Dawn – The drastic decline of Pakistani minorities

Faiza Mirza, Reporter at Dawn.com

Saturday 28 July 2012. It is fairly true that some people just do not learn the lessons. Maya Khan, the unprecedented queen of controversial morning shows, quite evidently remains one of them. Whether we talk about her endless stream of crocodile tears shed during the live transmission of her shows or her posse of women running after young couples, Khan certainly knows how to stir up sensation and ratchet ratings.

Khan, popularly known for running after people in the parks, was sacked after a social media campaign was launched against her. However, she was hired by another private TV channel soon for her sensationalism and controversies.

Her recent escapade, which involved converting a Hindu boy on live television, has angered many people. The show revolved around the ritual of conversion and people calling in to congratulate Khan, her team and Sunil, who was later, renamed Muhammad Abdullah.

When asked what motivated him to accept Islam, Sunil responded incoherently about his intentions. Most of his responses revolved around praising Sarim Burney Trust, where he works and supposedly received the courage to change his religion.

I am truly ashamed to have witnessed such a hideous mockery of the two religions. I am appalled to be a part of a society which hails such unjust and unethical practises and deeply saddened to know that minorities are blatantly marginalised on live television while the silent majority lives in denial.

It was ironical to see that not a single caller objected to this ridiculing of religions or safeguarding the rights of minorities living in Pakistan. I am positively sure that at this rate minorities will cease to exist in Pakistan.

It is rather disappointing to see that people such as Khan and Shahid Masood who are best known for gaining popularity through such shoddy tactics are being followed around like deities.

Amazingly, most of us fail to understand that spirituality and religion are matters of personal choices. Advertising and exhibiting religion is neither permissible in Islam nor is recommended by the ethical parameters of any progressive society.

The bombardment of Ramazan transmissions featuring religious clerics, public and pseudo-religious scholars-cum-hosts that aim to question and reinforce the concept of faith, are nothing but promotional stunts to fool the public.

When will we learn? Why cannot we see that the only chance of our survival lies in tolerance and coexistence? Why cannot we respect other religions the way we honour Islam? How can a person who disrespects one religion, honour another?

The forced conversions and abductions of non-Muslims living in Pakistan are hushed-up whereas ‘victories’ such as the one we witnessed this week are publicised on national television, further intimidating and isolating minorities.

We talk about atrocities carried out in Indian Kashmir and the Gujrat riots but forget about the minorities who are living in constant fear of their lives, legacies and children. Khan’s show depicted the true picture of people because of whom the non-Muslims population in Pakistan is declining drastically.

Whether the conversion was forced or willful remains arguable, however, we all know how Pakistanis would have responded if a Muslim would have been converted on live television. The ensuing catharsis would have engulfed the entire country in a raging fire; however, the minimal reaction this episode has received just proves that we are a failed society.

Equally if not more, Pakistan’s media ethics are also to be questioned. The code of conduct which is found missing in most of the cases is one of the main reasons why such grotesque shows are approved for broadcast.

Who has given electronic media the right to disseminate such negative propaganda about religion? Is it not more important to address issues related to the suppressed minorities of Pakistan and broadcast messages of peace in harmony during Ramazan?

It is important to understand that unless we learn to live in mutual harmony, we will continue to suffer. The silent majority must rise and reprimand such media houses, producers and anchorpersons who entice masses to laud such medieval practises.

We saw a revolution on social media after Khan’s “chasing couples in park” fiasco and we must continue to raise our voice.

The change will take time; however, it will also only be brought about by you.

http://dawn.com/2012/07/28/the-drastic-decline-of-the-pakistani-minority/

Dawn Blog – Justice, samosas and the ostrich

Shyema Sajjad, Deputy Editor at Dawn.com

Friday 27 July 2012. The Punjab Government’s creativity and wisdom has tackled some great issues recently – some quite crucial too; the samosa and the ostrich for example. Stuck at home without electricity and water for hours and hours, there seems to be no solace for Punjab residents – especially not after the two recent developments that have probably added manifolds to the ongoing misery. Much to our dismay, it has been decided that the ostrich is no longer classified as a bird and samosas will no longer be a cheap snack.

