Pakistani Taliban end feudalism and corruption in the Swat Valley.

[Prometheus Bound]

Taliban Exploit Class Rifts in Pakistan
ESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here.

.....In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power.

To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.

The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form of Islam through terror and intimidation.

......The Taliban’s ability to exploit class divisions adds a new dimension to the insurgency and is raising alarm about the risks to Pakistan, which remains largely feudal.

..... Mahboob Mahmood, a Pakistani-American lawyer and former classmate of President Obama’s, said, “The people of Pakistan are psychologically ready for a revolution.”

Sunni militancy is taking advantage of deep class divisions that have long festered in Pakistan, he said. “The militants, for their part, are promising more than just proscriptions on music and schooling,” he said. “They are also promising Islamic justice, effective government and economic redistribution.”

.....the Taliban exploited the resentments of the landless tenants, particularly the fact that they had many unresolved cases against their bosses in a slow-moving and corrupt justice system, .......

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/world/asia/17pstan.html?_r=1

Summaries of the NYT article
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\04\18\story_18-4-2009_pg1_13
http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2986589
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/04/17/MN2C17430I.DTL
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090418/jsp/foreign/story_10839709.jsp

[angstlessk]

1. repukes attempted to say Democrats were like the Taliban by stoking

class warfare...I say..when class warfare EXISTS..AND IT DOES IN AMERICA ALSO..it is dangerous NOT TO ADDRESS IT..and find ways to ameliorate it when possible...

[msongs]

2. meet the new boss - same as the old boss - Islamic justice nt

[Traveling_Home]

3. What about the Sufis?

Anyone heard how they are doing in this crisis? Where their fears and hopes lay?

[Alamuti Lotus]

4. Yes, that's what really will get the NYT's attention

aside from a few veterans of the struggle in Kashmir, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan (or even including these personalities), the students' movement represents a new power in the areas of Pakistan that they are taking from government control -- this is a great threat to the corrupt, collaborationist financial-political-military order that has ruled the area for decades (centuries). That, more than anything, worries the Times; good.

[Prometheus Bound]

5. 3000 students with guns did away with feudalism in a couple of years.

With 12,000 soldiers against them plus thousands more police.

That must put a bit of fear in elites everywhere.

It puts Mrs Clinton's "mortal threat" in a different perspective.

[Prometheus Bound]

6. Taliban: Threat to Pak feudal lords?

from The New Nation (Bangladesh)

Saeed Qureshi

If by a miracle, the Taliban extend their sway from Swat to other parts or the whole of Pakistan , then perceivably a very astounding development can take place.

They could uproot the centuries old and deeply entrenched loathsome institutions of Feudalism and fiefdom from the land of pure as they have already done in Swat and Malakand.

Pakistan , unlike India has thus far remained polluted and sullied by feudalism that exists in a way as if this was a state within the federal state of Pakistan .

Since the inception of Pakistan, no meaningful efforts have been mounted to disband these classes of local lords, nobles and barons that cover and cripple the society like a parasite and scuttle, through intrigues and oppression, the establishment of a democratic polity that of the people, by the people and for the people.

In Pakistan , the feudal and bourgeoisie classes have their roots in politics, in the army, in parliament and even in business.


....The feudals and tribal chiefs, lord over their population as if they were their personal slaves and servants. Any move that was aimed at quashing feudalism in Pakistan was fiercely resisted by these local potentates.

....Interestingly, after becoming the local Islamic sovereign in Swat and Malakand, the first thing that Taliban did was to enforce the Islamic as well as the basic principle of socialism. They took over the lands and mansions of the land lords and distributed these among the local poor inhabitants.

The ruthless local lords, aristocrats, plutocrats and filthy rich religious and spiritual healers, shamans and sooth Sayers have been dislodged from their lands.

The fake and phony spiritual clout of the relgious lot which brings them soci-political power, pelf and a self crafted ecclesiastic license to reign as lieutenants of God on earth has been thoroughly exploded.

A judicial system have been put in place in Swat and Malakand that is prompt, quick, punitive, least expensive and deterring. Now some one should tell us if these measures in any way are un-islamic?

....So let Taliban eliminate feudalism, destroy the fortress of the spiritual healers, decimate the self appointed divine solicitors and fake contenders of godly powers and pillage their citadels of exploitation tombs etc where Shirk ( belief in entities other than god) is practiced and where superstitious people are beguiled and misguided.

It is foregone that Taliban would not succeed in Pakistan . But in the meantime they would dent or destroy an abominable institution that is nothing short of a scourge.
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/04/24/news0319.htm