naveen mishra
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Residents of Quetta still remember the days when they lived together; united, happy and prosperous. At that time, relations were based on love and mutual respect and these bounds were so strong that no factor like race, sect, color, or even religion could bring any drift in them. Humanity was upheld and good norms and behaviors were given priority to anything else. Children grew playing together, teenagers cherished the days spent with their neighborhood friends and grown-ups kept each other dearer than their blood-bound relations. At that time, there was no problem of Sunni and Shia. Religion was given importance but people respected and followed the true spirit of religion, i.e., humanity comes before religion. There are innumerable stories when two neighbors or friends, both from different sect, had helped each other more than the relatives. It is not a very far occasion when Sunni Muslims used to actively take part in the Muharram processions and gatherings of their Shia brothers. But this condition was not acceptable for some powers because for them, there was no difference between Sunni and Shia, for them they were all equal and they had the centuries old dream of making them weak and destroying them and for this purpose, they came up with a very clever plan; divide and destroy. In front of our eyes, we saw the hatred getting birth and people did nothing and then there was not looking back. This hatred started on a very small scale and then it engulfed every community, every street, and every tiny mind and heart and became the permanent part of the personality and thoughts of many.
It started with attacks on the Muharram processions. In the beginning, people were sorry for the loss of innocent lives but in order to shatter this feeling of sympathy and justify these barbarous acts, the fire of hatred was increased. The machinery of propaganda started working with manifold intensity to make the people believe that killing of Shia was necessary and it was a very important religious cause. When this propaganda penetrated into the minds of people, the unity between them evaporated and was replaced by a devastating hatred. Killing of Shias became common and acceptance of these killings by the majority became even more common and it was the most alarming situation. Human life lost its importance and humanity lost its soul. Now, Shias are killed on every street and road and they cannot come out of their houses. Majority of people feel no pain for the killing of an absolutely neutral and innocent soul and the number of youth with violent hatred against Shias has grown manifolds in last few years.
No doubt, great think-tanks are working behind this whole setup and very coordinated planning has been done to make this formula work. But it is a fact that wide-spread illiteracy, ignorance and our negligence contributed more in their success than their efforts. Their efforts could have never been successful in an educated, well-aware and informed society but a society, including of a large majority of illiterate and emotionally-driven members, anything impossible could have been made possible.
It is also a very sad fact that majority of the people who believe in such propaganda, have never had any access to any actual or tangible evidence for their hatred but then the weapon of religious sentimentalism was very nicely utilized. Anybody who tried to speak against them was silenced and was termed to be an ‘Imperfect-Believer’ or even the ‘hypocrite’, trying to disparage a noble cause.
What was the biggest crime committed by Shias that they were inflicted with this intensified hatred? It was said that they talked against and insulted the Holy Prophet (PBUH), His exalted companions and the great saints and scholars of Sunnis. They were also involved in the murder of great Sunni scholars and these events date back to many centuries. In the history, they were always involved in crimes against Sunnis so that they should be weakened. These were not small claims but what was the mechanism to make the people believe in them and fill their minds with hatred against the Shias?
Large number of books, magazines and literature were printed and distributed in free that proved that Shias were involved in the crimes mentioned above. In the beginning, government was also vigilant not to let such literature become public and very less people had access to them and even less believed in them. But then came such governments that took their share of profit from this bloody game and closed their eyes, leaving the ground fully vacant for hate-provoking activities. But this strategy was not successful because large majority of people could not read them and the educated were never impressed by these tales that had no reason or logic behind them and had no appeal for a thinking mind. But then came the era of smart phones, cheap computers and widely-accessible internet. Now, the game became too easy to be played. Cheap CDs and DVDs, Bluetooth sharing, cheap smart phones and many other sources brought this dynamite into the hands of the vast majority that was both illiterate and extremely religiously sentimental. They accepted whatever was told to them and whatever was shown to them and their immature minds and limited thoughts were never able to challenge the authenticity of the contents. They were also very good to be used for further action; conveying the same message forward and even committing suicides and being the member of the armed wing of these groups.
These videos and facts shared on internet and social networking sites are so appealing that they can contaminate a sound-thinking and educated mind with the germs of hatred so why should one not believe in them? To get the answer to this question, I would like to mention the findings of two of my friends (both Sunni) that would make the picture more clear. One of them is a computer and recording expert and he says, ‘Majority of these videos are so nicely made that they can never be judged by a common man. For example, let’s examine the video of a Shia scholar which is very famous among the Sunni extremists these days. He is shown to utter very immoral and disgraceful remarks against the family of our Holy Prophet (PBUH). The closer and technical observation reveals some other facts about the video; the scholar is not fake, and the program and the channel are also genuine but then a dubbing of his voice has been done in the video. Using a very common technology, one can produce the same voice and tone of a person and then make dubbing of sound in a way that complete video seems to be authentic and the scholar is shown to be uttering those inappropriate remarks. In the actual video, the scholar talks about absolutely different issue. There are thousands of such videos. Let’s take another example. In a photo, the dead body of a Shia is shown who has carved the sacred names of the exalted companions of Holy Prophet (PBUH) under his foot. The trick lies again in the camera work. After the picture of the foot was taken, it was edited and same carved names were added to the picture in a way that it looked the original part of the photo. It must be admitted that people involved in the work are using extra sophisticated technology and services of top professionals have been hired to generate videos and photos of extraordinary brilliance to trap the minds of people’.
