Where life is not sacred

Pakistan has lost more than 80,000 people in the war against terror. The country’s top intelligence agencies and the security establishment along with the Saudi-CIA coalition are to be blamed for this. Their not so savvy strategic maneuvers have failed and rather resulted in creating the monsters that now kill left, right and centre. But killings do not have an effect on this region as much as the thought of glory does.

You can sell the idea of ‘glory in death’ to the people of this region very easily since they grow up on the Greek Hero cult. From teaching children how those who are killed in battle are never really dead to conditioning women into believing they will have a better life in hereafter if they forget they are alive human beings, we thrive on the death of humans, their dreams, aspirations, and thinking ability. Our politics too is played on dead bodies. A better political party has more ‘martyrs’ and not many good living politicians. We have replaced the Greek hero with the word ‘shaheed’ (martyr).

Death is the other name of our religion. If you are Muslim, you must decide which kind to get the permission to live and then die to get access to the royal suite. If you are not Muslim, forget your basic human right to live, let alone live with dignity. It all boils down to living as a Muslim and dying while trying to make sure others are Muslim too.

This is the reason why, even though thousands of people are dead in this country, and many continue to lose their lives on a daily basis, we are not bothered. Those who die are either the bad people like Shias, Ahmedis, Christians, or Hindus, or the good people like Deobandis, Salafis, and other Sunnis. The bad people are of course dispensable being sub-human and the good people are the exalted ones, the eternal ones, the immortal shaheeds.

Lack of respect for the existence of life on earth and desire for the never-seen, never-proven next life is responsible for chaos in most of the countries where the religion of peace is sacrosanct, and Pakistan is no exception. It is why millions of people flee from the regions where this religion is sponsored by the state. But it seems that the roundness of earth is catching up with this escape route as well.

Fighters of the religion of martyrdom are now making life unsacred even in the bowels of secure zones. They are leaving no place to run. Their desire for glorious death is all consuming. From 80,000 Pakistanis, to 250,000 Syrians, their appetite for blood is insatiable. They want to kill, and will continue to kill unless those who follow the same death cult, do not start loving life on this planet.

For that, we need a rigorous rehabilitation process, since abandoning the drug of glory will not come easy.

As a starter, instead of cherry picking, they need to stop reading the parts in their book that sanction death to the infidels, maybe the need is to even eliminate such writings, or add them to the list of redundant verses. Their barbaric literalism needs to be caricatured perhaps a lot more than it is done now. Hopefully though not at the cost of a few more lives in places like the ******* ***** office.

Pakistani ‘inquisition’ aka blasphemy law

The chapter about witch-hunting and the inquisition in Christianity is not looked upon in a favourable light, and currently Pakistan is going through the same because of the blasphemy law. Around 1400 years after Christianity's inception, Christians established the Roman Inquisition, which was responsible for persecuting individuals for a variety of crimes related to heresy, witchcraft, sorcery, immorality, sodomy, blasphemy as well as censorship of printed literature systematically. They indulged in witch-hunts on a grand scale, punishing, even killing thousands of individuals, especially women until the late 1700s. Several other such tribunals, like the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition was also established to maintain and ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Christianity. These measures were undertaken to promote only one brand of Christianity, which ensured a bigger clientele for the Catholic Church while maintaining a constant flow of funds. If one compares that era with current day Islam, there is not much of a difference.

Since the ancient Greco-Romans to the Roman Catholic Church, inquisitions have been used by the State and people themselves to sort out personal vendettas, settle property feuds, and for censorship. Countless people have settled their scores under these laws and practices. The blasphemy law in Pakistan is just like a witch-hunt on many levels, starting with vigilantes, moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching. In more than 90 percent cases, the true reason for persecution under all of these allegations has hardly ever been religion itself. The easiest excuse is religion, since instigating blind rage and hatred is easy when religion is involved. Therefore, mob reactions can be ignited by merely pointing a finger at someone who owns a prime piece of land, has intentions to marry your daughter, has had one better over you or simply because you do not like them.

The inquisition gave the Church limitless power to expand its jurisdiction and to control and confiscate property at will. Decrees were announced accusing a person of heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft or whatever took their fancy, automatically allowing ownership of property to the Church. It seems the military dictator Ziaul Haq was inspired by the expansionism of the Catholic Church and therefore added Article 295-c and b which further marginalised the minorities in the country. This also gave the state a right to purge any and every thing, written or otherwise, which was deemed dangerous or perhaps in reality too enlightening for the masses.

For the past 34 years the Pakistani society has evolved within the parameters set by Zia’s regime. At least two generations were brainwashed into accepting the mutilated laws as the final words of God himself. The brutal murder of the unarmed governor of Punjab Salman Taseer for speaking out against the victimisation of a Christian Woman, imprisonment of a 17 year old student, lynching of a woman by a mob, implicating a child with downs syndrome in a 'false blasphemy' case and countless other such acts are a testament to Zia’s legacy embalmed in writing within the laws of Pakistan.

People commit horrific crimes and disrespect laws created for their protection just because of the frenzied way they have been made to understand religion. It is time to educate and spread awareness among the charged and constantly bifurcating society. The people together need to delve down into the history of blasphemy collectively and decide for themselves whether the laws should stay or not. For this, they need to be more open minded and clearly differentiate religious practice from suppressing human rights, to purging intellectual or economic growth. Otherwise 1400 AH will remain filled with tragedy, death and disease, just as the 14th century was for the Europeans.