Pakistan takes out another al-Qaeda (and Pakistan's view of DNA)

Abu Marwan, a Saudi Arabian who reportedly escaped a US air strike in January, has been killed by Pakistani security forces today.  Pakistan is taking out al-Qaeda one by one, hopefully getting closer to Osama bin Laden.  Marwan wasn't hiding in a cave somewhere, he was riding around in a mini-bus.

Pakistani security forces stopped the bus to check the occupants, when Marwan opened fire on them, killing one and injuring another.  I have to give credit to the Pakistanis.  They are under a lot of pressure from all sides and yet they continue to search for the enemy. 

Residents in Khar said the body was taken to the main northwestern city of Peshawar for identification.   "He was an explosives expert," a senior intelligence official in the North West Frontier Province told Reuters.

Marwan was believed to have been present in a house in the village of Damadola which was hit by U.S. drone in January.   Zawahri was not present at the time of strike but six al Qaeda militants, including one of Zawahri's relatives, were believed to be among the victims...  source

DNA was not needed in this case to identify Marwan, but in many cases DNA has been used to identify the bodies of suspected terrorists.  DNA testing is not new for the US but it is something new, and controversial, for Pakistan.  The testing is becoming more acceptable for legal cases, but giving access to the labs to the 'general public' is causing a heated debate.

Fierce debates are going on in the country among clerics, jurists and social scientists on the admissibility of DNA tests -- that establish genetic links -- as evidence in court. There are apprehensions of adverse fallouts from allowing the public free access to the tests. Pakistan reportedly has some excellent

The concept of DNA testing in criminal cases is relatively new in Pakistan and was introduced by the government to meet security challenges facing the country as well as global powers engaged in the ‘war-on-terror' in neighbouring Afghanistan. source

Religious law in Pakistan requires four eye witnesses to convict someone and therefore depending on DNA would be against 'divine dictates'.  As for using DNA for paternity purposes, ''Our religion prohibits us from publicising others' sins. Publicly declaring someone illegitimate or of having fathered a child outside marriage is no service at all.'', according to Religious scholar Siddique Akbar.  source  Really?  But I suppose it's OK to stone or hang the guilty woman?

Thinking about the general public having access to DNA testing didn't seem like a big deal to me, until I read the objections of a 'social activist':

Amjad Ali, a social activist, says that giving the general public access to DNA testing laboratories can prove disastrous. "In a society where people can kill their wives on mere suspicion of being disloyal, what they will do once they have irrefutable evidence is anybody's guess," he adds.

The rights lobby Amnesty International has noted that in Pakistan hundreds of women are known to die each year as a result of honour killings. Many more cases go unreported and almost all go unpunished. Police almost invariably take the man's side in honour killings and rarely prosecute the killers. Even when men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they get off with a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their female relatives with impunity. source

It is unacceptable for things like this to go on, whether it be Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, or any number of other countries.  Pakistan is our ally in the war on terror, the Taliban in Afghanistan were supposedly defeated.  Are we to accept this kind of treatment to women and children because it is endorsed by a religion, Islam?  No.  A thousand, ... a million times,  NO!

Speaking of Afghanistan, Joseph Farah of the G2 Bulletin says the Taliban is 'alive and well'.  Paul L. Williams says, " Mullah Omar and his army of radical Islamic students are currently in control of all of the rural and mountain areas of Afghanistan, including Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Zabul, Helmand, and Oruzgan, as well as a vast expanse of eastern and southern provinces including sections of Kandahar. They also have become the central governing body in South and North Qaziristan and other tribal territories of Pakistan."  source

Muslim men who wander into this area without beards are routinely cast into prison as apostates. Kafirs (non-Muslims) are assumed to be enemy agents; most are put to death. Women are only permitted to appear in public in full burqa. And Shariah has become the rule of the land with regular occurrences of stoning, crucifixion and decapitation.

Over 1,500 Pakistanis in recent months, according to Mir, have been publicly executed for saying something in support of the regime of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and the coalition forces. Most were beheaded. The victims, Mir says, were "not ordinary people but very prominent people."  source

Now if all of this is true, we are in heap big trouble folks!  Islamic Sharia law keeps people in bondage, in the darkest of ages, and no true freedom or democracy can sprout and grow under those circumstances.

 

Comments

[RobC]

Pakistan is going to bite the west in it's ass... mark my words. They are as radical as the rest.