Pakistani religious leaders denounce Taliban

McClatchy Newspapers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani religious leaders and scholars issued a strong denunciation Tuesday of the tactics of Taliban militants, providing what could be a major boost to the country’s U.S.-backed battle against Islamic extremism.

The high-profile convention of clerics in the Pakistani capital was the second in three days to condemn suicide attacks and beheadings, two of the Taliban’s favored tactics, as “haram,” or contrary to Islam.

Both conventions also supported the Pakistani military offensive against Taliban in Swat and two adjoining districts, although almost all the clerics share the militants’ goal of establishing Islamic law in Pakistan.

Pakistani public opinion has turned against religious extremists over the past few weeks, and if that shift is durable, it could prove to be a significant setback to the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies, not just in Pakistan but also in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf and elsewhere in the Islamic world.

The shift, coupled with intense pressure from Washington and a more sober assessment of the threat posed by the militants, appears to have roused the government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Zardari has said that Pakistan would extend its military offensive to Waziristan, the area along the Afghan border that’s a base for Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, and also for al-Qaida. That would trigger a major conflict, in which the support of the clergy could be vital.

However, the plight of the more than 1 million people who have been displaced by the military offensive could turn opinion against the government again, and the Obama administration Tuesday pledged an additional $110 million in humanitarian aid to support international efforts to provide food, water, tents, radios, generators and local grain.

The displaced “are going to be absolutely a litmus test for us,” said Nasim Ashraf, a former Pakistani minister in charge of human development now at the Washington-based Middle East Institute. If not given sufficient help, “these same refugees in two months’ time, they will become our enemies,” he said.