Wednesday, 27 Mar 2013


Do religious minorities have a place in Pakistan? The recent attack on the home of an Ahmaddiya family in Lahore has again served up an answer in the negative. Worse is that the attack comes in the wake of the furor over the Joseph Colony mob attack which left around 200 Christian homes burnt. Many promises were made that such an incident would not be repeated but the fact is that the situation on the ground reveals that Pakistan’s track record on the question of how it treats its religious minorities is getting worse by the year.

And while an attack on Christians or other religious minorities do provoke public outrage, attacks on Ahmaddiya’s are considered kosher. The trouble is that the problem is reinforced by the attitude of the state. When two Ahmaddiya worship places were attacked in Model Town and Garhi Shahu, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led Punjab government remained silent. From being declared ‘legitimate to murder’ on live television, having their graves desecrated and being disallowed to preach their faith, the Ahmaddiya community faces both social and state persecution. The fact is that Ahmaddiya’s are not considered equal citizens in the state of Pakistan – and more so than other minority groups. In many ways, it has been forced to reject all practical manifestations of Pakistani citizenship. It deserves being reminded that the community will not cast votes in the 2013 general elections in their tradition of protest against religious discrimination against them. This means that neither does the community have a stake in the electoral process nor does any member of it reach any of the legislative assemblies.

The Lahore incident appears to have been the response to a failed attempt to convert an Ahmaddiya family. Forced conversions, as these are known, are becoming more and more regular. So much so that over 200 Hindu families from Sindh, the province with the most religious diversity in Pakistan, fled to India in the year 2012. The incident raised the spectre of the partition of the subcontinent once again. Cases of forced conversions that have been taken to the Supreme Court have also not been addressed in a satisfactory manner.

Within such a polarised situation, the Lahore attack has only served to accentuate the sense of insecurity that religious minorities in Pakistan face – and the Joseph Colony response appears to have been only electoral point scoring. The real problem is that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is equally complicit in reducing minorities to second-class citizens. No amount of repeating the narrative that Islam preaches that minorities be treated well means anything concrete. On the ground, attacks on religious minorities have become so frequent that it appears as one is repeating the same narrative to deaf ears each time.

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/editorials/

Our battered image
By Naseer Memon

The Christian community experienced another tormenting nightmare some weeks ago when Joseph colony in Lahore was reduced to ashes by an insane mob. While a flurry of belated condemnations from official ramparts followed the incident, it was nothing less than wilfully ignoring a potentially serious situation as the incendiary episode started brewing at least a day before the horror scene occurred. Timely action could have averted yet another stigma on the much-tarnished image of the country. The Lahore administration and the erstwhile provincial government cannot be absolved from the responsibility of their unforgiveable indolence, which is tantamount to collaborating with the culprits. Accusing someone of blasphemy, stoking acrimony and unleashing of horror by riotous mobs has gone frequently unchallenged, especially in Punjab. Such elements can carry out their nefarious acts without any fear of the much-glorified writ of the state. The almost guaranteed impunity that is there for tormenting religious and sectarian minorities emboldens even ordinary loiterers to partake in mob-frenzy when it is targeted against hapless minorities. Only four years ago, the Christian community in Gojra witnessed a doomsday scenario when eight Christians were brutally killed and dozens of houses were torched, virtually crushing all state laws and Islamic teachings. Not a single perpetrator was punished as the complainant was conveniently intimidated to rescind his statement to avoid further wrath in the absence of law. No lion in the erstwhile Punjab government roared to demonstrate the writ of the state. Each such incident becomes a prelude for the next episode. The message was sufficiently loud and clear when a sitting governor of a province was killed and the murderer emerged as a revered hero. A paralysed state apparatus has lost its credibility as religious and sectarian minorities have become routine victims of unremitting discrimination. It has particularly gained momentum during the last year and Shias are prime targets nowadays.
Our battered image in the international community has been further hit in the wake of this incident. International media and human rights groups will be fully justified in questioning the collective values of our so-called Muslim nation. For a country with an innate orthodoxy, it has become a Herculean task to rein in the malevolent religiosity nurtured during protracted dictatorships, thriving on religious sanctimony. Subdued elected regimes remain entangled with ceaseless challenges posed to their survival. Hence, the vexed question of extricating society from this quagmire remains an unresolved riddle. Determined groups of people within civil society keep clamouring against such barbarism, often at the risk of their lives. A valiant judiciary and some pro-people media outfits are the only flickers of fading hope for optimistic souls in the country.
Although the swift response of the provincial government has brought some succour, the trajectory of such incidents has vitiated optimism. There is not even a remote chance of the long arm of the law catching the recalcitrant culprits. After some initial action to fool the people, poor prosecution will finally ensure that the case is interred. Meanwhile, the victims will hardly be able to find any lawyer to plead their case and it will be even more difficult to find a judge to carry out proceedings in the lower courts. A browbeaten community will hardly dare to pursue their case and most probably will capitulate at some stage. Similarly, the media and civil society are most likely to soon get seized with some other macabre incident lying in store. In all likelihood, the petrified victims of Joseph Colony will only be left with haunting memories of horror, and Pakistan as a country will earn only one more blot on its name.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30th, 2013.

