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.
[quote comment=”35332″]The murder of Zille Huma was discussed in the Senate last night. One woman senator from the ruling party, Kulsoom Parveen, had this to say:
[quote]”The government should take notice of the incident and a female relative of Sarwar should also be killed in the same manner to avenge the death of Zille Huma.” Dawn Feb. 23[/quote]
This is one of our lawmakers speaking! Should one cry or laugh?[/quote]
I also think this is the most depressing. Surprised why teh press is not picking up on this more. So, OK, that Maulvi Sarwar guy was mad. What is this woman’s excuse!
[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?
I agree with Omer that the best course is for the law to take its course. But as someone said we can have very little faith in that. As was mentioned, the Nirala case is just one example where things were forgotten and the culprit is now enjoying the high life in Dubai and no one, niether police nor press is intersted in doing anything because the criminal is rich and the victim is not. In such circumstances what basis do we have to trust that the law will take its course.
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.