A Note by the Editor of the Blog
I have been reading Mr. Aijaz Zaka Syed long before since I found his articles in Dubai based English daily Khaleej Times and I greatly like his writings. In his latest article in Saudi English daily Arab News he has shown deep concern over what is currently happening in Pakistan. Aijaz Zaka Syed is an assiduous and value based Indian intellectual. No doubt there are many more in India and almost everywhere in the world who, very sincerely and painfully, share the worries expressed by Mr. Aijaz about ghastly developments in the country established in the name of Islam.
It has to be be found out how to rediscover the dream of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, to make this land a place with the democratic norms, freedom, equality, honour, tolerance and social justice for all of its citizens without any discrimination and how to create an atmosphere guaranteeing peace and harmony for the people of all faths living here as Pakistanis.
Actually in an environment poisoned with the theories of nationalism, based on race, ethnicity, language and colour, establishment of a country entirely on ideological basis was an extraordinary thing, felt prickle by the dominant powers. India was divided. Hindus regard the land to be 'Mother'. Rebuff of the Hindu majority was very clear at the very start of the demand of Pakistan, a separate land for the Muslims of subcontinent. Pakistan was religiously and psychologically an unwholesome for those who thought the 'Mother' was getting parted into two. Thus India's evil designs to weaken and destabilize Pakistan was a known thing for all. Fanning a state of rebellion in East Pakistan and creating Bangladesh had never been possible if India had not hatched the plans. The traitors got all kind of help, including an open aggression.
There had been ideological snakes in the sleeves injecting their anti Pakistan poison in the veins of the young generations. They had their rendezvous in big media estates and education department. They continuously spread illusions and misguidance, intentionally trying to put Pakistan away from its set track of a system based on the Quran and Sunnah which was a promise of the 'Fathers of the Nation' during Pakistan Movement. Socialists, communists, secularists and also the westernized elements worked very actively on literary, political and media fronts to ideologically destabilize this country. We were unfortunate to have unlimited influence of the feudal lords, professional politicians and ancestral leadership in our politics. Military rule, most of the time in our history, with the backing of opportunist, selfish and corrupt political elements, proved immensely harmful for integrity and stability of the country.
The Khomeini Revolution in Iran, Russian triumph over Afghanistan and over a decade ago after the tragic incident of 9/11Pakistan's decision to stand as the 'front line ally' of the Americans in their belligerence against Afghanistan have been the sequential awful events enormously heavy blows for our unity and peace. Foul players from all over the world entered the dirty game. Shias and Sunnis both got financial support from different rival countries.
Sipah-e-Sahabah and Sipah-e-Muhammad both had foreign backing. And after Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, fire-brand Deobadi religious scholar was killed a much more dangerous faction on his name came into being.Taliban, after coming into power in Afghanistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangwi affiliated with them and most of the death-dealing terrorists went in their protection. Many of our enemies had already jumped in the arena with their evil designs. Secret agencies of the countries who want us not to stand firmly on our feet are doing their worst. Fresh sectarianism and racial divisions, target killings in Karachi, insurgency in Balochistan and Taliban insurrection in FATA, all have roots in the above mentioned happenings of last around 35 years. Black Water is alleged to be involved in numerous subversive activities.activities.Most of the sectarian killings are meant to bring different sectarian group in open war and divide the society on sectarian basis.
Sipah-e-Sahabah and Sipah-e-Muhammad both had foreign backing. And after Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, fire-brand Deobadi religious scholar was killed a much more dangerous faction on his name came into being.Taliban, after coming into power in Afghanistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangwi affiliated with them and most of the death-dealing terrorists went in their protection. Many of our enemies had already jumped in the arena with their evil designs. Secret agencies of the countries who want us not to stand firmly on our feet are doing their worst. Fresh sectarianism and racial divisions, target killings in Karachi, insurgency in Balochistan and Taliban insurrection in FATA, all have roots in the above mentioned happenings of last around 35 years. Black Water is alleged to be involved in numerous subversive activities.activities.Most of the sectarian killings are meant to bring different sectarian group in open war and divide the society on sectarian basis.
