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3 Items On General Musharraf's Speech of June 25, 2003

1. Musharraf's View of Pakistan: A Secular State Under U.S. Tutelage
2. Who wrote Musharraf's Speech?
3. Zionist Christians Distributing Stories of "Oppression of Christians" in Pakistan.

1. "BUSH: SINCERE FRIEND OF PAKISTAN." [General Musharraf]

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military coup leader, spoke to a gathering organized by the Institute of Peace at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. He got a very supportive introduction from Richard Solomon, the Jewish President of the Institute of Peace.

i. Musharraf's speech focused on the help he has given the U.S. to defeat Al-Qaida. He proudly proclaimed that he has helped to "break the back of Al-Qaida." Taking credit for Bush's victory in the "war on terrorism," Musharraf announced that "Al-Qaida is a shadow of its past owing to our efforts."
[Comment: Musharraf did not mention that Osama bin Laden survived and only recently there have been Al-Qaida type attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco. How can al-Qaida carry out such attacks with a broken back?]

ii. Musharraf claimed that he is very popular in Pakistan. He said that he senses that "people want me at the helm of affairs." As proof, he pointed out though he has had "20 days of roaming around," there have been no disturbances in Pakistan.

[Comment: Musharraf's last attempt at proving his popularity was the "referendum" which though rigged to ensure his "victory" got only 15% turnout. Musharraf's friends, like Ms. Weaver, admit that the referendum was a disaster for him. He does not hold public meetings in Pakistan. The opposition has not held any demonstrations in his absence because people like Qazi Hussain Ahmed are very "decent" opponents, and in the fierce heat of June, demonstrations are almost unknown.]

iii. Musharraf's VIEW OF PAKISTAN's FUTURE is that Pakistan should follow the path of "moderation" under U.S. supervision, with American dollars, and should improve its educational system and get rid of poverty. Such "reforms" are one part of his "pincer movement" and the other "pincer" is U.S. resolution to support Pakistan's "moderation." For Musharraf, the same forces which oppose America are impediments in his future "vision." He called these forces 'militancy' and 'extremism.'

[Comment: For Musharraf, there is no role for Islam in Pakistan. Any serious attempt to implement Islam, however peaceful, is for him "extremism" and "militancy." His attitude can be seen in his efforts to stop Islamic Law from being implemented in Frontier Provinc though the Law has been UNANIMOUSLY approved by the elected Provincial Assembly. Thus for Pakistan to become Musharraf's Pakistan, it would have to become a colony of the U.S. Essentially Musharraf and Pakistan are mutually exclusive.]

iv. KASHMIR. This is a favorite topic of Musharraf because it gives him the opportunity to present himself as a patriot. He referred to the "centrality of Jammu & Kashmir" as an issue for Pakistan.However, he is against any conflict on Kashmir and made the major mistake of showing his cards. In his words: "We do not believe in violence." He is very encouraged by the "steps" towards peace which India's Vajpayee has taken and praised America's "great work" in that context.

[However, anyone who paid attention to Musharraf's speech would realize: HE IS NOT GOING TO, EVER, ATTEMPT TO LIBERATE KASHMIR. For him the 'centrality' of Kashmir lies in talking about it. If India is willing to talk about Kashmir, talks can go on for ever, while India hunts down and crushes the Kashmiri resistance. Vajpayee and Bush are playing this game with Musharraf's help to fool both Pakistanis and Kashmiris.]

v. PHIOSOPHY: Musharraf believes that Muslims who believe that "Islam is being targeted" by the U.S. are wrong. Also, he says that Americans who think Islam is a religion of "terrorism" are wrong. He wants to help the puppet government of Karzai, installed by the U.S. in Kabul, in the process of "reconstruction." He wants the U.S. to re-assure Muslims that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not against Muslims or Islam.

