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Is Pakistan’s PM Imran Riding The Tiger? – OpEd

By K.N. Pandita

For three days there was a societal shut-down, disruption of law and order, an unleashing of violence and anger throughout Pakistan following the radio broadcast of PM Imran Khan. He had tried to give his agitated compatriots sane and sensible advice on the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Asia Bibi case of blasphemy. The Supreme Court said that there was no irrefutable evidence to prove blasphemy against Asia Bibi, a Christian woman and mother of five children. The case has been hung for nine years by now. The court has set her free.

The fanatical religious extremists in Pakistan felt deeply humiliated by this pronouncement of the court and threatened to launch a countrywide protest against the verdict. They threatened to disrupt law and order and paralyze the government, charging that Islam was being undermined in Pakistan. At the front of these protests was Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, the offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba – an extremist Sunni Hanafi organization that has taken upon itself the genocidal mission of decimating the Shi’a community of Pakistan.

Upon realizing the gravity of the situation, Prime Minister Imran Khan felt the compulsion of addressing the nation through a hurried broadcast.  He spoke what any rationalist and sensible politician and leader would speak. He was polite and persuasive, appealing for respect for the judiciary and the need to maintain peace. He even said that the country was passing through severe financial crisis and is not capable of bearing further strain on its economy. He asked how Pakistan could be run when there are calls for the army to revolt; when there is demand to kill the concerned judges of the Supreme Court; and when there is the cry that the Army Chief is not a Muslim. However, the sting was in the tail: he said it was the duty of the state to protect the life and property of citizens.

Apart from the threats and intimidation flowing rapidly from the extremist groups, there was urgency for Imran Khan to make his hurried broadcast. He was scheduled to leave for Beijing the same night and he did not like that his maiden official visit to China should get spoiled. Nevertheless, his apprehensions did not fail him.

The mayhem let loose by the fundamentalists has forced the government to deploy high-level security at the Pakistan Supreme Court and for its judges. The lawyer who was pleading the case of the defendant has left Pakistan owing to threats to his life. Important government installations have been brought under a security umbrella. And the government has surrendered to fundamentalist pressure and agreed to revisit the matter.

Pakistan’s malaise is rooted in history. The country was created on the assumption that the Muslim community in India was entirely a separate and a superior entity having nothing in common with the indigenous communities of India. Actually, this type of thinking goes into the history of Islam and the Pakistan movement leadership was unable to move beyond the original Islamic cultural parameters and walk into the arena of modernity.

The history of Islam’s opposition to and clash with secularism is an old one. Interestingly, in Arabic language, despite the richness of its lexicon, there is no equivalent word for “secularism.” Secularism, in its political and social sense, has been borrowed from European thinkers and after the Reformation of A.D 1688, secularism became a meaningful term in the political history of Europe. However, it made no impact on Muslim societies in the East because they were still struggling under the rule of autocrats either in the form of monarchs or powerful satraps.

We used to say that in Pakistan the real power rests with the Army. But the Asia Bibi case has exploded that myth, and now we find that real power in that country rests with the religious extremist organizations, which have exhorted the army to rise in revolt against the state.

Pakistan has frequently been warned that the Frankenstein of religious fundamentalism will one day take on the State, including the army. That day has come. It is the Pakistan army that patronized and supported fundamentalism. It is the State of Pakistan that financed and patronized thousands of madrassahs which have churned out hundreds of thousands of fundamentalists-terrorists, who have been working for the destruction of peace in the country and its neighbors – India and Afghanistan in particular. They had tried their tactics in Xinjiang with Uyghur at one time but had to eat humble pie when Beijing issued a stern warning and banished Islamist propaganda in her autonomous province.

This fire will not be doused with the surrender of the Imran Khan government to the fundamentalists. Its embers are smoldering and can ignite a great fire sooner than later. The army has a large number of recruits from the madrassahs, where they have been brainwashed and radicalized. The exhortations of religious extremist leadership will not go unnoticed by the lower echelons of the Pakistan army keeping in mind the milieu from which they have arisen.  At the same time, the Army will also have to recollect that in the past, Imran Khan has been highly critical of the United States and the Pakistan army while conducting his election campaign in Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa. He is riding the tiger but will he dismount without being bruised and mauled? That is the question.