Much more misfortune! For last about 12 years Pakistan has the rulers engaged more in appeasing the big powers to gain maximum time to rule this country and avail the chance to plunder as more money as possible. They have earned notoriety in being the most corrupt political element perhaps in whole of the world. In spite of their lack of good governance, inability in maintaining law and order and their indifference about bringing sectarian compatibility, the only feather they have in their cap is their unconditional servitude to the Americans. Supreme Court has many times fixed the responsibility of unending killings in Karachi on all the three allies in the present regime. Chief Justice of Pakistan has remarked more than one time that neither the government has any interest nor an effective governing authority in unrest hit province of Balochastan.
Mercilessly killing of 18 persons of a particular sectarian group in the northern province of Pakistan and a daring attack of the militants on Kamrah Air Base are coincident events. In both the incidents intelligence help and material backing came from out of Pakistan. Present row of the killings of the Shias and recent murders of the Sunni religious scholars hint at the objective of inflaming a large scale Shia Sunni riots. Mr. Aijaz Zaka Syed has ignored the factor of the unbroken chain of Drone Attacks by the Americans, mostly making the innocent common people their victims. The Sunnis of the Wazirastan and other areas there have a serious complain that the Shias of Kurram Agency in FATA are recruited for fighting against Taliban and are heavily paid by the Americans.
Mr. Aijaz Zaka Syed is a senior journalist and a vigilant intellectual. I would like him to keep himself not confined to only some horrible incidents in a particular part but come to Pakistan and make a research to find the hair-raising facts how almost all the enemies of Pakistan are out to dig out the roots of this country for which Jinnah had very high dreams. Munir Ahmed Khalili
Article of Aijaz Zaka Syed
What in God's name is wrong with Pakistan? Just when you think things cannot get any worse, something something more outrageous happens to stretch the limits of your sensibilities. The first country to be founded in the name of Islam has suffered the most at the hands of those championing the faith whose very name denotes peace and salvation for mankind.
This week, responding to my recent piece on Assam, a Hindu friend wrote back: “Typical hypocrisy! What about Pakistan? Why are you silent on the treatment of Hindus and Christians there? What about Rimsha Masih?”
The insinuation suggesting Indian Muslims are somehow accountable for Pakistan would have normally rankled me. However, these are anything but normal times. I’ve myself been deeply saddened by the recent events in the South Asian country. Indeed, the faithful everywhere, including those in Pakistan, are repelled by the crimes being carried out in the name of their sweet faith.
What do I tell my friend? How do you defend the indefensible? How can anyone ever justify the cold blooded killing of fellow Muslims, heading home for Eid, in the blessed month of Ramadan? This at a time when the Muslims around the world were protesting against the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
This at a time when Muslim leaders were meeting in the shadow of the Holy Kaaba to celebrate the unity of the Ummah. International media noted with interest how Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat next to each other at the special OIC summit in Makkah and were often seen talking and laughing together.
It was supposed to send out a message of Islamic solidarity and brotherhood to the world. It has been business as usual though in the killing fields of Syria and Somalia and Pakistan and Afghanistan. The killer clique in Damascus is determined to outdo the savagery and bestiality of the Mongol hordes a millennium ago.
If people peacefully going about their business, as those heading home to Gilgit had been, were isolated on the basis of their sect and gunned down in Pakistan, in Afghanistan our Taleban friends have added another feather to their cap by slaying a group of men and women on the way, allegedly, to a “mixed” party. All this of course was ostensibly for the cause of Islam. The killers of Gilgit passengers carried out their valiant act amid chants of “God is Great”!
This isn’t the first such incident of course. From bombing mosques to targeting religious processions, the game is all too familiar. Sectarian and ethnic killings have become a daily routine in Karachi, once Pakistan’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan city.
The Taleban’s swift, vigilante justice was again in the name of Shariah, just as most of their actions have been — from gunning down a defenseless woman on the suspicion of an affair to poisoning and persecution of school-going girls. What kind of Islam are we preaching to the world? Is this what the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us? In the long history of Islam, there’s not a single incident that can be cited to justify the madness that is on the march in the name of religion today.
There was a time when minorities and other vulnerable sections turned to Muslims for protection. From Salahuddin’s (Saladin the Great) intervention in Palestine putting an end to the genocide of Jews at the hands of the Crusaders to the protection of Christians and Hindus in the far corners of the Muslim empire, we have had a long history of genuine religious tolerance.
