On the Passing of Pervez Musharraf

By Nadrat Siddique

The former dictator of my country, Pervez Musharraf is dead. Among his other ignominies,

- Musharraf turned a Muslim woman scientist, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, over to the CIA, to be raped, tortured, and brutalized, her children forcibly removed from her and separately imprisoned. She was ultimately sentenced to 86 years in prison for a crime she could not have committed;

- Musharraf turned over the Islamabad-based Taliban ambassador, Mullah Abdus Salaam Zaeef, never mind his diplomatic status, to the U.S. The soft spoken, scholarly ambassador was then sent to the U.S. torture center at Guantanamo Bay and held for 4½ years before being released. He was never charged nor tried.

- During the early years of the WOT ("War on Terror"), Musharraf allowed the U.S. to put out a dragnet to seize all manner of innocents from Pakistani soil. These men and boys, including some as young as 14, were sent to secret prisons, where they endured horrific torture. Many of these were sent on to the U.S. torture center at Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for indefinite periods, without charge or trial, deprived of counsel.

- Post 9-11, Musharraf subverted Pakistan's economy to serve the U.S. WOT.

- Musharraf ordered the military assault and siege of Lal Masjid, a major mosque in Islamabad, which he perceived to be too hard line. He ordered the murder of its imam. The imam's mother and numerous other members of the mosque were also killed in the assault.

- In conjunction with the Lal Masjid assault, Musharraf ordered the Pakistan Army to attack Jamia Hafsa, an Islamic seminary for young Muslim women. Jamia Hafsa was contiguous to, and associated with Lal Masjid. Large numbers of Jamia Hafsa students were detained. Many of these "disappeared" indefinitely.

- Musharraf authorized the Pakistan Military to conduct the aerial bombardment of hundreds of mosques in the Northwestern frontier of Pakistan, setting off what became known as the Waziristan War.

- Musharraf authorized unfettered use of Pakistani air space by the U.S., allowing the latter to conduct thousands of drone strikes across the Pakistani frontier, as well as in Afghanistan. These resulted in the deaths of thousands of Pakistani and Afghan civilian deaths.

I, for one, will not be mourning Pervez Musharraf. He can most charitably be characterized as an imperialist sycophant and king of munafiqs. The pain of his medical treatment for amyloidosis will pale in comparison to what Allah (AWJ) has in store for this war criminal. Inshallah.

#FreeAafiaSiddiqui #PervezMusharraf #PakistanZindabad

Aafia Siddiqui Case: Does a Guilty Verdict Equal Guilt?

Recently, I had a discussion on Twitter with a young Pakistani man who bought into the propaganda that since Aafia was serving time in a U.S. prison, having been tried and convicted, she must certainly be guilty. 

Here is my response to him:

What exactly do you know of Dr. Siddiqui's case? Some of us were in the New York courtroom where she was prosecuted. Her trial was presided over by a Zionist judge, Richard Berman.

Berman did not allow any discussion of what happened to Siddiqui during 2003-2008. That's the entire period leading up to her appearance before a New York court for trial. That means (if one accepts the Judge's rationale), her alleged crime occurred in a vacuum. It also means that the manner in which Siddiqui, a conservative Pakistani woman, suddenly landed in a foreign country, Afghanistan, to (ostensibly) assault 4 - 6 U.S. soldiers, is irrelevant.

As independent investigations have revealed, Siddiqui was abducted, illegally detained, tortured, and raped (most likely at the U.S. base in Baghram) during that time period. So why would a judge not allow discussion of that period, except for bias and possibly malevolence?

If Berman had the integrity to allow such a discussion, it would have exposed the Pakistani authorities' part in hideous crimes against a Muslim woman, a mother of three, whose PhD research centered on child development.

Dr. Siddiqui was not the only one rendered during the period following the September 11 attacks. Hundreds of other innocents were similarly handed over to the U.S., simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, because someone decided they wanted the bounty (offered by the U.S. at the time) associated with handing over certain population groups, or because a prisoner under torture falsely named them.

All of this started under Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. He is a war criminal, and ought to have been brought before the International Criminal Court. May Allah's lanaat (curse) be on him.

Given the state of the U.S. Justice System, it's never a good idea to assume that guilty verdicts equal guilt, This is particularly true in the "War on Terror" era cases, where the defendant is a Muslim and the odds are stacked against him or her, with biased judges, hand picked juries, and a climate of fear-mongering, and Islamophobia.

The George Floyd Verdict and Asian Confusion

The issuance of a guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the cop who murdered George Floyd lead to an interesting reaction among some of my very young, very sincere Pakistani friends. They all live in Pakistan, and are ardent supporters of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman political prisoner held by the U.S. government. Very active on Twitter, they launched a coordinated campaign to comment on Twitter posts issued by Black politicians, journalists, socialites, and others living in the U.S., relating to George Floyd. 

The only problem was the Pakistani youth, who had never set foot in the U.S., (and therefore seemed almost completely unaware of racial dynamics here), compared Floyd's suffering with that of Aafia (almost as if it were a contest!). They insisted that Floyd's family had gotten justice, and now so should Aafia. They were commenting (on Twitter) on almost every post a public personality issued about the George Floyd verdict. Their comments were taken as highly offensive by some Black activists and writers. And not surprisingly, the Pakistani youth were blocked by the Tweet authors. The Pakistani youth seemed bemused as to why anyone would be offended by what they'd written or block them, when they were just trying to get justice for Aafia.

Since the youth and I were all members of a small "Free Aafia" WhatsApp group, I gave them this free advice over that medium:

"I've been reading the discussion here on trying to use the occasion of the George Floyd verdict to get attention for our sister Aafia's case. As a Pakistani who has grown up in the U.S., I would strongly discourage this. Black people suffer on a daily basis under police brutality and oppression in the U.S., even though they are born here. They are generally very sympathetic to the plight of Dr. Aafia when they are told about it. And- I've had many of them stand with me in protests here for Aafia, when most US-based Pakistanis are too cowardly to do so. The Pakistanis, in my opinion, are more concerned about what might happen to their nice jobs, image, etc if they speak out for Aafia.

A very large percent of Pakistanis as well as Arabs living here in the U.S. are doing great, in terms of dunya. And they don't care either about Aafia, or about Black Americans who are suffering under police brutality/racism. Many of them have convenience stores in the Black areas ("ghettos"). These areas are typically very poor, and have very few nice grocery stores etc to buy healthy food. The Arab and Pakistani convenience store owners sell liquor and cigarettes to Black people. It gives a bad name to Muslims.

The shop owner who called the police on George Floyd was an Arab Muslim. He thought Floyd was shoplifting/stealing some very minor item from his store, so he called them. But, he did not have to. His shop was similar to the ones I describe. (He apologized later, but the damage was done.)

The best thing Pakistani Muslims can do, in my opinion, is to support Black people in their struggle against racism and White Supremacy. And that is a struggle for justice which Muslims can support. (In fact, Qur'an Kareem commands us to stand with all oppressed people.) We do not need to compete with them on who is more oppressed, or try to overshadow their struggle.

In other words, I would strongly recommend keeping the two issues (justice for George Floyd and the Aafia Siddiqui case) separate."