Adil Najam
I must confess that after our recent posts on the vigilantism by folks at Jamia Hafsa and the Lal Masjid I had hoped not to write about this issue yet again so soon.
This is not because I shun controversy or duck issues. It is merely because discussions on this issue tend to be prone to slogan-mongering from those holding extreme positions on all sides, they tend to drown out the more serious and more thoughtful deliberations that are so needed, and they quickly turn into mud-slinging matches which take up too much of our time in cleaning up the mess made by those who routinely ignore or are incapable of understanding and following our comment policy. Having said all that, let me also say that it is intellectually dishonest to simply ignore events and trends that are tearing apart the fabric of society.
With that rather long preamble, what has really prompted this post are two things I saw in today’s Dawn. The first is a set of two ads on behalf of ‘The Citizens of Karachi’ (clicking on the images will take you to larger and more readable versions). The first starts off with:
“Are You Ready? Do you want danda bardar and klashnikov shariat?
IF NOT THEN… come to attend the rally in lage number and show your solidarity against the danda bardar and klashnikov shariat.”
I found these ads to be yet more evidence of a polarized society. More than that, I wonder who put these ads? Any clues, readers? I also wonder how many – and who – will show up on the 15th at this rally (starting 2:00PM near the Mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam)?
The second item appears on the back page of Dawn (and most other papers) and is much more disturbing. Here is the story in full:
Militants Beat up Dancers
LAKKI MARWAT, April 12: Clashes between militants and villagers in the Dhoda-Shah Hasankhel area on Thursday morning left two people injured. About a dozen people were taken hostage by the militants.
Sources said a group of Taliban militants had beaten up some transvestite dancers, shaved their heads and broken their musical instruments near Abdulkhel as they were going to the Dhoda village to perform at a wedding on Wednesday night.
Villagers decided to take revenge by raising a Lashkar against the Taliban, the sources said. Light and heavy weapons were used and the Taliban also fired rockets during the clash which lasted for several hours. The Taliban took 12 villagers hostage. Five of them were later freed while the others were in the custody of the Taliban till late evening, according to the administrator of a seminary, Hafiz Amanullah Khan.
A heavy contingent of police and Frontier Constabulary personnel reached the area. A ceasefire was brokered by some local ulema who held talks with village elders and the Taliban. The sources said the situation was tense and additional contingents of the FC had been summoned.
What is common between both stories is that the battle lines in a divided society are being drawn. The only possible good that could come out of this is for the mainstream of the country to recognize the difference between being ‘religious’ and ‘religious extremism.’ Maybe it will take such actions to remind people that we can be religious without being religious extremists; that faith should help flourish a culture of caring, not of violence.
I still think that the mainstream population in Pakistan is not extremist. Most of the extremist in Pakistan, if not all, seem to be a failure in society as such and they get pretty good attention by joining the extremists. This is what I believe, you guys don’t have to agree with me. It is indeed a good sign that people want to protest against these folks!!
The nation continues to follow danda shariyat of dictator,now laywers:
tinyurl.com/2ztck3
Govt should decide what’s wrong and take action, citizen and political parties should freely express their opinion but let the people decide….what they think about parties views..it’s criminal to sit in london and ask peolple to take out rallies in issues which clearly devide the masses into twwo extremes…it’s will trigger more violance and violaent attitudes….every party should work for democracy/ freedom of speech and tolerance…every body has right to practice the sect of islam they want to follow…if you accept one call for rally…that’s trying to force your view….no violent protest should be ever allowed by any one…even in the name of GOD and Prophet.
The ad doesn’t say so but all previous news items and announcements said that the MQM was organising the rally. Since the time that the MMA tore up copies of the Women’s Protection Bill in the National Assembly, the MQM has brought out a number of rallies against the religious parties. In this case there’s no doubt they are on the right side of the argument, at least in my opinion, but I can’t help wondering how much of it is politics.
“we do not want to live under kashinkov shariat but rather under the tanks of an illegal military govt.”
Jabir, they are two heads of the same beast. Have you not noticed?
Why are Mullahs the most privileged class in the country in this era of ‘enlightened moderation’?