We’ve become overwhelmed. These events, like the Lahore attack, have become so normal for the country that news of such events prompt instant queries of the quantum of lives lost. Blasts are normal. Double digit figures of victims, especially those amounting to or going beyond heavy numbers, are exceptions. Deaths of men are normal. It’s the women and the children that invite grief.

The nation mourned the said carnage while refusing to direct the disgust of the tragedy on the likes that invaded the redzone of the capital.

They, these slipper-throwing mullahs insist that they are different. Are they really? They were there celebrating a murderer and demanding a killing of an accused still not proven guilty; one who would never be proven guilty. She, the said accused, is behind bars due to an absurd law, a law these mullahs have sworn to preserve. So much so is their attachment to this law that they take it as a matter of faith. As it is with these mullahs and their faith things, saying anything against can be fatal. These mullahs have a right to be offended, and gosh, are they easy to offend!

The overwhelmed nation did not condemn the mullahs. They did not condemn the killer Qadri; at least not the way societies should condemn a murderer. Most claim that they were afraid. Okay. Can such cowardice then feel remorse on the carnage of the likes of Lahore?

If you’re too afraid to stop something bad from happening, why worry when the bad does happen?

Some would argue I am oversimplifying here. I would insist otherwise. Separating the likes of the Qadri supporters from the Taiban is pretty much the good Taliban-bad Taliban debate all over again. Time proved us wrong by showing how the Taliban are the same, good or bad. Sociopaths too are the same, Punjabi speaking or Pushto speaking. But, we’d rather not get into this, no? The overwhelmed nation has already a lot on its plate. So it does what anyone would do, it blames everyone else for their problems. Here too, even though their beloved army conducts operation on the Southern-Punjab sanctuaries of the fundamentalist groups that have been allowed to exist for a tad too long, the nation at large insists that it has all to do with the capturing of the RAW agent in Balochistan a few weeks ago. Connect the dots, the educated Facebook and Twitter users insist. All is being done by RAW. It’s the world not us. It’s them.

It’s ironic that Jamaat-ul-Ahrar ended up killing more Muslims than their Christian targets… or maybe not. Maybe, they still rejoiced, for they had killed people. Only they themselves are muslims. The rest are kaafirs. Kaafirs should not live. Ehsanullah Ehsan was proud when he claimed credit of the Lahore carnage. We will continue the same, he said, we will target schools and colleges along with governmental and military infrastructure. He must have said Allah Akbar somewhere amidst his conversation. Maybe there was an Alhumdullilah. Maybe even a SubhanAllah.

How can a society allow the existence of such entities to exist within them? A recent podcast on the issue of Qadri’s ruling and execution, refined minds such as Musharaf Zaidi and Fasi Zaka insisted that such elements, the murderer supporters, should be allowed venues to vent out their frustrations. They should be allowed to have their opinions, no matter how terrible they maybe. I cannot agree to this. How can I?

Back to oversimplification: connecting the dots is easy. Religious fundamentalism is bad for Pakistan. Really, really bad for Pakistan. You see, the reason why their views are utterly nonsensical is because they are not opinions but whims. Whims are triggered out of emotions and biases. Opinions are thoughts. The beards do not think. Having faith has little to do with the act of thinking. Blind faith is essential. No questions asked.

The mullahs have faith in their leaders. They have faith in their whims. This is dangerous. The whims, as is expected, come out of devotion.

This devotion is subject to a fanatic dedication; a brain washing in crude terms. This brainwashing takes place in young minds. Some of these young minds find themselves in the company of mullahs; others, the more common amongst us, are nurtured the same by parents who have all the wrong reasons of being or becoming religious. Parents who insist that faith is above humanism are criminals aswell. The overwhelmed Pakistani population is saturated with such parents who had such parents as well. The cycle continues and we breed sympathising and biased generations. In such conditions, the Lahore carnage can hardly be a surprise.