OF LATE, there has been little else to read or talk about other than the spate of bombings in London and Egypt. The daily slaughter in Iraq is now so routine and predictable that it has now been relegated to page 11 of most newspapers.

The one common element running through these crimes, whether committed by terrorists or soldiers, is that more often than not, Muslims are involved, either as perpetrators or victims. Indeed, as we squirm under the spotlight of the global media, we desperately try to hide our heads deeper in the sand. But this ostrich-like state of denial is no longer sustainable.

Consider this small example of our propensity to gloss over the truth: the Indian prime minister announces that Pakistan is still condoning the existence of terrorist training camps. Our foreign office issues a swift denial. But the current issue of Karachi’s Herald monthly carries a cover story in which details of newly-activated training camps are given, as is the location of at least one such camp. It would not take very long to verify the accuracy of the story.

In the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 London bombings, our security agencies went into overdrive, arresting several hundred religious activists across the country. As one columnist wrote in this space last week, this is part of a stylized ritual: the usual suspects are locked up in the wake of a terrorist atrocity abroad, soon to be released when foreign attention is elsewhere. Thus, General Musharraf keeps his image intact in Washington and London, while for our extremists, it is business as usual. It’s a win-win situation for everybody, except the victims of terrorist attacks and their families.

So what’s wrong with this picture? Simply the fact that while nobody really cares if Pakistanis kill other Pakistanis with the bloodthirsty abandon we have displayed for years, other governments draw the line at their citizens being slaughtered. Much as we may wish to ignore it, the reality is that ours has become a very violent country, full of lethal militias and vicious, hate-filled ideologies.

For years, the Pakistani establishment has nurtured and used these elements to further its policies in the region. It serves little purpose to blame the Americans for walking out, leaving a ticking time bomb behind them. We have had every opportunity to put our own house in order, but out of lethargy and opportunism, we allowed Arab jihadi elements to put down their roots in Pakistan. Now we are living (and dying) with the consequences of this policy.

We in Pakistan have become so accustomed to daily bomb blasts in one part of the country or another that we are no longer shocked or horrified by them. Thus, many of us cannot comprehend the depth of the anger and revulsion that such attacks cause in more law-abiding countries. But the reality of a fellow-passenger blowing himself up in an underground train carriage is a very scary scenario. Now, a Pakistani-looking passenger will inevitably draw suspicious glances whenever he boards a train or a bus. Consider this e-mail I received recently from Steve Cribbs:

“...I am a 47-year old, working class, white Englishman, who frequently works in London and was in the area of two of the incidents last week, where there were four failed suicide bomber attempts. I’ve always considered myself to be a moderate man and this series of events ... is extremely worrying. Recently I have heard Afro-Caribbean immigrants demanding that all Muslims be sent back (even those born here!). I don’t feel that’s fair but have grave concerns that our cultures are mutually incompatible. We feel like we have taken in a nest of vipers. We feel betrayed by immigrants who have come here to our homeland who consider us as corrupt and immoral. Our women are branded as whores. Some immigrants say we are not fit to govern our own country and that they seek to make Britain a Muslim state...

“...I’ve seen films of firebrand clerics preaching murder in the name of Islam... They have twisted and warped their religion to suit their own sick notions of revenge. They have caused the West to view Islam with suspicion and made us doubt our policy of tolerance which endangers us and our children... The West is not blameless. There have been many Muslim victims of our foreign policies, but two wrongs don’t make a right. Also we are very aware of the double standards which turn a blind eye to wholesale murder of Muslims by other Muslims. Apparently that’s OK.”

The writer has pointed out the hypocrisy underlying our criticism of western policies. While we are rightly indignant about the killing of Muslims from Serbia to Chechnya to Palestine to Kashmir, we seldom spare a thought for victims of Muslim terrorists. Here in Pakistan, literally thousands have been slaughtered by their fellow-Muslims, often while they have been praying in places of worship. And while we protest and riot over the desecration of the Holy Book by American soldiers in Guantanamo, we do not condemn the destruction of the same Book in mosques when they are bombed by Muslims.

These double standards erode our moral position when we lecture the West about the wrongs done to Muslims. While we opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq, for instance, how many voices against Saddam Hussein’s brutal and aggressive policies were raised in the Muslim world? And while we condemn the violence with which Indian security forces try and crush the insurgency, when have we criticized the rebels for killing and maiming innocent Muslim and Hindu civilians?

We are very touchy when we are criticized by westerners, so I am reproducing excerpts from another e-mail, this time from a Pakistani reader living in the United States:

“... a lawyer [of Pakistani descent] at the Justice Department ...informed us that ... more and more mosques are telling people present for prayers that ‘we need to have separate schools so that we could protect our children from American culture’... Finally, wherever we go, Muslims in general and Pakistanis in particular, we create and spread hatred, nothing else. I fear for the time when Christians, Jews and Hindus will put the rest of the work on hold and focus their undivided attention on eliminating terrorism around the globe. We cannot comprehend what will happen, but I guess that’s the only way out.”