Pakistani religious leader: NGOs working Zionist agenda

JOHN MOORE/AFP

A couple of years ago, the charity Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) pulled its workers out of Afghanistan. The unsolved murder of several staff members was the ostensible trigger for the withdrawal, but MSF made clear that it was uneasy about the blurred lines between humanitarian and military operations in the country (something I wrote about during a reporting trip to Afghanistan.) I’ve always been skeptical of the claim that NGOs can somehow preserve their neutrality in what is in many ways a fight about basic values. After all, working with, educating, or recognizing the equality of women is enough to make you an enemy in the eyes of many Islamic extremists. The Sunday Telegraph ran a chilling piece on Pakistan this weekend which made the point neatly. It describes the Talibanization of parts of that country:

A decree issued last week by Mufti Khalid Shah, a religious leader, said: “All these NGOs are working on the agenda of Zionists; it is a duty of every Muslim to destroy their offices, attack their vehicles and to kill its members.”

I don’t know exactly what “neutrality” in this kind of environment would mean, but I’m pretty sure we don’t want any part of it.