Pakistan Politics: Bhutto Bombed

Good news:
Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, is alive.

Bad news:
Over a hundred people in Karachi, Pakistan, aren't.

Bhutto was on her way make a speech at the tomb of Pakistan's founding father. About 150,000 of her supporters were on hand, near her convoy. She had returned to Pakistan today.

In 1988, Bhutto became the first woman to lead a post-colonial-era Muslim state. She was booted out of office on corruption charges, re-elected in 1993, and booted out again in 1996 on - what a surprise - corruption charges. She's been living in Dubai since 1999.

I don't know whether there's anything to the corruption charges, or if it's part of the Stans' culture: a sort of post-election mudslinging.

Bhutto isn't exactly the Taliban's ideal of femininity. She studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford, has an additional degree from Harvard University, doesn't wear a burqa, and led a Muslim country.

Twice.

Going on three times, if she runs in the next Pakistani election, and wins: both of which seem likely.

Back-to-the-seventh-century Muslims have many reasons to be infuriated with Bhutto. In this woman we have a woman who is:

• Educated
• Doesn't wear a burqa
• Has run a country
• Supports the war on terror

The Taliban, AL Qaeda, and like-minded Islamic fanatics will be solidly against Bhutto. That's as close to certain as things get in this world.

Parts of the press and academia in America have a tough decision now: Is Bhutto

• A brilliant woman, fighting oppression
  or
• corrupt puppet of a militaristic American administration

Maybe I'm being unfair.

In any event, I like to think that Bhutto's popularity - and Musharraf's apparent efforts to team up with Bhutto because of her popular support - show that the people of Islamic countries are ready to accept an alternative to jihadist leaders.

Related posts, on Individuals and the War on Terror.

Posts about Benazir Bhutto.

Nail Shop Owners Are Not the Enemy

Zoreh Assemi was born in Iran, moved to America, and became an American citizen. Now she owns the Givan Nail and Skin Center on Birchhill Road in Matinecock.

Saturday morning, two men attacked her as she was opening her shop.

"One of them was just beating me up with a stick, and the other one was cutting," she told WNBC-TV. The two men called her a "terrorist" and told her to "go back to your country."

The thugs damaged part of her salon, took some cash, and left.

She got patched up at a local hospital, but still had a mesh of cuts and bruises on her face, arms, and hands when WNBC-TV interviewed her.

"I'm in shock," Zoreh Assemi said. With an impressive display of understanding, she said she felt "terrorized ... not by American people, but by a very small group and prejudice. And it hurts."

I'll bet it hurts: physically and emotionally.

Between what Ms. Assemi said, and the anti-Muslim messages left by her attackers on a mirror in her shop, the Nassau County police are treating this as a "bias crime."

I hope that whoever did this is caught and treated to the greatest sanction available under American law.

This may be vindictve me, but I don't think so. One thing that America has going for it as a country is the way we've been able to attract the best and brightest from around the world, giving them opportunities to use their abilities.

Abusing people who enrich this country, in this case by providing nail care service for twenty years, hurts all of us.

Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred