are on the other hand also conditions that build up and favour its growth.

The Taliban have many weaknesses; they make renewed efforts to overcome them and rally support. So should we.

The world has many strengths, once of which is a warm and benevolent attitude to Islam. (There are odd exceptions, of course.) We need to find spokespeople who can say what needs to be said, and we need to have the clarity and courage to walk the right path for all of humanity.
SushiSake3 at 01:13 PM JST - 29th October

tkind - "There is nothing, NOTHING, in their faith that justifies this. The Taliban are heritics against their own faith and war criminals against humanity as a whole. They threaten the stability of Pakistan inviting a wider regional conflict and they continue to stand in the way of peace for the long suffering people of Afghanistan."

Everyone should remember this, including the poster (I forget his/her name) who often ends their posts with 'Islam, the religion of peace.'
panzerkampwagen at 02:45 PM JST - 29th October

Now we saw the Frankeinstein made by the Regan/Bush-era in 1980s! This conflict will further dragging america into the chaos of Pakistan. Pakistan is a nuclear armed country with an unpopular leader Zadari installed by the west. The growing chaos of pakistan and afghanistan was western world's support of the islamic jihadism against the soviets in 1980s!
Harry_Gatto at 02:47 PM JST - 29th October

All very sad, in fact worse than sad. One thing which I don't understand: Why is it that we never hear anything from the Keeper of the Two Holy Mosques and the top Immams in Saudi Arabia denouncing this Muslim violence?
nandakandamanda at 04:27 PM JST - 29th October

Harry, I can think of at least two very good reasons why these leaders say nothing about such atrocities as the one in question...
WilliB at 05:07 PM JST - 29th October

tokind2:

" I have spent a lot of time studying Islamic music the last few years and along the way learned a lot more about their faith. There is nothing, NOTHING, in their faith that justifies this. "

Then obviously you have not been studying very much. All you need to do is read up on jihadist literature to follow their reasoning. And to find jihadist literatey, you don´t even have to go to radical sites... even "moderate" sites link to articles by Hassan al Banna, Yussuf al Qaradafi, and the like.

By blanking islam out of the islamic jihad, you are just playing their game.
nandakandamanda at 05:59 PM JST - 29th October

WilliB "All you need to do is read up on jihadist literature to follow their reasoning."

Yes, but it's their reasoning that allows darkness to be seen as light.
eigonosensei at 07:19 PM JST - 29th October

"Jihad" means a spiritual battle between yourself and sin.
Monoflow at 08:33 PM JST - 29th October

These people have real problems... Not us.
Sarge at 10:34 PM JST - 29th October

"The bomb was directed squarely at civilians"

Those civilians must have been infidels.
nandakandamanda at 10:59 PM JST - 29th October

Well, if that is true Sarge, then it was infidels against infidels.
LIBERTAS at 11:17 PM JST - 29th October

"Suspected militants" my astrolabe! This is a deliberate CIA/Mossad effort at destabilizing Pakistan, seizing their nukes, and making Pipelinistan a whole lot easier to deliver oil to Haifa. Read between the lines folks, read between the lines.
LIBERTAS at 11:33 PM JST - 29th October
eigonosensei,

"Jihad" means a spiritual battle between yourself and sin.

Almost. In the Holy Qu'ran it says that "jihad" is the efforts a follower of Allah, BBHHN, must make to ensure that s/he is not prevented from exercising his/her religious duties and obligations. BBC designates it as follows: The literal meaning of Jihad is struggle or effort, and it means much more than holy war.

Muslims use the word Jihad to describe three different kinds of struggle:
```
* A believer's internal struggle to live out the Muslim faith as well as possible
* The struggle to build a good Muslim society
* Holy war: the struggle to defend Islam, with force if necessary
```
Many modern writers claim that the main meaning of Jihad is the internal spiritual struggle, and this is accepted by many Muslims.

However there are so many references to Jihad as a military struggle in Islamic writings that it is incorrect to claim that the interpretation of Jihad as holy war is wrong. Jihad and the Prophet

The internal Jihad is the one that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is said to have called the greater Jihad.