The need for tolerance

In Pakistan Ahmadis and Shias are often being killed,dargahs bombed. human rights activists and journalists, etc brutally murdered. 

Ahmadis believe that after Prophet Mohammed there was a Prophet Ghulam Ahmad in the 19th Century. Are they breaking anyone's head or cutting off anyone's limbs by saying this ? Those who believe that Mohammed was the last prophet are entitled to do so, and they may also say that Ahmadis are not Muslims ( just as Ahmadis may the same about them). But what right have they to kill Ahmadis, burn their mosques, and beat up their children ? This is just hooliganism.

Similarly, when the Shias do not accept the first three Khalifas (Abu Bakr, Omar and Usman) as genuine, and regard them as usurpers, are they breaking anyone's head or cutting off anyone's limbs ? Then what right has anyone to kill them or burn their mosques or beat up their children ? This is simply hooliganism. Many Muslims of Wahabi thinking believe that going to dargahs is butparasti ( worship of idols), since dargahs have graves of Sufi saints, and such persons believe that going to dargahs is worship of graves, which is idol worship prohibited by Islam.

Such people need not go to dargahs if they do not wish to, but why should they prevent others from doing so, and why should dargahs be bombed ? This is just hooliganism. In fact 80% Muslims not only in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh go to dargahs, and Hindus also go there.

We need tolerance if our country is to survive and prosper, otherwise it will become another Jurassic Park like Pakistan, where 1000 girls are stoned to death every year for alleged adultery, blasphemy laws,abduction, forcible conversion, etc are used to persecute non-Muslims, health workers who give polio drops to children and vaccinate them are killed, human rights activists, journalists, etc are brutally murdered.

In a subcontinent of such diversity as ours only tolerance and secularism can keep us together and take our country forward towards prosperity

A Failed State

Mahwash Badar, a Pakistani woman, in an article published on 12.5.2014, writes : " Jinnah made a mistake and I am ashamed of being a Pakistani. I am ashamed that I belong to a country that kills human rights lawyers and sitting Governors, and issues death threats to University Professors. I am ashamed that we cannot protect our women and children, and we cannot protect our men from the evil that is extremism and fundamentalism.

Last year a polio worker was killed in Peshawar, and another shot dead in Khyber agency. Several were kidnapped in Bara. In January this year gunmen killed 5 health workers taking part in a polio vaccination drive in Karachi. The highest refusal rates for polio vaccination were recorded in Karachi, because the people there have 'little faith in public healthcare'. In North Waziristan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan ( TTP) has forbidden vaccination since several years.

Everything that is reported about Pakistan is about death, destruction, squabbling politicians, ailing children, extremists blowing up things, and a struggling economy.

I raise my eyes to our neighbouring country, India. What would have happened if we were united? Maybe we would be polio free too. We share with our Indian brothers not only our DNA. Our food, language, clothes, lifestyles, etc are more like them than the Arabs we so badly want to mimic and ape. 
Pakistan is a fledgling and failed state ".

As regards my own views about Pakistan, see my article "The truth about Pakistan", which is available online. I have mentioned there that Pakistan is a fake, artificial country mischievously created by the British to keep Hindus and Muslims fighting with each other so that India (in which I include Pakistan) may not emerge as a modern, powerful industrial state (like China), which alone can abolish poverty, unemployment, lack of healthcare and good education, and other social and economic evils widespread in our sub continent today.

Apart from the fact that the two nation theory (that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations) was bogus and mischievously created by the British and their agents ( Jinnah, etc), another important problem arises when an Islamic state is created in our subcontinent : Which Islam is the true Islam, Sunni or Shia, Bareilvi or Deobandi, etc, etc.

I submit that in view of the tremendous diversity in our sub continent only a secular state is feasible here. Secularism does not mean that one cannot practise his religion. Secularism means that religion is a private affair, unconnected with the state which will have no religion.

'The inevitable consequence of declaring Pakistan as an Islamic State'

Is Pakistan rapidly degenerating into a Jurassic Park? Consider the following events :

On 7.5.2014 an eminent lawyer and human rights activist, Rashid Rehman Khan, was shot dead by some assailants while he was sitting in his lawyer's office. He was evidently killed because he was representing a University teacher, Junaid Hafeez, in a blasphemy case. During the trial proceedings he was threatened in open court by some lawyers that unless he withdraws from the case he will be killed.

In Pakistan lawyers and witnesses for the defence in blasphemy cases are almost invariably threatened that if they do not withdraw they will be assassinated. Many judges are scared to hear such cases or to acquit the accused even if there is no credible evidence against him.

Rashid Rehman Khan was a very active human rights worker in Pakistan, and was a coordinator of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.. Whenever a person died in custody he would take up his case. If a woman's face was burnt with acid, he would rush to get her medical help. He fought against 'honour killing' of young girls. He trekked the most backward area of Dera Ghazi Khan, a tribal area, and documented the misery of people living there. He went to that part of Rahim Yar Khan where low caste Hindus live without any rights, and reported their plight.. He was the first to take up Mukhtaran Mai's case. He fought Sherry Rehman's persecutors upto the High Court level. He had special interest in the welfare of peasants, and demanded land reforms and tenants' rights ( in much of Pakistan landlordism still prevails).

Despite all this, consider what followed his murder :

1. Journalists in his home town Multan did not dare to write about his murder.

2. Judges in Lahore High Court are avoiding hearing Aisa Bibi's appeal

3. Multan police is not seriously investigating the murder.

4. There have been no serious protests against this dastardly crime, and most Pakistanis remain mum, obviously out of fear.

 Also, Consider the following:

On 12.05.2014 Dr. Faisal Manzoor, a prominent Shia medical practitioner, was gunned down outside his hospital in Hasanabdad. Dr. Faizal, after getting his medical degree, could have gone to America or England, like many other doctors and earned a lot of money there, but instead he chose to go to his small home town to serve the people there, where he built a modern hospital. When an earthquake struck North Pakistan he loaded a truck with medicines, food, blankets and tents, and headed north, where he camped and distributed help to the needy. Why was he killed? because he was a prominent Shia.

Similarly Dr. Ali Haider, an eye surgeon, along with his son were shot dead in Lahore. Dr. Babar, Dr. Faizal's cousin, was also shot dead. What were their cimes? That they were Shias. Many other such examples can be given.

On 28.5.2014 a pregnant woman, Farzana Parveen, was stoned to death in midday outside the Lahore High Court in a busy thoroughfare as an 'honour killing' for marrying a man against the wishes of her parents. Her father, brothers, and cousins were among the assailants. One family member tied her neck with a cloth, while others smashed her skull with bricks. All this was done in the public gaze. Her father later said he killed his daughter because she had dishonoured the family, and he had no regrets.

According to reports, about 1000 girls are victims of 'honour killings' every year. 83% Pakistanis support stoning to death for adultery. One couple killed their daughter for 'dishonoring' them by throwing acid on her face.

On 26.5.2014 Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar, a Canadian citizen since the early 90s, was gunned down in front of his wife and child in the town of Chenab Nagar in Pakistan. He had travelled from Canada to Pakistan to train local doctors at Tahir Heart Institute for 3 weeks. He was shot dead by fanatics because he belonged to the Ahmedi sect. Two men on motorbikes shot him in the back, and when he turned, fired 10 more rounds into his chest. He was the youngest of 7 brothers and sisters, all of whom had migrated to North America out of fear of religious persecution.

Minorities in Pakistan (Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmedis, and Shias) live in a state of fear, and are particularly vulnerable .

This is the inevitable consequence of declaring Pakistan as an Islamic state.