Terrorism, Shameless Religious Bigotry and Pakistani Mindset

[ajpirzada]

Terrorism, Shameless Religious Bigotry and Pakistani Mindset​

agreed so far

What is really dangerous is the complete inability of the media as well as general public to even effectively condemn, let alone stop, horrific acts like religious violence and even general terrorism.

well from wat i remember, media was filled with coverage of such attacks. be it ahmedis or gojra incident.

A few sporadic and weak protests are raised

when exactly was there a protest against any attack? all the protest has been in media which is still the same.

while the majority either calls it a grand conspiracy of the West to defame Islam or gives even more hypocritical apologetic defense.

really? looking at few strikes by JUI (who have got nothing else to do and hardly get any vote) and labelling it on the whole society is uncalled for. and if everyone was just taking it as a conspiracy then u wouldnt be seeing such massive support for military operations against these terrorist outfits.

Ours is a shallow society which is ready to get enraged over cartoons and Facebook but completely impotent when something far more sinister happens. Killing of so many innocent people should draw far more condemnation and yet all we do is to knit conspiracy theories.

bogus. i have explained this before.

In fact our intellectual abilities are generally geared towards knitting conspiracy theories and providing apologetic defense to monsters like Taliban

.

plz move on. u have said the same thing few times now.

In my opinion the failure to condemn and criticize is even more horrifying than the actual tragedy because this insensitivity provides the conducive environment for future sustenance of this hate filled behavior.

again. plz move on. i can see ur disliking for our society.

Our society features rabble rousers and bigots like Zaid Hamids and Dr. Amir Liaqat as the media stars who are actually patronized by mainstream media and promoted by the corporate sector through advertisements.

loool. partronized by few tv anchors i will say. and we know how many pakistanis actually support them. remember takmeel e pakistan show at minar e pakistan? how many ppl really turned up?

Such characters have openly incited hatred against the Ahmedi community and have also given apologetic defense to terrorism.

well i dont know when did zaid hamid say anything about ahmedis and when did he defend TTP. though he calls them indian funded which even our army establishment believes. to be honest its logical for indians for fund TTP. nothing shocking here.

In civilized countries such people are hated and in our side these are actually adulated. It is this shameless insensitivity, not the grand conspiracies of the West, which breeds terrorism and religious bigotry.

after every single argument this person goes back to cursing the society. instead he forgets that its the same society which gives away everything when a disaster comes. lik Earthquake and Malakand IDPs. but no few JUI ppl represent us all.

There will be people who would say that in Pakistan even the Muslims are target of terrorism and so therefore this time reference to religious bigotry should not be made. After all, the incident is likely to have been carried out by Pakistani Taliban who have also conducted suicide attacks in the Sunni majority areas. MY RESPONSE WOULD BE THAT WE ARE NOT EVEN ABLE TO CONDEMN THESE MONSTERS WHEN THEY ATTACK US. Therefore to expect that our public will condemn when they attack minorities is actually expecting too much and in fact I know that when it comes to minorities like Ahmedis and Shias, actually such incidences are not even construed as something wrong. Due to hatred against the minorities such incidence would actually find little to no condemnation.

same bogus argument. every excluding few (same few which u find in every society) have condemned such attacks. and the argument of such attacks going on against everyone still hold its ground. i dont remember if anyone ever came out on streets to protest against bomb blast doesnt matter if 10 ppl die or 50.

And even when such attacks are conducted against the general public they are conveniently blamed on the grand conspiracy of USA.

Oh my God. again. back to the same line. if i had taken this out half of the article would have disappeared.

THE CENTRAL ISSUE IS OF OUR MINDSET WHICH IS DELUSIONAL AND HAS BEEN NURTURED THROUGH ISLAMIC MYTHOLOGY ACCORDING TO WHICH MUSLIMS ARE SUPERIOR IN CALIBRE AS WELL AS VIRTUE AND THEREFORE CANNOT INDULGE IN ANYTHING SINISTER LIKE TERRORISM.

didnt know where this guy got this from. all i have heard is that terrorism has no religion. and everyone accepts these TTP ppl claim to be muslims. even JUI accepts them to be muslims. wat else do u want....

In Pakistan, this pattern of thinking is also supplemented by a strong dose of ultra nationalism which assumes Pakistan with its nuclear arsenal to be spearheading the revival of the lost glory of Islam.

