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.
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.
[quote comment=”35259″] …challange the Mullahs and promote a genuine understanding of Islam, which teaches peace, tolerance and humane treatment even of one’s worst enemies.[/quote]
Going a little further, actually peace, tolerance, humane treatment are the necessary means to get to a point where you don’t have enemies. By themselves these qualities will not last, or at least not have their truest expression, unless in a sense we are conscious of working towards having no enemies. As an example, I dislike both Bush and Blair. Treating them humanely (should I somehow capture them) is actually not the most imp consideration – its more that I have to work on not ‘disliking’ them. To that end, things like tolerance, peace, humility, congizance of one’s own shortcomings, etc are useful.
[quote comment=”35248″][quote comment=”35243″]Brother Akif Nizam whould you will like to tell us what is the central message of islam?
May ALLAH protect pakistan and all of you.[/quote]
Mr. Khan, my comment said that we must first find the message of Islam. As of now, there is no message. There are a lot of “do this”, “don’t do this” but there is no message, there is no underlying philosphy, there is no ideal in today’s terms, there is no room for introspection, or for individuality, or for creativity.
It just is; take it or…..actually, it’s just ‘take it’.[/quote]
@Akif – I find your comments very pertinent.
People, please dont jump on me – I am not a Muslim, but I have a few thoughts. To me, a couple of things have always stood out in Islam (as it appears to an observer), and I take these two to be the ideal thats striven for:
1. Faith in Allah/Divine/God
2. Surrender to the same
In other words, a life given to living with an increasingly total faith (which is not vastly different from belief) in God, leading to a complete surrender to that which is above you. Surrender is a loaded word, which certainly does not mean shedding all personal responsibility or faculties. Surrender in its best sense I believe is to be a human instrument devoid of the ego, truly ready and fit for use by Allah.
The attributes like peace, devotion, charity, brotherhood, etc are I believe the staffs with which the pilgrims can journey in achieving the above two (which are by no means immediately achievable in their true sense). These attributes and many other conducive ones were sought to be manifested and established in various practices as part of an organised society: zakat, ummah, the peace greeting, etc.
I do not want to be presumptuous. Obviously, you guys practice Islam, I don’t. However, my interest in matters spiritual is extensive — so I consider myself a pilgrim on the same path.
Also, when some idiot distorts Islam, that should also be seriously bothersome for any Muslim because his religion is being twisted. 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.