Let's hope Pakistanis take the time to ask themselves why Allah is punishing them - and at this time.
SHAHEEN Bibi's four-roomed house in Pakistan's scenic Swat Valley withstood the Taliban regime and the military bombardment to dislodge it.
But she believes it could not survive the wrath of an angry Allah.
The monsoon rains that hit Swat a month ago, before sending a devastating tide south, have washed away homes, livelihoods, much of its high-grade rice crop and - in some quarters - hopes of extinguishing residual support for Islamic extremism among a population who lived under the yoke of the Taliban for more than two years.
Swat was the main battleground last year in the war between the Pakistan military and the Taliban which forced millions to flee their homes. Last month, it was one of the first regions to be hit by the floods that have brought Pakistan to its knees.
US relief efforts have specifically targeted Swat and other areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to try to ward off a potential drift back to extremist elements among flood-stricken and angry residents.
But the message from the country's most conservative imams - that the floods were God's punishment for the secularisation of the state - is taking hold in this long-suffering region.
Shaheen and her husband poured everything they had into building the pretty house on the banks of the Swat River in Ningalai which, until last year, was one of the most tightly controlled Taliban villages in the valley.
But the river took three of her rooms, leaving her with a mess of crumbling concrete and steel rods hanging precariously over an unstable river bank and no money to rebuild.
As two US helicopters laden with relief supplies rattled overhead on their way to remote mountain towns cut off by the floods, the recently widowed mother of six told The Australian the floods were God's punishment for the recent sins of Swat people.
"It's all our own doing. At the (recent army-organised) Kalam festival everyone was dancing, there was a lot of obscenity. We're all sinners. That's why this is happening so I am not complaining," she said as she pointed out a gaping hole where three rooms of her house were washed away by a bloated Swat River.
"When the Taliban came they controlled the obscenity and the wrongdoing of the people. All the women were keeping their modesty. That was a positive." .....
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 5911644877
aaah the smell got to me 
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