I am sure if given a chance, the Sindh government would like to make such important decisions and announcements as well  however, between the law and order situation and calling for the Ajrak and Topi day – it hasn’t been able to get down to the stuff that really matters – ostriches and samosas.

Coming back to Punjab and before jumping into the frying pan, a minute here for the poor ostrich that was voted upon by the Punjab Assembly as NOT being a bird anymore and instead being classified as an animal. This move will now facilitate the import, farming and slaughter of ostriches for their meat – Punjabis already have such a diverse and rich cuisine, did ostrich meat really needed to be added to the list?

And speaking of cuisine, forget about taxing the elite or taking action on the food hoarders who can actually make a difference to the economy and food availability, the provincial government knew the devil is in the details and therefore in 2009 the Lahore local government had fixed the price of the samosa at Rs.6 per piece. The authorities had also taken action against some shopkeepers found to be selling more expensive samosas – if only action was also promptly taken against criminals as well but perhaps that may not be as urgent since samosa parties are more common to the general public than say, thefts…

But it seems as if the Supreme Court had even better intentions for the Punjabis at heart, when it decided to set aside this notification regarding the price control. Now why would the Supreme Court actually take the time out for the samosa ruling is anybody’s guess. Was the Supreme Court worried about Punjab’s nutrition? Perhaps – one could go overboard consuming those deep-fried triangles if set at such a cheap price!

Or was it so tired of the monotonous prime minister rulings, that it needed to spice things up a bit? I got some further insight into the matter after reading the discussion on this pertaining resolution… but it was rather sad to read the comment that stated: “Samosa makers who got heard by the judiciary are luckier than Pakistani Shia Muslims who are facing genocide but go unnoticed by the hyperactive suo moto judiciary.”

And sensible were the comments that suggested letting the market control prices of such basic commodities: “Tomorrow they will fix the price of jelabis. Demand and supply should decide the price. Higher courts should fix higher problems such as corruption, killings, rapes, theft, fraud etc.”

One may not expect the Punjab Government to work in the interest of the masses anymore, but there remains a tiny ray of hope when it comes to the judiciary. One hopes that between the madness and monotony of the Swiss letter cases, our judiciary will eventually realise that there are families and institutions and individuals all waiting for justice. The day all minorities are safe in Pakistan and all missing people have returned, the judiciary is free to fiddle around with snack prices.

The day all street criminals are behind bars along with all corrupt government officials, the Supreme Court can mingle with the bakers of Lahore but until then, it needs to think about what matters more and prioritise its time and rulings accordingly.As for the Punjab Government – they can continue pondering over the animal classification chart and voting upon what should be in their plates next.

http://dawn.com/2012/07/27/justice-for-ostriches-and-samosas/

Dawn – The silent majority

by Sana Saleem
4 January, 2012

It was on this day last year, when a 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri killed the very man he was meant to protect. Twenty seven bullets to silence Salman Taseer and to make sure that the debate on misuse of blasphemy laws is shunned for good. It was this day last year that I realised that this might be the end of it all, the end of hope, the end for tolerance, the end of any show of courage, bravery or rational debate on the blasphemy laws or anything for that matter.

Some of us had already witnessed the vengeance before, the ‘either you are with us or against us’ mentality.  It was made to look like it was our word against God’s. We had witnessed people jubilant over murder too and witnessed the transition of a murderer to a martyr. The reactions that followed the attack on Ahmadi’s in Lahore were the first signs that humanity had stooped down and been reduced to convoluted assumptions of faith and piety.

