Taliban advertising
The Taliban murdered a couple for alleged putative who cares anyway ‘adultery’ and somebody took pictures.
In footage which is being watched with horror by Pakistanis, the couple try to flee when they realise what is about to happen. But a gunman casually shoots the man and then the woman in the back with a burst of gunfire, leaving them bleeding in the dirt. Moments later, when others in the execution party shout out that they are still alive, he returns to coldly finish them with a few more rounds.
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
It was the kind of barbarity that has become increasingly familiar across Pakistan as the Taliban tide has spread. But this time, with black-turbaned gunmen almost at the gates of Islamabad, the rare footage has shown urban Pakistanis what could now await them…In the past few days the footage has circulated among Pakistanis who usually show little interest in the rough ways of the distant frontier regions. They have now started to wake up to the fear that al-Qaeda-linked rebels from the frontier could take over their nation.
The Pakistanis I know have been awake to that fear for some time, and especially since Swat was handed over bound and gagged.
The footage Pakistanis have been watching shows them what they could expect. A local journalist was invited to witness the execution, who filmed it with his mobile phone for a Pakistani channel, Dawn News…”Using the media is part of their (the Taliban’s) psychological warfare,” said Imtiaz Gul, chairman of Centre for Research and Security Studies, an independent think tank in Islamabad. “This way, they inject fear into the minds of people who might oppose them, keeping the majority silent.”
Terry Eagleton please note.
“A local journalist was invited to witness the execution, by filming it with his mobile phone”.
Lord preserve us from the Taleban. How could any sane journalist take pictures of a staged-killing like that, indeed? Either the barbaric murderers must have threatened him with his life or he must be belonging to the brutal organisation.
The Taleban frowns upon the modern world, yet its uses modern world techniques to try bring its homicidal brutal message home to people. It kills people for using the Internet – yet it uses the very same technology itself -so duplicitous in its practice.
Is the Pakistani government going to allow the Taleban to have its own way? Is it too weak, too afraid of these warlords?
The Taleban mean business. This decrepit video should be ignored by the media at large as it only plays into the murderous Taleban hands.
Not long ago Martin Amis asked an audience if they thought they were morally superior to the Taliban and only a third were prepared to claim superiority.
http://nickcohen.net/2008/01/31/martin-and-the-liberals/
No doubt Eagleton would regard these people as appalling western cultural supremacists.
“No doubt Eagleton would regard these people as appalling western cultural supremacists.”
Really? Rather than ascribing false motives to Terry Eagleton, why not ask him for a comment? I doubt he would think the way you rhetorically suggest.
To talk yet again about Terry Eagleton in such disparaging terms is to divert scrutiny from where it should be in this instance which is squarely at the Taliban, the relentless spread of its hate filled meme, and the self indulgent lack of resolve we in the West (and particularly the liberal intelligentsia) have continued to display in uniting to say ‘enough is enough’
A very depressing story, not boding well for the future of Pakistan at all.
What’s coming, if no force stops the Taliban, is perhaps best indicated by the brilliant Canadian TV series, ‘The Secret Files of the Inquisition’ (producer, David Rabinovitch) which my wife and I have been watching on SBS TV. Episode 2, dealing with Spain, is particularly pertinent, and is downloadable on the link below, with results dependent on connection speed.
Program: http://player.sbs.com.au/programs#/programs_08/fullepisodes/latestepisodes/playlist/Secret-Files-Of-The-Inquisition-Ep-2-The-Tears-of-Spain/
Information about: http://www.optuszoo.com.au/tvguide_programme/widebay/sbs/5525
“and the self indulgent lack of resolve we in the West (and particularly the liberal intelligentsia) have continued to display in uniting to say ‘enough is enough'”
But that’s why Eagleton is relevant, surely.
Marie this photo is often used to demonstrate that principal,should the photographer have shooed the vulture rather than take the photo? http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241442
‘Rather than ascribing false motives to Terry Eagleton, why not ask him for a comment?’
Eagleton commented at some length in the Guardian, and on the basis of that it seems that he regards anyone who thinks there is anyone seriously wrong in the islamic world as a western cultural supremacist. But maybe he’ll write something different in the Guardian next week.
That should be:
anything seriously wrong
Bob-B,
That article by Nick Cohen on Martin Amis was really interesting, thanks for the link.
Richard,
[Richard wrote:] “Marie this photo is often used to demonstrate that principal, should the photographer have shooed the vulture rather than take the photo?”
Well, the argument goes that shooing the vulture would have achieved little but insure he missed out on a powerful photograph, which itself could achieve more. Anyway, I don’t think the comparison you attempt holds, because the photographer in the latter case was not in a position to shoo the Taleban.