COMMENT : Are Pakistan’s non-Muslims ‘dhimmis’? — Yasser Latif Hamdani
No Pakistani is a dhimmi. All of us, whatever our faith, are equal citizens with equal obligations and equal responsibilities
As Pakistan has mercifully completed one complete democratic cycle and is now heading towards, hopefully, a second one, one hopes that some of those outstanding issues vis-à-vis identity, culture, religion and society will also be settled in light of the highest standards of human conduct of our times.
The Joseph Colony incident reminds us that we are very much a reactionary and medieval nation despite our democratic constitution, or perhaps because of it. The problem of Islamist street power dates back to the Khilafat Movement when Pan-Islamism was deployed in the service of non-cooperation. Mahatma Gandhi, who should have known better, had thought that by supporting the Muslim cause of Khilafat he could achieve Hindu-Muslim unity. Gandhi was strongly advised against encouraging religious divines by Mr Mohammad Ali Jinnah but he paid no heed to it. The result was frightful. As Jinnah had predicted, Muslims and Hindus began clashing soon in that movement, with Moplahs declaring jihad on Hindus in South India. Khilafat Movement may have temporarily brought Hindus and Muslims together but in the longer run, it made religious identities non-negotiable.