__________________
"Nay! man is evidence against himself. Though he puts forth his excuses." Holy Qur'an (75:14-15)

Faheem Amir


Life is not easy for minorities in Pakistan. They are leading a very pathetic life, a life which is filled with fear and exploitation.

Pakistan was created to give equal rights to every citizen. In his 11 August, 1947, speech, the great Quaid said : "You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State...We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State...I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in due course Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State."

The Quaid's golden views have not been followed by our corrupt rulers, including politicians, religious leaders, military-civil officers and feudal lords. Every person knows that the minorities are not free to go to their worship places. They are also not considered as equal citizens of Pakistan. They are discriminated against in every field of life. In the armed forces and civil service, the members of minorities do not get promotion beyond a certain level. A non-Muslim cannot become the president or the prime minister of Pakistan.

There is no place for the "impure" in "the land of the pure". Let alone non-Muslims like the Hindus, the Sikhs, the Christians, the Ahmadis, the Muslims belonging to the Shia community and even the Barelvi Sunnis are living in utter insecurity and hopelessness, as they are being killed by extremists and hardliners across the country.

Ahmed Rashid, a famous journalist, writes in BBC News: " An average of 10 to 20 people a day are being killed in the major cities - Karachi, Quetta, Lahore and Peshawar - as the country is gripped by violence. On a bad day as many as 100 people can be killed by suicide or car bombs. Those suffering most are the minority Shia population, who are being targeted by Sunni extremists. On 9 March, Christians were attacked and their homes ransacked in a poor locality of Lahore by a rampaging mob. Pakistan endured one of its worst days of violence on January 10, when 115 people were killed - including 93 Shias belonging to the Hazara ethnic group in Quetta. A month later on February 16, another 84 were killed and 200 wounded in a similar massacre in the city. For days Shia Hazaras refused to bury their dead and many prepared to leave Pakistan forever. The plight of some Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmedis and Shias has forced many to flee the country as intolerance unchecked by the government escalates. On March 3, another 50 Shias were killed and over 100 wounded in a massive truck bomb that exploded in a Shia locality of Karachi. Pakistani Shia naval officers and Shia doctors have likewise been killed. Last year more than 400 Shias were killed in Pakistan by Sunni hardliners. Already more than 200 Shias have been killed in the first two months of 2013. The killings are being carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - a Sunni militant group which has already been declared a terrorist organisation. But the government's only reaction so far has been to place its former leader Malik Ishaq under house arrest. He has been arrested and freed several times before. It appears to many Pakistanis that the militants are more powerful than the army or the government".

The members of minorities are facing new tragedies almost every day in Pakistan. The Lahore Badami Bagh incident is a most tragic incident for the Christians. On the night of March 8, and 9, a mob burned down around 178 houses in Joseph Colony on the pretext of allegedly blasphemous remarks made by a Christian youth in a drunken fracas with a Muslim friend.