[Comment: For comfortable, middle class Muslims, if Bush issues such statements, it might be re-assuring. Once in a while, increasingly rarely, Bush does issue them. Perhaps Musharraf thinks Muslims will be fooled if they are told that the Ka'aba will not be attacked, or the Hajj will not be cleared through the FBI, or the Qur'an's jihad verses will not be censored. Musharraf is fooling only himself. Even sincere secularized Muslims can see that it is a war against Islam.]
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2. WHO WRITES MUSHARRAF's SPEECHES? Why no ISLAMIC QUESTIONS WERE ALLOWED?

Obviously, with a Jewish President, the U.S. Institute of Peace seemed to have carefully screened the people who came to Musharraf's meeting. Note:

1. There was NO recitation from the Qur'an.
2. There was no discussion or question which would show that Pakistan is an Islamic nation.
3. There was NO statement or question which would bring up the facts that MILLIONS in EVERY PAKISTANI city have protested against Bush-Musharref policies and have condemned the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq.
4. The questioners seemed to be hard core secularists, attacking Pakistan's blasphemy laws (which forbid abuse of the Prophet, pbuh) and laws against adultery.
5. The only genuine question came from a Sindhi nationalist who spoke on the divisive issue of Thal Canal and the division of water between the provinces. This gave Musharraf an opportunity to "prove" that he cares for all of Pakistan. However, he fudged the point that he has received lands for himself at throwaway prices. He claimed that he had received only "2 squares" and these are given to every officer.

[NOTE : According to Pakistan's leading daily Nawa-e-Waqt, which defies every dictator, Musharraf and other generals have acquired substantial lands at throwaway prices.]
6. There was no question about Centcom's web site which shows that Musharraf just about gave all of Pakistan to the U.S. for its devastation of Afghanistan and in the process suffered $12 billion in losses.

MUSHARRAF READ ALMOST HIS ENTIRE SPEECH. It had probably been written for him by someone from a U.S. think tank where Pakistani agents serve. He used terms like "macro economic indicators" and "ethos" and "win-win outcomes" and "structural" problems in Pakistan's economy. Anyone who knows Musharraf would know that these terms are not part of his mental horizon. He had to scrutinize his speech like a football player reading a plagiarized paper.

There is a little slur in Musharraf's speech which brought out one of the unwitting bits of humor in his speech. He claimed that today "41,000 women are shitting" in offices in Pakistan, more than ever before. [Probably he meant "sitting.]
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OPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANS IN PAKISTAN? Musharraf Surprised.

Last Christmas, New Trend published eyewitness accounts of the prosperity and success of Christians in Pakistan. New Trend went to churches and talked to Christian activists. However, a bunch of Christian Zionist-types are spreading stories of "oppression of Christians in Pakistan." Musharraf claims to be the supporter of Christians in Pakistan; he does not realize that if you give zionists an inch, they will take an ell.

So following Musharraf's speech, a female reporter from the Washington Times wanted to know why he was not doing anything to stop the rapes of Christian women in Pakistan and that acid had been thrown on the face of one woman. [She related it to the Iraq war.]

Musharraf expressed complete ignorance of any such case. For once, we would agree with Musharraf. There have NO ATTACKS on Christians related to the Iraq war. Such stories are fabrications and are unverifiable.

WASHINGTON TIMES, however, continued its propaganda and published the "rape" story in its June 28 issue under the heading : "Christians besieged in Pakistan." The Times' source is a man named Shabazz Bhatti, chairman of an unknown "All Pakistan Minorities Alliance.' He claims that a 9-year-old Razia Masih, was raped on April 26 in Faisalabad. [If any Pakistani reader of New Trend has any verifiable information on this story, do let us know.]

BY CONTRAST, Muslim women are humiliated and sometimes killed by ignorant, macho men, often owing to Musharraf's inability to provide law and security to the poorer people of Pakistan. Owing to growing Jamaate Islami movement and the surge of the Jihad movement led by Hafiz Saeed, women are respected and honored in Pakistan. However, on the governmental scale, Musharraf is a failure in the area of women's rights. [Most of the women he was referring to in the National Assembly of Pakistan, are not for him but against him, especially the fiery muslimahs who wear head coverings and face veils. How brazen of him to try and take credit for the achievements of the Islamic movement!]
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2003-06-30 Mon 18:36ct