Pakistan festival dancers banned

[Coventina]

Source: BBC

Leaders of a religious group in the south of Pakistan have banned women dancers from a traditional spring festival, officials say.

Organisers of the festival in the province of Sindh say they have had to cut the 10-day festival to three days as a result of the threats.

The clerics who asked the dancers to leave the area were accompanied by local police, witnesses said.

The group, called the JUI-F, has its main support base in the north-west.

But the JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazlur) has been spreading its wings in the south of the country as well.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7987383.stm

[YOY]

1. These people have so much in common with American Fundies it's hilarious.

n/t

[Soylent Brice]

2. i know, right? funny shit.

[YOY]

4. It'd be far funnier if they weren't armed and willing to impose their beleifs on others forcefully.

n.t.

[Soylent Brice]

5. indeed. n/t

[leftynyc]

6. Really?

When have the fundies gotten anyone in the country to curtail a festival. Which fundies in this country even have that kind of power?

[YOY]

7. The moment we let them. That's when.

Stop playing smartass. You know well I was talking about how they feel the urge to impose their dislike of dance and music on others.

[leftynyc]

8. Stuff your smartass comment

I'm sick and tired of every time somebody posts a story about the Taliban someone quickly tries to tie our fundies to them. The fundies are no friend of mine but the comparison makes you look like a moron.

[YOY]

9. Who the hell asked you then?

The comparison is right on time and perfect.

Let's see...they both thrive in poverty. Can't stand gays or independent women. Take a literal approach their beleifs, don't like seperation of church and state, generally are unpleasant to be around, think you're going to hell if you don't beleive as they do, think they'll get a cookie from magical sky daddy for doing so..etc...

So how is that comparison moronic sweetie pants?

Tough shit if you cannot point out just "why" in a mature manner but feel the free to say asinine insults.

[leftynyc]

12. You call that a comparison?

The Taliban BEAT the women and MURDER the gays without answering to anyone because they ARE the government. You seriously want to compare the two?!! Knock yourself out cupcake. (they're unpleasant to be around - big fucking deal).

[YOY]

14. Want me to go on Sugar britches?

Strong influence in politics in their region (as tool or actual manipulators), have controllers in more financially stable areas but actively recruit in impoverished areas, feel the need to take over the military completely, abhor alcohol, have ridiculous food stigmas that MUST be obeyed, HATE the "left wing", believe in force before negotiating, enforce religious schooling instead of public,...etc...

Oh Snap! I'm describing Ultra-Zionist Jews as well! Could I actually be onto something?

Or do the fundamentalist Christians have to actually take power for any comparison to work in your little world? Furthermore are the "taliban" the only fundamentalist Muslims you're considering in that special place?

They're the same people...they just used a power vacuum created by the Russians "brilliant" invasion to take over in Afghanistan...only a fool would think they wouldn't ever try the same here.

[leftynyc]

16. Oh so now we're bringing other

countries into this. The thread started with Pakistan and you felt a comparison of our fundies and the taliban was appropriate. I disagreed and got called names for it. Now, you want to get into a philosophical discussion about religious fundamentalists - Do you have ADD?

[YOY]

23. No. Pretty easy to follow.

Sad if you cannot.

If you don't want to be called names don't be a smart ass when you've got nothing. The ADD thing was really cute though...

There is a significant amount of similarities between fundamentalists of all streaks. I can throw in a bit of similarities with Hindu fundies. Even some of the die-hard Atheists around here show some (but not all) of the traits. If you cannot see that many of those traits are commonly shared ones then you are blind.

[leftynyc]

24. There is absolutely nothing complex

about your thinking. You tried to make a comparison between the taliban and our American fundies as you see they have much in common. I think they have very little in common. The taliban is the government in these places and the fundies are a mere annoyance. Every country has their crazies - ALL of them. How much power do they have? That's when they become an issue.

[YOY]

26. They had enough power to get Bush elected. (or to make it look legitimate with Diebold and the SC)

As the Republican party continues to "find itself" they will either find more power or be marginalized as the hopeful death of Reagan Conservatism stops it's last throes of rigor mortis.

I hardly think them "a real annoyance". They are a real threat as they continue to be pandered to by Republicans. In in such an arraigement they seem to get thrown a mere bone or two by Neoconservatives but eventually they are destined slowly break the system under such a situation in their quest to combine church in state.

No, it is not "complex thinking" at all. It is a comparison and frankly comparing the mentality of religious fundamentalists is quite accurate. If you want to do a historical comparison between those two particular kinds of fundamentalists of course you will find dissimilarities due to external situations and history.

[B3Nut]

27. I've been of the mind of late....

that the Taliban and American Christian fundamentalists differ only in degree, not in basic kind. The drives and thought processes underlying both factions are extremely similar. The respective literalist mythologies differ on key theological points, to be sure, but at the root it's metaphysical my-way-or-the-highway writ large. And believe me, some of the extreme religious right (the Reconstructionists/Dominionists) would favor executing gays, independent woment, et. al. as the Old Testament explicity supports such practice in places. Dominionists like Gary North and R.J. Rushdoony wrote more than a few books advocating these things, and a return to making OT law the law of the land. They literally believe in the talking snake, and that we all deserve to burn in hell from birth since a rib-woman took advice from said talking snake damning all humanity.

www.yuricareport.com is a good place to keep track of what the would-be theocrats are up to.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan, ex-fundamentalist and former believer in talking snakes, whose ball python has yet to say jack shit...

[redqueen]

10. Uh... gay pride parades?

Don't they do their level best to intimidate those right out of existence?