The Daily Times writes about the plight of the minorities: "It is with deep sadness that one contemplates how 2013 is turning out to be one of the worst years for minorities in Pakistan's sordid history of sectarian violence. Militant ire has been directed at the Shias throughout the first three months of this year and now mob frenzy has bared its teeth at a Christian colony in Lahore... How on earth could this happen? It seems as if the government in the Punjab is either complacent about the goings on where such 'defenders of the faith' are concerned or are just indifferent to the plight of the minorities. The negligence on display is what led to this looting and destruction. The Christian minority has reacted.... However, this was the first time one has really seen a minority in Pakistan fighting back. Pushed into a corner after repeated attacks - the Gojra incident in 2009, still sends a shiver down one's spine - the Christians turned to violent protests themselves, burning tyres, smashing bus windows, etc., to show that they had had enough.... The fact that any Tom, Dick or Harry can accuse anyone of blasphemy without any sort of evidence to back up the claim is what is leading to this insanity in the name of religion. It is so simple and the results are so murderous that the very suspicion of blasphemy is enough to make one cower in their boots. Usually, this country's minorities are targeted and most of the time the accusations are bogus - revenge, hidden agendas and provocation are the only reasons blasphemy accusations are so common, and nothing is done to stop them. Forget about the idealism of fixing or reforming the blasphemy laws, this nation's people must reform their mentalities. The governments, provincial and federal, must wake up from their slumber and help our minorities against this targeted abuse and mayhem. Anyone can rent a crowd in Pakistan and have free licence to become rabid if blasphemy is even mentioned. This is ridiculous and it is high time that the government bring to book all those responsible for the Joseph Colony rampage. If they do not, no one will be safe".

The incident has tarnished Pakistan's image in the world. Human Rights Watch has urged Pakistan to protect religious minorities and vulnerable groups.
"Pakistan's government should immediately take legal action against Islamist militant groups and others responsible for threats and violence against minorities and other vulnerable groups", said Human Rights Watch.
It says: "Abuses under the country's blasphemy law continued as dozens were charged in 2012 and at least 16 people remained on death row for blasphemy, while another 20 served life sentences. Aasia Bibi, a Christian from Punjab province, who in 2010 became the first woman in the country's history to be sentenced to death for blasphemy, continued to languish in prison. In July 2012, police arrested a man who appeared to suffer from a mental disability for allegedly burning the Quran. A mob organized by local clerics demanded that the man be handed to them, attacked the police station, pulled the victim out, and burned him alive. On August 17, Islamabad police took into custody Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl from a poor Islamabad suburb with a "significantly lower mental age," who was accused of burning pages filled with Quranic passages. On September 23, police officials stated they had found no evidence against Rimsha Masih, who was released and given state protection at an undisclosed location. Members of the Ahmadi religious community continued to be a major target for blasphemy prosecutions and subjected to specific anti-Ahmadi laws across Pakistan.
They faced increasing social discrimination as militant groups used provisions of the law to prevent Ahmadis from "posing as Muslims," forced the demolition of Ahmadi mosques in Lahore, barred Ahmadis from using their mosques in Rawalpindi, and vandalized Ahmadi graves across Punjab province. "

Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights watch, says: "The ugly fact is that the blasphemy law is an enabler of mob violence against vulnerable groups. As long as such laws remain on the books and the authorities remain unwilling or unable to rein in mobs playing judge, jury and executioner, Pakistan will remain plagued by abuse in the name of religion."
The minorities are citizens of Pakistan and they must be protected at every cost. The rulers, the ulema and media should play their positive role in erasing the influence of the teachings preached by extremists and hatemongers. They should take every pain in creating awareness among the Pakistani people about the true spirit of Islam, which is a religion of peace and brotherhood. The blasphemy law must not be misused by any person, if we want to materialise the Quaid's words and turn Pakistan into a veritable heaven, a heaven where every person would have equal rights, opportunities and protection of life.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/front%20story01.htm

It’s very strange, that in abroad when two Pakistani meet to each other, then there first and foremost question comes that ‘where are you from’?