Primarily this mindset is outward looking and assumes that due to Pakistan’s “supreme” importance in the above context, all the non Muslim forces are jealous and therefore trying to create a conducive environment to purge our nuclear arsenal through planting extremism.

i guess he has been reading too much into conspiracy theories. but still west (or groups in west) targeting our nuclear assets is not a massive conspiracy theory given the amount of propaganda we see in western media. taking everything at face value is nothing but naive. as far as lost glory is concerned, well there are more protests in pakistan on electricity shortages than any other thing. but even otherwise who doesnt really want that? seriously do u not want to return to golden age of Islam?

INHERENTLY RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY IS ALSO STRONGLY IMBEDDED IN THIS MINDSET BECAUSE OF ASSUMED SUPERIORITY OF “PURE” MUSLIMS AND DEEP SUSPICION OF NON MUSLIMS.

back to the same argument.

Consequently even those sects such as Ahmedis who identify themselves as Muslims are often called agents planted by the British and later on USA to wreck havoc in the Islamic world’s “unity”.

well to be honest i have never heard in my whole lyf in pak anyone calling ahmedis as British/US agents. if someone did ever say such a thing, it was so rare that i dont even remember. this person must change his neighbourhood.

Hatred against non Muslims and conspiracy theories become the main paradigm through which we see the world.

come on............ not again

This mindset has become particularly vigorous after 9/11. Throughout the post 9/11 period, I have just listened to non sense conspiracy theories and complete irrational apologetic defense. Everything is generally blamed on USA and in this process we end up strengthening dark nihilist forces of terrorism and religious extremism.

a lot has changed after 9/11..... calling 9/11 a conspiracy is indeed a weird thing but a common pakistani blaming US for its problems is not weird at all. the way they came to afghanistan and let the whole mess spill into pakistan was indeed tragic. furthermore rise of TTP was also from a drone attack in 2004. and its not just US, ppl also blame musharraf for this mess so dont worry about ppl blaming US alone.

In fact I remember when these monsters attacked Islamic International University, after two day students were protesting not against Taliban but against Kerry Luger bill!

lol.. sorry to say but kerry luger bill was more important than bomb blasts which had almost become a daily routine.

In near past, just because USA was forcing us to take a timely action against the militants, we were all against it because in our heads it was against us and our “own” people. Those delays eventually enabled the militants to have a complete foothold in places like Swat. When news regarding the Taliban atrocities started to emerge, we refused to believe them because some of the western channels were also airing them. As late as 2009, when flogging video went on air, instead of being appalled, the entire media thrust was on proving that it was a fake. It had to be propaganda against Islam and us. The Nazam-e Adl deal was virtually endorsed by our media and a large section of sensation loving romantic nationalist urban middleclass.

how different do we look at similar things. i call this the most clever move in our war against TTP. had we not gone for talks and given TTP enough room to expose themselves, we wouldnt have achieved any of the later victories. how else were u meant to expose them? it was an infamous war initiated by musharraf at the behest of US.

following paragraphs include same old talk

Right now it has to be understood that despite differences, at least in one critical aspect, USA’s and our interests are common: we face a common enemy. And yet just because they are saying it, we are opposing it and in the process treading on a self destructive path.

when are we opposing it? arent we conducting operation in our tribal agencies but at our own pace. does he want us to nuke the tribal belt to prove to him that we are against TTP. enough of our soldiers have given their lives to prove our seriousness. wake up dude....

The effects of this mindset, if unchecked, will go beyond the current battle against Taliban. As the anti US rhetoric is whipped into frenzy and becomes a popular rallying point, the politics will no longer be an art of identifying core issues and striving to address them but merely expanding the borders of this parallel universe

anti US is not a rhetoric but based on facts. just bec he says so does not change the history... and furthermore its not just the pakistan but US support for israel and their killing of muslims in iraq are also amongst reasons for which anti US sentiment prevails in pakistan.

Terrorism, Shameless Religious Bigotry and Pakistani Mindset Pak Tea House

Thank you very much.......

 

[khuramonline]

1st: I ain't support no body freckles.

2: you cant avoid external factors , they exists in some form some call them zionists or whatever its their own theories and they are true to an extent that they highlight those external hands involved.

