April 2011 
Year 17    No.156
Cover Story


Our goose is cooked’ 0

Pakistan is on the brink of a clerical conflagration: Pervez Hoodbhoy

BY FAROOQ SULEHRIA

Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, who received his undergraduate and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been teaching nuclear and high energy physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad for 37 years. He also lectures at various universities in the USA. Hoodbhoy is a frequent commentator, on Pakistani TV channels as well as international media outlets, on various social and political issues. In this interview with Viewpoint, he discusses the situation in Pakistan in the wake of the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.

Q: The murder of Governor Salmaan Taseer, who opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy law, has shocked the world. But in Pakistan, the killer has become a hero for a sizeable section of society. Why?

A: In a society dominated by traditional religious values, heroism often means committing some violent and self-destructive act for preserving honour. Although Governor Taseer was not accused of blasphemy, his crime was to seek presidential pardon for an illiterate peasant Christian woman accused of blasphemy by some Muslim neighbours. Taseer’s intervention clearly crossed the current limits of toleration. With no party support, he went at it alone.

Malik Mumtaz Qadri – the official security guard who pumped 22 bullets into the man he was deputed to protect – is not the first such hero. The 19-year-old illiterate who killed the author of the book Rangeela Rasool in the 1920s, and was then executed by the British, was held in the highest esteem by the founders of Pakistan, Muhammad Iqbal and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It is reported that Iqbal, regarded as Islam’s pre-eminent 20th century philosopher, placed the body in the grave with tears in his eyes and said: “This young man left us, the educated men, behind.” Ghazi Ilm-e-Deen is venerated with a mausoleum over his grave in Lahore.

In his court testimony, Taseer’s assassin proudly declared that he was executing Allah’s will. Hundreds of lawyers – made famous by the Black Coat revolution that restored Pakistan’s chief justice – showered him with rose petals while he was in police custody. Two hundred lawyers signed a pledge vowing to defend him for free. Significantly, Qadri is a Barelvi Muslim belonging to the Dawat-e-Islami and 500 clerics of this faith supported his action in a joint declaration. They said that those who sympathised with Taseer deserved similar punishment.

Significantly, most of these mullahs are part of the Sunni Tehreek and are supposedly anti-Taliban moderates. Indeed one of their leaders, Maulana Sarfaraz Naeemi, was blown up by a Taliban suicide bomber in June 2009 after he spoke out against suicide bombings. But now these “moderates” have joined hands with their attackers. Jointly, they rule Pakistan’s streets today while a cowardly and morally bankrupt government cringes and caves in to their every demand.

Q: Pakistani voters have always voted for secular-leaning parties but it appears that today the religious parties actually represent popular discourse. Do you concur?

A: Yes, I do. Those who claim that Pakistan’s silent majority is fundamentally secular and tolerant may be clutching at straws. They argue that the religious parties don’t get the popular vote and so cannot really be popular. But this is wishful thinking. The mullah parties are unsuccessful only because they are geared for street politics, not electoral politics. They also lack charismatic leadership and have bitter internal rivalries. However, the victory of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) after 9/11 shows that they are capable of closing ranks. It is also perfectly possible that a natural leader will emerge and cause an electoral landslide in the not too distant future.

But even without winning elections, the mullah parties are immensely more powerful in determining how you and I live than election-winning parties like the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP). For a long time the religious right has dictated what we can or cannot teach in our public and private schools. No government ever had the guts to dilute the hate materials being forced down young throats. They also dictate what you and I can wear, eat or drink. Their unchallenged power has led to Pakistan’s cultural desertification because they violently oppose music, dance, theatre, art and intellectual inquiry.

To be sure there are scattered islands of normality in urban Pakistan. But these are shrinking. Yes, the Baloch nationalists are secular and so is the ethnically driven Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) in Karachi. But these constitute a tiny fraction of the population.

Q: The government has capitulated. The prime minister has announced the decision not to touch the blasphemy laws. Does this mean that religious fanatics can dictate their terms even without any parliamentary representation?

A: It is indeed a complete abdication. When the bearded ones brought out 50,000 charged people onto the streets of Karachi, a terrified government instantly sought negotiations with them. Even before that happened, the current interior minister – Rehman Malik, a venal hack and as crooked as they come – promptly declared that he’d personally gun down a blasphemer.