With ample enthusiasm and happiness a couple of days ago 23rd March was observed across the country and the world by Pakistanis to celebrate a historic resolution that was passed during a three-day meeting of All India Muslim League held on 22-24 March 1940.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah addressed to the participants of that meeting and truly said that Muslims are a different nation than Hindus in terms of their belief system, culture, literature and philosophies.

Therefore, it was demanded that ‘’the areas in which Muslims are numerically in majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign.”

This resolution played a significant role in making the dream of a separate nation come true.

The leaders who put their all efforts for the constitution of that dreaming state considered all Muslims of that territory as a single nation with the name of ‘Pakistani Nation’.

The line was drawn in terms of religion not in terms of other ‘ethnic identity’ such as region, race, language, sect, caste etc. But along-with this, it was also mentioned in the resolution that “adequate, effective and mandatory safeguards shall be specifically provided in the constitution for minorities in the units and in the regions for the protection of their religious, cultural, economic, political, administrative and other rights of the minorities, with their consultation. Arrangements thus should be made for the security of the Muslims where they were in minority.”

However, at the moment it is necessary to analyze today’s Pakistan in the light of that resolution and ask ourselves that are we that single nation our great leaders dreamed for and put their efforts for separate state. We will know that there is a lot of difference between the dream of our leaders and, actions and reflections of we people.

Interestingly, today, it has been observed in Pakistan that whenever two unknown persons meet to each other, then most likely, their first or second question becomes ‘where are you from’? Even in the interviews this question is being asked. Then answers start at different levels.

For instance, if both the persons belong to different provinces then answer most probably ends after telling the name of province such as I am from Punjab, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtun Khawa, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan etc. Generally the listener says that Oh! So you are from that province or you are a Punjabi, Baloch, Pathan, Sindhi, Gilgiti etc. And if the persons belong to same province then answer starts from district, Tehsil, City/Village, Family and so on and so forth.

In the premises of Pakistan it makes some sort of sense again, but it’s very strange, that in abroad when two Pakistani meet to each other, then there first and foremost question comes that ‘where are you from’? Here I would like to give an example of a person, who first time goes abroad considering himself as a Pakistani. When that person meets to other Pakistani then they ask in their introductory conversations that how are you? Afterwards, next question comes ‘where are you from’? At that time the person feels surprised and shocked that a Pakistani is asking from another Pakistani that where are you is from. For a while the person thinks that what could be the more suitable reply to give.

Isn’t it Pakistani identify enough for another Pakistani to tell? Here in abroad, still it is needed to tell about one’s region, language, sect, district, Tehsil, village, family etc. especially in the first meeting?

When I discussed it with some of my highly qualified friends that why we ask this question ‘where are you from’ particularly in our first meeting, then they replied that because we want to know about each other so that we can treat each other in a better way.

However, it does not work most of the time and after knowing its answer we treat each other very different way not the better way. After asking and knowing the answer of this question, usually stereotypes play their role and we become biased and discriminatory in our attitude and behaviour. Because, we learn a lot of stereotypes during our socialization process which derive our behaviour then.

We have good examples of these stereotypes. We have borrowed the most respectable terms and titles from each others’ language such as ‘Sain’, ‘Baloach’, ‘Sardar’, ‘Khan’ etc. which are used for showing high level of respect in their respective languages, but in other languages they are used in a very negative sense and generally used for ‘mentally retired persons’.
It would not be an exaggeration that these words are used as an equivalent to English words ‘non-sense’, ‘idiot’, ‘mad’ and ‘mental’ etc. Even when a person is titled as ‘Sain’ in other than Sindhi language, he minds it and becomes angry.

Moreover, as far as considering and treating minorities is concerned, it is also not hidden the way they are being treated in spite of the consideration, respect, space and acceptance given to them by our leaders while making the Pakistan.

The killing of Hazara community, incident of Badami Bagh and migration of Hindu community are solely the most recent incidents to be quoted; otherwise list will be go long.

As, one foreigner rightly said about Pakistani nation that either they are Punjabi, Balochi, Pashtun or Pakhtun, Sindhi etc. There, one can hardly find a Pakistani. This is true that we lack a unity in true terms.