Another friend, who remained busy in research about the origin of such books and literature for years, came up with the following findings, ‘No doubt, there are present some books and literature that can be included in the blasphemy but they were present in past as well and the level of disrespect was not so high that it could have given birth to such hatred but majority of the books and literature used in this regard are baseless. This can be better understood by this stunning but complex example. People believe in something when it is said by any respectable and influential religious scholar because then people accept the message without any questioning. Some strange findings came to me in this regard. The general trick is that; a Shia scholar said such blasphemy things against the religious figures or a Sunni scholar has said that killing a Shia is not a sin but in most of the cases, both the Shia and Sunni scholars were absolutely unaware of these remarks associated with them. On the other hand, some remarks and books were associated with scholars of past who never existed in history. Nobody challenged them because their names were written with bombastic salutations like ‘Hazrat Mawlana’, ‘Shaikh-ul-Hadis’, ‘Dammate-Barkatahum’ and others. It is natural that 999 out of 1000 people would never doubt these highly-regarded scholars and the remaining would never be able to conduct adequate research. It is the reason why, I have never seen such books or literature by those great and commonly accepted religious scholars like Mawlana Ashraf Thanwi, Mufti Taqi Usmani, Allama Shibli Naumani and others.’
Then the question arises, why are majority of the present day religious scholars silent in this regard, even if they don’t believe in the killing of Shias? It is because, they are religious scholars and not technology experts and they or people close to them have access to things mentioned above and they also believe in the health of these videos and pictures.
It is also a strange reality when the top scholars of both the sides sit, they talk about love, humanity and other golden teachings of the religion and at any cost, they don’t permit the killing of people on the name of religion and on the basis of sectarian differences and they talk of unity among Muslims.
So can such a baseless propaganda work so well? Absolutely not! There are certainly present agents of the international conspirators on both the sides. There are also present some in Shias that really do blasphemy but because of the act of less than a dozen people, millions of Shias cannot be hated or killed. There are also present some Sunni scholars who are in the costume of scholars and who ignite this fire of hatred for the sake of some dollars and pounds. There are also present some young leaders who are getting benefitted from the situation and are responsible for keeping the ball rolling.
No need to mention here that millions and millions are spent to involve the agencies, buy government servants and ministers, chiefs of security agencies, establish and nourish a wide and strong network of militants and of course, to carry out the wide-ranged work of media propagation.
The actual teachings and sayings of our Holy Prophet (PBUH) reveal that good behavior and fine character is the base of this religion and it is the reason why, a human life is given much importance. There are a number of stories when our Holy Prophet (PBUH) got angry from one of his companions because he killed another person without any good reason. In the same way, there are also present some instances when our Holy Prophet (PBUH) was insulted by the ignorant Bedouins of Arab but our Holy Prophet (PBUH) always forgave them and said absolutely nothing. Then a question rises; are these people who kill others on the name of protecting the honor and name of Holy Prophet (PBUH) are more religious or pious than our Holy Prophet (PBUH) (Naoozubillah)? And why do they so easily kill another Muslim when it carries such strong punishment in the hereafter?
Shias were also present when there lived great Sunni scholars but we have no proof that these scholars ever recommended to hate them so why our present day scholars (who are very less in pithy and knowledge) try to do something which was not done by people far better than them.
In fact, those who are doing all these are so far from understanding and following the actual teachings of Islam. Islam has been termed a universal religion and a religion of peace but they are working hard to make it a religion of hatred and discriminations and limited to some people or sects only.
In order to understand the mechanism working behind all these, there are present some very clear examples. It has been repeatedly noticed that one day a Sunni religious scholar is killed and rumors spread that Shias were involved in it and after a few days, a Shia scholar is killed and now rumors are propagated that Sunnis were involved in it and they have taken their revenge but after a few days, another Sunni scholar is killed and this time, it is said that Shias have also avenged the loss of their scholar. In some cases, riots break out and shops and houses are set ablaze and dozens of people lose their lives from both the sides. This example is so common that even a small child can understand this.
Similarly, the hatred against Shias was ignited a few months ago when a truck came to the Quetta city of Pakistan from Iran carrying pomegranates. The pomegranates were covered in the pages of Quran and it really enraged people as it was regarded a shameful act of Iran (a Shia state) to hurt the feelings of Sunnis. But there were many questions that rise doubts about the whole story; if the pomegranates were coming from Iran, who purchased them there (of course, Sunni merchants), who delivered them from Iran to Quetta (Sunni drivers) and why not the merchant checked it when he was getting them packed in Iran? All these questions show that it was another effort of foreign hands to start a sectarian riot in the city.
I have extreme respect for all the religious figures and religious feelings of people. I am especially impressed from the dedicated sentiments of youth towards religion but I would like to warn them that they should develop the habit of studying and doing research and don’t become a tool in the hands of agents who are working for their foreign masters for the sake of some dollars and pounds.
In the scenario of Afghanistan, these elements have also started their activities and slowly and gradually, their propaganda is penetrating into the minds of people, especially the illiterate. Important role can be played by the educated and informed who can nullify their impacts by talking about similarities and especially, the universal message of every religion; love, respect and humanity.
Read more: Sunni-Shia Conflict and International Conspiracy! - The Daily Outlook Afghanistan