The government’s pants are soaking wet. In fact, so wet that the ruling party dumped Taseer – who was their own high-ranking member – after the murder. There’s talk now of getting American guards for Zardari, since his own guards may be untrustworthy. Sherry Rehman, the brave parliamentarian who dared to table a bill to reform the blasphemy law, is now hunkered down. She is said to be receiving two death threats an hour. Significantly, the army high command has made no public statement on the assassination although it is vocal on much else.

Q: Pakistan’s media is often described as independent and vibrant. But this media had painted Taseer negatively almost a month before he was killed. Your comments?

A: The media’s so-called independence and vibrancy is reserved for attacking a manifestly corrupt, but nominally secular, government. On other issues – such as a rational discussion of religion and the army’s role in society – it is conspicuously silent. Few sane people are brought on to shows, or are too scared to speak.

Let me recount some personal experiences. The day after Taseer’s assassination, FM-99 (Urdu) called me for an interview. The producer tearfully told me (offline) that she could not find a single religious scholar ready to condemn his murder. She said even ordinary people like me are in short supply.

The next day a TV programme on blasphemy (Samaa TV, hosted by Asma Shirazi) was broadcast. Asma had pleaded that I participate. So I did – knowing full well what was up ahead. My opponents were Fareed Paracha (spokesman, Jamaat-e-Islami) and Maulana Sialvi (Sunni Tehreek, a Barelvi and supposed moderate). There were around 100 students in the audience, drawn from colleges across Pindi and Islamabad.

Even as the mullahs frothed and screamed around me (and at me), I managed to say the obvious: that the culture of religious extremism was resulting in a bloodbath in which the majority of victims were Muslims; that non-Muslims were fleeing Pakistan; that the self-appointed “thekedars (purveyors)” of Islam in Pakistan were deliberately ignoring the case of other Muslim countries like Indonesia which do not have the death penalty for blasphemy; that debating the details of the blasphemy law (Section) 295C did not constitute blasphemy; that American Muslims were very far from being the objects of persecution; that harping on drone attacks was an irrelevancy to the present discussion on blasphemy.

The response? Not a single clap for me. Thunderous applause whenever my opponents called for death for blasphemers. And loud cheers for Qadri. When I directly addressed Sialvi and said he had Salmaan Taseer’s blood on his hands, he exclaimed: “How I wish I had done it (Kaash ke maine khud kiya hota)!” You can find all this on YouTube if you like.

One can debate whether this particular episode (and probably many similar ones) should be blamed on the media, whether it genuinely reflects the public mood and whether those students fairly represented the general Pakistani youth. But there is little doubt which side the Pakistani media took. This was apparent from the unwillingness of anchors to condemn the assassination as well as from images of the smiling murderer being fęted all around. Mullah guests filled the screens of most channels. Some journalists and TV-show participants favourably compared Qadri with Ilm-e-Deen. Others sought to prove that Taseer somehow brought his death upon himself.

Q: Many in Pakistan, like Imran Khan, the cricket star turned politician, blame the recent rise of extremism on the US occupation of Afghanistan. Is that the root cause in your opinion?

A: If the US had never come to Afghanistan, Pakistan would not be the violent mess that it is today. So there is an element of truth in this claim but no more than an element. Let me give you an analogy: imagine lots of dry wood and a lighted match. The US-led anti-Soviet war was that match. But the combustible material is that dangerous conservatism which accumulated over time. The strength of the Islamist parties vastly increased after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto kowtowed to them after 1973-74. This was five-six years before the Soviet invasion so one can scarcely blame America for that.

Yes, the West did set dry wood on fire. But the staggering quantity of wood comes from the rotting mass of Pakistan’s state and society. Ours is an apartheid society where the rich treat the poor like dirt, the justice system does not work, education is as rotten as it can be and visible corruption goes unpunished. Add to all this a million mullahs in a million mosques who exploit people’s frustrations. You then have the explanation for today’s catastrophic situation.

