Adil Najam
Report from News (21 February, 2007):
A fanatic shot dead Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Zill-e-Huma Usman “for not adopting the Muslim dress code” at a political meeting here at the PML House on Tuesday. A party worker caught the accused, Maulvi Sarwar, and handed him over to the Civil Lines Police. Huma was at the PML House to hold an open Kachehry. As she was busy meeting the PML women activists, the accused sitting in the audience approached her with a pistol and pumped bullets into her head from a point-blank range… The accused, M Sarwar Mughal - popularly known as Maulvi Sarwar - is a resident of Baghbnapura in Gujranwala. Two police stations of Gujranwala and the Tibbi police of Lahore had booked Maulvi Sarwar for the murder of six women, but he was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence. His alleged spree of killing “immoral” women started in the year 2002. In his confession statement before the police on Tuesday, he said he was opposed to women holding public office. He added that after he read in the newspaper that the minister was holding an open court, he decided to kill her.
Sometimes you just wonder why! Sometimes you just want to give up!
I have been feeling sad and numb and down and dejected all day. I heard about the brutal murder of Punjab Minister Zile Huma Usman’s murder by a crazed fanatic some 10 hours ago. And I have been in utter shock.
I have tossed and turned. I had thought earlier that I would not even write about it. What is the use? When a society goes so mad that a woman is killed just because she is a woman, what can a blog post do. Just ignite more silly debates; more childish heckling; more immature point-scoring; trying to show how smart you are; or, more likely, trying to show how idiotic others are; reaffirming your own belief that you are always right, and everyone else is always wrong; single-track chest thumping; self-righteous finger-pointing. No remorse. No compassion; not a word of sympathy; not a shred of caring. All there is, is anger; getting high on our own anger; anger for its own sake; getting so very angry that you even forget what or who you are angry at.
But now I do want to write about this. We, as a society, have some serious thinking to do.
What killed Zille Huma Usman? Not religion. Not madness. But anger. Uncontrolled anger.
A society that seems to be fueled by anger. No conversation is seen to be legitimate unless it is an angry conversation. And the solution to everything seems to be violence. ‘Kill the infidels’ say the believers. ‘Kill the mullahs’ shout the modernists. ‘Hang them by the gallows.’ ‘Put them in boats and let them sink.’ ‘Death is what they deserve.’ We have heard it all right here. I suspect we will hear it again. That dastardly, self-righteous anger. This violence in the language, as Zille Huma so tragically found, becomes the violence of bloodshed all too easily. Today it was in the name of religion. Tomorrow it will be something else.
So, do me a favor folks. Give her some dignity. Hold your anger. Think about what happened. Ponder. And pause. For the sake of whatever is sacred to you; please pause!
An innocent woman’s life has already been taken by our inability to put a lid on our passions and our anger. Let us please not make a tamasha out of her death by making her a poster child for whatever ’cause’ we are parading for right now.
I might be deviating from the subject of the post but my comment is inspired —not provoked — by some of the thoughtful and serious observations made by different readers on this thread, and is intended to seek serious answers, not angry or emotional retorts.
We keep hearing that true Islam preaches tolerance and yet we see Muslim societies being among the most intolerant. We are told, ad nauseam, that no Muslim can take the life of another Muslim. Yet we see every day Muslims killing each other in the name of Islam. We hear that there is no compulsion in Islam but we see people threatened to be killed for apostasy. And we are repeatedly told that Islam was the first religion that gave women their rights and yet we see women being discriminated against in the worst possible ways and even killed in the name of Islam, as in the case of Zille Huma, the subject of this post.
The question is why don’t Muslims get the teachings of their religion right?
It is like you have an architectural drawing, which if followed properly, will give you a beautiful building. But all the engineers, contractors and builders working on it cannot build it right. Is it because they cannot read and interpret the drawing? Or is it that the building was intended to be built using different materials —stones, mud and wood —- and we are using concrete, steel, glass and aluminum?
Isn’t there, perhaps, a need to revisit the drawing and see if it needs to be adjusted to suit the contemporary building technology and building materials?
[quote comment="35259"]Therefore, Muslims need to understand Islam themselves, challange the Mullahs and promote a genuine understanding of Islam, which teaches peace, tolerance and humane treatment even of one’s worst enemies. This is the only way forward, otherwise we can expect extremism to grow further.[/quote]
Precisely. The only ‘problem’ with Islam is the Muslims themselves.
I grew up in an educated environment in Pakistan and was taught a very educated approach to Islam. However, now that I’ve started reading and learning on my own, I realize that I had been looking at things in a very different light…not necessarily bad or wrong, just different.
Islam itself REPEATEDLY commands to learn..READ is the first letter of the Quran. Also, on the give-and-take comment by Akif Nizam (Adil Najam :) j/k), Islam clearly says that there is no compulsion.
It is an extremely sad situation, that we have let religious education become more of a joke (probably a hang-up of colonialism). I mean, there are some highly educated, brilliant people posting on this site. I wonder how many of them have even remotely considered theological study as a career…I know I still consider such an idea to be completely ridiculous and I’m not sure why.
When we have made the worst qualified people in charge of religion and declaring edicts, should we also not expect insanity?
May her soul rest in peace.
A woman was killed by a man who wanted to make a political point.
And now more men are dancing over her dead body to make their own political points.
Poor woman. Not even death could rid her of coniving men.
Bilal Zuberi,
The problem with Pakistan is that since the 1970s a small band of brigands with an extremist and rigid view of Islam has been shouting on the top of their voice … while people like you have been asking people like me not to respond.
And then you people wonder why we are associated with terrorism…
And anyone who thinks women should not take part in leadership positions or other professional position is simply a mental case and/or a criminal.
Correct. There are plenty of women in Islamic History having Leadership positions. Nobody ever killed them or criticised them because it was the real Islam that prevailed at that time.
In the discussions I noted people using terms as “their Islam” , ” their version of Islam”. For God Sakes ISLAM IS WHAT WAS REVEALED TO PROHPET MUHAMMAD (PBUH) AND NOTHING ELSE. There are no versions of it.
Well! as usual we seem to be getting derailed from the topic. Please keep in mind that a murder is a murder. Everyone (Mullah or non-Mullah) must condem this dirty crime. And anyone who thinks women should not take part in leadership positions or other professional position is simply a mental case and/or a criminal.
I also urge our sisters to PLEASE come forward and take full part in leadership and please save our nation. We really really need your help and we need it now. This nation belongs to you as much as it belongs to us, your crazy idiot brothers.
Brother Atif Nizam you are absolutely right when you said that he was following the QURAN and HADITH in his own mind,he was interpreting islam wrongly and his action is nothing to do with teachings of islam,no QURANI ayat permited to him to kill this innocent woman.that’s why i said we should read QURAN and HADITH with understanding which will helpful for us to face them and prove them wrong,and dont give them chance to make misinterpreting islam as they have in there minds.our lack of knowledge of islam will also help to those who want use religon for there own beliefs and benifits on the name of secularism and liberalism as many people are trying to use it in pakistan and they highlights such issues.maybe such kind of people were involve behind this,who knows?
May ALLAH protect pakistan and all of you.