In order to face and solve the challenges of Pakistan together there is a dire need to create coherence between our present and our past state. To ensure the unity, this is the time; we should analyze our actions and behaviors in the light of concept and cause of Pakistan’s creation.

It will be quite helpful to delete this question ‘where are you from’, from our introductory list of questions at least while meeting to an unknown person first time in the country in general and in the abroad in particular. I think it’s more than enough that s/he is a Pakistani.

Moreover, we should break the stereotypes about each other, not to judge any person on the basis of stereotypes and avoid using the respectable words of any language in negative terms for showing our respect to that language and its speakers. We should also treat and consider ‘minorities’ as Pakistani. We should ensure them that you are also part of this country. We are one nation and together we can make Pakistan peaceful and prosper.


http://www.thefrontierpost.com/category/40/

How did Karachi lose more than 50 people in Abbas Town with hundreds of apartments and shops reduced to rubble? One bomb-packed car rampaging around the neighborhood rummaged it all? Government announced the day of mourning on the incident but is anyone willing to claim responsibility for the act? No. Is anyone accountable for that? No. This only shows that meeting political ends in Pakistan mean far more than human values and all our law-enforcing agencies have failed.

We, Karachiites have seen countless sectarian eruptions since1980s where Shiite processions and neighborhoods were attacked by other sects. Last riot witnessed were during Zia era in Liaquatabad had many houses were burnt and Shiits were forced to leave the neighborhood. Then, the mercurial rise of Muttahidda Qaumi Movement as Muhajir Qaumi Movement changed the entire perspective of the city. MQM united both the sects under a common flagship and out of sectarian skirmish.

The “sectarian harmony” turned out to be the core strength of MQM, and both sects started to live peacefully under slogan of “Muhajirs”. The recent attack in Abbas Town is the example of that harmony; in this attack not only Shiite but many Sunni brothers living in a common locale lost their lives too. MQM has been enjoying this unique power over Karachi by winning more than 85% of the mandate of Karachi for decades.


Suddenly a new wave of Shiite killings has started in KPK, Baluchistan, South Punjab and Karachi. But this time it is worse and of fairly different nature. There are no neighbors or commoners involved in the killings but groups of terrorists under different labels are playing hooligans.

Unfortunately, there have been instances where politicians are found pulling each others’ collars for the mighty blame game and accusing intelligence agencies of having ties with these groups but no institution has so far taken any action against the cold-blooded killers. Let me add, Hamid Mir, in his recent column titled “A day in Khuzdar’ has proven the ties between intelligence agencies and some extremists groups in Baluchistan.

Reportedly, the electoral allies Ahle-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) with PML-N and Muttahida Wahdatul Muslemeen (MWM) is now allying with PTI for the upcoming elections. Both alliances will only affect the election results in Karachi by bifurcating the Urdu speaking vote bank among Shiites and Sunnis – just like before it was divided among Jamat Islami and PPP.

The described political scenario is no different than the concerns showed by MQM chief. Although Rehman Malik insists these attacks are only a part of delaying the election process because some hidden forces don’t want to see democratic process in Pakistan. Recently, he has accused two banned outfits, Tehreek Taliban and Lashkar Jhanvi, playing role in sabotaging election process. If the dots from Hamid Mir’s journalism to Rehman Malik’s information are correct then Altaf Hussain has correctly analyzed that these attacks in Karachi are against MQM’s democratic vote bank.

If banned outfits are playing the worse role for establishment then ASWJ and MWM are playing the clean role by dividing a democratic vote bank of MQM. But the two groups are unaware that they are throwing the 85% population of Karachi in the deadly sectarian division.

It is precisely the time for people of Pakistan especially Karachiites to come out with sectarian harmony against the forces bend on dividing them. We can’t forget the fact that Abbas Town is the Shiite dominated neighborhood but more than 30 Sunnis were killed in the attack too. If we live together and die together then we have to muster together to defeat the bad and evil forces. Whether Altaf Hussain’s concern is right or not but Karachi is not ready to go back in the history of sectarian riots and bloodshed which will not only cost us lives of our innocent people but also the solidarity and sovereignty of the country.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/

| Zubeida Mustafa |


THE report prepared by Zeenat Hisam and Yasmin Qureshi on Religious minorities in Pakistan for the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) and launched last Tuesday at the South Asian conference on the subject does not really come as a revelation.

