So, it’s settled then. Anyone in Pakistan having an opinion that either slightly or devastatingly deviates from the popular one with reference to Ahmadis or the Blasphemy law, all their previous pro-Islamic stances shall be ignored and thrown out the window without a second thought and they’d promptly be declared an enemy of the State/Ummah/Happiness.
The same recently happened to our darling of desi social media – Hamza Ali Abbasi.
As we all know, Hamza has always come off as an upstanding citizen, a proud Pakistani Muslim. He was the one who said let’s talk with Taliban, they aren’t that bad. His beliefs weren’t questioned then. His stance against gay marriage earned him a backlash from the liberals but splendid support from the rest. He was still a proud Pakistani Muslim then and there was no question about it. He resigned from PTI Cultural Wing because of his role in Jawani Phir Nahi Ani and apologized like a trillion times for doing that movie and people not only forgave him but lauded his honesty.
He speaks from the heart.
He says the truth.
He is the true voice of Pakistan.
Yes, our pretty boy had it all going very smoothly for him, hence, it was only natural he would speak his mind, from the heart, as a true voice on issues that aren’t just political or media-related. Who knew his latest posts will earn him death threats and ridicule like no liberal may have dished out for all those times when he came off as a typical right-winger.
Hamza Abbasi’s social media presence is huge. He has about 62.8K followers on Twitter while he follows only 7 accounts, and that too since a few weeks ago. Before that it was only 2 accounts. He is the kind of guy who posts a status and has about 1.1K likes within seconds. His Facebook status likes easily accede 20K; comments doing an average of 1,000 per post. His current profile picture has 22.9K likes and 9,000 comments. His cover photo boldly boasts the Kalima, the declaration of Islamic faith,in anon-frilly font.
However, all that seems to have gone down the drain now for the past few days – or since the day he posted his first status speaking out against the persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan. His undoing, he didn’t stop at that. While continuing with his bold rejection of any violence against minorities, Ahmadis in particular, he jumped straight into the snake pit of issues – the Blasphemy Law.