When Jerusalem fell and Sayyidna Omar visited the holy city, Patriarch Sophronius, was so moved by the conduct of the victors that he invited the great Caliph to pray inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The leader of the faithful however declined, fearing it might lead to Muslim claims over the temple. Instead he chose another site to pray where Masjid-e-Omar stands today. Sindh’s Hindus loved Mohammed bin Qasim, the first Arab conqueror, because of his conduct.
In more recent times, millions of Jews, hunted like animals across Europe, found refuge in the Ottoman empire. For decades Turkey was the only Muslim country that enjoyed full diplomatic and close economic-military ties with Israel. All this is part of Islam’s rich history, no matter what Orientalists like Bernard Lewis choose to believe.
This is why it’s sad to see minorities increasingly insecure today in a country that was meant to be a model Muslim state. An 11-year old, illiterate rag picker finds herself behind the bars on blasphemy charges. Rimsha Masih is accused of burning the pages of Holy Qur’an — some say she burned the pages of Noorani Qaida, a beginner’s guide to the Holly Book — with other stuff on a garbage dump.
What makes this worse is the fact that Rimsha suffers from Down’s syndrome and doesn’t always know what she’s doing. While her impoverished family and other relatives have fled their homes in Islamabad slums fearing reprisals, the ever-ready rabble-rousers of various outfits have taken to the streets demanding “justice” under the anti-blasphemy law.
Of course, it’s not the first time that the law is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Since the British era law was reintroduced under President Ziaul Haq, there has been a rampant abuse of the law by people looking to settle personal scores. While Christians are a tempting target, more than half of those tried under the law happen to be Muslims! No wonder rights groups have been clamoring for repealing or revising the law. The problem isn’t in the law though; it’s in its abuse.
Besides, this is a symptom of a deeper malaise, not the disease itself. It’s a manifestation of the general breakdown of national institutions and the long years of abuse of power by the elites. And the first victims of the society’s decay and erosion are its most vulnerable sections.
The Hindus living in Sindh and elsewhere for centuries are leaving in droves for the comforting security of a predominantly Hindu India. It’s only understandable considering the growing cases of abductions and forced marriages of Hindu girls with Muslims who clearly think this is some kind of jihad and the shortest route to paradise. With defenders of faith like these, do Pakistan and Islam really need any more enemies?
Minorities aren’t the only victims of this growing sickness. The intolerance of various Islamic sects and schools for each other has crossed all limits with everyone throwing everyone else out of Islam and lusting for their blood. Is this what Pakistan’s founding fathers had in mind when they fought for a Muslim homeland?
In his address to the Constituent Assembly on Aug. 11, 1947, Mohammed Ali Jinnah repeatedly calls for an inclusive and pluralistic Pakistan.
“Every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his color, caste or creed, is first, second, and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations,” emphasized the man often panned for breaking up India. “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or 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.”
Jinnah’s dream needs to be rescued and rediscovered. And only people of Pakistan can do it. Extremism has emerged as a clear and present danger to the South Asian nation. The reasonable, peace-loving majority must speak up and act against the lunatic fringe that claims to speak on their behalf before it’s too late.
-
- Aijaz Zaka Syed is a widely published writer.
The insinuation suggesting Indian Muslims are somehow accountable for Pakistan would have normally rankled me. However, these are anything but normal times. I’ve myself been deeply saddened by the recent events in the South Asian country. Indeed, the faithful everywhere, including those in Pakistan, are repelled by the crimes being carried out in the name of their sweet faith.
What do I tell my friend? How do you defend the indefensible? How can anyone ever justify the cold blooded killing of fellow Muslims, heading home for Eid, in the blessed month of Ramadan? This at a time when the Muslims around the world were protesting against the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
This at a time when Muslim leaders were meeting in the shadow of the Holy Kaaba to celebrate the unity of the Ummah. International media noted with interest how Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat next to each other at the special OIC summit in Makkah and were often seen talking and laughing together.
It was supposed to send out a message of Islamic solidarity and brotherhood to the world. It has been business as usual though in the killing fields of Syria and Somalia and Pakistan and Afghanistan. The killer clique in Damascus is determined to outdo the savagery and bestiality of the Mongol hordes a millennium ago.
