Source: ET
“The torching of the church is unfortunate and reprehensible, contrary to the teachings of Islam, which ordains respecting places of worship of all religions,” the president had said. PHOTO: REUTERS
Trying to be ‘correct’ after the fact, President Asif Ali Zardari has issued a message condemning the ransacking and destruction of ‘the places of worship of other religions’ as an un-Islamic activity. He referred to the burning of a church in Peshawar when he stated: “the torching of the church is unfortunate and reprehensible, contrary to the teachings of Islam, which ordains respecting places of worship of all religions”. He said, in what was an understatement: “Incidents like this portray Pakistan and Muslims negatively”.
A well-known journalist spoke of the government’s decision to join the ‘protest’ on Friday, September 21: “The PPP has pandered to the religious right in the hope that giving them space will make them leave everyone else alone … cowardice and a myopic survival instinct dictated the PPP’s decision to embrace the mobs. The thinking was fairly rudimentary, as it often is here: get on the right side of the outrage; co-opt the raging few by giving their protests an official imprimatur”