SECOND THOUGHTS

Pakistanis Turn on Taliban

Rebelling against sharia law.

It is hard to imagine now with conflict raging in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, but not too long ago many Pakistanis were strongly in favor of the Taliban's institution of Sharia law, a legal system infused with strict Islamic values that is favored by radicals. Now, many Pakistantis are longing for the corrupt and slow old legal system, which at least didn't impose such a fundamentalist view on the relatively moderate Islamic nation. Pakistani’s don’t hate the game so much as they hate the player: Many still favor Sharia and say that the insurgents' uprising has nothing to do with religious values. "This is a fight for power, not Islam," one Pakistani wrote. Newspaper writers and parliamentarians have become increasingly critical of the Taliban since it went to war with the government.