![]() a master of the endgame, has led to a notion that Pakistan emerged out of a resolution passed in March 1940 at the Muslim League session in Lahore. The indisputable stature of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Their period of gestation is surely one of the more fascinating chapters in the study of history. Nations are not born across a breakfast table. Instead, within six decades, Pakistan had become one of the most violent nations on earth, not because Hindus were killing Muslims but because Muslims were killing Muslims. Muslims of British India had opted for a separate homeland in 194 7, destroying the possibility of a secular India in which Hindus and Muslims would coexist, because they believed that they would be physically safe, and their religion secure, in a new nation called Pakistan. But surely there was an obvious, immediate question that demanded an answer. The time for rumination would come later. We returned to the car at a brisk pace, just short of a panic run. Then, without a word, my companion signalled, with a jerk of the head, that it was time to end this stupidity. The Karachi police would probably have guffawed at the thought that they needed to do something about an Indian held hostage in the mosque. It was impossible, however, not to sense that we were on the threshold of a different world, where a different law and a separate order prevailed. As I bent to unlace my shoes, I dismissed a slight tremor of unease, unwilling to accept that I wasĪfraid. A few students loitered around, for it was neither time for study nor prayer, their dress indistinguishable from any Islamic seminary on the subcontinent: white pyjamas ending two inches above the ankle, white kurta, white cap taut over the scalp. We mounted steps that opened into a spacious, rectangular courtyard surrounded by rooms. The ride was uneventful, the mosque large rather than imposing. The Taliban in Afghanistan honoured any visitor from Binori as a state guest. ![]() ![]() A little later, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, which became an international outcast after it organized the Mumbai attacks on 26 November 2008, issued a similar decree. In 1998, the then spiritual mentor of Binori, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, had issued a fatwa saying that killing Americans was justified. We were not inspired by visions of a local Taj Mahal, but by the widely held belief that this was the sanctuary of Osama bin Laden during the fallow period between the Mghan jihad against the Soviet Union and his declaration of war upon America. A fellow guest, a former dignitary, offered to take me to the Binori mosque and madrasa, founded by Maulana Yusuf Binori soon after independence in 194 7 it says something that he had not seen it either. Bravado comes easily in the drawing room. ![]() T was one of those suggestions that seem perfectly sensible during a spirited conversation at the home. Notes hzdex Books Cited Acknowledgements About the Author HarpcrCollins Publishers A-53, Sector 57, Noida 201301, India 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom Hazelton Lanes, 55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900, Toronto, Ontario M5R 3L Markham Road, Scarborough, Ontario M1B 5M8, Canada 25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia 31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand 10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA Typeset in 12/15 Footlight MT Light at S0RYA Printed and bound at Thomson Press (India) Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Any omissions brought to our notice will be incorporated in future editions. Although every effort has ,been made to contact copyright holders and obtain permission, it has not been possible to do so in all cases. The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author's own and the facts are as reported by him which have been verified to the extent possible, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same. Akbar asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. Tinderbox The Past and Future of Pakistanįirst published in India in 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers India a joint venture with The India Today Group Copyright© M.J.
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