[leftynyc]

11. Have they gotten one cancelled?

Are they beaten as they march? What I'm talking about is what the Taliban do to the populations they control (and they do have control in the Swat valley in Pakistan). It's NOTHING like what ankle biting crap the fundies do here.

[redqueen]

13. The only difference is the brutality.

The mentality is *exactly* the same.

[leftynyc]

15. No - the difference is POWER

Every society has crazies - every single one. The taliban are the government in the Swat valley and in many parts of Afghanistan - they have the power to make people's lives miserable and do so. The fundies here can scream and whine all they want (as we can), they don't have the numbers or the power to do anything like the taliban. Annoying - yes, of course.

[redqueen]

17. The person you initially responded to said they were similar.

I think they have a point. I see enough similarities myself to agree.

You don't, I guess. So we'll have to agree to disagree.

[leftynyc]

18. And we are able to do that

amicably. Their mindsets may be similar and I maintain that all countries have crazies. But the taliban is poison to women, gays and to any progressive ideal and have the power to enforce their brand of psychosis. The fundies here are a mere annoyance.

[redqueen]

20. Given the recent events with respect to gay marriage...

I think you do have a point.

Let's hope things continue to move in this direction... not just here but everywhere. :)

[leftynyc]

22. Amen (n/t)

[Posteritatis]

19. The word "only" is a little inappropriate for this comparison

Call me when American fundamentalists start ramming through legislation requiring women to have chaperones, or forbidding them to drive, or making them the guilty party if they're raped, or denying them the franchise, or banning them from receiving an education.

Once those are the case, once those are even a little popular and no that insular gaggle on Free Republic are not an adequate population size to convince me, I'll accept that they're in a similar sort of league. Until then this kneejerk we-have-it-just-as-bad silliness is little more than some rather pathetic, sheltered first-world posturing from people who probably don't have the first shred of a clue what things are like on the ground there.

I probably don't have said shred of a clue either about what life is like on the ground in Pakistan or elsewhere in the region, especially for women, but I'm at least self-aware enough to recognize that, which is more than I can say for a lot of other people in this and similar threads.

[redqueen]

21. Jesus. The *only* difference *in that example*.

Enjoy your self-righteousness, though. Really.

You might start to perhaps consider what need it fills for you... and try to resolve that. Put that in your self-aware pipe and smoke it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

28. the christian right wishes they could exert the same power of sexual minorities/women

as the taliban can over theirs.

that is the essential issue.

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. Forcing a moral equivalence is intellectual cowardice

Which makes you an intellectual coward. You are equating what you believe to be true under a vastly different set of circumstances to what is actually true in a current set of circumstances.

I get it - you don't like "fundies." Neither do I. But if they were prone to the same sort of pell mell intimidation and violence currently experienced in Pakistan and Afghanistan, we'd have seen it by now. Mormons giving money to influence a referendum in California is not the moral equivalent of slaughtering actual human beings. Perhaps the two draw the same level of IRE in your mind, but they are not equivalent in moral terms.

And spare me what you're sure "they" will do if "they" grab power. They had power for 12 years before Reagan and 8 years after Clinton, and despite the shit sandwich we have now, we didn't have Morality Police.

[keroro gunsou]

3. sigh

dear taliban fundies:

GROW UP!

sincerely
the rest of the world

[ohio2007]

25. Taliban blow up Pakistan music shop

Taliban blow up Pakistan music shop

Suspected Taliban militants planted a remote-controlled bomb that blew up a music shop and neighbouring stalls in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, police said Tuesday


Islamist militants have bombed scores of entertainment shops across the country's northwest in recent years, charging that music and films are contrary to the teachings of Islam.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090407/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanafghanistanunrestmusic

oh,

you said "grow up"


Seems once again,as usual, Pakistan sectarians broke the peace deal

Peace deal; Facts out of fiction :

The basic points of deal:

1. Sharia law would be implemented in Swat and Malakand.

2. Security forces will gradually withdraw from the region.

3. The government and the Taliban would exchange prisoners.

4. Militants would recognize the writ of the government and cooperate with security forces.

5. Taliban would halt attacks on barber and music shops.

snip
9. Taliban would denounce suicide attacks.

10. A ban would be placed on raising private militias.

11. Taliban will cooperate with the government to vaccinate children against diseases like polio.

12. Fazlullah's madrassa, the Imam Dheri would be turned into an Islamic university.

13. Only licensed FM radio stations would be allowed to operate in the region.

14. Taliban would allow women to "perform their duties at the workplace without any fear."

snip

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3768586

AP – Head of Pakistan's main human rights organization Asma Jehangir,
addresses the crowd during a rally to condemn the flogging of a woman, Saturday, April 4, 2009 in Lahore Pakistan. Pakistani authorities ordered inquiries into a video showing the public flogging of a screaming woman in a northwestern valley where officials have yielded to Taliban demands for Islamic law …
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090407/wl_time/08599188985700



Remember that name "Asma Jehangir", head of Pakistan's main human rights organization




women have to learn their limitations

[biopowertoday]

30. I see nothing about the continued blowing up of schools for girls which

is continuing in Afgan as well.

[ohio2007]

31. ...stay tuned...you aint seen nothin yet.

Taliban commander refuses to leave the area as asked by the local jirga, saying that they have been ordered by their high command to monitor affairs in the area in accordance with Nizam-i-Adl Regulation. - File photo.



http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/nwfp/tensions-high-as-taliban-refuse-to-leave--za