Dear ... when there are internal factors and external factors both. Then only internal factors are to be condemned. Term "condemnation" or "Protest" etc. are not suitable for external factors.

And ... even if all the terror planning is made outside, still the actual and front terrorists are insiders and they are Muslims. What really Islam teaches is not the thing to be discussed. Our earlier childhood Islamiat books introduced us a really tolerant view of Islamic Teachings. But many prominant Alims of our country do preach violance. Names of terrorists are like Maaz, Sajid and like etc. etc. Even if it is a foreign planning,,, still the base camp is local. Foundation is local. Ignorance is local. At the most, it is a vast scale local ignorance ... which is effectively being exploited by foreigners.

This ignorance of our own society is like a tumer ... it is like a cancer (NASOOR) which has demaged all the beauty of our society. Even if we cut this tumer off .... how will we wash its bad impressions on the image of rest of society...???

If it is a foreign planning. We have no complaint with those foreigners (External Factors). Because it is their task to de-stablize us. Hamain shikayet honi chahiye ghar k chiraghon se...!!!

 

[khuramonline]

"Ours is a shallow society which is ready to get enraged over cartoons and Facebook but completely impotent when something far more sinister happens. Killing of so many innocent people should draw far more condemnation and yet all we do is to knit conspiracy theories."

bogus. i have explained this before.

@ ajpirzada

Facebook chapter is over. Culprits have even apologized. But stills rallies against FB are continuing. Now it is really a shame. More important things never have been publically condemned.

Author of the article has shown true pics of our society!

 

[seekers]

Dear ... when there are internal factors and external factors both. Then only internal factors are to be condemned. Term "condemnation" or "Protest" etc. are not suitable for external factors.

And ... even if all the terror planning is made outside, still the actual and front terrorists are insiders and they are Muslims. What really Islam teaches is not the thing to be discussed. Our earlier childhood Islamiat books introduced us a really tolerant view of Islamic Teachings. But many prominant Alims of our country do preach violance. Names of terrorists are like Maaz, Sajid and like etc. etc. Even if it is a foreign planning,,, still the base camp is local. Foundation is local. Ignorance is local. At the most, it is a vast scale local ignorance ... which is effectively being exploited by foreigners.

This ignorance of our own society is like a tumer ... it is like a cancer (NASOOR) which has demaged all the beauty of our society. Even if we cut this tumer off .... how will we wash its bad impressions on the image of rest of society...???

If it is a foreign planning. We have no complaint with those foreigners (External Factors). Because it is their task to de-stablize us. Hamain shikayet honi chahiye ghar k chiraghon se...!!!

sari dunya ko gaalian dein gay par apni manji thalay daang naehin pherni.

 

[Bill Longley]

sari dunya ko gaalian dein gay par apni manji thalay daang naehin pherni.

yar sawai teray sub yazeedi or kafir or takfiri hain
bass

abb khush

 

[seekers]

yar sawai teray sub yazeedi or kafir or takfiri hain
bass

abb khush

Mr. Bill baturray! aap ko mein nay kuch kaha jo aap apna taaruf karwa rahein hain

 

[Bill Longley]

Mr. Bill baturray! aap ko mein nay kuch kaha jo aap apna taaruf karwa rahein hain

janab its admission of fact
isnt it?

 

[DaRk WaVe]

Five steps to sanity​

The priority demands of sanity (dictionary meaning: reasonable and rational behaviour) are determined by the challenges a society faces. Today Pakistan’s supreme need is the adoption of a rational response to the menace of extremist elements operating, without due sanction, under the banner of belief.

The horrific dimensions of last Friday’s carnage in Lahore can be judged from the fact that even those who never take notice of atrocities against the Ahmadi community as well as those who never protest against the militants’ excesses could not help feeling uneasy at the foul happening. What does sanity now demand from government and society alike?

The more than 90 Ahmadis wantonly cut down in their prayer houses were citizens of Pakistan entitled to the protection of their right to life. If they must be treated as zimmies in a supposedly Islamic state they had an additional reason to be protected by the state and the people. The assault on their prayer houses was not wholly unexpected; the authorities had been aware of the activities of the professional Ahmadi-bashers and their threats for months.


