The NYT and Pakistan Rock

By Fasi Zaka
Recently two friends of mine called me about a New York Times video piece in which I was quoted. They were quite upset at the story and wanted to know why I had participated in it. The story is by Adam B Ellick, titled "Tuning out the Taliban," the gist of which is the anomaly of Western-type Pakistani rock singers who claim to be politically conscious yet don't see the Taliban as a problem that affects Pakistan at all.

Both friends of mine (one of whom writes in these very pages) are people I respect immensely, and it was odd to me that there was a dissonance between how I saw the report and they did. I actually liked the report a lot when it came out.

I decided to look at it once again, to see if I missed anything, or frankly to gauge if my judgment had been compromised because of my participation as an interviewee.

The bulk of the criticisms that I could cull generally in person and online fell into some well-defined categories, the first that the report was too one-sided, that it ignored other voices who have been consciously speaking out against the Taliban and that it held Pakistani musicians to too high a standard.

I guess the first order of business would be to determine if the topic was newsworthy at all. When President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa denies the existence of AIDS, it's news. At the same time when major pop stars like Ali Azmat refuse to condemn the Taliban for destroying schools (actually saying that one cannot blame the Taliban for it) or Ali Noor claiming that the Taliban are the least of Pakistan's problems, it's also newsworthy: in that it's an anomaly, especially since the local social rags show that some of them live a prominently western lifestyle. Understanding the contradiction is something worthwhile.

So, once this premise is established, the next question really is, was the attempt to understand the contradiction done well by a western journalist?

On the accusation that it is uni-dimensionally demonising Pakistan, I disagree. It does contain a description of playwrights, columnists and ulema who condemn the things the Taliban do in the name of Islam. But all one has to do is look at Ellick's NYT story, "A schoolgirl's odyssey," a moving and sympathetic look into a Swati girl's life under Taliban oppression.

There was one critical comment that I liked about the report. Someone had posted a gripe that we do not expect western rock stars to criticise Israel, and expecting them to take a major stand in Pakistan is unfair. That's a valid point.

I wish more Americans could see through their support for a state that is bludgeoning a population, literally imprisoning them and robbing them of their dignity. That being said, the unfortunate problem is that the Pakistani rock stars in the NYT piece have invited scrutiny because they proclaim themselves as "politically conscious" musicians. Once they're questioned, their footing is on shaky ground.

When Ali Azmat and Ali Noor rail against the Americans, they aren't wrong. The United States is an unbelievably short-sighted country whose talk of democracy can easily be discredited by its record abroad and its illegal invasions. But what is wrong is when these musicians use the American record as a blind cover for our own issues. The Taliban were once an Afghan problem, then an American one, and now ours.

The Americans have done much wrong and have great reason to be ashamed of what they do for their interests. But, frankly, they haven't forced us to be rampantly corrupt, burn Christians, deny Balochistan development or issue the NRO (though they did have a hand in that one).

The real issue is rational debate, something that recedes when musicians like them use faulty thinking and their profile to project it. In a recent interview to Owned magazine, Ali Azmat claimed that E=MC2 is part of a "manufactured science" (therefore invalid): one can presumably infer that he means it's a Jewish invention. What scientific process was at work on our "Muslim Bomb" in Chagai, I do not know, and I suspect Ali Azmat doesn't either.

About a year ago I wrote an op-ed, "Pop protest chic," about this very trend of a small number of rock stars who have taken to xenophobia, bigotry and fairytales in the name of nationalism. Then, of course, there were no real murmurs, but the questions come alive when the international media take note of something.

This I understand. That's because there is a general fear that it will feed into the prejudice of western viewers and readers. But, frankly, in the digital age more voices will be heard, whether we agree with them or not, be they responsible or irresponsible. The key is not to stifle, but continuously engage.

They key, therefore, is to have the silent majority to speak out, and to think with more nuance. And one can find one of those voices in the NYT report itself, when part of the Noori duo, Ali Hamza says (of the reason for not speaking out), "it's very easy for them to get rid of us." That speaks of the truth, one that we wish wasn't so.