Thank you so much for this very nice article.
It is an irony that we are witnessing the role and attitude of religious classes of Christianity and Islam as completely reversed today as compared to middle ages. During 13th to 15th centuries Christianity was in the grip of fanaticism which caused so much pain and anguish to people of Europe, whereas during those times Muslim mystics and Sufi saints were preaching Islam through the message of love, peace, tolerance and co-existence. We know that spread of Islam in India was due to the efforts of those saints.
Christianity learnt a lesson from their experience of the Middle Ages and de-linked religion from the system of govt. On the other hand Muslim society is heading fast into a Middle Ages like situation of the Christian world, thanks to our obscurantist mullahs. The result is that Islam today has become a name to be despised and feared and poor, genuine and hard working Muslims in Europe and America at times face problems due no fault of theirs.
We must all raise our voices against fanaticism and extremism in the best interest of Islam and true Muslims.
--- On Fri, 11/3/11, Nizamuddin Nizamani <nizambaloch@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Nizamuddin Nizamani <nizambaloch@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Media Tribe> Deathly Silence Prevails in Pakistan
To: briglatif@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Friday, 11 March, 2011, 7:42
Dear;
Every one is not silent. People are speaking despite the risks and threats. Pl see my article on the issue:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\08\story_8-3-2011_pg3_6 VIEW: Religious intolerance: Pakistan vs the US —Nizamuddin Nizamani There is a popular understanding in Pakistan that Muslims are victimised in the US. However, many Muslims in the US would appreciate the moral and other support from individuals with Jewish and Christian backgrounds
The brutal killing of Mr Shahbaz Bhatti, federal minister for minorities, on March 2, 2011, in Islamabad in a terror attack reminds us of a similar incident that took the life of late Salmaan Taseer, the vocal and bold governor of Punjab, both preaching tolerance and coexistence among the followers of different faiths in Pakistan. This incident illustrates the level of intolerance prevailing in the frustrated but lethally equipped extremist groups in our unfortunate country.
Pakistan's constitution includes Islam as state religion and also provides for anti-blasphemy laws, prone to misinterpretation and misuse by the misguided elements that legitimise their heinous and violent activities, mostly aimed at settling their personal scores, in the name of sanctity of the faith.
Interestingly therefore, most of the victims blamed for blasphemy have been Muslims, among them young women, accused by their revengeful opponents. In addition, the religious parties and groups combine the notion of guarding the sanctity of shariah with anti-western, mainly anti-American, rhetoric. We regularly hear the anti-American and anti-Jewish speeches on the streets.
In fact, the American constitution provides religion as individual choice and a private affair and de-linked from the state. European states and countries, after bitter experience of centuries, did away with theocracy. The Europeans suffered a lot at the hands of extremists controlling the church from 13th-15th century.
Rigid Muslim elements in Pakistan today are following the footprints of their Christian counterparts from the Middle Ages. However, during those days, enlightened Muslim mystics and Sufi saints preached and disseminated Islam through the message of love, peace, tolerance and coexistence. In the west, during the Middle Ages, innocent people, particularly women, were accused of being witches who worked for the devil. They were punished by being burnt alive. Protestants were also victimised and persecuted through such provisions. Heinrich Krammer and James Sprenger were empowered by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 to prosecute witches throughout northern Germany. They wrote a book as witch-hunter's manual titled Malleus Maleficarum (the Witches' Hammer). It was written at the height of the witch-hunt mania during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. It contained complete instructions on the prosecution of witches. Based on the proposed diagnostic symptoms in that manual, thousands of innocent people were burnt and killed in the name of upholding the sanctity of the religion.
Today Europe is different and so is the US, but we are still living in the Middle Ages. It is not that the west was always tolerant, but they learnt in the process that the narrow-mindedness and persecution was disastrous not only for their religion but also for mankind.
Muslim religious groups apparently play defensive and they think that the west, particularly the US, is bent upon destroying Islam and the Muslim world. They cite examples of military operations against many Muslim countries. There is no doubt that extremist and anti-Muslim elements still exist in the west and some Christian groups dominated by xenophobic whites would continue their hatred campaigns but their size and influence is limited. They are not mainstream and do not have much support from within their own communities. Vestiges of the Ku Klux Klan and its splinter groups are generally white racists and dislike everyone who is not white; they are not particularly anti-Muslim
A new maligning trend of presenting converts from Islam may be an artful attempt to poison the people against Islam and Muslims. Such activities are, however, exceptions, not the rule. Generally, people in the US are highly tolerant of each other and would not poke their nose in others' affairs, come what may. Officially, the US constitution provides for the right to congregate and preservation of the religio-cultural practices to all the groups, provided those are not harmful or threatening to any other groups.
There is a popular understanding in Pakistan that Muslims are victimised in the US. However, many Muslims in the US would appreciate the moral and other support from individuals with Jewish and Christian backgrounds. In addition, many Jewish people would not support Israeli state policies.
Ironically, in our social fabric we have witnessed the breeding of fanaticism and extremism due to integration of religious conventions with backward tribal values that would otherwise be unacceptable in Islam. In ordinary seminaries, it is reported that in addition to religious, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu teachings are imparted through oral syllabi. In addition, indoctrination against different sects within Islam has brought us to this sorry state of affairs.
