GARHI HABIBULLAH, Pakistan -- The black wires running through the ruins in this mountain town struck a local Muslim cleric as a message from God.
The wires had delivered cable television to about 300 homes and businesses in the town, which was devastated by the Oct. 8 earthquake. Imam Shafqat ur-Rehman is convinced that the natural disaster was God's punishment for people viewing too much cable smut.
"Cable TV is a source of vulgarity and obscenity," said the imam, who heads a local madrasa, or Islamic school. "There are various programs on cable that a true Muslim just cannot watch. I do not know the exact names because I haven't viewed them myself," he added. "I have no interest in such things. But my friends tell me they have seen them at roadside hotels and such. They show men and women hugging each other. They also kiss one another. And there are nude pictures."
For four years, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has tried to lead this Muslim majority country of 162 million people away from religious extremism and down a path of what he calls "enlightened moderation."
His success is crucial to winning the battle of ideas at the heart of the U.S.-led war on terrorism. But the magnitude-7.6 quake dealt a blow to his efforts by giving renewed strength to extremists.
In parts of the quake zone, survivors say, Islamic militants, many of them veterans of the rebellion in the India-controlled portion of Kashmir, were among the first people to rescue victims trapped in rubble. It happened in this town, Rehman said, because Pakistani soldiers arrived only later.
A bloc of hard-line Islamic parties form the opposition in the national parliament and govern the seriously damaged North-West Frontier Province, which includes this town. They have argued for years that the president is going too far in tying this nation to the West. After the quake, many people lost all doubt that Musharraf's approach is wrong.
But like the rest of Pakistan, Garhi Habibullah is divided over whether the quake, which killed nearly 80,000, was an act of divine retribution. Ihsan Nazeem, 17, doubted God was against all TV.
"TV sets, whether they're used by poor or rich people, provide information," said Naseem, who survived the collapse of a boys' public high school. "It depends how you use it."
This remote town, about 100 miles north of Islamabad, the capital, got cable seven months ago. Hundreds of subscribers signed up, despite an anti-cable campaign by the imam.