If people peacefully going about their business, as those heading home to Gilgit had been, were isolated on the basis of their sect and gunned down in Pakistan, in Afghanistan our Taleban friends have added another feather to their cap by slaying a group of men and women on the way, allegedly, to a “mixed” party. All this of course was ostensibly for the cause of Islam. The killers of Gilgit passengers carried out their valiant act amid chants of “God is Great”!
This isn’t the first such incident of course. From bombing mosques to targeting religious processions, the game is all too familiar. Sectarian and ethnic killings have become a daily routine in Karachi, once Pakistan’s most vibrant and cosmopolitan city.
The Taleban’s swift, vigilante justice was again in the name of Shariah, just as most of their actions have been — from gunning down a defenseless woman on the suspicion of an affair to poisoning and persecution of school-going girls. What kind of Islam are we preaching to the world? Is this what the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us? In the long history of Islam, there’s not a single incident that can be cited to justify the madness that is on the march in the name of religion today.
There was a time when minorities and other vulnerable sections turned to Muslims for protection. From Salahuddin’s (Saladin the Great) intervention in Palestine putting an end to the genocide of Jews at the hands of the Crusaders to the protection of Christians and Hindus in the far corners of the Muslim empire, we have had a long history of genuine religious tolerance.
When Jerusalem fell and Sayyidna Omar visited the holy city, Patriarch Sophronius, was so moved by the conduct of the victors that he invited the great Caliph to pray inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The leader of the faithful however declined, fearing it might lead to Muslim claims over the temple. Instead he chose another site to pray where Masjid-e-Omar stands today. Sindh’s Hindus loved Mohammed bin Qasim, the first Arab conqueror, because of his conduct.
In more recent times, millions of Jews, hunted like animals across Europe, found refuge in the Ottoman empire. For decades Turkey was the only Muslim country that enjoyed full diplomatic and close economic-military ties with Israel. All this is part of Islam’s rich history, no matter what Orientalists like Bernard Lewis choose to believe.
This is why it’s sad to see minorities increasingly insecure today in a country that was meant to be a model Muslim state. An 11-year old, illiterate rag picker finds herself behind the bars on blasphemy charges. Rimsha Masih is accused of burning the pages of Holy Qur’an — some say she burned the pages of Noorani Qaida, a beginner’s guide to the Holly Book — with other stuff on a garbage dump.
What makes this worse is the fact that Rimsha suffers from Down’s syndrome and doesn’t always know what she’s doing. While her impoverished family and other relatives have fled their homes in Islamabad slums fearing reprisals, the ever-ready rabble-rousers of various outfits have taken to the streets demanding “justice” under the anti-blasphemy law.
Of course, it’s not the first time that the law is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Since the British era law was reintroduced under President Ziaul Haq, there has been a rampant abuse of the law by people looking to settle personal scores. While Christians are a tempting target, more than half of those tried under the law happen to be Muslims! No wonder rights groups have been clamoring for repealing or revising the law. The problem isn’t in the law though; it’s in its abuse.
Besides, this is a symptom of a deeper malaise, not the disease itself. It’s a manifestation of the general breakdown of national institutions and the long years of abuse of power by the elites. And the first victims of the society’s decay and erosion are its most vulnerable sections.
The Hindus living in Sindh and elsewhere for centuries are leaving in droves for the comforting security of a predominantly Hindu India. It’s only understandable considering the growing cases of abductions and forced marriages of Hindu girls with Muslims who clearly think this is some kind of jihad and the shortest route to paradise. With defenders of faith like these, do Pakistan and Islam really need any more enemies?
Minorities aren’t the only victims of this growing sickness. The intolerance of various Islamic sects and schools for each other has crossed all limits with everyone throwing everyone else out of Islam and lusting for their blood. Is this what Pakistan’s founding fathers had in mind when they fought for a Muslim homeland?
In his address to the Constituent Assembly on Aug. 11, 1947, Mohammed Ali Jinnah repeatedly calls for an inclusive and pluralistic Pakistan.
“Every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his color, caste or creed, is first, second, and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations,” emphasized the man often panned for breaking up India. “You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or 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.”
Jinnah’s dream needs to be rescued and rediscovered. And only people of Pakistan can do it. Extremism has emerged as a clear and present danger to the South Asian nation. The reasonable, peace-loving majority must speak up and act against the lunatic fringe that claims to speak on their behalf before it’s too late.
-
- Aijaz Zaka Syed is a widely published writer.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment