What Anguished Pakistanis Should Do After London's Bomb Attack

An anguished Pakistani has left a comment on one of my posts and I want to share it on the main page so that everyone can read it.

Anonymous said...
This has been an horrendous crime, and these Pakistanis have humiliated and disgraced our nation. I feel ashamed to be a Pakistani. Alas our leaders have not learned any lesson. After 2001, it was expected that musharaf will control things in Pakistan and elsewhere within
Pakistani descent but nothing has changed. Asghar Khan rightly said that we never learn from our history. Sorry state of affairs and now ray of hope. A disgraced Pakistani.

I must say to you my friend, it is not your fault. You should remember that they were born in Britain and they were British Citizen. There is more than Al-Qaida that is responsible for that. There is an anguished/troubled teen syndrome (TTS) as well which we have seen every where else. When I wrote that earlier I thought I am just trying to solace my discomfort over the news because of the fear that my faith (Islam) will be under attack but there is some truth to TTS. Time's recent issue has rightly pointed out in this direction.

TIME.com: 3 Lessons from London -- July. 18, 2005:
" The children of those immigrants--many of them jobless and ghettoized in insular suburban tracts or city centers--often feel alienated from the ambient permissiveness of London or Paris. Alienated and bored: Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc., wrote in the New York Times last week that the unemployment rate among 16- to 24-year-old Muslim men in Britain is 22%. He
cited a British government report leaked to the Sunday Times in London last year that estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims support al-Qaeda and similar groups."

And you should also read After the bombs How four suicide attacks by British citizens have changed Britain in recent The Economist.
This is a fact that

• they were Muslims
• they were of Pakistani descent
• they were inspired by Al-Qaeda
• they did a dirty job which can stereotype our faith
• they did wrong
• at least on of them visited Pakistan to learn Al-Qaeda's evil

But after all they were born "British Citizens" who were alienated in their own society which made them an easy prey for Al-Qaeda.

As a Muslim, yes! We do have a responsibility to educate our people but we do not have to take all the crap for the wrong doings of those who are misled just because we share a common religion (Islam); there are other factors as well.

And we don't necessarily have to follow the enlightened moderation but moderation. I would say: follow Nicholas Kristoff's advice

"I've heard from Pakistanis who, while horrified by honor killings and rapes, are embarrassed that it is the barbarism in Pakistan that gets headlines abroad. A word to those people: I understand your defensiveness, for we Americans feel the same about Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. But rooting out brutality is a better strategy than covering it up, and any nation should be proud to produce someone like Ms. Mukhtaran.