Pakistan has earned notoriety for its ill-treatment of non-Muslim communities — who are the so-called religious minorities in the country. The report is, however, timely, as also the conference was, on two counts.

First the authors have highlighted the socio-legal constraints the non-Muslim communities face in a state that is supposedly democratic and constitutional. Even the society they live in comprises people who profess to follow a religion that is said to be tolerant vis-à-vis all communities even if they are not Muslim. The report should come as a reminder to the people of Pakistan that it is time for them to shake themselves out of their complacency.

This complacency can be disturbing. At another group discussion I was invited to two days later, a sociologist claimed that the faith-based minorities faced no problem in Pakistan as her personal experience was that the media fabricated many of the reports and the minorities were content with their status.

Probably she had never heard of the members of minority communities being charged under the blasphemy laws. She also seemed unaware of tragedies like Shantinagar, Gojra and Joseph Colony.

Secondly, Piler’s conference which brought activists from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and Pakistan together, clearly established that this intolerance towards the “other” is something that is not typical of Pakistan alone. This is a problem shared by South Asia. Of course, the intensity and nature of intolerance varies from country to country, but it exists all across the region. The speakers dwelt at length on the sufferings of the minorities in their own country.

This underlines some interrelated issues. One is the need for a democratic and secular political set-up that should not discriminate against a section of the population described as a minority by virtue of its own faith and the law and constitution in operation. The other is the need to promote education and awareness of human rights and tolerance in order to create a democratic culture in society.

Both these features go together and one without the other does not solve any problem. The fact is that a state with a democratic and secular constitution, as India, has experienced communal riots and carnage as in Ahmedabad and the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

And yet India is a state where seven years ago, as Mazhar Hussain, the delegate from India at the Piler conference, pointed out, the president was a Muslim, the prime minister was Sikh, the chief justice a Dalit, the commander-in-chief of the air force a Parsi and an Italian Christian was the Congress leader managing state affairs from behind the scenes.

In Pakistan, the constitution itself is full of contradictions and discriminates against the non-Muslims even though it speaks of all citizens being equal. With the mullah culture and Talibanisation on the rise, extremism and intolerance which was not such a problem before is now making life difficult for many, and that includes Muslims of different sects.

In the wider South Asian context, the problem spills across boundaries with the minorities in one country feeling the impact of violence in a neighbouring state. As Mazhar Hussain pointed out, when the Hindus in Pakistan are attacked, the Muslims in India have to bear the brunt of the anger sparked in the Hindu majority in that country.

It therefore makes sense to approach the problem in a regional perspective. It calls for greater political understanding among the various member states of Saarc because mistrust and suspicions among governments promotes animosities among their populations while preventing bonds of friendship at the people-to-people level.

Lack of contact and interaction among people of different states does not promote inter-faith dialogue or understanding among them. Most important of all, it allows unscrupulous elements to use religion for narrow political gains. In that context, the suggestion put forward at the Piler conference made eminent sense. It was recommended that a South Asian institute be set up to propagate the message of love and peace that is the essence of all religions.

While an organisation of this kind would institutionalise an on-going inter-faith dialogue among all communities, governments should also play a role in this respect. The commonality in the ethical values of all religions makes it possible for their followers to live in harmony.

The fact is that democracy is such a new phenomenon for the countries of this region that they have not had the time to develop a democratic culture which took centuries to evolve in the democracies of the West. The colonised world inherited the political structures of its colonial masters when it won its independence. But it missed out on the long evolutionary experience that had endowed Europe with its rich democratic and political traditions that enabled it to run its political system so smoothly.

It amounts to transplanting a system in an alien environment without the existence of the preconditions needed for its successful working. Thus many political scientists such as Harold Laski and John Strachey say that a measure of literacy and education in the voters is necessary for the successful working of a democracy. That presupposes that education teaches them tolerance and respect for diversity and plurality.

www.zubeidamustafa.com

http://dawn.com/

IN the mad race for power that has affected participants and spectators alike nobody seems to be bothered about the havoc being wrought by intolerance-driven violence.

