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Everyday intolerance in Pakistan

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Everyday intolerance

By Rafia Zakaria
Wednesday, 04 Aug, 2010

Judging from news accounts, the Pakistani military has been making significant inroads against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the tribal agencies and Swat valley. In a report published by the Critical Threats Project, army personnel described the victory of the security forces as “long-lasting, sustainable peace”.

Operations in South Waziristan are also reported to have been largely successful in identifying and eliminating militant strongholds. Data culled from news reports shows that Pakistan’s military has made tremendous progress in dismantling Taliban operations and gaining control of previously militant-infested areas. A Gallup Pakistan poll conducted late last year showed that the majority of Pakistanis polled supported the military operation in South Waziristan in the hope that it would bring peace to the region.

However, in the midst of these military victories lies disturbing evidence that suggests that while the territorial project of the TTP may be floundering, its social project of producing a radicalised Pakistan attracted to literal and intolerant interpretations of faith is flourishing. Examples of such societal radicalisation abound, a notable one being the lack of public outcry against the rampant persecution of minorities who do not fit into the idealised mould of the Sunni Muslim Pakistani citizen.

The past month saw the rape of a Christian trainee nurse in Karachi. In the same month two Christian brothers were gunned down in Faisalabad in broad daylight while leaving a court for a hearing on blasphemy charges, while there were reports that a psychology professor, who had been on the faculty of the University of Peshawar for the past 10 years, was brutally beaten by students for refusing to convert to Islam. There are also reports that the coffin of Premchand, a Hindu Youth Parliament member killed in the Air Blue plane crash, was inscribed with ‘kafir’ before being turned over to his family.

These incidents came on the heels of the deadly attacks on the Ahmadi community in Lahore in May, which killed scores of innocent people. In the case of the trainee nurse, there are some views on how those entrusted with investigating the crime are casting the case as a Christian-Muslim issue in which information provided by the victim cannot be taken as credible because she is not Muslim.

Examples of social radicalisation are not limited to the silent tolerance of violence against religious minorities. A few months ago, Pakistan shut off for some time access to the social networking website Facebook, which had a link to content regarded as blasphemous. A poll conducted by the website Propakistan reported that nearly 70 per cent of the Pakistanis responding to the poll wanted a permanent ban on Facebook.


Similarly, we recently saw the banning of Teray Bin Laden, a comedy film that pokes fun at Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and features Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar. The affinity for bans suggests the increasing prevalence of a worldview that wants to eliminate perspectives that are repugnant, rather than develop intellectual arguments against them.

College campuses around the country provide further evidence of creeping radicalism that wishes to institutionalise a literal and dogmatic interpretation of Islam. Kinnaird College, an all women’s institution, banned “jeans and other western dress” on campus last year after the reported harassment of female students by burka-clad women who threatened violence. Similarly, in April this year, female students at the Islamic University in Islamabad were harassed and physically assaulted by a worker of the Islami Jamiat-i-Tulaba.

According to a report published in a Pakistani daily, the accused approached the women near the engineering building on campus, lectured them that taking pictures was haram and then proceeded to slap and kick one of them. This same student had earlier been accused of assaulting a female teacher. Despite all this, when female students protested, the university administration threatenedthem rather than taking action against the guilty party.

Similar acts of vigilantism designed to intimidate women and minorities continue to occur all over Pakistan without inciting even a fraction of public outcry. There have also been reports of armed men accosting women in public places in Karachi, warning them to cover themselves otherwise they would be subjected to acid attacks, while in other cases, letters have been sent to some fathers asking them to “rein in their daughters” and not allow them to be uncovered in public. Women walking in parks have been harassed by groups of men who do not think they should be out in public.

Cumulatively, all these cases point to the constriction of the Pakistani public sphere and the increasing popularity of the dogmatic, intolerant and ignorant interpretation of Islam touted by the Taliban and their ilk. Considered collectively, the most disturbing aspect of these incidents is that they are not being carried out by the Taliban but by ordinary and sometimes educated citizens who have begun to subscribe to radicalised perspectives. The students beating up women and professors, protesters wanting to ban this or that are not the uneducated, barbaric Taliban but educated, urban middle-class citizens from all over the country.

Their acts of intolerance suggest that while the Pakistani military may be winning the territorial conflict, the war for the Pakistani psyche may already have been lost. Such an appraisal begs the question of whether there is any value in fighting the Taliban for territory if we have already ceded our psyche.

The writer is a US-based attorney who teaches constitutional history and political philosophy.
 
This article reflects the day to day increase in intolerance among the pakistani mass population against people from other religions and other sections of society and the unequal rights and recognition bestowed upon them.
 
This article reflects the day to day increase in intolerance among the pakistani mass population against people from other religions and other sections of society and the unequal rights and recognition bestowed upon them.

You must've earned full marks in school for summarizing texts without understanding the rationales causing them to be written.

Thank you for adding redundancy to information.

