Pakistan: Land of the Pure or the Intolerant?

Pakistan has been in the forefront of the news for quite some time, and very rarely is it for a good reason. The name Pakistan means "land of the pure," but one would have a hard time believing that considering how it has become a veritable breeding ground for terrorists and religious-based persecution. Its government has succumbed to hard-line clerics who exploit their faith for power and control and exert this power through incredibly violent and un-Islamic means.

On Sunday, April 3, the latest in a long history of violence and intolerance occurred in Pakistan. Two suicide bombers attacked hundreds of worshipers gathered at a Sufi shrine in the Dera Ghazi Khan district of Pakistan's Punjab province. It is being reported that 49 people were killed and at least 90 more were injured. The explosions struck near the Sakhi Sarwar shrine as Sufi devotees gathered for an annual three-day festival. This is the third such attack on Sufi shrines in the past year.

Pakistan has become notorious for sectarian terror attacks against religious communities, including the Sufis, Shiite Muslims, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Christians. The Shiite Muslim community has faced several targeted attacks: at least 43 were killed in the South-Western city of Quetta during a Shia procession in September of 2010.

In May of 2010, a coordinated attack against the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Lahore resulted in 86 dead. Armed militants simultaneously stormed into two Ahmadiyya Muslim Community mosques with automatic weapons, grenades and other explosives and opened fire on innocent worshippers during their weekly Friday Prayer service. No arrests have been made.

Christians in Pakistan have often been accused of blasphemy and face intense persecution. Through Pakistan's infamous anti-blasphemy laws, extremist clerics persecute Christians by accusing them of saying or doing something that insults Islam. More than 650 Christians have been prosecuted in Pakistan for blasphemy.

Pakistan and Indonesia are among the only countries in the world that prosecute and persecute their own citizens for what they call "blasphemy." Under the Pakistani Penal Code, any person found guilty of blasphemy is subject to either the death penalty or life imprisonment. The actual law states, "Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine."

Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law is fodder for extremist and terrorist organizations to target religious communities. This is a political abuse of religion, and when voices of reason arise in Pakistan, they are quickly shot down. Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, outspoken critic of religious extremism, had the decency and courage to speak against the barbaric blasphemy laws, and he was shot dead by his own bodyguard for doing so. Sadly, instead of seeing public condemnation and uproar over the Governor's assassination, we saw thousands of Pakistanis shower rose petals on his assassin. What an incredibly sad display.

Less than two months later, Pakistan's Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, was shot dead in broad daylight. As the nation's only Christian Minister, Bhatti publicly challenged the anti-blasphemy laws and sought more rights for the minority Christians.

As members of an Islamic state, do the perpetrators of all this violence not see they are breaking the commandments of the Holy Quran? Chapter five of the Quran clearly instructs Muslims that whoever kills a person, it shall be as if they had killed all of mankind. Reverence for life is an essential tenet of Islam, regardless of that life's religion.

As a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, I openly condemn all such acts of violence. Islam does not support people who turn to violence to censor free speech or protect their faith. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech on at least four occasions, teaching Muslims to respond to people who criticize their faith by simply asking for proof of their claim. The Quran forbids compulsion in thought and forbids retaliation in any form if one insults our faith, explaining that a Muslim's only option is to simply "turn away from them" or "sit not with them." No violence, anger or aggression is tolerated.

It is time for the government and people of Pakistan to stop relying on violence to achieve their goals. If Pakistan insists on calling itself an Islamic Republic, perhaps it is time for it to finally live up to the ideals of Islam. If it wants to earn its name as the "land of the pure," it must begin by ridding itself of the contaminated element of its society. Terrorists and violent extremists must be brought to justice, and their power must be removed. It is time to become a government of the people, for the people.

This Op-Ed originally appeared on Aslan Media on April 14.

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Comments

[SoldAmerican]

01:37 PM on 05/16/2011

Either way, Pakistan is terror central!

[Safiya Malik]

12:16 PM on 05/12/2011

When one looks at Pakistan it´s clear that vilifying India, America, and Israel has provided the boogiemen to hold a fractured country together. Unlike its' neighbour Afghanistan -which has less tolerance for other religions and has sentenced at least two apostates to die- Pakistan has huge cities with many well educated inhabitants. Those ¨elites¨ often manipulate the masses by redirecting their anger elsewhere. Blasphemy laws direct the fury at minorities and distracts from obvious corruption and exploitation. Eventually these ´controlled explosions´ become too unwieldy to contain.
Pakistan like many other countries and institutions have to stop deluding themselves and charter a new course. Scapegoating and rousing the rabble is a useful in war perhaps, but perpetually being in a state of war is suicide. Remain Calm and Carry on has been replaced by Obliterate evil before it destroys our way of life. After a while that violence has to be exported so the whole region doesn´t explode. Lashkar-e-Taiba is already going international but instead of solving problems they will provoke what ends up gravely harming Muslims worldwide. These are no longer the dark ages where people were killed solely for being Muslim. If offensive jihad isn´t left in the past then even modern Muslims will be viewed as mortal threats. Basta...it´s wrong and apparently a losing strategy, so PLEASE try something that will work over time! You aren´t sacrificing the Ummah for the greater good, but destroying the remaining good that Allah has bestowed upon mankind.

