Talk:1995 Pakistani coup attempt

A fact from 1995 Pakistani coup attempt appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 October 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the failed Pakistan coup attempt of 1995 aimed to establish an Islamic caliphate in Pakistan by overthrowing prime minister Benazir Bhutto?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2006/October.

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Caliph?

Who did the coup plotters have in mind for the role of Caliph? --Jfruh (talk) 14:38, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the claim that they were trying to form a Caliphite. That would, as you suggest, have required a Caliph and as far as I know there was no such person involved in the plot. Its more accurate I think to say that they were trying to form an Islamic State. 168.127.0.51 15:03, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is a moot point - if they had succeeded the plotters could have named anybody they pleased. Rama's arrow 15:39, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, in theory, I guess they could have, but one would assume that if they wanted their regime to succeed, they would have needed a candidate that would have been credible -- when the Hashemites tried to claim the Caliphate in the 1920s, for instance, they weren't really successful in convincing the rest of the Muslim world. I ask mainly because the occasional calls for a restoration of the Caliphate from Islamic extremists interest me in that I wonder how they imagine that working out in practice. Would one of the coup leaders have declared himself Caliph, or would they have chosen a figurehead? --Jfruh (talk) 15:57, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think its all misunderstanding. I got the impression reading some things today that either the operation itself was called "caliphate" as a ode word or that its misunderstanding of terminology The other place where this stuff comes from is the "clash of civilizations" crowd in the west who have a bunch of conspiracy theories that involve the re-creation of the Caliphate as the prelude to some sort of apocoliplic jihad. You can't have a Caliphate without a Caliph and nobody in Pakistan (or anywhere else) would be foolish enough to try and assume that title. If you really want to understand what the extremists are actually pushing, you have to read their own stuff very carefuly. Most of the clash of civilizations crowd go through the material with a highlighter looking for particular words and then make wrong assumptions. There are occasional calls for its restoration as a political ideal, but in practical terms nobody knows how it would be done. You would probably need a sunni leader with the credibility of a Khomainei(sp) and a revolution in saudi arabia to make it happen. The Pakistani Army isn't going to hand over power to some tribal idiot after a coup and no army officer would dare take on the title 152.163.100.68 20:52, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My dear sir, the only reason the article describes their motive as a "caliphate" is because the sources used that term - I didn't choose that word. The rest is pure speculation. Rama's arrow 16:02, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sir. No source is presented in the article that I can find that details anything about a "caliphate". You have the choice of providing a direct citation or seeing it removed. A quick search of google yielded mostly discredited political sources (Jihad Watch) making the claim. 152.163.100.68 20:52, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There are enough sources backing this statement - I've added another for your benefit. Also your statement above is largely conjecture which is of no use to this article. Rama's arrow 21:44, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Jihad watch as credible source? I smell the stench of an anti-Islamic, anti Pakistan ideology in this. The listed "references" for this entry are hardly of a high calibre.

The article is bullshit that just tows the government line. Everyone in pakistan knows that there was no coup attempt and the whole event was cooked up by the agencies and staged by the governement of Bhutto just to muster support from Washington in her upcoming visit to the United States and to 'show' the world that her government is cracking down on Islamists. The and government made a mountain out of a mole hill.