Daily Times

Amidst very young children in the audience stood the very smart and multi-talented scholar, the one and only Aamir Liaqat Hussain, hosting a morning show. Then came the shocking utterance that was based on his dismay in light of his views of a certain statement made by another religious personality, Mr Junaid Jamshed. The sentence was in his signature chaste Urdu and is very loosely translated here in my very poor English: “Whoever is not a true follower of Ayesha (Razi Allah Anha) is perhaps an offspring of a mother with questionable character.” The word in Urdu was a bit harsher and, yes, even with my limited command over the language of the Brits, I do know the exact translation of the word but I will refrain here in the name of decency. Not to mention the very famous televangelist gave a brief sermon about how it is critical for Muslims to control their tongue and the slang he used in Urdu for the word tongue was, let us just say, a tad bit cheap. It is ironic that he witnessed a slip of his own tongue here. Seemingly enraged, Mr Liaqat uttered some real filth on live television, all in reverence and unconditional respect for the mother of all believers.

Simply put, the slur was supposed to be against the mother of a fellow Muslim, our beloved Junaid Jamshed. His mother, from what we know, led a very decent and chaste life. Furthermore, people who are non-Muslims become part of this filth too, even if they respect the Prophet (PBUH) and his wife. Further adding insult to injury, on the following day, our resident scholar was back on air taking credit for ‘creating’ the channel he presently graces with his holy presence. After such a revelation of historical significance, he further revealed that he had held a conversation with Mr Jamshed. Apparently, Mr Jamshed voiced his dismay towards such ugly and utterly crass remarks by the legendary scholar. However, our dear scholar went ahead by involving himself in that crass analogy. Then came the icing on the cake. Had he committed the grave sin committed by Mr Jamshed, whatever he said for Mr Jamshed would apply on him as well. Of course, being a speaker of such spotless repute, he was not able to control his tongue and again uttered a rude, objectionable and extremely insensitive comment in front of minor children. He claimed that he had never accepted a payment for Ramzan transmissions and considered such an act as abhorrent as committing adultery with his own mother. One is just shocked at the gall of our legendary scholar to say all this with no regard to the fact that this conversation was being registered in the tender minds of all the children present in the audience and those who are watching this on television around the world. There are other video clips of our great televangelist surfacing on Facebook where he takes his indecency a notch up by making obscene references towards Mr Jamshed and his affiliations. All this while wearing a skullcap and projecting himself as one with religious leanings.

Ever since the original clip of Mr Jamshed and his heart-wrenching apology surfaced, it seems that clerics of all shapes and sizes have surfaced as well, issuing all kinds of condemnations. Regretfully, most of these gentlemen hold the microphone too close to their lips and let their rage out on that poor instrument. There are also clips of unrestrained rage, mostly either in mosques or other religious gatherings, often laced with derogatory and disparaging remarks about Mr Jamshed, his former profession of singing, and his family members. I once saw one enraged maulana dismissing his entire apology and issuing the ultimate verdict of beheading. All this just leaves one speechless.

I was a bit taken aback by Mr Jamshed’s mentor, Maulana Tariq Jamil. He issued a rejoinder right after Mr Jamshed’s video clip surfaced. It was meant to dissociate the greater organisation, the Tableeghi Jamaat, from Mr Junaid Jamshed and to state the obvious: that Mr Jamshed is not a religious scholar. A question suddenly popped into my mind and all I wanted was to raise it in front of the righteous Maulana Jamil: sir, in what capacity was Mr Jamshed globe trotting, at times, doing three sessions a day and rendering this soulful service and on whose behest?

Undoubtedly, Mr Jamshed has made a mistake. As many mortal human beings, he erred and sought forgiveness from the Almighty and the people. Without going into the application and the veracity of the contentious blasphemy law that may be applicable here, all I want to simply ask is this: do two wrongs ever make a right? May the Almighty grant us some control and common sense.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar