Islamism, in the Talibanist sense of the term, is the ideological basis for most Central Asian "liberation" movements. Do you really want these people to come to power?
They're real all right.
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Indeed they are, and a source of genuine worry.
But, as you know, it's usually the case that more than one thing is true at a time. Musharaf is dealing with challenges from Jihadis. That's true. It's also true that Islamabad has established, like its sometimes hot, sometimes lukewarm patrons in Washington, a habit of overstating, misstating and otherwise confusing the chain of causation.
Most recently, at least as reported in the Western press, was the story of the capture of *al Qaeda kingpin* Abu Faraj al-Libbi:
Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of ‘mistaken identity’
Christina Lamb and Mohammad Shehzad Islamabad
THE capture of a supposed Al-Qaeda kingpin by Pakistani agents last week was hailed by President George W Bush as “a critical victory in the war on terror”. According to European intelligence experts, however, Abu Faraj al-Libbi was not the terrorists’ third in command, as claimed, but a middle-ranker derided by one source as “among the flotsam and jetsam” of the organisation.
<snip>
Even a senior FBI official admitted that al-Libbi’s “influence and position have been overstated”. But this weekend the Pakistani government was sticking to the line that al-Libbi was the third most important person in the Al-Qaeda network.
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full -- <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1602568,00.html >
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There are many other examples of this sort of thing.
It's also important to remember that Musharaf has made many enemies who are not necessarily Islamists in the Taliban or al Qaeda mold. Recall the 2004 offensives in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. In its efforts to uncover al Qaeda and Taliban operatives and sympathizers (or perhaps merely, as some have said, demonstrate its War on Terror bona fides), the Pakistani military waged war on South Waziristan, generating new animosities.
We shouldn't sugarcoat the threat from Islamists. Neither should we, in an effort to keep them at bay, fall too easily into believing every story told that uses them as the antagonist.
.d.