For several months, the 20 or so Ahmadi families living in village Shamsabad, in Chunian tehsil of Kasur district, not far from the Punjab capital, have been subjected to harassment and violence by the majority community because of their belief.

A public meeting organised by a man who had just returned from Europe declared all Ahmadis living in the village liable to be killed. They were told to abandon their faith or leave the village. Mob rule followed. Ahmadis were persecuted in various ways. Some labourers were driven out of the village. After repeated complaints a police post was ordered to be set up in the village but political influentials got this decision rescinded.

On March 25, about 50-60 armed men attacked the Ahmadi community leader and subjected him and his family members to violence and after beating him mercilessly left him for dead. The district coordination officer and the district police officer arrived, an FIR was registered but no action was taken against the culprits. Instead, the Ahmadis are being advised by the administration to make up with their tormentors, obviously on the latter’s terms. Quite a few people have their eyes on their lands — prized booty certainly.

In Lahore itself several Ahmadis were subjected to violence for distributing their newspaper, Al-Fazal, and then arrested on the charge of blasphemy.

Meanwhile, the news from Islamabad is that there will be no peace for Rimsha, the Christian girl who was acquitted by the Islamabad High Court of the charge of desecrating the Holy Quran. The complainant has appealed to the Supreme Court against the high court decision but no date of hearing has been fixed. Earlier, his petition had been dismissed by the Supreme Court for non-prosecution. The vengeful attitude of Rimsha’s persecutors is beyond reason and impossible to justify.

It is possible that the victims in these cases have done something to deserve being beaten up, booked under dreaded charges, and threatened with death. In that case let them be dealt with under the law. An administration that leaves the minorities at the mercy of overzealous vigilantes and their patrons in the police will not escape indictment for complicity — and worse.

The mischief must be suppressed forthwith, otherwise it will spread to a dangerous extent in the days before the next government takes over. But that is a relatively minor issue.

Far more important is the need to take a dispassionate view of what may be described as the third phase in the persecution of religious minorities and sects in Pakistan, under the heading: deliberate, aggressive discrimination.

In the first phase the minorities, like the poor belonging to the majority community, were at a disadvantage. They could not get good jobs because they lacked the means of qualifying. They had little access to justice or ability to engage the counsel of their choice because they could not afford the cost.

To be disadvantaged was bad enough but the state, goaded by preachers of intolerance, made the situation worse for the minorities by legalising their disadvantage. It did this by denying a non-Muslim the right to engage a non-Muslim lawyer to defend him in a Zia-made religious court, by denying a non-Muslim student admission to higher classes on merit, by barring Ahmadis from getting a commission in the army that fellow Ahmadis like generals Akhtar Malik and Abdul Ali had served with distinction.

As if the phase of state-sanctioned discrimination were not enough, the state has been blinking at the organised and large-scale persecution of minorities by non-state elements.

Some prominent manifestations of this form of persecution are: many individuals and groups have made it a profession to incite violence against the minority communities and kill them, and the state has done nothing to curb the menace; blasphemy charges are bandied around for the heck of it and the trend has been strengthened by the executive’s lack of will and by the accommodation allowed to mischief-makers by the courts in several cases.

A conference on the challenges faced by the religious minorities in South Asian countries held recently in Karachi by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research fully revealed the pattern of minorities’ persecution following the mixing of religion with politics in the law and constitution in several of these countries. Some of the most moving presentations were made by the victims of vigilante squads and police alacrity in throwing the victims of violence in jail instead of the culprits.

What is the source of the strength of the growing breed of non-state actors in this phase of organised, aggressive discrimination against the minority communities? In one sentence: a state that has been unhinged from its democratic moorings. The question all responsible citizens may ask themselves is: could there be a link between the rise of aggressive minority-baiting and the belief-dominated discourse on electoral matters?