The first step towards reasonable and rational behaviour is that the state must fulfil all three of its legal obligations, namely, a thorough investigation into the obvious failure to ensure security of the prayer houses, a relentless prosecution of the culprits, especially those that are routinely described by the police and the media as ‘masterminds’, and adoption of effective strategies for the protection of communities that are vulnerable because of their belief.

It is not possible to ignore the fact that the higher authorities directly answerable for the Lahore massacre, who normally rush to hospitals or private abodes of victims of relatively less horrible incidents, could not muster the courage to console the injured Ahmadis. Whether this was due to any sympathy for the militants’ creed or to a fear of attracting their hostility, the deviation from the routine points to the roots of discrimination and prejudice against the Ahmadis.

The extirpation of the deep-rooted bias against holders of beliefs different from that of the majority’s orthodoxy is the second essential step towards sanity. The moment the custodians of state power start treating some of the people as second-class citizens they push the latter into a high-risk alley.

The official explanation for not taking action against hate-preachers, some of whom are allowed privileges as rewards for spewing calls to murder and worse, is the fear of breach of peace. The same excuse is touted to explain failure to remove banners and posters that explicitly call for violence against the Ahmadis or other vulnerable groups.

A shopkeeper in a town near Lahore is free to present each of his customers an anti-Ahmadi poster. Tolerance of criminal mischief so as to avoid breach of peace has been formalised into a theory that is used to justify the Ahmadi-specific provisions of the penal code arbitrarily inserted into it by Gen Zia. The denial of Ahmadis’ right to hold meetings, especially their annual congregation, also is premised on this theory.

A critical review of this excuse has long been overdue. No such effort has been made because the victims, Ahmadis especially, are not considered entitled to enjoy their basic rights. But the consequences of overlooking mischief by some elements out of fear for their potential to cause disorder are now evident even to the purblind. Will no action be taken against gangsters who establish a state within the state because they might disrupt peace?

Most criminal acts fall within the definition of breach of peace. Must they go unchallenged? A state loses its title to wield authority if it blinks at criminal acts out of fear of repercussions of its intervention. The demolition of the theory of appeasing disrupters of peace is the third important step towards sanity.

The next step necessary for evolving reasonable and rational behaviour is elimination of discrimination on the basis of belief in practically all walks of life. This is going to be a long haul even after the state has acquired the will and the capacity required for the task, because this will involve not only a review of the 1974 amendment and the Zia ordinance XX but also the nature of the polity. What should receive immediate attention is the need to end the Ahmadis’ exclusion from political life.

When Gen Zia revived the apartheid-like scheme of communal voting the Ahmadis declined to register themselves as non-Muslims. Whatever one may think of that decision the result is that the Ahmadis have been out of the political mainstream. The most striking illustration of their disenfranchisement is the fact that they have no say in the affairs of their town, Rabwah, forcibly renamed Chenab Nagar, and the local body functions have been assumed by a minority of land-grabbers/officially patronised settlers occupying the fringes of the town.

The 2002 election law abolished separate electorates but under a totally illegal and anti-democratic decision the Ahmadis are still denied inclusion in joint/common electoral rolls. This discrimination must end as, among other things, it strengthens discrimination in services, in educational institutions, in housing even.

Finally, the fifth step to sanity demands a critical appraisal of the theoretical foundations of religious extremism. Tomes have been written on tolerance in general, and often perfunctory, terms. Many have devoted time and resources to talks on inter-faith harmony. But very little has been done to protect Islam against its manifestly wrong interpretation by the high priests of militancy. The advocates of the liberal traditions of Islam have been forced into exile or silenced otherwise. There is no intra-Islam discourse in Pakistan, not even to the extent it is going on in many parts of the world, including a few Muslim societies. The effort to rescue belief from the clutches of hate-preachers can be delayed only at the risk of grave peril to Pakistan.

Moving away, for the time being, from the on-again off-again and largely tepid plans to regulate the working of madressahs, a commission may be set up to probe the contents of the so-called religious publications, which are believed to account for three-fourths of all publications in Pakistan every year. The objective should be compilation of the material used to brainwash young boys and convince them of the urgency of not only killing Ahmadis, the Shias, and even Sunnis for sectarian or political differences, but also of treating attacks on hospitals as a holy mission on the route to paradise.

For a people who have allowed raw emotions to rule their minds for decades the trek back to sanity will be neither easy nor painless.

