The stench of intolerance sits heavy over the cityscapes of Punjab. And it is not just my olfactory sense that stands offended. My rationality, intelligence and the kind of steely grit required to just trudge along day in and day out in a country bereft of essential resources for human necessity have all taken a hard knock because of the shallow and empty contempt we, quite literally, display on our sleeve. Case in point: banners displayed around Liberty roundabout, Lahore, some weeks back by yet another ‘Islamic’ organisation creeping out of the woodwork, under the questionable name of the ‘Islamic Youth Front’. The said banners proclaimed that Islam has no room for ‘gays and lesbians’ — it is an abomination. First of all, the Islamic Youth Front, really? Another outfit dedicated towards the (surprise, surprise) fight against all sorts of moral corruption in the name of Islam? Novel. Secondly, since when did homosexuals manage to edge their way back into the spotlight? I guess after the many atrocities perpetrated against the Ahmadiyya community, the Shia sect and the run-of-the-mill bad press given to our Christian minority, someone had to become the focus of all the fanatical ire this country seems to have pent up in abundance in the darker recesses of our national ‘integrity.’
It is this collective hate and isolationist mentality that a scaled up version of ‘Saudi’ Islam (Salafi as some would call it) has been introduced to our streets, and the mass market appeal it holds for all those disillusioned with their annulled lives in a failed state is not only worrisome, it is downright dangerous. The new-age ‘bastions’ of Islam, instead of embracing and re-enacting a faith in which all were welcome, have now made it a an ideology of exclusion. Moderate voices are not invited, calls for reformation of ‘black laws’ that are used as payback for some unseen transgression are countered by bullets, minorities are pushed into the seedy underbelly of this country’s constitution, freedom is viewed as being contrite, women are just blacked out caricatures of all they actually can be and secularism is seen as sacrilege. We have become exclusionists, pushing everyone out, assaulting any advancement towards balanced sentiments and liberalising only one thing: fear — fear of retribution, fear of bodily harm by these representatives of moral policing and fear of progression, lest it smite us.
Such banners have been a mainstay in Lahore. After the blatant daylight murder of Salmaan Taseer, large streamers relentlessly pursued the ‘heroic’ deed by Mumtaz Qadri, his killer. They could be seen all over the city, in all their dark glory. Anti-Shia banners and pamphlets against the sect are so common now they merit hardly a mention. And the most tragic element? The fact that words, lines and sentiment aimed at enhancing moderation, brotherhood, equality, justice, freedom have started disappearing from print. Newspapers caution their writers to deviate from pursuing topics related to religion. Any publication brave enough to readdress the Ahmedi cause is threatened with regrettable consequences and the electronic media is now a stone’s throw away from following a Talibanised agenda (Maya Khan, anyone?). To wipe the slate completely clean of any sane deliberations on any public forum is to win half the fight.
Exclusion is an art perfected by the lonely. By shoving away individuals with differing thoughts, ideas, motivations and even orientations is to redevelop the faith to suit only a select segment of society. Unfortunately, there are too many lonely people in Pakistan, left in isolation without power, fuel, healthcare, welfare and higher learning. It is these exclusionists who should be given a taste of their own medicine. After the gays and lesbians, the ‘sex fiends’ who enjoy walks in parks, the minorities, the women, the transgendered, only the ‘atheist’ remains. It really would be a wonderfully taut rude awakening to have the ‘non-believer’ — the scientist, the philosopher, the inventor, the thinker — exclude the new generation of intolerant Muslim. Banish him from using your technology, fight him off from travelling on your aeroplanes, trains, vehicles, exile him from your universities where ‘ungodly’ doctrines are gospel and remove him from within your borders where the citizenry enjoy access to basic rights and resources. Seen in such terms, exclusion does no one any good.
Pakistan is the new breeding ground for contempt. This new-wave insignia of the Islam of today must be brought to a grinding halt. The Punjab government (known to have a sympathetic bent for hate organisations) must be brought to book for allowing such symbols of prejudice open reign on our city streets. To drive by silently without a second glance is to be complicit in this degeneration of society. To refuse to participate in countering this hate is to surrender a part of our power; it is to renounce our responsibilities, and that is truly reprehensible.
The author is an editor and a participant of the Salzburg Trilogue. She can be reached at [email protected]