Islam is the second largest religion in the US and reports show that through sheer merit and struggle, a large number of Muslims of Pakistani, Indian, Arab and African origin have reached higher places in education, health, science and technology. Therefore, as a result of tolerance, coexistence and acceptability, all the American nationals, regardless of their ethnic or religious background, are loyal to the US. On the contrary, most Pakistanis would be loyal to their ethnic and sectarian origins but not to the state.
Many think-tanks in the US have a considerable presence of experts with Muslim backgrounds. Although some of the Muslims question the aims and implications of controversial missionary campaigns like the Joshua Project aimed at converting Muslim ethnic minorities to Christianity, as a whole Muslim families, particularly Pakistanis, in the US feel more secure than any neighbourhood towns or cities in Pakistan.
We need to learn coexistence, respect and tolerance for the others' opinion, norms and beliefs. This way we can make this country worth living. Otherwise, the prevailing circumstances would lead to unprecedented exodus and can result in a catastrophe impossible to manage.
The writer holds a master's degree in social sciences and is a professional trainer, researcher and peace activist. He may be contacted atnizambaloch@gmail.com
On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 8:03 AM, Brig Latif <briglatif@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Deathly Silence Prevails in Pakistan |
| By Gwynne Dyer March 09, 2011 While the people of Arab states are overthrowing dictators, Pakistan is sinking deeper into intolerant Islamic extremism. Emboldened by the meek response of the people to the assassinations of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, Islamist vigilantes will now become more brutal At least with a dictatorship, you know where you are — and if you know where you are, you may be able to find your way out. In Pakistan, it is not so simple. While brave Arab protesters are overthrowing deeply entrenched autocratic regimes, often without even resorting to violence, Pakistan, a democratic country, is sinking into a sea of violence, intolerance and extremism. The world's second-biggest Muslim country (185 million people) has effectively been silenced by ruthless Islamist fanatics who murder anyone who dares to defy them. What the fanatics want, of course, is power, but the issue on which they have chosen to fight is Pakistan's laws against blasphemy. They not only hunt down and kill people who fall afoul of these laws, should the courts see fit to free them. They have also begun killing anybody who publicly advocates changing the laws. Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab, Pakistan's richest and most populous Province was murdered by his own bodyguard in January because he criticized the blasphemy laws and wanted to change them. He said that he would go on fighting them even if he was the last man standing — and in a very short time he was no longer standing. But one man still was: Shahbaz Bhatti. Shahbaz Bhatti was shot down last Wednesday. The four men who ambushed his car and filled him with bullets left a note saying: "In your fight against Allah, you have become so bold that you act in favour of and support those who insult the Prophet... And now, with the grace of Allah, the warriors of Islam will pick you out one by one and send you to hell." Shahbaz Bhatti was not a rich and powerful man like Salman Taseer, nor even a major power in the ruling Pakistan People's Party that they both belonged to. He was the only Christian member of the Cabinet, mainly as a token representative of the country's three million Christians, but he had hardly any influence outside that community. Nevertheless, he refused to stop criticizing the blasphemy laws even after Salman Taseer's murder, so they killed him too. That leaves only Sherry Rehman, the last woman standing. A flamboyant member of Parliament whose mere appearance enrages the beards, she has been a bold and relentless critic of the blasphemy laws — and since Salman Taseer's murder she has lived in hiding, moving every few days. But she will not shut up until they shut her up. And that's it. The rest of the country's political and cultural elite have gone silent, or pander openly to the fanatics and the bigots. The PPP was committed to changing the blasphemy laws only six months ago, but after Salman Taseer was killed President Asif Ali Zardari assured a gathering of Islamic dignitaries that he had no intention of reviewing the blasphemy laws. Although they are very bad laws. In 1984 General Zia ul-Haq, the dictator who ruled Pakistan from 1977 to 1988, made it a criminal offence for members of the Ahmadi sect, now some five million strong, to claim that they were Muslims. In 1986 he instituted the death penalty for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. No subsequent Government has dared to repeal these laws, which are widely used to victimize the Ahmadi and Christian religious minorities. Ahmadis and Christians account for at most five per cent of Pakistan's population, but almost half of the thousand people charged under this law since 1986 belonged to those communities. Most accusations were false, arising from disputes over land, but once made they could be a death sentence. Higher courts generally dismissed blasphemy charges, recognizing that they were a tactic commonly used against Christians and Ahmadis in local disputes over land, but 32 people who were freed by the courts were subsequently killed by Islamist vigilantes — as were two of the judges who freed them. The current crisis arose when a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, was sentenced to death last November, allegedly for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad. Pakistan's liberals mobilized against the blasphemy law and discovered that they were an endangered species. The murders of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti were bad, but even worse was the way that the political class and the bulk of the mass media responded. A majority of the population fully supports the blasphemy law, making it very costly for politicians to act against it even if the fanatics don't kill them. Political cowardice reigns supreme, and so Pakistan falls slowly under the thrall of the extremists. Being a democracy is no help, it turns out, because democracy requires people to have the courage of their convictions. Very few educated Pakistanis believe that people should be executed because of a blasphemy charge arising out of some trivial village dispute, but they no longer dare to say so including the President. "We will not be intimidated nor will we retreat," said Mr Zardari on March 3, but he has already promised the beards that the blasphemy laws will not be touched. Nor is it very likely that the murderers of Salman Taseer or Shahbaz Bhatti will be tracked down and punished. You could get killed trying to do that. |
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