People often bitch and moan about how bad things are in India or that things are now deteriorating in the U.S.
But few realize how much worse things are in so many other parts of the world like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Zimbabwe or in Western Africa.
The New York Times has a P.1 story today on how in parts of Pakistan (the Swat district), the Taliban has become so powerful that they issue death threats and prescribe rules of living via the Radio.
No singing, no dancing, no cable TV, no school for girls… (Although the story does not say so, we guess that includes no watching Bollywood movies too).
Horrifying.
Here’s an excerpt from the NYT story:
Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic†activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill.
….With the increasing consolidation of their power, the Taliban have taken a sizable bite out of the nation. And they are enforcing a strict interpretation of Islam with cruelty, bringing public beheadings, assassinations, social and cultural repression and persecution of women to what was once an independent, relatively secular region, dotted with ski resorts and fruit orchards and known for its dancing girls.
Last year, 70 police officers were beheaded, shot or otherwise slain in Swat, and 150 wounded, said Malik Naveed Khan, the police inspector general for the North-West Frontier Province.
The police have become so afraid that many officers have put advertisements in newspapers renouncing their jobs so the Taliban will not kill them.
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