[Zubair Ahmed Hayat]

07:27 PM on 05/11/2011

I agree with Harris Zafar's statements and the world is witness to the decline and terrible fate of Pakistan and its diplomats. However, at the conception of Pakistan the founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his cabinet's views on it's citizens were in stark contrast to the views held by the government today. This is the cause of their downfall and we pray that they return to the views if their founding forefathers. As an Ahmadi Muslim from across the pond I can say with certainty that us Ahmadis knew that Pakistan would end in a similar situation to Afghanistan and Iraq, that is a sad but true cosequence of their actions.

Now the world has caught up and Pakistan is under suspicion for harbouring and protecting terrorists as well as have corrupt leaders and laws. Which once was a land of peace is now a land at war with its own citizens.

Read my article on the situation in Pakistan: Land of the Pure becomes Land of the Terrorist

www.ahmadiyya-post.blogspot.com

[Pranav1941]

02:48 AM on 05/11/2011

Maulama Azad was a great Indian freedom fighter and on indepenedence, he became the central minister for education. He listed the folloiinf problem that Pakistan will face at a later date. Itwas in 1950.

1. The incompetent political leadership will pave the way for military dictatorship as it has happened in many Muslim countries.

2. The heavy burden of foreign debt.

3. Absence of friendly relationship with neighbours and the possibility of armed conflict.

4. Internal unrest and regional conflicts.

5. The loot of national wealth by the neo-rich and industrialists of Pakistan.

6. The apprehension of class war as a result of exploitation by the neo-rich.

7. The dissatisfaction and alienation of the youth from religion and the collapse of the theory of Pakistan.

8. The conspiracies of the international powers to control Pakistan.

All the muslim countries will have some or all the above conditions. Doug should explain.

[sandalwood]

11:47 PM on 05/10/2011

One of the most hateful and disturbing things I ever came across was the case of Dr. Abdus Salam, the Pakistani Ahmadi Muslim who was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for unifying the Electromagnetic and the Weak forces (awarded along with Dr. Steven Weinberg).

Upon his death Dr. Salam was buried in his homeland, but some time later, once the Pakistani PM Bhutto had legally declared that Ahmadi Muslims were not Muslims, the authorities had the temerity to dishonour this genius son of Pakistan by removing the word "Muslim" from his tombstone. This, for me paints a picture of where Pakistan is today with the issue of religious intolerance/hatred. Hatred consumes those who let it live within them, and Pakistan is showing all the signs of that.

A picture of the defaced tombstone is here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grave_of_Abdus_Salam.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam

[Harris Zafar]

03:08 PM on 05/11/2011

You are absolutely right this deplorable act exemplifies the mentality that has infected the government of Pakistan. They do not focus on justice. They focus on appeasing the hardline militant leaders who use force and intimidation to spread their hate-filled ideology.

[iflew]

04:57 PM on 05/10/2011

Religion as taught by some leaders seems to generate strong feelings. Strong feelings generate Intolerance. It is not unique among Muslims.

A few years back a Bishop visited a Priest of a small Parish. When he arrived he approved of the Priest who was burning Bibles writen in the local tongue.

The Priest noticed the Bishop observing. He greeted the Bishop, and said,"If I knew you were coming I would have burned an author, and then we could have had some Moores." (Somemores).

[TaoistG]

04:22 PM on 05/10/2011

unfortunately, the Quran is rife with contradiction; injuctions to kill infidels/pagans/nonbelievers are numerous, as well as the example of Muhammad's own life, marked by numerous acts of terror and violence against the locals of his day. No matter how you look at it, there is no clear message of peace in the Quran. The culture of Islam was begun in violence, and has remained a culture of violence towards women and non-conformists (non-believers) ever since; one can easily argue that Islam only spread through violence, taking lands by warfare and forcefully converting all inhabitants upon threat of slavery or death. While there are some exceptions to this, it is historical fact. do some research.

[SoldAmerican]

03:30 PM on 05/10/2011

Pakistan is giving all Muslims the world over a bad name! Its time for the Muslims world to ostracize Pakistan.