Daily Times

Three members of the Sikh community were attacked in Peshawar in broad daylight on Wednesday. One of them died on the spot while the other two are said to be in critical condition. Angry protestors from the Sikh community blocked the GT road as a protest against the incident. Similarly, only a week ago, three members of the Ahmedi community, including two minors, were killed in Gujranwala by an angry mob, allegedly on charges of blasphemy.
Every single day we come across new incidents of hate speech, violence and murder being committed in the land of the pure. Violence against women is rampant in the country. Last month, unknown assailants threw acid on women in a number of different incidents. Luckily, none of the women were seriously injured. Journalists are killed for doing their jobs. Every single day, unknown target killers kill innocent people in Karachi and other cities. To summarise all of this, Pakistan is not a safe country for minorities and the most vulnerable. However, we as Pakistanis are oblivious of our own problems. These problems have ruined our reputation at the international level. Not just this, we are in a state of war. The Pakistan army is fighting against the Taliban in the North Waziristan region while at the same time, political turmoil is in the offing. However, none of these issues is bothering us as citizens of this state. On the other hand, we are much more worried about the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
There is no doubt that the Palestinians are facing the worst form of cruelty and violence. So far, almost 2,000 Palestinians have lost their lives to Israeli aggression. But have we forgotten that more than 50,000 of our own have died during the last decade due to terrorism? Have we forgotten that a woman was killed by her own father and brothers outside a court just because she married according to her own will? Most unfortunately, this incident did not happen in a remote area but in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the city of Khadim-e-Ala (leader of those who serve). Then why are we so worried about the people of another country, when the people of our country are facing so many injustices? Perhaps the only reason is that we do not consider minorities, women or other vulnerable communities as our own. We can write 1,000 words about atrocities being committed in Gaza but not a single word in support of Ahmedis, Shias, Sikhs, Hindus and other minorities because we do not consider them human.
Pakistan is in serious danger, the danger of being hijacked by extremist forces and ideologies. We as Pakistanis are not worried about the rise in extremism that is not only threatening our present generation, but the coming generations as well. On the other hand, we are much more worried about the Palestinians in Gaza. As we all know, charity begins at home. The minorities and the vulnerable communities living in Pakistan are in much more need of our support than the Palestinians. These are our countrymen, Pakistanis who work day and night for the development of this country. But we ignore them. Not just this, we consider it our religious duty to violate the rights of a person from a minority group or even to kill him/her.
These are testing times for us. Our various problems have been compounded and now present a dismal picture. Pakistan is considered a dangerous country now. We are being ranked among the countries that are at the bottom of development indices yet we are not ready to accept this and, oblivious of our problems, we are protesting, shouting slogans and destroying our own properties for the sake of the Palestinians.
The Palestine issue can never be solved through these protests. The whole world is protesting, even the so-called ‘infidels’ in the west. This problem needs a concerted effort from all the global powers, most importantly the Muslim countries. However, sadly, the inner rifts between different Muslim countries and their ideologies are more important than the lives of ordinary Palestinians. The killing of innocent Palestinians is a humanitarian issue that should be solved on those lines. We as Pakistanis need to focus on our own problems that are threatening our very existence. We need to clean our own house before we start looking at the problems of others.

The writer is a development consultant. She tweets at @GulminaBilal and can be reached at coordinator@individualland.com