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| India-Pakistan |
| The reactions are intense. But will Peshawar be a watershed? |
| 2014-12-24 |
| [DAWN] Have we done enough to stop this slide into the abyss of religiosity, superstition, bigotry, extremism and ignorance? Aren't these qualities needed to make our society a fertile breeding ground for monsters like the Taliban? Isn't it now widely accepted that guerrilla fighters can only sustain themselves and fight in surroundings where they enjoy the support -- even if tacit -- and sympathy of the population? Haven't the Taliban received the sympathy of a large section of public opinion and also the powers-that-be? When we allow the holy mans in mosques to praise the Taliban and their ilk without so much as challenging them or when we condone these prayer leaders' failure to condemn the Taliban by name, don't we become a party to the crime? True, as individuals we may not personally subscribe to this religious fervour, but allowing fear to determine our response makes us equally culpable. Hence it was a relief when counter voices began to speak up. First came a text message on early Thursday morning from Anwer Rashid, chief of the OPP-RTI. He wrote, "Meray bachon humay tum mu'aaf kar do. Hum hain qatil. Humay mu'aaf kar do. Hum ney un istalahon ko zinda kia jin ko hum nay bachpan mein suna hee na tha. Al fasad; al qataal, al jihad." (Dear children forgive us. We are your killers. We allowed such terms to be revived that we had never heard in our own youth such as mischief, slaughter and holy war). Then came the call from a band of civil society youth led by Jibran Nasir for a peaceful candlelight vigil before the Lal Masjid ...literally the Red Mosque, located in Islamabad and frequented by all sorts of high govt officials. The proprietors, Ghazi Abdul Rasheed and Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, unleashed their Islamic storm troopers on the city, shutting down whorehouses and beating people up who weren't devout enough. The Musharraf govt put an end to the nonsense by besieging the place. Abdul Aziz Ghazi was nabbed while he was trying to escape dressed up like a girl. BBC reported that the corpse count at 173, but other claims, usually hysterical, say there were up to 1000 titzup. Among their number was Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Everyone then said tut-tut and what a nice guy he had been... in Islamabad to "reclaim the mosque" as he put it. In a video uploaded on Facebook, Nasir expressed remorse at the public's inaction in the face of the Talibanisation of the institution of the mosque which plays such a central part in people's lives. He minced no words in condemning the holy mans for their role in corrupting and misguiding the youth, and demanded the faceless myrmidons known to the establishment be publicly identified. He did not spare the media either for disseminating the bigotry of the mullahs. Bravo Jibran Nasir! Not everyone will admit that his own silence on such occasions has helped the bigot. If the fear has really been broken will the silent majority now speak up? Don't forget they have been lulled into complacency on matters of faith. The electronic media has helped fan the fires of obscurantism. Above all, we still have to learn to move away from making religion our yardstick for measuring right and wrong in public life. This approach has its pitfalls because of the diversity in the interpretation of Islamic precepts with each school of thought claiming to be the correct one. What right do any of us have to decide who is correct? A secular approach based on a social contract can alone resolve the contradictions that complicate life under a theocratic state while allowing the civilian government and the military to get away with so much casuistry. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 There is no room for the secular in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. |
| Posted by: John Frum 2014-12-24 18:26 |
| #1 Ummmmm, nope. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2014-12-24 07:07 |