The Bargain from the Bazaar by Haroon K. Ullah

Author:Haroon K. Ullah [Ullah, Haroon K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610391672
Publisher: PublicAffairs

IIT WAS AFTER evening prayers. The occupants in the safe house on the outskirts of Lahore were assembled in the room with the double doors and the large-screen TV. Daniyal, Raj, and Nasir were seated cross-legged on floor mats and had been served tea and sweet pastries by the respectful and silent young men. A slow-turning fan swept the room with a mild breeze. Gul Nawaz paced the carpet, his bushy beard combed and freshened, his rogue eye watchful and daring. As usual, his shirt was worn half unbuttoned to proudly show off the scar across his chest. What fighting the wound had come from no one ever said, nor did they have to. Clearly here was a shrewd and hardened warrior, a man one listened to.

“After our success against the sacrilege at the shrine, the people have even less respect for the government than they had a month ago. Allah’s hand passes over the people’s eyes, and they are opened. They see that they can no longer be protected by men who have not the wisdom of God to guide them. Men who pretend to adhere to the religious commands but then break the laws with alcohol and women, by cheating and stealing to enrich themselves. This is the enemy within our own land, disguised as our own countrymen, our own neighbors.” Nawaz swung around to face the three sitting before him. “But we are not fooled! We know who are the devil’s workers! We can smell them. They reek of Satan’s foul presence. Now, observe this footage.”

He turned to the big TV screen on the wall and used a remote control to call up some raw video footage of an open-air shopping plaza, surrounded by upscale shops, crowded and busy. The video played silently and had obviously been taken by a microcam hidden on someone walking through the plaza.

“Do we recognize this location?” the amir asked.

“That’s the open shopping plaza downtown, the big one,” Raj offered.

“Correct. A blasphemous place filled with decadent Western stores. Everywhere gaudy and lewd items on display for anyone to see, even our young women not yet of age. Many are seduced by these things into a life of degradation and sin.” He pressed a button on the remote to freeze at the front window of a fashionable women’s boutique. On display were mannequins in open-necked dresses, shorts, and skimpy tops. “This is the disgusting wear being offered to our women. And nothing to cover their heads! These are the clothes of a whore. The West hates Islam and the life we hold sacred. As they try to corrupt us, they deny the supremacy of Allah. They are trying to win over our women and girls with their music and their sexual dancing and these temptress getups.”

The trio on the mats watched the screen with distaste as the footage switched to another part of the open-air plaza, where there was a sprawling food court with umbrella tables and fast-food vendors.

“Notice the people sitting around at these tables,” Nawaz said.

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