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October 16, 2005
The Forgotten Genocide
Last week I asked the question, "What does the Urdu/Persian word Pakistan mean in English?"
The answer is that it means the "Land of the Pure." It's a term referring to spiritual pureness which on the surface sounds very nice until you understand while Muslims are considered "spiritually pure," non-Muslims are considered filthy and impure. This is not a concept seen in a few isolated countries in specific historical context but a well developed line of thought in Islam that manifests itself in various ways in every Muslim dominated area. In Iraq and most other Arab nations, Muslims consider non-Muslims so dirty that they are instructed to wash themselves after having contact with non-Muslims. You'll often see Muslims in the Arab world refusing to shake hands with Coptic Christians and other non-Muslim minorities for this reason. But Christians' suffering in the hands of Muslims in the Arabic world is not quite as bad as what the Hindus suffer in the subcontinent. Christians are considered "People of the Book" and are therefore tolerated in Muslim lands as long as they submit to the authority of Muslims. Pagans however, are not tolerated and are lucky if they get a choice to convert rather than die. Hindus are seen as "idol worshipers" and hence, the lowest of the low in Islam's eyes.
The first wave of Muslim invasions to the subcontinent took place as early as the 8th century. The invasions were mostly not considered successful but did eventually lead to a sizable Muslim population over the centuries. Throughout the centuries, there were often very bloody wars between Hindus and Muslims. There were also more constant smaller clashes, since the Muslims did not mix well with the Hindu indigenous population.
Pakistan, which was created for the "pure" was born in 1947 to accommodate Muslim's desire for an Islamic state. This is commonly referred to as the Partition of 1947, when India broke apart. Pakistan proceeded to cleanse their new country of the "impure" or non-Muslim. It was quite a bloody affair in which millions of people were displaced or killed. Over the years, Pakistan has killed off and driven out most of the non-Muslim population and is currently 97% Muslim with just 3% Hindu and Christian which is an impressive feat considering the vast population of indigenous Hindus who used to populate the land.
In 1971, the Indian-Pakistan War took place over East Pakistan (Bangledesh) which wanted to break away from West Pakistan. During the upheaval, Pakistan attempted to placate the mostly Muslim Bengalis by kicking several hundred thousands of Hindus off their land and giving it to the Muslims. But when that failed, Pakistan sent troops in to kill off the Hindu population in another bid to cleanse the area of non-Muslims. Troops rounded up and gunned down Hindus, raped hundreds of thousands of women and drove out millions in what is arguably the worst act of genocide in recorded history. While the cleansing of 1.4 million non-Muslim Armenians took place in the span of eight years, the slaughter of anywhere from several hundred thousand to three million non-Muslims in Bengali took place in the span of months. Eight million Bengalis became refugees in India. This horrendous piece of history barely registers a blip on the Westerner's consciousness.
Dean Esmay, in his post regarding Islam and freedom, provides interesting but superficial information to demonstrate that Islam is not inherently intolerant, slavery-oriented and incompatible with democratic pluralism. In his post, he rightly rules out adding Pakistan to his list of countries as proof of his claim. I believe that Bangledesh should also be removed from the list because none but a few brave Bangladeshi intellectuals are willing to admit to the attrocities committed by their Pakistani brothers inside Bangladesh borders. More than that, the BNP/Jamat (Muslim) government treats the Hindu minority as second-class citizens by law and continues to force Hindus off their land in a continued and sustained campaign to drive non-Muslims out of Muslim territory. All of which is a direct result of the tenets of Islam in which Muslims are to rule over non-Muslims and to carry out Islam's goal of total submission of everyone to Allah all the world over.
And while we're on the issue, I believe Turkey should be removed from Dean's list as well on the grounds that the Turkish government has again and again refused to officially apologize for killing and driving out of its Christian Armenian minority. Additionally, Turkey was so successful in its campaign to drive out its non-Muslim minority population it is now nearly 100% Muslim which is not an impressive showing of pluralism, if you ask me.
Western Resistance's next trivia question for the week:
What does Hindu Kush mean?
Posted by Isabel de Castilla at October 16, 2005 10:17 PM
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Comments
Good posting. I doubt Dean will recognize these facts.
Even better, how about even MORE recent history.
What about what happened in East Timor during their voting for independence? What about the Papua New Guineans and the Molluccans? Both are Christian majority areas in Indonesia that is facing a large infusion of Muslim immigrants who drive the people off of their lands.
I'm just getting started.
Southern Sudan, the West Bank, Beirut, Istanbul, Sarajevo, the list is long and I can add more where specifically Christians are being driven off of their ancestral lands and being suplanted by Muslims through official government or civilian terrorists.
Posted by: Tito at October 17, 2005 12:06 AM
Hello Tito. I love your blog.
Personally, I think there's clearly hope for Dean, but one major reason I broke away from the Left is its refusal to hold non-Westerners accountable for their crimes against humanity and in many cases, unwillingness to acknoweldge their crimes at all. It doesn't fit into the narrative that the West is responsible for all the problems in the world.
Isabel
Posted by: Isabel de Castilla at October 17, 2005 12:29 AM
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