#Canada says safety of #Pakistani woman in blasphemy case a 'priority'

Canada urged Pakistan on Tuesday to ensure the well-being of a Pakistani Christian woman whose life is in danger after having been acquitted in the South Asian country last month of blasphemy charges against Islam, a ruling that sparked mass protests.

The case of Asia Bibi, who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan before being released, has outraged Christians worldwide. Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, has appealed for help to Britain, Canada, Italy and the United States, and so far, Italy has said it would assist her. “It’s a very important issue, a central priority for our government,” Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said of Bibi’s case after meeting her European Union counterpart, Federica Mogherini, in Montreal.Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 after neighbors said she made derogatory remarks about Islam when they objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim. She is a Protestant and denies committing blasphemy.

“Canada calls on Pakistan to take all measures necessary to ensure the safety and security of Asia Bibi and her family,” Freeland said. “Canada is prepared to do everything we can” and is “extremely engaged in this issue,” Freeland said.

Islamists shut down roads in major cities in Pakistan during three days of demonstrations against Bibi’s acquittal. They have threatened to escalate the protests if she is permitted to leave the country. The government has indicated it will bar her from traveling abroad.

Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Mulook, fled to the Netherlands earlier this week because of fears for the safety of his family.

#Pakistan - #AasiaBibi - OP-ED I will drink from your glass of water Aasia Bibi

Chandni Malik

If Aasia Bibi makes it out of the country and I pray she does, I would like to offer her my home and any rehabilitation services that will be required in her settlement. She will eat what I eat and sleep on the same beds as my family. She would be adjusting to a foreign lifestyle in an unknown land simultaneously trying to reconcile with her past; languishing nine years in a jail in subhuman conditions for a crime she did not commit not knowing when and if she would be executed. I know, I cannot begin wrap my head around that. In fact I’m not brave enough to imagine the despair and rages of her mind and thankfully I can afford not to. But somehow that is no consolation. I continue to fantasize her arrival. I imagine myself hugging her, telling her the nightmare is over. I would make it a point to speak in Punjabi with her to give her a sense of belonging and ease her transition. Perhaps it’s my collective guilt, perhaps I need to do this more for myself than for her.

Nineteen years ago, when we named our son Eesa in honor of Jesus (PBUH) a prophet who preceded Mohammad (PBUH) in Islam. I had no idea his name would hold so much relevance today. As today followers of Mohammad would be falsely issuing edicts of blasphemy against followers of Jesus. Funny thing is, one cannot be a Muslim without giving utmost respect to Jesus, but somehow his followers are deemed as unclean. For me he is the beloved prophet of God, for Aasia he is the son of God and nothing less. This makes me no better or no less than her but an equal woman and a human. On second thought, perhaps it does make me lesser of a human as my humanity wasn’t ridiculed or tested the way hers was. I was born in a different strata of society and she in a disenfranchised one and solely for that she is paying a heavy price. When negativity gets too much I get to crawl back into my safe cocoon, she to her jail cell. There is no comparison, really. Meanwhile the protectors of Mohammad’s (PBUH) honor rant and rave freely, lucky for them he won’t be taking a stroll downtown Lahore anytime. For if he did,…I’ll leave that to your imagination.

The state has successfully given her protection following her acquittal, the false messiahs aka the clergy has not and they continue to indulge in blasphemy, ironically accusing her of it with zero evidence. This false narrative has been fed to its ignorant and marginalized followers and they’ve eaten it up like maggots on a rotting carcass. It’s given them purpose to expend their energies, for they are now rebels with, (and I clear my throat rather painfully) without a cause. The terrorists who successfully hold Islam hostage would be out of a job and a cult like fan club if say, Jesus and Mohammad (PBUH) were to somehow appear and take a stroll down Constitution Avenue in Islamabad and wound up in front of the Supreme Court going, “whattup?” “What’s all the ruckus?” (Because I’m a brown girl, I inadvertently imagine both Jesus and Mohammad conversing in floral Punjabi). Let’s just say, a few matters of state would be set straight and lots of people would be jobless. Until that time, we rely on our governments. Sadly.

