Yesterday we wrote about the two-faced reporting on Osama bin Laden coming from Jang Group‘s newspapers. But Jang Group is not the only media group that has been promoting one perspective in its English language media while projecting a sympathetic or pro-jihadi message in its Urdu publications.

On 4 May, Express Tribune published opinion pieces about Osama bin Laden by Pervez Hoodbhoy and Fasi Zaka.

Here’s what Fasi Zaka says about media treatment of Osama’s death:

I just don’t understand how our TV anchors are glib enough to justify calling Osama bin Laden a shaheed. The man had no regard for life, especially Muslim life. He engineered attacks on the West, so they would retaliate and kill Muslims en masse in their vengeance upon selected countries. Every Muslim was a pawn to his mad dreams.

Sadly, Fasi Zaka may want to talk to his own employer.

Appearing on the same day in the group’s Urdu language newspaper Daily Express there appeared a piece by Abdul Qadir Hasan titled, “Shaheed Osama Kay Baad” – “After Shaheed Osama” – in which the author terms Osama as “the greatest martyr of the present age”. (Full English translation below)

Back in the English language Express Tribune, for the rest of the world to read, Pervez Hoodbhoy hopes that bin Laden’s death will end any double games of telling the world that we are fighting terrorism while secretly supporting it.

Bin Laden’s death should be regarded as a transformational moment by Pakistan and its military. It is time to dispense with the Musharraf-era cat and mouse games. We must repudiate the current policy of verbally condemning jihadism — and actually fighting it in some places — but secretly supporting it in other places. Until the establishment firmly resolves that it shall not support armed and violent non-state actors of any persuasion — including the Lashkar-e-Taiba — Pakistan will remain in interminable conflict both with itself and with the world.

While in Urdu, for the awam to read, Abdul Qadir Hasan hopes there are “many amongst us willing to be Osama”.

Khuda karay humara emaan salamat rahay aur Osama jaisay sanihay ko fatah-e-azeem kehna wala koi hum mei say na ho, Osama ban nay walay bohat hon.

Daily Express and Express Tribune are both owned by Lakson Group which owns and operates several other companies in Pakistan including McDonalds and Tetley (a Tata Group company).

This list suggests that the owners of Daily Express are probably not Osama sympathising jihadis. Osama earned his money the old fashioned way – he got a check from daddy. Lakson Group seems to be following the modern model of investing in popular brands to make their money. Why else would they operate 22 McDonalds restaurants in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad and Faisalabad? And McDonalds – an iconic American brand – is not the only international brand sold by Lakson Group. Actually they also have joint ventures with Titan watch and Tetley Tea (owned by Tata Group).

So here we have a Pakistani company that makes millions selling American and Indian brands…but also selling the al Qaeda brand? One explanation is that it all comes down to money. Daily Express presents a jihadi perspective in the Urdu newspaper because the parent company knows that the liberals like Pervez Hoodbhoy and Fasi Zaka are not going to sell newspapers to people who buy Daily Express. Their English language readers want to read these authors, but their customers who prefer Urdu take their tea a little more bitter.

Abdul Qadir Hasan may believe that Osama bin Laden is a shaheed and an inspiration for young Pakistanis to follow. But by paying him money to say this, and publishing these opinions for the masses to read, Lakson Group is also supporting the al Qaeda point of view. On the Lakson Group website, the company brags that Daily Express has a 24 per cent Market Share in Circulation. Therefore, this pro-al Qaeda viewpoint is being circulated to millions of people. From the regular subscriber to the chaiwalla who picks up the newspaper his customer left behind.

The question that must be asked is whether Lakson Group is aware that their Urdu language newspaper is being used to promote extremist ideology among the masses. If so, do they promote this point of view out of a cynical love of money? Or is it out of an ideological sympathy for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda also?

More likely, Lakson Group is unaware that their company Daily Express is praising Osama bin Laden and promoting pro-al Qaeda views. They should be informed immediately so that they can decide if they want to continue paying for this.

A free media allows Lakson Group to choose to pay for and publish extremist and pro-militant views. But a free media does not REQUIRE Lakson Group to do this. It’s time for companies funding pro-jihadi authors to take responsibility for their products.

Below is the article published in Lakson Group‘s newspaper, Daily Express…

After Shaheed Osama
by Abdul Qadir Hasan

This Saudi national who, after sacrificing billions of rupees, his family and children and entrusting his life to Allah, stepped into the field of Jihad and reached his goal on the land of pure. Without doubt, he is the greatest martyr of the present age but the Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has called this great tragedy as a victory of someone else. Everybody received whatever he was destined for. Someone embraced martyrdom and the other flattered the killers and imperialists.

The newspapers of Pakistan are rife with the news of the tragic incident which took place on the Pakistani soil. The news is conflicting but the air will clear gradually. Americans have told that since no Muslim country was ready to accept the dead body of Osama, therefore, it was shrouded and deposited in the sea. One of our poets had said “it would have been better to have drowned after dying so that no bier was taken out and no tomb was built”. What Ghalib said did not happen to him but Osama was lucky to receive the kind of burial the poet had desired. It has been told that the imperialist killers placed the dead body of Osama on a plank and entrusted it to the sea waves. Someone had appropriately said “I am a river and will descend into the ocean”. A news item says that he has been buried in an island but one of the many news headlines circulating tells that the Americans wanted Osama not to find a tomb so that it does not become a world center of anti-imperialists and Islamic activists. This is why he has not been given an earthly burial. A glance over the world map would reveal that the Muslim world stretches from one end of the world to the other. In this land of millions of acres, a man could not find two yards of space who sacrificed everything for the sake of Islam and showed the world that those who would lovingly die for Islam are still alive. Never mind if Osama did not receive a grave his death and his memories will always remain shining. His death has been made disputed. For some he is “deceased”, for some “killed” and for some “died” but the time to come will bear a testimony to the fact as to who died and who was martyred. Ahmed bin Humbal fell from the stripes he received but did not compromise on a polemical issue and stood his ground. He said that his funeral procession will testify to the truthfulness of his standpoint. On the day of his funeral there was no one left to say prayers in the mosques of Baghdad. All the prayers were said in the funeral compound. This was a testimony to the truth.

Osama is a target of the anti-Muslim super power these days but he represents a weak and fading super power. He boldly stood against the anti-Islam western imperialism led by America. He became a symbol of Islamic resistance. This innocent man the love and glow of whose eyes will attract you was suffering from kidney disease for years. First he was cured in the Pakistani mountains but now for sometime he was comfortably staying near Abbotabad. He had declared sometime that he will never give himself up alive in the hands of his enemies and, in his ill health, he went down fighting because he had decided long ago to fight and die while fighting. He invested his unlimited wealth and high modern education in the way of God. How fortunate was he that the Providence accepted his sacrifice. Today he is not a prisoner but Shaheed Osama bin Laden. He will remain alive in the Muslim memory with this appellation.
It is a great success for America. Its thunder will further increase and the Muslims will live a life of fearfulness. They have neither the wealth of Osama nor the army of devotees. They do not have the faith which bursts into flames. I do not know who will take his place. He has become a legend. Look at the history there have been greater people than Osama and the Muslims could not find their replacement. Only their living example remained and Osama was a part of it. Who knows we remain without another Osama. May our faith remain strong and no one should arise from us to call this incident a “great victory” but there should emerge more people to become Osama.