Ordinarily ‘To whom it may concern’ is the standard title of a text which is sent to those whose identity is not known but procedurally are the relevant recipients of it. For years, I have been writing recommendation letters for my students seeking admission to higher institutions of education, especially foreign universities.
To whom it may concern, the title of today’s article has a different purpose. It is the title of an appeal I want to submit to those who exercise effective authority in Pakistan. However, that is a problem. Should I presume it is the President of Pakistan, or Prime Minister or Chief Justice or Chief of Army staff? The constitution of Pakistan says one thing, but the reality is very different. The chain of command and authority in Pakistan remains a puzzle and political analysts have suggested the term ‘establishment’ to describe it. Others have suggested the “deep state”.
In any event, my plea is that a proper, impartial investigation into the arrest of a Christian youth, Patras Masih of Shahdara, Lahore, on charges of blasphemy and the events which followed thereafter should be order. From what has been reported, a mob of fanatics attacked the Christians of Shahdara while the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) took into custody his cousin Sajid Masih. A video clip shows Sajid Masih grievously injured after he jumped from the fourth storey of a building because some officials were allegedly forcing him to commit a sexual indignity with Patras which I am too ashamed to name here. Some time back, I wrote an article, The Mob, Mobocrats and Mobocracy, in connection with a dharna in Islamabad. That was a political issue. This time, it is the ultimate debasement of humanity because a tiny, powerless minority is being subjected to blatant terror.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) publishes annual reports where the bottom line is that most allegations of blasphemy are baseless and often the aim is to get someone’s job or property, and this is especially true when mobs not only go after one individual from a minority community who is accused of blasphemy, but whole communities attacking their villages or clusters of houses.
I have followed the discussion and comment in the Pakistani press and on television channels on this incident. What I learnt was that hundreds of cases of alleged blasphemy are registered with the authorities. 80 percent of those accused of it are Muslims. Considering that the minorities are less than five per cent of the Pakistan population but 20 percent of such cases are against them, the proportion of those accused of blasphemy is four times greater than Muslims.
There is a class angle to it as well. A few Muslim intellectuals have been framed on such charges but, I don’t know of any member of the elite being accused of it. As far as Christians accused of blasphemy are concerned, they are from the poorest and most socially depressed sections of society. Brute force in its ugliest form is operating in Pakistan against the weakest sections of society.
A few words need to be said about the Christians of Pakistan. A minority among them are converts from upper caste Hindu, Muslim and Sikh families. Some have done well and lead secure lives. However, the majority belong to the most depressed sections of society. They are invariably descendants of the earliest people, perhaps the original people, who lived in this region we call South Asia. Their forebears were an industrious, civilised people who created high culture and civilisation. Mohenjo Daro and Harappa civilisations and several others came into being, but that is all prehistory.
Attacking a vulnerable and hapless community is most tempting to people who are otherwise a failure and have nothing to offer to the world except hatred, violence and terrorism
They were defeated, their land stolen, and their freedom usurped by warring tribes and peoples which entered the Subcontinent. Aryans, Greeks, Huns, Scythians, Arabs, Turco-Afghans, Persians and finally the British became the dominant power in this region. Over the centuries, sections of them converted to Islam and Sikhism and later Christianity. Most of them who remained in Pakistan became Christians. While some who received education in missionary schools and colleges attained social mobility, but large numbers continued to be confined to the filthiest tasks needed by society. Awareness of the gross historical injustice done to them in the past and its continuation in the present is badly needed.
I must say that almost all the people I talked to expressed revulsion against the way the whole case of Petras Masih has been handled. Students, teachers, businessmen, bureaucrats, politicians and others — nobody approves of the creeping fascism in the name of Islam which is now endemic to the Pakistani situation. Attacking a vulnerable and hapless community is most tempting to people who are otherwise a failure and have nothing to offer to the world except hatred, violence and terrorism.
At some stage we would be forced to revisit the whole notion of a blasphemy law as the best way to protect Islam and other religions and indeed the individuals whose status is considered holy and sacred. Before such a law existed, there was more tolerance for each other’s beliefs and points of view. In any case, it was understood that nobody has the right to take the law in his own hands. That fundamental principle needs to be reinforced by comprehensive policy initiatives.
I recently met a young man who wrote his MPhil. Thesis on madrassa reform in Pakistan. He told me that all such ideas of reform remain just a paper exercise and nothing substantial is done to translate it into effective policy. Already we are being considered a pariah state by the world community for allegedly being irresponsible in the struggle against terrorism. What we are doing to our minorities and free-thinking Muslims make the case of a pariah state infinitely stronger. My appeal To Whom It May Concern is: take determined, concerted and comprehensive action before it is too late.
The writer is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stockholm University; Visiting Professor GC University; and, Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He has written a number of books and won many awards, he can be reached [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, March 3rd 2018.