Four days ago, I was seething with rage as the state was unable to strike down and swiftly arrest the hate mongers and terrorists namely TLP. I had my drink and playlist ready for a celebration at the inevitable arrest of several malefactors. Nothing happened. To help myself make sense of it and educate myself, I sought out various well informed journalist friends including countering violent extremism specialist Kamran Bokhari who helped me realize the difficult truth that the state cannot take on TLP at the moment due to the fact that the mullahs enjoy a monopoly over religious discourse and ignorance runs in tens of millions. It will be a long and difficult struggle but Pakistan will eventually win the war against Islamist extremism. He did say that it is akin to kicking the can down the road and that I wasn’t alone in my frustration. Frankly that near future isn’t coming fast enough for me and those who think like I do, also having a million other frustrated like myself offers no consolation. Meanwhile a woman’s life rots even after acquittal while dirty men play dirtier politics. The state reassures us that TLP has met its demands. Mr. Prime Minister, he just asked for your head, and you’ve reconciled with him?

Today followers of Mohammad would be falsely issuing edicts of blasphemy against followers of Jesus. Funny thing is, one cannot be a Muslim without giving utmost respect to Jesus, but somehow his followers are deemed as unclean

Dear Tehreek-e-Labaik of hate, here is a Muslim woman who sins on a daily basis, considers Aasia Bibi to be her equal and wants you to pray that Mohammad (pbuh) the prophet you revere never finds out about you or that him and Jesus never take that stroll in downtown Lahore or they will break your wudu (ablution) faster than you can say “Ya Rasool Allah”

My plea to the Prime Minster is that since these prophets won’t be waltzing onto our ‘righteous’ scene anytime soon, we elected you in good faith to protect our minorities as stated in the Quran and Sunnah. Please ensure that you do. False promises of striking down terrorists at a future date don’t hold much water. To Aasia, I will drink from your glass of water.

https://dailytimes.com.pk/318856/i-will-drink-from-your-glass-of-water-aasia-bibi/

Aasia Bibi and the Plight of Pakistan’s Untouchables

By Krzysztof Iwanek

An altercation between a Christian woman and Muslim women was based on a Hindu custom.

Customs and habits cannot be partitioned. Neither can they be easily cleansed through conversion.

As I am writing these words, some of Pakistan’s main cities and roads are engulfed in violent protests. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a 4-year-old radical party that so far mostly specializes in taking to the streets in the name of Islamic issues is protesting a Supreme Court verdict in a blasphemy case. The court recently acquitted Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian, who had earlier been sentenced to death for allegedly criticizing the prophet Muhammad. While blocking the street, one of the protesters was reported saying that the traffic will “remain blocked until Aasia Bibi is hanged.”

In 2009 Aasia Bibi, an inhabitant of a Pakistani village, while taking a break from work drank water from a vessel standing on the rim of a well. As it turned out, the pot belonged to local Muslim women. In an argument that followed Bibi allegedly said something objectionable about the prophet Muhammad. She was subsequently assaulted, first by the village women, then by a larger mob, and eventually arrested and sentenced to death. The legal basis of the verdict is country’s blasphemy law which mandates death or life imprisonment for those criticizing Islam or Muhammad. Bibi had been on death row and in prison since 2010, leaving her husband and children on their own, until the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned the earlier sentence.

I am not planning, to cover the religious, legal or political aspects of the 9-year old Aasia Bibi case. Two texts for The Diplomat referred to these issues: This story’s connection to Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law has been covered by Umair Jamal, while the initial fallout from the recent verdict had been described by Daud Khattak. I would like to focus on another aspect.