In the past year, minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti was also gunned down outside his mother’s residence, silenced so he may never speak out against the injustices suffered by minorities again. While clerics, television anchors, columnists and even politicians sought to persuade us that Taseer had brought it upon himself, that anyone who dared to speak out against the blasphemy laws would suffer the same fate and that if they had the opportunity they would do the same.

Spectators that either choose to agree with the jubilant or nod their heads condemning the murder but justifying the reaction to ‘such sensitive matters’, all the same. Something had broken irreparably.

The few of us that were horrified and enraged took to the streets and protested. Knowing well that for every chant, every word, every argument we make there could be a Qadri waiting to gun us down, lynch us so we may never be able to question again. Not much has changed. But should that stop us?

Salmaan Taseer stood for tolerance and he was killed at the hands of extremism. Nothing justifies his murder, and anyone who does has blood on their hands. I do not expect things to change overnight; they will not go away anytime soon. But I choose not to give up hope, not to remain silent and to keep fighting back, even if it’s our words against their bullets.

I, like many others, take my courage from the Taseer’s. Shehrbano Taseer, who despite losing her Abba so suddenly and violently, stood defiant, courageous and composed. At a time when people should have showered her with words of comfort, she was battling with questions, the likes of which could pierce through the most strongest of souls: “How did you feel when your father’s murderer was showered with flowers? People refused to read his funeral prayers? His murderer is being turned in to a hero of sorts.”

She chose to reason, to educate the world that the hatred that killed her father hurts all of Pakistan. As these walls keep closing in on us, like Shehrbano Taseer, we have no other choice but to resist. We live in an irreparably broken society, and I don’t wish to deny the reality, but despite that we must continue to hope, because hope gives us what we otherwise would not have: a chance.

While the courageous amongst us are ridiculed, threatened and attacked we must continue to support and reason.

Silence is not an option, it never was.

Sana Saleem blogs at Global Voices, Asian Correspondent, The Guardian and her personal blog Mystified Justice. She recently won the Best Activist Blogger award by CIO & Google at the Pakistan Blogger Awards. She can be found on Facebook.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/04/the-silent-majority.html

Dawn Blog – The hypocrisy of misdirected faith

by Fahad Faruqui

22 October 2011. After reading the news that Saudi morality police — acting as “God’s agents” on earth to prevent sin — beat up a woman and a man accompanying her on suspicion of dating. I asked myself this question: what right do these “keepers-of-faith” have to rigorously impose Islamic morals on other people. The woman and man turned out to be relatives.

When the members of Haia realised their folly, they tried to hush up the Yanbu woman, who was accompanying her uncle for work in Medina, by paying for their hotel stay, SR 500 in cash, and mint leaves, with hopes that she would not lodge an official complaint.

The image of God’s men welding iron rods, exerting force on women and being afraid of an earthly complaint is all a bit odd when thinking of the Prophetic character. Do they really think they’re furthering God’s wishes on earth? If so, why does their lack of tact so contradict the manner of the last prophet who, through kindness, won the hearts of the rigid Meccans?

To answer my initial question, it is important to ponder upon what constitutes faith. Being a practicing Muslim man, who has experienced Muslim life in the United States, London, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Pakistan, I’m often driven to despair by the emphasis on outward appearance as opposed to one’s manners, morals and ethics.

“Why do you not keep a beard?,” I am often asked, whether I am at the Regents Park Mosque, in London, or the mosque on 96th Street and Lexington Avenue, in New York City. Some have more forcefully tried to convince me that it’s feminine to have a clean shave. “If you keep a beard, my heart will automatically draw toward you because you’ll be fulfilling a sunnah,” said a man, who hardly knew me, at the Columbia University prayer room that I frequented during my undergrad and graduate-school days. But it surprised me that the gentleman never bothered to actually get to know me; if he did, he would have found a man eager to lead an ethical and moral life and someone who was working toward bettering himself spiritually.

