Daily Times

A truly unfortunate incident occurred in Chak 44, Mandi Bahauddin, district Gojra, when Imran Masih, a young Christian man was accused of blasphemy. While he was working with his Muslim colleagues, he showed them pictures of a wedding he had captured on his mobile phone. For a while he left his device with one of his colleagues, who found a video clip of a sermon of a pastor who was they thought was speaking against Islam. This person on viewing the video showed it to another colleague, Bilal, and both of them reacted angrily. When they saw Imran they started beating him. At the intervention of the senior management of the health clinic where they all worked, the situation was brought under control, but the anger triggered Bilal to report the incident to the local imam of the mosque, Qari Imran. The imam watched the video and announced in the mosque that Imran Masih should be punished to death because he denigrated Islam by keeping such anti-Islam stuff on his mobile phone. Some of the Christian friends of Masih urged him to flee from the area, and he did.

However, last Friday several hundred Muslims assembled, and a fatwa was issued against Masih. A local businessman announced 100,000 rupees bounty on Masih’s head. There are probably only a few dozen houses in that area that belong to Christians. All shopkeepers were ordered by the fatwa-givers not to sell any grocery or eatable to Christians living there. For the past week, Christians are facing an awful situation. The local police tried to calm down Muslim fundamentalists but it is too difficult to control an enraged mob. There is another campaign going on: Christians have been asked to accept Islam or leave the area. This has become the norm that after such incidents, poor Christians are forced to convert or flee.

Many a time, helpless and marginalised Christian community finds nowhere to go but to find refuge in Islam. Every other day, there are reports of conversions from Christianity and Hinduism to Islam. For God, souls are won not forced to convert. Physical control over somebody can make him a slave but spiritual satisfaction comes only through true manifestation of love. In Pakistani hostile society love and tolerance for minorities are becoming rare traits. When we were in school we learned in Islamic studies that 14 centuries before the advent of Islam there was a society whose traits matched that of many in Pakistan today. This endless persecution of minorities is painting a negative image of the majority population. The darkest aspect of these episodes is that a transient reaction comes from different leaders, which seems like lip service, where empty words of consolation are uttered. The seriousness of the issue is not taken into account. “Might is right” is the classic view of the present day Pakistani society, as the poor and marginalised are being cornered every day. At the time of the independence, the number of minorities was more than 20 percent of the population, which has decreased to a miniscule three percent. And this unending pressure has put downtrodden communities on ventilators. Theologically-trained Muslim clerics have not been brought to the mainstream of country’s socio-religious policy, and no government has ever tried to open public Islamic seminaries where people could receive proper religious education as per the true tachings of the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammad (pbuh).

Rarely is seen any member of clergy who has proper knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence, Hadith, and sharia. Some individuals like Javed Ahmed Ghamdi who with their long, hard work of scholarship when started challenging these so-called religious scholars faced harassment. One of the weakest aspects of a multicultural and multi-religious society is the absence of a feasible system, made by social governing bodies, which is acceptable to all individuals living there. For the last 70 years, many cardinal issues were overlooked that in essence are the basic ingredients of an egalitarian society. The social building was not founded according to the teachings of the founder of Pakistan. In the emerging Islamic society at the time of independence, there were two school of thoughts followed or being compelled to follow. One, religious scholars of the era did not want the continuity of imperialism. Second, the quick shift to Islamic ideology polarised society within the first six months of independence. Unfortunately, the rear-seated leaders took over the driving seat, and where not practically through think tanks and their social influence. The infant state could not bear the pressure and had to bow down before such forces with theocratic ideology against which the founding father, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, said, ” The Constitution of Pakistan has yet to be framed by the Pakistan Constituent Assembly…Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of men, justice and fair play to everybody…In any case, Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State — to be ruled by priests with a divine mission. We have many non-Muslims – Hindus, Christians, and Parsis — but they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other citizens and will play their rightful part in the affairs of Pakistan.”

To convolute the real message of Jinnah, the historical speech of 11th August 1947 that had a clear message of equality and brotherhood remained hidden for several years. Guardians of theocracy never allowed Jinnah’s clear instructions to take roots among masses. On one occasion the Quaid, said, “…no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state.” We have gone too far to break the jaws of forces working day and night bringing inequality and injustice. Once and for all, at this juncture, all forces of tolerance, compassion and brotherhood will have to come together to give an impetus to the nation to walk on the track built by Quaid-e-Azam, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Pakistan is for all who live here, and no one is to be made to live like a pariah in his/her homeland on the basis of ideology, ethnicity, or faith.

The writer can be reached at Kaleem.dean@mail.com