Let us rewind to 2009. The altercation between Aasia Bibi and the women from her village started when she touched their pot. Yes, she is a Christian and they were Muslims. But the taboo of impurity that divided them is most common in Hindu traditions.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Pakistan had been a part of India before 1947. Some of Pakistan’s and India’s Muslims are descendants of followers of Islam that had been coming to South Asia for centuries. Some would have been of mixed pedigree but probably most of them are the progeny of Indians that had converted to Islam.

A person’s mind is not cleansed of all previous beliefs, customs and habits during the conversion, and a new religion is not imprinted on the mind as if on a clean slab. Thousands of fascinating accounts from different times and places show how converts often carried over elements of their thinking, their old beliefs and customs to a new religion. In some cases, one could convert to Islam or Christianity from Hinduism to avoid the rigid hierarchy of the caste system (or for other reasons, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes forced), hoping for a greater equality in the new community. But this personal choice did not automatically mean that other members of the community stopped regarding the convert as a member of a caste.

Although both Islam and Christianity in theory hold up equality, there are elements of hierarchy in many of their communities. In South Asia, both religions reject the caste system, but in fact have swallowed up its elements and customs in lesser or larger degrees. Some Christian communities in India, for example, do not let low castes enter deeper into the church, while other communities reject this rule. Intercaste marriages between Indian Christians are also not that common as an idealist would have expected, and there are cases of separate graveyard sections for Christian Dalits (untouchables).

It is a separate debate how much the caste system was only a South Asian phenomenon. In its most orthodox form, it may be found only in that region but rules of hierarchy, segregation and ostracism exist in various ways across time and space. It is possible that the plight of certain communities is a fossilized and mixed form of more than one hierarchy. Long ago, commoners in Poland were expected to stay in the vestibule and the side aisles of the church during Mass, a custom admittedly not that different from the caste customs of some Indian Christians, though without the impurity taboo.

And it is not that different in Pakistan. Aasia Bibi’s Christian community is still treated like an untouchable caste by many Pakistani Muslims. Untouchables are called so because other castes regard physical contact with them as polluting. Many of Pakistan’s current (and earlier India’s) Hindu untouchables had earlier converted to either Christianity or Islam; some also later converted again from Christianity to Islam. Yet they are still perceived as impure by other Muslims, though the latter claim they do not believe in either castes or impurity. Much like the Dalits in India, who are ostracized by higher castes, the Pakistani Christian untouchables are expected not to touch the food or the utensils of Muslims. Some Pakistani restaurant owners keep separate utensils, often old and damaged ones, for Christians. Some Pakistanis give their leftover food to untouchable garbage collectors, a custom that reminds us of old, orthodox Hindu traditions.

These rules were transgressed when the Muslim village women’s pot was touched by Aasia Bibi. Her sorrowful story is a symbol of not only the intolerant blasphemy laws but the woes of its religious minorities. At least four inequalities merged in Aasia Bibi’s story: She is woman, a person from a rural area, a Christian and an untouchable. The last two, unfortunately, are often merged into one notion in Pakistan’s social reality.

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari extends greetings to Hindu communities all over the world in general and Pakistan particular on the eve of Diwali festival

November 6: Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has extended greetings to Hindu communities all over the world in general and Pakistan particular on the eve of Diwali festival being celebrated on Wednesday.

In his message on Diwali, the PPP Chairman held out assurances to the non-Muslims living in Pakistan that his Party will always stand for their protection and promotion as equal citizens of the state as per the vision of the founding fathers of the country and teachings of our religion Islam.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that Diwali is celebrated as a triumph of good over evil and light over darkness adding that philosophy of PPP was also to fight against darkness, injustices and inequality.

PPP urged all those celebrating Diwali to hold special prayers for the peace, prosperity and progress of the country as well as for interfaith harmony and cohesive coexistence in the society.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also asked the PPP leaders, especially those of Minority Wing to celebrate and share festivities with the have-nots among who need more attention and care.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2018/11/06/chairman-ppp-bilawal-bhutto-zardari-extends-greetings-to-hindu-communities-all-over-the-world-in-general-and-pakistan-particular-on-the-eve-of-diwali-festival/