Nelson Mandela once said: “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their humanity”. But what can we say about the pious people of this pure land where a bunch of extremists and their radical mindset seem to be put into danger by a poor Christian woman?
The whole nation seems set to condemn the mother of five children, Asia Bibi, to death, merely for drinking from the glass of a Muslim colleague and not apologizing for her crime, which reportedly unleashed the wrath of her colleague, who was tagged with the contractors of paradise in the name of blasphemy in Pakistan.
It rather seems that all the Mullahs have taken the mighty people and the country’s institutions as hostages because nobody seems to be courageous enough to give her justice. We all know how the poor non-Muslims are treated as untouchables across the land of the pure following in the footsteps of extremist Hindu Brahmans who don’t allow the lower castes to even touch their possessions considering them subhuman and impure.
Those who have really studied Islam know clearly that there is no concept of untouchability in our religion. So much so that the Prophet (PBUH) and his followers used to even invite Christian, Jewish and non-Muslim delegates to mosques for meetings on different issues, and vice versa.
But we all also know how deep-rooted the concept of untouchability is among Pakistanis, under the influence of the extremist Hindu thought that we have inherited from our Hindu ancestors.
These extremists are portraying a merciless image of Pakistan and Islam, to the world and trying to establish that there is no love, compassion or sense of justice for the minorities who live in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
But I am astonished by the fact that these people are not even more than the number of cops or military personnel in the country and can’t sustain their jalsas or dharnas in Islamabad, even for a few days, yet everybody seems scared of them and is complying with their mission.
Where is the writ of the government and of one of the greatest militaries in the world when these weirdos are allowed to harass public institutions?
We have not forgotten that they are the same people who, when it comes to law enforcement, try to escape justice in burqas although I personally believe they don’t deserve to be tackled by Pakistan Army, since our local police station can do the petty job of handling these extremists who are cowardly enough to run in burqas yet are now trying to establish a state within the state from the dice in a mosque.
We should also go hunting for their handlers as it is quite possible that some forces within our law enforcers are protecting and trying to cultivate them as assets again because we know that this bargain costs the country, and even its army, a lot when they become strong enough. It’s better to develop rational assets, instead of demons which later need operations like Zarb e Azab to get rid of. Nothing on earth should be allowed to make the extremists think that they can still paralyze the government machinery which is meant to act according to the constitution of Pakistan and says that the state shall safeguard the legitimate rights of minorities in the country.
Somehow, the judge steps down and Asia Bibi’s appeal is delayed for an indefinite period of time again, whereas the whole nation is busy in day-to-day affairs without even noticing that a helpless Christian woman, a mother of 5 children, is rotting in jail and fundamentalists are taking hold of a country for which the grandparents and parents of many had died.
TV anchors read this news in a hasty manner, and commentators spoke mildly about this issue, but spent hours and hours discussing the Miandad and Afridi ‘scandal’, showing that nobody is ready to sail close to the wind. The tempest of the unknown fear is gripping the heart of every Pakistani.
But what is this a fear of?
Let’s observe this phenomenon a bit more closely. When in 2014, Junaid Jamshed, a high profile and wealthy member of the Tablighi Jama’at, was accused of blasphemy and FIR 234/2014 was register against him under section 295/C and 298/A, a spleen storm of fundamentalists of his own kind was raging against him and accusing him of being a blasphemer. One day some of them even got hold of him at the airport, and beat him to a sore. Very inhuman! Yes?
Somehow, Maulana Tariq Jameel and his followers changed the minds of the believers with their emotional speech while preaching that believers cannot be so hardhearted. After that, the case of Junaid Jamshed and the FIR against him conveniently become history. Today, the same Junaid Jamshed is allowed to attend religious seminaries and deliver lectures on Islam on electronic media that are telecasted across the country.
Miraculously, he managed to go abroad, avoiding the arrest and then after a reasonable time, safely managed to sneak back into his country, and everybody kept their eyes shut. Everybody did the right thing, as I personally believe that he did not do anything to deserve a punishment as violent as the one promised by the law of the land, or the clergies who dictate the law.
But this shows the height of hypocrisy in our land, where a non-Mullah Muslim (Salmaan Taseer) is gunned down by his own guard(s) merely at the accusation of blasphemy, whereas a Mullah who is booked under the same law is allowed to roam free and even participate in fashion shows.
That exposes the phenomenon as a Ponzi scheme designed to suppress the weak and undesired citizens, while serving as a tool of oppression in the hands of a certain class who enjoys no representation in Pakistan’s Parliament yet want to rule the country through secret cabins.
This is the true face of such hypocrites – and that ‘unknown fear’. They can kill the FIR of blasphemy charged against a cleric at wish, despite the fact that the sermon he was booked for is still available on YouTube. However, in the case of this helpless woman, somebody sold their soul and law enforcers turned a blind eye to her pain, citing ‘the sensitivity of the matter’.
Our establishment sounds powerful enough to control the itineraries of journalists, yet they seem under threat by a poor Christian woman who must be sacrificed as a scapegoat to appease some false gods.
All of these incidents are not a coincident. They tell us about a system in which our indoor and outdoor activities are being dictated by a bunch of people, turning us into willing slaves. All would be lost the day our establishment would give in to the same people who endorse and preach the massacre of Pakistanis, by killing our school children, bombing our mosques, markets, public places, and by sowing the seeds of hatred among people.
Should that happen – or, more appropriately, continue to happen – history would record us all as accomplices in the crime, and we would deserve whatever our fate would be as a result of our common felonious acts.