Over the years, I have taken heat from many Muslims for using prayer beads because it’s a “despicable innovation in Islam,” for getting a western-style haircut because “the prophet either kept long hair or shaved his head” (mind you, there were no scissors then), for wearing black because “it’s a color for women and men are supposed to wear white,” and for my interest in Sufism because “all those Sufis had gone astray” from the right path and some of them were “heretics.”

This is only a fraction of the list of things that others commanded that I address in order to be granted a place in heaven, in addition to finding myself an honorable wife who would keep me away from the “lure of women.”

If the true measure of faith for men is a four-finger beard and for women is to wear hijab miserly, covering every lock of their hair, then what about the prophet’s teaching: “The most excellent jihad is that for the conquest of self.”

Surely, Islam talks about modesty, but what is it? “Modesty is ultimately an awareness of both our sensual energy (our marvelous capacity for mischief) — and whence, also an awareness of our capacity for restraint (our awareness of limitations),” Abdallah Adhami, a prominent Muslim scholar explained. “Modesty in this sense is, therefore, inextricably linked to humility.”

So, what is humility? “Like modesty, humility begins in the heart, and inwardly, it is the most radiant manifestation of inner calm; outwardly, again like modestly, humility exudes dignity, poise and restraint,” the scholar noted.

Ah! So it starts from within.

I can dress modestly, but what good is it if I don’t restrain my glance when a woman passes by. What if I am only pretending not to look? I often hear that an unintentional glimpse of the opposite sex is forgiven, but I’ve seen glimpses that last for 60 seconds, jokes apart.

Forbidding the wrong and commanding the good with use of force will never generate the effect that inward stirrings of the faith would. One can force the other to read a religious text but it is unlikely that the person will drink deeply from the fountain of divine wisdom. The requisite factor for modesty, humility and piety is the intention and the will to change and progress.

Counseling is effective when the other is seeking counsel. With force you can create a social deviant, but not steer somebody toward religion. In response to a question on the mannerism of good counsel, Faraz Rabbani, a leading scholar of Islam, wrote: “Our age is an age where the Prophetic mercy, gentleness, gradualness, and wisdom need to predominate and condition any “promotion” of both virtue and law.”

The only plausible reason for the morality police — may they be government funded or otherwise — to intimidate devotees to follow their commands is that it takes less effort to tell other people to do something than it takes to do something yourself. There is a psychological benefit in the knowledge that they are fulfilling God’s wishes by preventing sin. And there is also an element of pride in being God’s agent.

It is easier to counsel others to keep a beard and to dress modestly than to counsel others on how to be a better human being. All you have to do is to pontificate for a few minutes, scare the other person with talk of hellfire or threaten them with an iron rod or just beat them up — after all, you’re only ensuring that they’re making headway to heaven (pun intended) — and you can feel the instant gratification from demonstrable change.

Conversely, for real change, one would have to take the pains to mold the other person in a way that would enable them to start thinking for themselves which, in affect, brings an inward change.

If you ask me, until you’re squared away on the bigger issues — manners, morals and ethics — don’t go out picking on the minor shortcomings of other people. We’re all works in progress. Live by example and inspire others to improve themselves.

Fahad Faruqui is a journalist, writer, and educator. Alumni Columbia University.

You can email him at fahad@caa.columbia.edu.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/22/the-hypocrisy-of-misdirected-faith.html

Dawn Blog – Blasphemy Law: Coming a full circle

by BushraS, 14 October 2011

It was bound to happen. When you have a vaguely worded law with so many loopholes, and a clergy hell bent on defining religion in asphyxiating, rigid boundaries, its supporters and enablers were bound to get scorched themselves. The law was eventually going to come and bite them in the back and that is exactly what happened two weeks ago.

According to the news story, a student of a religious seminary in Chakwal, Junaid Ahmad was arrested for being blasphemous. He was apparently seen burning pages of Quran a week ago, was beaten by a crowd and handed over to the police. Ironically, however, a shaken and frightened Junaid claimed that he was in reality disposing off Quran’s loose pages to save them from desecration.

