Hypocrisy at national level
AFTER a meaningful silence and severe backlash from many sides the Prime Minister Imran Khan finally decided to break his silence on the gruesome horrific and shameful incident of religious extremism and bigotry in Sialkot.
He called it a day of shame for Pakistan and gave his personal assurances that all those responsible will face the full severity of the law.
Religious leaders from different schools of thought met the Sri Lankan high commissioner to offer condolences and give assurances that such a deed will not be tolerated in future and civil society members held candle light vigils to show their support and sympathy with the family of the innocent murdered man from Sri Lanka.
Everything having been said and done let us not forget that no amount of excuses, reasons, explanations or lamentations can reduce the pain and sorrow inflicted upon the family of the murdered man in Sialkot.
This is a date that will live in infamy and something that the entire nation needs to show remorse and offer their very sincere apologies.
The government of Imran Khan has recently lifted the ban on the TLP after signing a secret agreement with this extremist group of religious fanatics.
The Chief of the TLP Saad Rizvi and over 1500 hard core activists were released from jail and all this when eight policemen of the Punjab Police were slaughtered by the fanatical mobs of the TLP.
The gruesome tragedy in Sialkot happened after Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara allegedly removed a poster of the Tehreek-i-Labaik (TLP) from the notice board.
Thousands of men gathered outside the factory on a call by the factory workers most of them workers and supporters of the TLP.
The blood thirsty mob of the religious fanatics dragged Priyantha outside tortured him severely and then set fire to his broken and battered body while he was still breathing.
The emotionally charged Islamic fanatics were busy in their gruesome act and filming their actions while at the same time shouting religious slogans and justifying their insidious barbaric deed as a holy religious duty and Islamic obligation by sending a Kafir to hell that he deserved.
Most of the young zealots even quoted religious injunctions and verses from the Quran in support of their cold blooded murder and very proudly proclaimed themselves custodians and defenders of the Islamic religion.
All the Islamic leaders and firebrand religious preachers who spit fire and brimstone from their pulpits to vilify and condemn the West for criticizing Islam were mysteriously silent and mute on this great human tragedy.
Just a few days earlier the Prime Minister had asked the Pakistani universities to conduct some research on the negative influence of Western culture on Pakistani society.
Such statements by the chief executive of the land is nothing but xenophobic expressions based on religious fanaticism and shows the extremist side of our society.
The Prime minister needs to launch some serious research into the causes and reasons for the religious extremism and the blood lust generated by the extremist elements in the country.
The present regime f Imran Khan has always followed a policy of appeasement of the religious extremists such as the TLP and the TTP.
The state appears to be supporting such religious groups who can muster street power leading to mob violence as an instrument of projecting their political agenda.
This policy amounts to the policies of the Zia era as pampering the extremists and protecting them as strategic assets, they should realize these so-called strategic assets are now strategic horrors and blood thirsty beasts’ hell bent on destroying the very foundations of this country.
In this changed international climate the world powers do not recognize any need or value of these so-called strategic assets and their actions and their power is nothing but a cause of shame and embarrassment for the country.
The policy of pampering the religious extremist groups has resulted in many tragic and horror stories in the recent past.
Shehzad Masih and Shama Shehzad were burnt alive in a brick kiln, Mishal Khan was murdered by fellow students, Salman Taseer and a state minister Shahbaz Bhatti were butchered in Islamabad and now another innocent individual a non-Muslim was butchered in Sialkot in the name of Islam by Muslim citizens of Pakistan and the likes of Mumtaz Qadri have been glorified as champions of Islam and saints.
This is a collective complicity of the entire nation. Our collective shame and crime cannot be condoned just because the Prime Minster has condemned it.
Pakistan of today is now a burning cauldron of extremist ideas and fundamentalist mentality. Rational thought and logical reasoning are considered un-Islamic, secularism is an ugly word and pluralism is now a vulgar idea.
The most bestial instincts of the ignorant teeming mullahs of the thousands of Deeni Madaris have been aroused and are being used for very short-term political gains. This Frankenstein monster of religious extremism is capable of destroying this country.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
