Taliban Bullies Pakistan into Accepting Shariah Law
February 17, 2009
Obama Administration Watches as Brutal Islamic Law is Imposed
Washington, DC - The Traditional Values Coalition charged today that one "change" in foreign policy being implemented by the Obama Administration will have a deadly effect on Christians, women and all others deemed "infidels" by the violent Islamic Taliban in Pakistan.
(graphics by RSN)
TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty criticized the Obama Administration for failing to reassert the Bush policy and make it clear that the imposition of Shariah law as a condition of a cease-fire was unacceptable.
"Trading one type of conflict for another even more barbaric form, as we have done in Pakistan, should be unacceptable to all free and civilized people," Mrs. Lafferty said today. "People are beheaded under Shariah law for not worshipping Allah, for watching television or dancing and young girls attempting to attend school have acid thrown in their faces."
"It dishonors the sacrifice made by so many young American men and women for our government to signal its acceptance of these violent Taliban tactics as a reasonable cost for securing a cease-fire.
"Shariah is not really a law in any civilized sense. It establishes rights using two criteria - Islam and male gender. Anyone else is treated as less than human so that women, Jews and Christians get the worst of it and are often killed."
Mrs. Lafferty is urging TVC member churches and individuals to contact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and urge her to reassert America's policy of opposing the imposition of the violent and barbaric Shariah law around the globe.
According to the New York Times ("Pakistan and Taliban Near Deal"), Page A5, February 16, 2009), the Bush Administration "strongly opposed making political concessions to the Taliban" last May.
But the situation has changed as Taliban militants have now seized control in the once-prosperous Swat district. The New York Times reports:
"...Taliban leaders have proscribed what they call un-Islamic activities by residents, including watching television, dancing and shaving beards and they have sometimes beheaded offenders. The penalties are regularly and terrifyingly announced over radio stations under the militants' control. Tens of thousands of residents of the area, which was once a popular tourist spot and considered a mainstream part of the country, have fled the intimidation and violence."
Today's media reports that Pakistan has accepted Shariah rule in the Swat district.