Of course, I would love to see the Americans out of Afghanistan. The sooner they can withdraw – without precipitating a 1996-style Taliban massacre – the better. But let’s realise that US withdrawal will not end Pakistan’s problems. Those fighting the Americans aren’t exactly Vietnamese-type socialists or nationalists. The Taliban types want a full cultural revolution: beards, burkhas, five daily prayers, no music, no art, no entertainment and no contact with modernity except for getting its weapons.

Q: In Tunis, a dictator has been humbled by peaceful mass mobilisation instead of al-Qaeda affiliates. In Bangladesh, superior courts have reinstated the basic secular Constitution of the country and religion in politics has been banned in recent months. Do you see the tide turning in the Muslim world? Does it offer a hope in Pakistan?

A: The grievances in Tunisia are similar in some ways to those in Pakistan: raging unemployment, grotesque corruption and the opulent lifestyles of the elite. Like Zardari, who fills Pakistani cities with pictures of the Bhutto clan and renames streets and airports, Ben Ali also promoted his family. Both plundered national wealth and both got the West’s support because they claimed to be bulwarks against extremism. Today Ben Ali is gone and tomorrow Zardari will be gone.

But the differences are profound: Tunisia’s population of 10 million is minuscule compared to Pakistan’s 180 million. Young Tunisians do not suffer from a toxic overdose of hard-line religion. So they came out bravely into the streets to fight for real social change. One can therefore hope that Ben Ali’s departure will lead to a flowering of Arab democracy rather than invite the dark forces of religious extremism. Yet one can be absolutely sure that Zardari’s departure, which may happen sooner rather than later, is not likely to lead to a more secular or more peaceful Pakistan.

As for Bangladesh: let us recall that it emerged from the collapse of Jinnah’s two-nation theory. Nationalism triumphed over religion in 1971. Hence the positive new developments in Bangladesh are not difficult to understand.

Q: What do you think is the way to stem the rising tide of religious extremism in Pakistan?

A: If you want the truth: the answer is, nothing. Our goose is cooked. Sometimes there is no way to extinguish a forest fire until it burns itself out. Ultimately, there will be nothing left to burn. But well before the last liberal is shot or silenced, the mullahs will be gunning for each other in a big way. Mullah-inspired bombers have already started blowing up shrines and mosques of the opposing sect. The Internet is flooded with gory photographs of chopped-up body parts belonging to their rivals. Qadri, the assassin, admitted his inspiration to murder came from a cleric. So you can also expect that Muslim clerics will enthusiastically kill other Muslim clerics. Eventually, we could have the situation that prevailed during Europe’s Thirty Years war.

To save Pakistan, what miracles shall we ask of Allah? Here’s my personal list: First, that the Pakistan army stops seeing India as enemy number one and starts seeing extremism as a mortal threat. Second, that Zardari’s government is replaced by one that is less corrupt, more capable of governance and equipped with both the will and legitimacy to challenge religious fascism. And third, that peace somehow comes to Afghanistan.

(Now with the Stockholm-based weekly, Internationalen, Farooq Sulehria has previously written for The News, Rawalpindi, and the Lahore-based dailies, The Nation, The Frontier Post and Pakistan. This article was published on the e-zine Viewpoint on March 11, 2011.)

Courtesy: Viewpoint; www.viewpointonline.net

 

The lengthening shadow of violent intolerance

HRCP outraged at foul murders

Lahore: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, expressing grief and alarm at his murder and calling it a manifestation of growing intolerance in society.

A statement issued by the commission on January 4, 2011 said: “HRCP is saddened by the murder of the governor, which must be condemned by all sane people, and is alarmed at the ever growing shadow of intolerance and violence in society. A thorough inquiry to establish the motives of the killer must be held so that people do not jump to conclusions. It would be exceedingly unfortunate if it turns out that the governor’s call for sanity following the death sentence of Aasia Bibi on charges of blasphemy or differences with political opponents in any way led to his assassination. The fact that the killer was a policeman is a matter of acute concern and shows the extent to which the services have been infected by intolerance.”

Elimination of non-Muslims and human rights defenders

The HRCP has also expressed its sense of outrage and grief at the murder of federal minister for minority affairs Shahbaz Bhatti and HRCP coordinator in Khuzdar district Naeem Sabir and called the assassinations the work of militants out to eliminate anyone who raises his voice against persecution of the vulnerable people.