The story behind Junaid’s action was simple enough. His teacher, who belongs to Tehrik Khuddam Ahl-i-Sunnat, had told him that burning Quranic pages was a legitimate way of disposing them along with putting them in flowing water (stream etc) and burying them. As he was unable to find the other two options, Junaid resorted to the third one. It was just his luck that the man who saw him as he set the pages on fire had heard from another cleric that burning the Quran amounted to desecrating it. What followed is an ominous reminder of sharply converging, and rigid, interpretations among various schools of religious thought.

Diversity, whether religious or cultural, is always a good thing. But here, this diversity of belief within sects and sub-sects is stamped with unflinching righteousness, intolerance, and violent knee-jerk reactions. Leaving the organised sectarianism between Shias and Sunnis aside, these widely varying interpretations in such an environment result in friction and veiled hatred towards other sects within one’s circle. In such a situation, incidents like the one in Chakwal are in reality a mere prelude to what can follow. One of the most obvious possibilities, while remaining within the ambit of law, is the misuse of the blasphemy law against those who are fanatically in favour of it.

This misuse has already started albeit it is infrequent at the moment. In January this year, an imam and his son from Dera Ghazi Khan were convicted for life for committing blasphemy. They were accused of ripping posters from outside their grocery shop which advertised an event to observe Eid Milad un Nabi (the birth and death anniversary of Prophet Muhammad). There was strong speculation that the issue was not of blasphemy but difference of belief. The Deobandi philosophy, to which the imam and his son prescribed, do not believe in commemorating such days. So where the incident might have simply been that of removing a poster from their personal property, it was forcefully catapulted in the sphere of intentional blasphemy.

The problem, boiled down to its essence, is this: In all this ritualistic madness, this manic obsession with the act rather than the intention behind it, these “men of faith” have lost the plot. And that is an under-statement. Here school girls are ostracised for misplacing a dot in a word. Doctors are locked up for throwing away a person’s visiting card who shared the prophet’s name. People are persecuted for greeting others in Arabic language. Supporters of blasphemy laws obsessively defend its need to deter people from taking the law in their own hands; but when a man defies this very logic and kills a sitting governor whom he had taken an oath to protect, they cheer and holler themselves hoarse in his support.

So far, most of the victims of these laws are minorities and those belonging to lower and lower-middle income groups.

But it won’t remain the same forever. With ferocious intolerance being allowed to breed unchecked in our country, it was only a matter of time before the factions started using this law to target religious rivals at will.

Right now a broad spectrum of religious right is united in its defence of murderer Mumtaz Qadri. Their slogans, demonstrative of their tunnel-minded support for his actions, should be deafening alarm bells for the rest of us.

It is a matter of time before these stout believers, momentarily united in their hate against “liberal fascists”, turn on each other. With such varied interpretations of religion, how will the courts interpret criteria of blasphemy? Will they take the easiest way out and just continue sentencing people in the hope the High Courts will correct the injustice? Will these cowardly actions really serve as a long-term pre-emptive solution or will the religious factions soon interlock horns?

If there is a legal or public showdown between people of different beliefs, the result will be more bloody, brutal and long drawn out than we can imagine. With all sides equally sure of their virtue and willing to die or kill for it, there might not be anyone standing at the end.

On a sardonic note, that will work out just right for the rest of the country.

Bushra S is an editor based in Lahore.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/14/blasphemy-law-coming-a-full-circle.html

Dawn Blog – Beneath the burqa

Anum Pasha

4 October 2011

The burqa, a garment which needs no introduction has been a bone to chew on for many. After the infamous burqa ban, France shunned the idea of Muslims praying on her streets in April. France is home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, but the idea is obviously to bring back ‘French-ness’ to its cities. On Thursday, France first fined two veiled women ‘guilty’ of covering up. Netherlands is also now set to follow suit in proposing a ban on the burqa.