DAWN.COM | Columnists | Five steps to sanity

 

[ajpirzada]

@ ajpirzada

Facebook chapter is over. Culprits have even apologized. But stills rallies against FB are continuing. Now it is really a shame. More important things never have been publically condemned.

Author of the article has shown true pics of our society!

i have answered this through my other argument in the same post. many of those rallies have been taken out by JUI ppl or other religious groups who dont have any say amongst the ppl. and wat else will they do if they dont take out rallies.

but just using that to make a comment about whole population is hard for me to comprehend. all the terrorist attacks have been condemned time and again in a similar fashion by the majority population yet writer fails to acknowledge that rather likes to generalise.

 

[T-Faz]

Are we heading towards a possible repeal of ordinance XX. I certainly hope so, that would indicate that Pakistan is finally going forward and it will bring much admiration in the world and make us proud.

Repeal Zia's ordinance XX.

 

[Irfan Baloch]

Are we heading towards a possible repeal of ordinance XX. I certainly hope so, that would indicate that Pakistan is finally going forward and it will bring much admiration in the world and make us proud.

Repeal Zia's ordinance XX.

Amen to that

Zia era brought the Saudi version of bigoted and intolerant Islam which has taken countless lives of innocent civilians over the decades.

time to do away with everything related to secterian & religious & hatred

 

[DaRk WaVe]

The reactionary republic​

Here’s a question: How come whenever there’s a drone attack (in which most of those killed generally are extremists), or a case of perceived obscenity or blasphemy surfaces, street corners are at once filled with burqa-clad women and bearded men chanting slogans like ‘Death to infidels’? But none of these fine, sensitive Muslims can be seen protesting when there’s an attack on innocent civilians —Ahmadis or others — by the extremists?

Where do they vanish? Isn’t the gruesome and inhuman exhibition of violence and coercion so gleefully demonstrated by monsters like the Taliban and their twisted sectarian allies akin to a moral sin and misdeed far graver than what my loud burqa-clad sisters and bearded brothers are always agitating against? Of course it is.

But it seems in these protesters’ book of social, political and moral ills, the word terrorism cannot be ascribed to savages who in the name of Allah and Islam slaughter men, women and children, as if trying to construct a bloody ladder to the promised paradise from all the bodies and limbs that their attacks leave behind. Religious parties in Pakistan that claim to uphold Muslim aspirations and interests, along with the many cranks that we have to suffer on our TV screens, have hardly shied away from the irresponsible act of condoning barbarism. They do so by at once ascribing a terrorist attack on innocent civilians to the diabolic conspiracies being hatched against the holy republic of ours by ‘foreign hands’ and ‘anti-Islam forces’.

With their instant apologies for the extremists these parties and men have allowed their moral state of being to plunge and hit the same dark ideological abyss where lie boiling the extremists’ mind-set and delusions. But are religious parties the only ones indulging in such shameless demagoguery?

Many Pakistanis routinely continue to deny the fact that the monsters behind all ‘faithful’ barbarism cutting this country into bits are the mutant products of what our own state and society have been up to in the past 30 years or so. For years a convoluted narrative has been circulated by the state, the clerics, schools and now the electronic media: Pakistan was made in the name of Islam (read, a theocratic state).

Thus, only Muslims (mainly orthodox Sunnis, shall we say?) have the right to rule, run and benefit from this country. ‘Minority’ religions and ‘heretical’ sects living as Pakistani citizens are not to be trusted. They need to be constitutionally, socially and culturally isolated. Parliamentary democracy can’t be trusted either. It unleashes ethnic forces, ‘corruption’ and undermines the role of the military and that of Islam in the state’s make-up. It threatens the ‘unity’ of the country — a unity based on an unrealistically homogeneous understanding of Islam (mainly concocted by the state and its right-wing allies). Most of our political, economic and social ills are due to the diabolical conspiracies hatched by our many enemies (especially India, Israel and the West).

The bad news is that such beliefs are symptomatic of a society that has started to respond enthusiastically to the major symptoms of fascist thought. Symptoms such as a xenophobic exhibition of nationalism; disdain for recognition of human rights; identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause; supremacy of the military (might); obsession with national security; intertwining of religion and government; disdain for intellectual thought and the arts, and an obsession with crime and punishment.

