Adil Najam
This was another bad week for Pakistanis. Our closest international ally continued bombing our territory. The self-style custodians of our morality kept up the indiscriminate killing of our citizen. One of our most popular television show anchors incited murder in the name of religion through television.
Once again, this was a week when Pakistanis died. Pakistanis cried.
The political machinations in the country continue to be a distraction that is keeping many, too many, glued to the soap opera quality twists and turns in the story of Pakistan’s tortured democratic experiment. But the real story in the country remains what it has for the last two years: a divided society which is at war. Niether the self-styled custodians of our internal identity nor our self-styled freinds abroad seem to be helping. Indeed, they keep making things worse for Pakistanis everywhere.
Meanwhile, Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Whether it is pre-US-election posturing or a deeper shift in US policy, it is clear that the American forces have increased their military incursions into Pakistani territory. Beyond the fact that this is clearly a violation of the sovereign territory of a country they claim to be their ‘closest all,’ one cannot even imagine what the strategic logic of these incursions could possibly be since each incursion only strengthens the hand of the extremist elements that are supposedly after, angers Pakistani public opinion, and pushes the Pakistan goevrnment into a tighter corner. There is no real evidence that they have hit any important militant target but innocent Pakistanis, including children, women and even Pakistani soldiers have certainly been killed; 15 killed this Wednesday; 12 more on Friday.
Meanwhile. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Meanwhile, the merchants of murder and mayhem thrive even more in this condition and continue their war against Pakistan. Indeed, they seem now to be targetting the places of worship themselves. Only today an alleged suicide bomber was caught in Islamabad. On Thursday, 25 died in a grenade attack at a mosque in the Banai area of Dir during taraweeh prayers. Last Saturday, even as Asif Ali Zardari was being elected President, 31 people were killed and another 81 others injured as a suicide bomber blew himself and his vehicle up at the Zangali police post at Kohat Road, Peshawar.
Meanwhile. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
And those who one might have wanted to bring calm and lessons of peace, are themselves engrossed in preaching hate, and in this case murder, to mass audiences. On September 7, Aamir Liaquat Hussain – GEO TV’s popular religious talk-show anchor, former MQM Minister, a holder of multiple fake degrees, and religious instigator extraordinaire – in his GEO TV Show Alim Online presided over a long discussion instigating that those holding Ahmadiyya beliefs were ‘wajib ul qatl’ (i.e., liable to death). The next day, Dr. Abdul Mannan Siddiqi – a 46 year-old Ahmadi in Mirpurkhas and a US-trained cardiologist who had retruned to work in his community – was murdered in broad daylight while working at his local hospital. The next day, Seth Muhammad Yousuf of Nawabshah was also murdered brutally. Whether there is a direct link between the two or not, the preaching of hatred and the practice of hatred both thrive in our land of the pure.
Meanwhile. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
One sits here, shaken by sadness at this waste of human life, and wonders: at how many hands and for how many reasons should Pakistanis die? How long must Pakistan cry?
Enough of spewing hatred and killings by the mullahs and militants. I think Pakistan will NOT make progress until the Ahmadiyya issue is settled peacefully. It is surprising that on the one hand Pakistanis pride themselves (in practice) in having copied almost everything that is Western, they don’t even pretend to follow them in their good values such as internal human rights standards/internal unity; such as the UN charter and human rights declaration documents, which Pakistan has ratified and to which it is signatory. I know someone will be quick to respond that we don’t follow UN and human rights charters, but Quran and Islamic law. How about following the example of an excellent ruler, Hazrat Umar bin Khattab, who said that even if a dog died of deprivation under his rule, he would consider himself responsible! And here we are calling for the killing of our own benefactors. By mouth we say one thing but in practice, we end up doing things that again and again make us the laughing stock of the world. How about taking a tough stance against real enemies of Islam, who are causing the fattest military to repeatedly make illegal incursions into the land and killing Muslims? (At least I haven’t heard of Ahmadiyyas going around killing Pakistanis or Muslims anywhere.) We keep giving foreign militaries “unstinted support”, like gen. musharraf kept declaring for his forgein friends proudly at the expense of Pakistani sovereignty, freedom and peace. When will help and Divine guidance come to this God-forsaken country of ours?
Crimes do happen in every society and criminals sometimes get the punishment they deserve and sometimes avoid that or get it with lesser degree.
It is the society which come froward to react to such incidents. The doctor who was killed was serving an interior area which is already deprived of many other things and that was one of the few gems they got. So what he was Ahmedi, he was serving humanity at large.
A famous Lahore hospital was set-up by Ganga Ram is it?
Western and non-muslim critics are hell bent on proving islam was spread with the use of force (which no way near reality) and incidents like these add to their arsenal.
Is this the picture of Islam we want to show the world?
Ahmedis believe in something and they formed a coomunity to help each other, they are humans like everyone and we know the ones we grow up with in schools and college.
The most disturbing aspect of this whole scenario is that non of the so called thinkers and leaders and scholars codemned this act, its a deafening silence, no one is alowed to say anything about it.
Atleast in Indonesia there were people who does’nt want to be defined by these incidents and they rasied their voices against it.
Whether the murders of these innocents was caused by Jahil-on-line or not, the fact is that this guy is a liar and a hate spreader. He lied about his degrees, he lies about religion every day, he is the worst religious offender, like the televangelist in the US. AND HE SPREADS HATE. people shoudl really put pressure on GEO and The News to remove this hate mongerer. Why is his Ad displayed on The News? Why has The News not reported on this issue? Just because his cheap hate tactics makes money for the Jang group? WHy is there n editorial condemning his hate speech in The News or Jang? Why? Why?
I think we need a fresh leadership, a leadership which is accepted by all. Leadership which can unite the federation to the core. Which can restore the nations confidence in army,the judiciary and the parliment. Leadership which
can stare into the enemy’s eye and say ‘we will do the things our way’. Defencivly Pakistan is unimaginably strong, people have their utmost belief in their regional and religious parties and some how it is not a bad thing. Having said that, I believe Asif Ali zardari is not the person for this job now.
For once, when the big players PMLN and PPP goes hand in hand, there was no room left for Musharraf but soon my hope turns to despair. My memory reminds me that there were no foreign incursion around that time. Their dissolution was the darkest day, a reminder that this nation is still plagued by peoples, whose motive is absolute power. Unfortunately, in the short-term we have to rely on the
parties referred and think for the best. I wish those days could come back once more for a long time this time.
I watched the AOL program (that aired on Sep. 7th) discussing the above mentioned issue. From what I gather, the host and the speakers said that a person claiming to be a prophet is wajib-ul-qatl; they didn’t mention anything per se about the followers of such a prophet. Am I missing something? Was there any talk about killing Ahmedis?
Having said that, I know that Pakistan has ample of fanatic muslims who can kill mercilessly in the name of religion, so its best to avoid such sensitive topics on the airwaves.