Kill, in the name of religion
According to a recent news report, an organisation called All-Pakistan Students Khatam-e-Nabuwwat is disseminating pamphlets declaring Ahmadis as wajibul qatl (liable to be murdered) for their religious beliefs. The local police authorities, in their usual style, have swept the issue under the carpet. Pakistan is a boiling pot of sectarian strife. A history of hate Sectarian discord escalated in the 1980s and Pakistan became a proxy battle ground for the Sunni and Shia organisations, heavily funded by Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively. However, the history of sectarian violence in Pakistan goes back to the days of its inception. 1953: When Pakistan was still trying to ...
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Shame on us Muslims
I write this for one reason and one reason only. To say sorry for the shameful statement by Kuwaiti leader Salwa al Mutairi, for her suggestion that the purchase of female prisoners as sex slaves be legalized. “Go and buy those and sell them here in Kuwait. Better than to have our men engage in forbidden sexual relations” Her words have not only put the entire Muslim world to shame and deplorable pits of hatred but has reinforced the wrong perception held by the rest of the world that we, the Muslims are nothing but barbarians. This myopic, narrow minded and shallow ...
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An open letter to the Chief Justice, from a granddaughter
Did you know your grandfather Mr Chief Justice? I knew mine rather well for a man with 21 grandchildren. His name was Nasir Ahmed Chaudhry. He lived to be 90-years-old and was a retired Major-General. He was killed on May 28, 2010 in the attack on the Model Town Ahmadi “place of worship” – first wounded by a grenade and then shot repeatedly by a terrorist. These are the facts; you can read them in any number of newspaper articles. Let me tell you what the papers don’t know. My nana used to pick me up from kindergarten while I lived in ...
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Music = vulgarity?
Conservative elements have always spoken against music. I remember the introduction of music classes at Punjab University stirred up a storm among the Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT). The IJT also threatened to “physically resist” music classes on campus. It was heart wrenching to see them marching hand in hand to condemn art. What would life be without music? It is a reminder of how things once were, an indication of how things are, and a view of where society is headed. Music is being successfully taught at some colleges including Kinnaird College, where I am one of the students studying Indian Classical Music. ...
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Mideast peace process: Hampered throughout history
The Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal that concluded on April 27, 2011, was a good omen for the stalled Palestine peace process. Both factions displayed commitment to resolve the outstanding issues and reached an agreement on forming an interim government for holding of legislative and presidential elections. But the news of the resignation of George Mitchell as US Envoy in Middle East dashed the hopes of any progress on the peace front. Mitchell enjoyed the reputation of being a “tireless advocate” of peace, but his extraordinary skills failed in the face of Israeli obduracy. A few days ago, US President Barrack ...
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Manal al-Sharif: The caged bird also sings
“It is not a revolution, it is not a plot, it is not a gathering and it is not a protest — we are only requesting to drive our cars.” The above message was posted on one of the many groups which have sprouted on Facebook supporting Manal al-Sharif’s brave initiative. An IT security consultant at ARAMCO, the biggest oil company in Saudi Arabia, Manal al-Sharif is a brilliant, sophisticated woman asking for something that should have been a given: driving her own car. The House of Saud Saudi Arabia has largely been immune to the revolutions sweeping the region. The discontented Shia minority in ...
Read Full PostLet’s talk about sex – II
Sex education has always been a point of conflict between public educators and conservative religious groups. In my last post, the purpose of highlighting the hypocrisy, double standards and bigotry in our country by focusing our attention to red light area and vulgar stage shows was not directed towards a connection between this and sex education. The only thing which I want us to ask ourselves is: Why are we hushing something that is important for our well being and confusing it with religion, morality and vague notions? It seems that misconstrued ‘religious’ rhetoric has proved to be an effective tool in ...
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Muslim champions: A gold medal for ‘ghairat’
When the excited lot at Times Square was celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, we in Pakistan were in a state of absolute shock and bewilderment. Like an uninvited guest at a party who’s been asked to say a few words on stage, we had no clue how to react. Why we didn’t celebrate A large fraction in the West expected us to celebrate the death of Bin Laden like New Yorkers. A friend in India tweeted that the moderate Pakistanis should come out of their houses to show their contentment on the death of the Saudi businessman turned al ...
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A question of religion
A furore was recently raised in the United Kingdom (UK) over the voluntary religion question in the 2011 census. Humanists and secularists attacked it for being ‘fatally flawed’ because the information, according to them, can be used to influence public policy and services. For anyone living in Pakistan the outcry might seem a smidgen over the top, given the country’s strident penchant for religiously determined identity systems. Here almost every conceivable form or questionnaire comes replete with a doctrinal question. For example, anyone wanting a passport has to first declare their faith of preference. Need an ID card? Then identify yourself ...
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Confessions of a ‘heretic’
It was like a nightmare. Dark shadows, mysterious phone calls, dreaming of death -there should have been a reason for all of this, but there was none. I had been declared an accursed heretic. I could feel them chasing me down, chopping me into pieces and celebrating wildly afterwards. I could sense the happiness they would gain from spilling my blood. The days were getting darker. I was alive but there was a deadly silence around me. Suddenly, my friends had stopped talking to me and so called ‘moderate’ art teachers started discriminating against me. My once ‘liberal’ social ...
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