Have not many Pakistanis willingly allowed themselves to be captured in all the macho and paranoid trappings of the mentioned symptoms? Does this not point at a country ripening and readying itself for an all-round fascist scenario?

Unfortunately, this is the scenario that some among us talk about as they speak of imposing the system of the righteous caliphs or the sharia, or whatever profound buzzwords adopted to explain Pakistan’s march towards a wonderful society of equality and justice. Such thoughts mean little. They only amount to a fantasised system either based on ancient musings of tribal societies or on glorified myths of bravado.

Not for a moment are we ready to stand back and look at what we have made of ourselves. We call ourselves ‘moderate Muslims’, and yet applaud or quietly tolerate the hate-spewing claptrap that pours out from our mosques and TV screens. We cheer about the fact that Pakistan is one of the very few democratic Muslim countries with a constitution, and yet we will not speak a word about clauses and sections in the same constitution that have triggered violence and repression against women and sanctioned a religious apartheid that only allows an orthodox, pious Muslim democratic rights to rule the country or run in an election.


For how long will we keep hiding behind a fragile mask of religiosity and patriotism, a mask that covers our faces every time we confront a situation where our views and actions (especially regarding faith) are questioned? We do not debate. We react and then huddle up behind our flimsy and lopsided historical and national narratives about what being a Pakistani and Muslin is all about, cursing the world for our ills, looking out for infidels and heretics among us, or for scapegoats in the shape of media-constructed punching bags.

DAWN.COM | Columnists | Smokers? Corner: The reactionary republic

 

[Tiger Prowling]

Five steps to sanity​

The priority demands of sanity (dictionary meaning: reasonable and rational behaviour) are determined by the challenges a society faces. Today Pakistan’s supreme need is the adoption of a rational response to the menace of extremist elements operating, without due sanction, under the banner of belief.

The horrific dimensions of last Friday’s carnage in Lahore can be judged from the fact that even those who never take notice of atrocities against the Ahmadi community as well as those who never protest against the militants’ excesses could not help feeling uneasy at the foul happening. What does sanity now demand from government and society alike?

The more than 90 Ahmadis wantonly cut down in their prayer houses were citizens of Pakistan entitled to the protection of their right to life. If they must be treated as zimmies in a supposedly Islamic state they had an additional reason to be protected by the state and the people. The assault on their prayer houses was not wholly unexpected; the authorities had been aware of the activities of the professional Ahmadi-bashers and their threats for months.


The first step towards reasonable and rational behaviour is that the state must fulfil all three of its legal obligations, namely, a thorough investigation into the obvious failure to ensure security of the prayer houses, a relentless prosecution of the culprits, especially those that are routinely described by the police and the media as ‘masterminds’, and adoption of effective strategies for the protection of communities that are vulnerable because of their belief.

It is not possible to ignore the fact that the higher authorities directly answerable for the Lahore massacre, who normally rush to hospitals or private abodes of victims of relatively less horrible incidents, could not muster the courage to console the injured Ahmadis. Whether this was due to any sympathy for the militants’ creed or to a fear of attracting their hostility, the deviation from the routine points to the roots of discrimination and prejudice against the Ahmadis.

The extirpation of the deep-rooted bias against holders of beliefs different from that of the majority’s orthodoxy is the second essential step towards sanity. The moment the custodians of state power start treating some of the people as second-class citizens they push the latter into a high-risk alley.

The official explanation for not taking action against hate-preachers, some of whom are allowed privileges as rewards for spewing calls to murder and worse, is the fear of breach of peace. The same excuse is touted to explain failure to remove banners and posters that explicitly call for violence against the Ahmadis or other vulnerable groups.

A shopkeeper in a town near Lahore is free to present each of his customers an anti-Ahmadi poster. Tolerance of criminal mischief so as to avoid breach of peace has been formalised into a theory that is used to justify the Ahmadi-specific provisions of the penal code arbitrarily inserted into it by Gen Zia. The denial of Ahmadis’ right to hold meetings, especially their annual congregation, also is premised on this theory.

A critical review of this excuse has long been overdue. No such effort has been made because the victims, Ahmadis especially, are not considered entitled to enjoy their basic rights. But the consequences of overlooking mischief by some elements out of fear for their potential to cause disorder are now evident even to the purblind. Will no action be taken against gangsters who establish a state within the state because they might disrupt peace?

