Asim & Tamreez

I recently saw this video posted on a few friend’s Facebook pages and the video left me feeling very uneasy. It was Adam Ellick’s report for the NYTimes which alleged that Pakistani musicians were not speaking out against the Taliban. The report’s selective editing and snippets taken out of context really did make it seem like most Pakistani musicians were conservative, ignorant “Islamist apologists” entertaining conspiracy theories and unaware of the real issues affecting their country. It even dismissed the Yeh Hum Nahin campaign as not going far enough.

I don’t condone everything said in the video by Ali Azmat or Noori, but I feel Ellick’s views were very biased and simplistic. I could not find the right words to express what I felt until I found some very eloquent comments on a CHUP article on the same topic. As always Kalsoom touches on very relevant and diverse topics that we’re all thinking about but she’s usually the first one to write about them and make them accessible for a debate and discussion. Thanks Kalsoom for that!

Here are a few comments on her article that expressed what I felt much better than I would have been able to:

“I am so incensed at seeing this report, I don’t even know how to respond. There is so much selective editing and editorializing and most of the videos used are all things that are at least 1- 2 years old. In no way does this reflect the current times.

4) There is a very real and persistent threat made directly to musicians and entertainers by the Taliban and their hardline sympathizers. From an Arts Festival being bombed last year, to CD shops being set on fire, concerts being cancelled due to death threat. I think they can be excused for not directly singing out against them for you know…fear of endangering their lives etc.
…I know I’m probably preaching to the choir, sorry to go off on a rant…but I was livid upon seeing this…the simple fact is that I personally do not know anyone who is still hesitant to condone the Taliban, and I feel that this article is truly damaging.”

1) Ali Azmat is one of our most popular popstars, but he’s also a provocateur who delights in taking anti-American views. He co-hosts a debate show with a certain Zaid Hamid, who as Ahsan will tell you is another psycho who has a personal fetish for anit-Semitism and Zionist conspiracies. Ali Azmat in no way shape or form represents the “collective view” and he certainly doesn’t speak for the musicians I know.

2) The Noori brothers are one of the most incredible performers in the country and for the video to imply that they are Taliban apologists/sympathizers is at best extremely irresponsible and at worst criminally libelous. I don’t know when this video was made but I’m positive it isn’t current. I’m also positive that had the rest of the interview been aired, then Ali Noor would have clarified his point a little better…. Read More

3) Shehzad Roy’s “Yeh Hum Naheen Hain” (This is not us) was a collective effort of all our major popstars getting together and trying to show the public that they do not condone or support the actions of the Taliban. But this apparently was merely an “indirect effort” for Mr. Ellick.

Another reader said this:

“Firstly, Ellick’s claims are entirely inaccurate. I won’t elaborate because they have said it better here:http://www.chapatimystery.com/archives/homistan/fragile_rock.html

Sorry for the long tirade, I’m just sick of people assuming that all Pakistanis are supposed to hate the Taliban and if they don’t, they obviously love and support them. I personally fall in neither of the categories and I don’t want a journalist telling me I have to either love or hate. Sorry but life’s just a tad bit more complex than that.”

Whatever one thinks of the Ye Hum Naheen movement, it happened and was an effort by a few artists to give a political statement(goes to show how effective such songs are anyway).

Secondly, no artist, musician, writer is ‘required’ to do anything. It’s not their job to educate lazy American political analysts on how Pakistanis feel about the Taliban. The responsibility is squarely on the learner. If they want to know how people feel about the war in their country, well ask and get a bit of a detailed analysis. I repeat it is NOT the responsibility of Pakistanis to prove to anyone that we don’t deny our problems. I can point at least 7 other conflicted countries that don’t have to go through pains to tell the world ‘look we’re fucked’ !

Thirdly Jolie and Bono aren’t good examples. Being a celeb against poverty or for AIDS awareness is just slightly different than being against the Taliban. The militancy in our midst is not as clear-cut as a fatal disease and one can’t expect all people to against it unequivocally.

Lastly, I don’t understand the need for specificity. Just because Ye Hum Naheen didn’t have lyrics that said I Hate the Taliban it’s not good enough? I guess what satiate the likes of Ellick would be lyric that go like

BURQA DHAARI NAHIN CHALAY GI
BUM WAALI GAARI NAHIN CHALAY GI

and really, that would make for terrible, self-hating music.