In a statement issued on March 2, 2011, the HRCP said: “The assassins of federal minister for minority affairs Shahbaz Bhatti and Mr Naeem Sabir, HRCP coordinator in Khuzdar district, may perhaps belong to different groups but they represent the militant hardliners who are out to obliterate the rights of the non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan and eliminate the human rights defenders who raise their voice against persecution on any ground. HRCP expresses its sense of outrage and deep grief at the foul murders.

While Mr Shahbaz Bhatti had been active as a human rights defender before he joined the federal cabinet, as a minister, he had confined himself to performing his official duties. HRCP shares the anguish of his family at this difficult time. His murder says much about the state of security for the ordinary Pakistanis who do not share the religious faith of the majority.

Naeem Sabir had been associated with HRCP since 1997 and had been promoting human rights in Khuzdar with courage and devotion. Off and on he had been targeted for his activities by minions of the state. But in the recent past he had apparently given no cause for offence to anyone except the local satraps who could not bear his truthful coverage of human rights abuses. HRCP deeply condoles Naeem’s death and shares the grief of his widow and a less than two year old child. HRCP demands that those responsible for the killing must be brought to justice and that the government must do all it can to ensure that the two murders do not join a long list of similar killings where impunity for the killers and perpetrators has been the norm. The commission also reminds the government of its responsibility to offer succour to the bereaved families.” 


Dr Mehdi Hasan
Chairperson, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
www.hrcp-web.org

 

 

Protect Pakistan’s minorities; apprehend their attackers

Indian civil society condemns the brutal killing of Shahbaz Bhatti

March 2, 2011: The brutal assassination of Mr Shahbaz Bhatti, minority affairs minister of Pakistan, in Islamabad today is a cowardly act perpetrated by forces which are bent on terrorising minorities across Pakistan and silencing the voices of sanity. The murder of Mr Bhatti and others and persecution of minorities in Pakistan is a blot on the record of that country and shows that Pakistan has failed to protect its citizens.

It is shocking to know that Mr Shahbaz Bhatti, who was facing death threats for long, was not under security cover despite being a federal minister at the time of his brutal murder. The killing of an important leader of minorities in Pakistan who was also an important minister shows the threats and pressures under which minorities are living in Pakistan.

The assassination of Mr Bhatti has exposed the casual attitude of the government of Pakistan towards the threats Mr Bhatti had received in the past. After the assassination of Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, who was also killed for the same reason for which Mr Bhatti has been assassinated, the indifference of the government to Mr Bhatti’s security is shocking.

Mr Bhatti’s killing has also raised serious questions about the survival and safety of the minorities in Pakistan. There have been press reports from the interior of the country about abduction, false implication in blasphemy cases and killings of members of the minority communities on a daily basis.

We request the government of Pakistan to immediately apprehend the culprits responsible for the assassination of an important leader of the minorities and of Pakistan and to ensure the protection of the common citizens of the minorities in the country.


Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, editor, Kashmir Times; Asif Khan, general secretary, NEEDS, Mumbai; Aziz Burney, editor, Rashtriya Sahara Urdu; Fr Cedric Prakash, Prashant, Ahmedabad; Fr Dominic Emmanuel, Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, Delhi; Farooque Shaikh, actor, director; Hasan Kamal, editor, The Sahafat Daily, Mumbai; Javed Anand, co-editor, Communalism Combat, Mumbai; John Dayal, secretary general, All India Christian Council, New Delhi; Manzoor Alam, general secretary, All India Milli Council; Navaid Hamid, secretary, South Asian Council for Minorities; Niaz Farooqui, secretary, Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, New Delhi; Noorjehan Safia Niaz, Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, Mumbai; Ram Puniyani, Mumbai; Sajan George, president, Global Council of Indian Christians; Sajid Rashid, editor, Naya Waraq, Mumbai; Seema Mustafa, resident editor, The Sunday Guardian, New Delhi; Shabnam Hashmi, Anhad; Teesta Setalvad, secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace; Zafarul-Islam Khan, editor, The Milli Gazette

 


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