Tailpiece: Those attacking the interior minister for recognising Nawaz Sharif are patently in the wrong. He would have risked his job if he had spoken well of Asif Zardari or Asfandyar Wali or even Altaf Hussain. The laws made to deal with patwaris and head constables cannot be applied to the chosen few, who are so busy refurbishing their reputation for piety that they do not have time to notice the systematic annihilation of ANP candidates and cadres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. What a simple way of cleaning Pakistan of the opponents of bigotry and extremism.

http://dawn.com/

There have been worrying signs of breakdown in ethnic relations in Pakistan – including accounts of ethnic Hazaras (a Farsi-speaking, predominantly Shia group) taking up arms and forming their own militia after bombings in Quetta, and Christian protestors clashing with police in Lahore in response to anti-Christian mob violence earlier this year.
Too little has been done to address this growing danger by a Pakistani Government already stretched in their fight to contain militancy in the country’s north. Recent anti-discrimination laws designed to better protect minorities do little to address or change ethno-religious tensions. And accusations of Pakistan’s police and military ambivalence towards extremist Sunni groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba have only increased minority distrust of authority in Pakistan.
What is needed is a stronger civil society that slows and reverses any slide into religious and sectarian strife. And a proven but underused way of fostering a stronger civil society is through grassroots community organizing.
While extremist groups like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi who claimed responsibly for January’s bombing of Shias in Quetta pose a potentially grave physical danger to minorities, a longer-term danger lies in violent extremist or sectarian ideology seeping into community consciousness and strengthening the formation of isolated in-groups along ethnic, religious and sectarian lines. Communities, when faced with an overwhelming challenge or threat, unite and in part define themselves by such experiences. And bigger challenges can bind people together not only within communities, but across them. It is this principle that grassroots community organizing can apply by framing constructive challenges as the uniting points around which communities can shed their differences and work together. The collective action such collaboration fosters is a vital antidote to the increasingly dangerous ghettoisation of communities in Pakistan.
This approach has already shown success in helping better integrate a religious minority that has experienced one of the greatest challenges to integration in Pakistan - the country’s Hindu minority.
Against the backdrop of Pakistan’s traumatic partition and on-going hostilities with India ever since, Pakistan’s Hindu minorities have experienced on-going discrimination, as documented by open Security and Human Rights Watch. But Sindh’s Thardeep district in Southeast Pakistan, one of lowest socio-economic indexes, a one-third Hindu population with historically strained relations between the two communities, has seen relations improve. This is thanks largely to the grassroots work of Thardeep Rural Support Programmes (TRDP), a local non-governmental organization and part of Pakistan’s largest development network. Based on a self-help philosophy of grassroots community organizing and social mobilization, TRDP’s work cuts through religious, sectarian and ethnic divides, uniting local village communities around common development challenges that affect them all, like access to education, better sanitation, medical care, economic empowerment and emergency relief.
When the floods of 2010 devastated rural Pakistan, Thardeep’s community organizations were catapulted into action. The ensuing relief work was delivered with the support of all of Thardeep’s religious communities; it was work delivered by everyone, for everyone. TRDP’s work has reportedly reached 70,365 people and they have rebuilt over one hundred schools to date. TRDP has enhanced the accepted role of not just Hindus, but of Hindu Dalits – those who rank lowest in the caste system – in public life within Thardeep. TRDP’s previous CEO was himself a Hindu Dalit, as well as the first Pakistani Hindu ever to be awarded the Medal of Excellence, the highest civilian honour in Pakistan. This is no small achievement in the Indian Subcontinent, where Dalits have traditionally experienced relentless discrimination. Hindu and Sikh Pakistanis play a prominent role in TRDP, as Board Directors, community organizing leaders and local activists. As such, the organization stands as a model of cooperation that dismantles stereotypes, empowers minorities and brings previously disparate communities closer together, even against the backdrop of powerful divisive narratives. More of this kind of civil society action is needed if Pakistan is to bridge its widening sectarian and religious divides. Substantive grassroots action can act as a buffer again extremist and sectarian ideology.

(Shiraz Ahmad is Director of Unitas Communications, an international cross-cultural communications agency that works to build stronger relations between the Muslim and Western worlds)

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