By the way, all these incidents could have happened to non-non-Muslims, only that there would've been no news.
 
You must've earned full marks in school for summarizing texts without understanding the rationales causing them to be written.

Thank you for adding redundancy to information.

By the way, all these incidents could have happened to non-non-Muslims, only that there would've been no news.

Sorry, what is your point. And what do you mean by non-non muslims??. There are only muslims and non-muslims in Pakistan. I don't know what is this non-non-muslim :D

If you have anything particular in mind, please debate the points that I have highlighted in the article.
 
as a muslim i'm totally against these killing, but one must admit here that the people who are behind these killing are in very tiny minority.. the reason it gets so highlighted in media is bcoz majority of Pakistanis are Muslims.
We as Pakistanis and Muslims need to be more tolerant towards other religions and need to condemn these radicals/trouble makers.
 
Hi, there is a climate of fear and intolerance that permeates Pakistan today. No one, including the government has the guts to stand up and challenge these uneducated mullahs. Time will tell what path the country will follow. However, in the meantime this situation is literally choking off investment and also destroying whatever little reputation the country (Pakistan) has left. Take care.
 
Hi, there is a climate of fear and intolerance that permeates Pakistan today. No one, including the government has the guts to stand up and challenge these uneducated mullahs. Time will tell what path the country will follow. However, in the meantime this situation is literally choking off investment and also destroying whatever little reputation the country (Pakistan) has left. Take care.
 
Hi, it is sad to see that people can brag about beating someone in public in the name of religion, and not get arrested or prosecuted.

A quote in the article sums it all up - "Sameer added that he was very proud of his wife’s performance during the mob beating. “She beat Zahira more than anyone else. Her hand is so swollen that she hasn’t been able to make rotis since the day of the incident. I’ve been getting my meals from a restaurant,” he said."

Sad to say, but this is Pakistan today and its intolerance. Take care.



http://tribune.com.pk/story/103891/blasphemy-allegations-another-christian-family-on-the-run/

/*******************************************/
Blasphemy allegations: Another Christian family on the run

LAHORE: Two Christian women were beaten and publically humiliated by an angry mob over apparently frivolous blasphemy allegations and they and their family are now in hiding for fear of being killed, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“None of our relatives is ready to let us stay with them. They fear the wrath of the extremists, particularly after the assassination of Salmaan Taseer,” a male member of the family said over the phone from an undisclosed location.

The family and a non-governmental organisation that is helping them asked that their identities not be revealed, lest it put them in further danger. The names mentioned here are fictitious.

According to the family, the allegations stem from a dispute between Amina, a Muslim, and her sister-in-law Zahira, a Christian, in an East Lahore locality. The two got into an argument on Tuesday night and though it appeared to have been settled, on Wednesday morning, after her husband Zahid had gone to work, Amina walked out onto the street and started shouting that Zahira had abused the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

A short while later, a group of men led by Muhammad Sameer, a member of a religious organisation keen on raising its sectarian profile, forced their way into the house and started slapping Zahira, said another of her brothers, Sohail. “Other men and women from the neighbourhood started gathering at the house too and they beat up my sister and mother. They were the only people in the house,” he said.

“We tried our best to get her to confess her crime,” Sameer told The Express Tribune. As a member of the religious organisation, he said he could not tolerate any derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (pbuh).

Sameer added that he was very proud of his wife’s performance during the mob beating. “She beat Zahira more than anyone else. Her hand is so swollen that she hasn’t been able to make rotis since the day of the incident. I’ve been getting my meals from a restaurant,” he said.

Malik Mumtaz Qadri, the self-confessed assassin of Salmaan Taseer, is a member of the same group as Sameer. The group also runs a twenty-four hour cable TV channel.

Khadim Hazoor, Sameer’s son-in-law and another participant in the beating, said that the women’s faces were blackened and they were made to wear necklaces of shoes and paraded around the locality on donkeys to humiliate them. He said the women denied blaspheming and repeatedly touched their feet seeking mercy.

He said the people of the locality would not allow Zahid or his family to return to their house, which he lives next door to. He claimed that the fight between Zahira and Amina the night before the incident revolved around the upbringing of Zahid and Amina’s 18-month-old daughter. Amina had wanted to raise her daughter as a Muslim, but Zahira wanted her niece to be raised as a Christian, he said.

Hazoor accused Zahid of “cheating Islam” by pretending to convert from Christianity to Islam so he could marry the Muslim girl. “We will not let them live in this house. He has not only cheated Amina but also Islam,” he said.

Zameer Khan, an NGO worker, helped the family flee the locality after they were attacked. “Apparently there was no blasphemy, just an argument between two women,” he said.

He said after hearing of the incident, he had reached the scene to find the women being attacked. He said he had asked the mob if anyone had heard Zahira utter any blasphemous remarks, to which they all replied in the negative. He said he persuaded them to let the women go while he investigated the matter. He then helped relocate the family temporarily. He said he had also convinced the mob not to involve the police.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2011.
 
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