In Bollywood, all hell broke loose recently when a scriptwriter incorporated the burqa for a female character to wear by choice. Consequently, the studio executive responded, “You have to understand – you can’t just show people wearing a burqa in Bollywood movies by choice. Either you have to be a conservative woman who wants to blow up all of United States and who doesn’t let her children go to school or you have to use it in a situation where the lead actor gets stuck in a jam and needs to escape without being seen by anyone.” To this, scriptwriter Indra Kumar said, “Look I believe in realism in scripts. Now this woman thought the burqa was a tool of empowerment so I wrote it. There are many such women in the world.”

Pakistani comedian Saad Haroon’s attempt at making Pakistanis laugh is Burqa Woman, a parody of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman, already reaching nearly 200,000 hits on Youtube as he sings, “Burqa woman, I love you still…come on and give me a thrill…show me your left nostril.” The video features a young man wooing a burqa-clad woman, coaxing her with words, “my desi penguin” and continuing that he will “go home and practice with his living room curtain.” It appears as if the comedian put some deep thought into the idea. Consider: The Persian word ‘Purdah’ as we know it well means ‘curtain’.

When I first saw the video, I couldn’t help being in awe of Haroon’s bold sense of creative genius and attempt at loosening the noose around the globally-debated burqa, but what about the hundreds and thousands of Muslim women who have taken serious offense to the comedian’s laughing gas? Statistics show that the burgeoning popularity of the burqa has increased from 10 to 30 per cent in the Indian state Kerala and the burqa has become a fashion statement in Bhopal.

Britain’s Immigration Minister Damian Green has stated that the British government should not seek to ban the burqa for a “tolerant and mutually respectful society,” a Spanish court has recently suspended the burqa ban and finally, Amsterdam’s Chief of Police Bernard Welson announced that if the burqa ban would be enforced, he would practice civil disobedience.

According to a new research conducted by the Pew Research Center, Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as the world’s most populous Muslim state and the number of Muslims in the United States will double from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million by 2030.

Giving all due respect to Burqa Woman’s legitimate cause of making Pakistanis laugh and offering comic relief in the face of assassinations, natural disasters, routine bombings, lynching, rising corruption, incompetent governance and skyrocketing poverty and unemployment among a myriad of other problems, I sense that Saad Haroon’s cultural and social insensitivity towards the burqa is very obvious here.

I don’t wear it – or even propagate the burqa culture within my surroundings, but I worry how brass humor can possibly offend those Muslim women who do. Having said that, the question of freedom of expression brings us at a crossroads as the Pakistani constitution clearly encourages a sense of restriction as far as religious sensitivities are concerned.

With Burqa Woman, Saad Haroon has chosen to tread on thin ice especially considering that recent developments including the fight against blasphemy laws have cost us Pakistanis a heavy price. Critics will argue that freedom of speech is essential for any democracy, but I say that shared responsibility must be ensued with this freedom. As media gurus, comedians, writers, producers and directors, are we fully aware of our rights to offend – or the limits of free speech?

Based on similar notions, Ajoka Theatre’s humorous play Burqavaganza topped the charts, and writer Shahid Nadeem happened to say that Pakistanis dwell too much on the burqa, wasting a large proportion of their time on this. I am not sorry to burst anyone’s bubble here, but I felt that the play was forced humour with no real food for thought.

As Pakistani audiences – are we tolerant enough and geared to absorb satirical humor and learn to take it in stride? My belief remains affirmed when I say that as progressive Pakistanis if we have the ability to enjoy satirical mockery of the burqa, we must also be prepared to exercise similar endurance towards thousands of women who choose to still wear the burqa across the globe.

We must also understand that while categorical humor is the most important vehicle to positively address tolerance, there is no way we can turn a blind eye to how these works can leave many burqa-clad women with a low blow.

The writer is a Lahore-based journalist and can be reached at anumpashaa@gmail.com

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/04/beneath-the-burqa.html