Pakistan Today: By:Waqqas Mir: The year is 1948. Major Mahmud, an Ahmadi, is murdered in a manner described by the 1954 Justice Munir Report as “singularly brutal.” He is an army officer. His car suffers a breakdown close to a place where an angry mob has held a meeting denouncing Ahmadis — this is 1948 when Pakistan does not have its own constitution providing for a definition of a Muslim and a non-Muslim.
Major Mahmud is chased by a crowd after they learn of his beliefs. He suffers multiple injuries from blunt instruments. He is helpless against the attacking mob which stabs him multiple times till his entrails fall out. But this isn’t the majority’s problem, right?The year is 2012. An Ahmadi school teacher is picked up by the police and dies in police custody, allegedly because of torture. People fail to protest. After all, he is an Ahmadi and many people die of torture in police custody so why should he get special attention? A woman commits suicide after being the victim of an acid attack. The media raises questions while shying away from others. A popular talk show host becomes an apologist for the attacker — detailing how women almost ask for these crimes to be committed against them. Mr Javed Chaudhry’s article was repulsive in many ways. As a lawyer, I have all the respect for anyone wanting to explain why people commit crimes since society often does not discuss that. But there is a difference between an explanation and a justification; the latter imparts a moral quality to heinous acts. Even the most skilled advocate would think twice about running the sort of misogynistic defence that the likes of Mr. Chaudhury have furthered. I said skilled, not typical. A society’s reaction to crimes against its most vulnerable is important. Equally important is its reaction to crimes committed against people who further unpopular discourse. This after all is a society where many politicians including the increasingly self-righteous and popular ones explain suicide bombings by blaming drone attacks. As if every child being brainwashed in suicide bombing schools has lost someone or every instructor there has suffered a loss and turned vengeful. That is the beauty of rhetoric, I guess. When popular opinion makers and politicians say the absurd many will just accept it. When Mr Salmaan Taseer was murdered, there was no shortage of people who said, “But why did he have to speak out against blasphemy laws? He should have known better.” As if something as sacred and deep rooted as a religion is threatened by a differing point of view. Every time I write about these issues I get a ton of emails saying that we have bigger problems, that corruption and power cuts affect people’s lives more than these issues. And my reaction, each time, to such reasoning is the same; I am deeply disturbed. It is easy for people to say “we have bigger problems” when they have never been the target of a systematic campaign aimed at certain viewpoints or beliefs. Adopting a deeply selfish stance to the plight of others might have reasons but again it is not justified.
Categories: Asia, Faith, Human Rights, Human values, Islam: A Religion of Peace, Muslims for Peace, Pakistan, Religious Values
Waqas Mir Sahib really deserve congratulations for such a great article: bold, articulate, highly sensible, well worded and full of reasoning. Sensible will definitely benefit. We can just pray in the words of Holy Prophet, “O’ Allah guide my people to the right path, they simply don’t know “. Our beloved prophet pity’s upon them, so why shouldn’t we?