Most criminal acts fall within the definition of breach of peace. Must they go unchallenged? A state loses its title to wield authority if it blinks at criminal acts out of fear of repercussions of its intervention. The demolition of the theory of appeasing disrupters of peace is the third important step towards sanity.

The next step necessary for evolving reasonable and rational behaviour is elimination of discrimination on the basis of belief in practically all walks of life. This is going to be a long haul even after the state has acquired the will and the capacity required for the task, because this will involve not only a review of the 1974 amendment and the Zia ordinance XX but also the nature of the polity. What should receive immediate attention is the need to end the Ahmadis’ exclusion from political life.

When Gen Zia revived the apartheid-like scheme of communal voting the Ahmadis declined to register themselves as non-Muslims. Whatever one may think of that decision the result is that the Ahmadis have been out of the political mainstream. The most striking illustration of their disenfranchisement is the fact that they have no say in the affairs of their town, Rabwah, forcibly renamed Chenab Nagar, and the local body functions have been assumed by a minority of land-grabbers/officially patronised settlers occupying the fringes of the town.

The 2002 election law abolished separate electorates but under a totally illegal and anti-democratic decision the Ahmadis are still denied inclusion in joint/common electoral rolls. This discrimination must end as, among other things, it strengthens discrimination in services, in educational institutions, in housing even.

Finally, the fifth step to sanity demands a critical appraisal of the theoretical foundations of religious extremism. Tomes have been written on tolerance in general, and often perfunctory, terms. Many have devoted time and resources to talks on inter-faith harmony. But very little has been done to protect Islam against its manifestly wrong interpretation by the high priests of militancy. The advocates of the liberal traditions of Islam have been forced into exile or silenced otherwise. There is no intra-Islam discourse in Pakistan, not even to the extent it is going on in many parts of the world, including a few Muslim societies. The effort to rescue belief from the clutches of hate-preachers can be delayed only at the risk of grave peril to Pakistan.

Moving away, for the time being, from the on-again off-again and largely tepid plans to regulate the working of madressahs, a commission may be set up to probe the contents of the so-called religious publications, which are believed to account for three-fourths of all publications in Pakistan every year. The objective should be compilation of the material used to brainwash young boys and convince them of the urgency of not only killing Ahmadis, the Shias, and even Sunnis for sectarian or political differences, but also of treating attacks on hospitals as a holy mission on the route to paradise.

For a people who have allowed raw emotions to rule their minds for decades the trek back to sanity will be neither easy nor painless.

DAWN.COM | Columnists | Five steps to sanity

IAM TOTALLY SANITIZED HERE EmO, i thing u should bring out ur own magazine or something

 

[Sinnerman108]

The reactionary republic​

Here’s a question: How come whenever there’s a drone attack (in which most of those killed generally are extremists), or a case of perceived obscenity or blasphemy surfaces, street corners are at once filled with burqa-clad women and bearded men chanting slogans like ‘Death to infidels’? But none of these fine, sensitive Muslims can be seen protesting when there’s an attack on innocent civilians —Ahmadis or others — by the extremists?

Well, Emo,

I asked you and the rest the same question some one week ago,

When "supposed" extremist a.k.a normal civilians are killed;
which are a hell lot more in number than "minority Qadyani", AND are killed by a foreign force.

where do the writers of these posts go ?

why don't people like you make the same noise ?

why can't pseudo intellectuals moan and lament the same way ?

are we still choosing to be naive ?

If you are unable to match your response to my brother's death, on the same weighing scale as you do for "minority qadyani"

Then U are a insensitive soul looking to score cheap; nothing more.

 

[DaRk WaVe]

When "supposed" extremist a.k.a normal civilians are killed which are a hell lot more in number than "minority Qadyani", and are killed by a foreign force.

where do the writers of these posts go ?

thy are here exactly here, you just need to go & search 'em up

why don't people like you make the same noise ?

I make noise & i will continue to make noise on every action of Terror in my country,the simple thing is i am more concerned about what happens in my country rather than what happens in India, Israel or Palestian, because ultimately the things happening in my country will effect me

are we still choosing to be naive ?

we as a nation are expert at finding external reasons for our internal problems, no doubt the enemies out there are conspirating but the solution of this problem lies within our society, we are still in a denial