Posted on 09/12/2006 6:47:12 PM PDT by milestogo
West responsible for extremism: Musharraf
* President says Pakistan not inherently prone to terrorism or extremism
* Blames 1979 US mission in Afghanistan for militancy in region
BRUSSELS: President General Pervez Musharraf has blamed the West for breeding terrorism in his country by bringing in thousands of mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and then leaving Pakistan alone a decade later to face the armed warriors.
Musharraf told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday that Pakistan was not the intolerant, extremist country often portrayed by the West, and terrorism and extremism were not inherent in Pakistani society. “Whatever extremism or terrorism is in Pakistan is a direct fallout of the 26 years of warfare and militancy around us. It gets back to 1979 when the West, the United States and Pakistan waged a war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan,” Musharraf told EU lawmakers.
“We launched a jihad, brought in mujahideen from all over the Muslim world, the US and the West…We armed the Taliban and sent them in; we did it together. In 1989 everyone left Pakistan with 30,000 armed mujahideen who were there, and the Taliban who were there,” he said, adding that Pakistan had “paid a big price for being part of the coalition that fought the Soviet Union.”
Musharraf said that the scourge of terrorism had been eliminated from Pakistan and that efforts were underway to root out extremism, but this would take time.
Musharraf also urged Pakistani expatriates to invest in Pakistan and to send maximum foreign exchange to boost the country’s economy. The president stressed that they play a role in enhancing the dignity and prestige of the country. He said that Pakistan and Belgium had strong economic ties, which needed further expansion.
He added that Pakistanis living in Belgium should further the country’s development. Musharraf also stressed on the need for the Pakistani community to impart modern education to their children. He informed the Pakistani community about the steps taken by government to boost the country’s economy, to provide basic facilities and to counter regional instability.
Gen Musharraf met with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt later on Tuesday to discuss trade ties between their countries, and the situation in Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Mr Verhofstadt told reporters that Gen Musharraf had urged the EU to play a bigger role in finding a solution to the Middle East crisis.
European Commission President Jose Barroso announced after talks with Musharraf that Europe would increase development assistance to Pakistan from 2007. agencies
With allies like this...
This will end up in one of two ways. Either the struggle with Islam will eventually result in a moderate Islam, or the Islamic nations will be obliterated forever. I'm praying for the former.
Suprising but then again, not surprising. Islam is exactly what it is --- a dinosaur asking for its head to be cut off.
WHAT ABOUT WAHHAHABBISM? WHAT ABOUT MUHAMMADANISM??
Moderation is antithetic to Mohammadanism ...
They will choose the former and this receive posthumous Darwin Awards.
That's what makes me skeptical about the future of Islam.
The man has a point.
So you are not even considering the possibility that they will win and we will lose? I honestly wish I was so optimistic.
milestogo, I agree that he has a point, although a distorted one, but I am so tired of analysis of the roots of the threat to the west and the military coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a war, let's win it, not endlessly debate how we got into it.
there can be a number of factors at playwhich we can readily identify
but was it christian foreign policy that brought on near 300 years of fighting called the crusades? or jihad?
or was it bush foreign policy?
In Pakistan, if a woman is raped, she is charged with adultery unless she can provide 4 male muslim witnesses to the rape. Is the anti-soviet jihad responsible for that? What about the London bombers?
I mean after all it was Bush and America who inspired the (false) prophet Mud-Hammed 1400 years ago to write those beautiful & inciteful words of murder & jihad to kill all the infidels anywhere you find them!!
Remember the words of Jesus:After me many false prophets will arise!!
Judging be the sheer number of his followers and the fruit of their religion (murder, bloodshed & wars in the name of Islam), we plainly see that Islam & Mohammed is the largest false prophet to emerge in the world (thus far).
Good old Jimmy Carter was President in '79, but the problem goes back much further.
I'm currently reading a book, written in 1957, in which an expert had this to say about Islamic activism back then.
"That society has deteriorated to a point where violence is almost inevitable...pp. 158-59, Islam in Modern History, Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Princeton University Press--tired of being overwhemed, have leapt with frantic sadistic joy to burn and kill.
The burning of Cairo, the assassination of Prime Ministers, the intimidating of Christians, the vehemence and hatred in their literature--all this is to be understood in terms of a people who have lost their way, whose heritage has proven unequal to modernity, whose leaders have been dishonest, whose ideals have failed.
In this aspect, the new [in 1957] Islamic upsurge is a force not to solve problems but to intoxicate those who cannot longer abide the failure to solve them.
Not a chance. We will suffer horrendous losses, a nuclear strike or such, and then we will remove the Middle East from the face of the Earth. The world will fear us for centuries after.
That is what I see happening.
God help us all.
"The Devil made me do it."
Hey Musharaff, if you're inept, that's an emotional and perhaps a genetic flaw.
Your sophistry is a sign of weakness.
You pass blame and come off as a teenage girl prevented from staying out past ten p.m.
Take charge you whining bastard, confront the issue, raise your sword in defense of what is courageous or settle back in your pillows and await your ultimate demise.
Just damn.
He'll probably get more Euros for saying this. I have a hard time criticizing him, as he has had several attempts on his life related to his helping us. He could do a lot more, but could also end up dead, and we would have to secure their nukes. Not a pretty picture. He does seem to find wanted terrorists when he needs something from us, or is visiting here though...
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