A suicide bomber belonging to extremist group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar,
associated with the Pakistani Taliban, attacked a large park in Lahore
where people were celebrating Easter Sunday. His powerful bomb caused
the deaths of at least 70 people, mostly women and children, and injured
more than 350 people. The bomber seemed to have targeted the Christians
but the people taking part in the celebration were of all faiths,
including Christians and Muslims. Most of the victims were Muslims. This
bomber blowing himself up in a crowed public place was following the
commands of his extremist mentors. In fact, such brainwashed suicide
bombers are also victims of their own right-wing organisations that send
them to commit such acts.
Yet, the events of Easter Sunday in Lahore did not come as a surprise
to the people who know about the politicisation of Islam in Pakistan
that produced Islamist militants, willing to attack religious minorities
as part of their religious mission.
It is important to keep in mind that such religious fanatics did not
emerge in a political vacuum. They are a natural growth of the
exploitation of Islam that Pakistan’s political elites had assiduously
cultivated right after the death of Mr. Jinnah in 1948. A milestone in
the regressive political scenario was reached in 1956 when the new
country was baptised as the ‘Islamic Republic of Pakistan’. Thus Islam
and Pakistani State had become one; this union was the beginning of the
theocratic state where religious establishment and Islamist parties were
free to propagate their versions of Islamic State and its political
direction.
From now on, religious parties and clerics became even more vocal
champions of an Islamist state in which only the Islamic law, the
Sharia, was to prevail, thus excluding any man-made laws based upon
modern western legal principles and codes. The full introduction of the
Sharia was to be the firm foundation upon which a paradise on earth was
to be built, where peace and justice would prevail.
As many ignorant clerics and their supporters had scant knowledge of
Islamic jurisprudence, they visualised the model of the Islamic state
strictly according to the Sharia as they wished. Apparently, many people
have heard that under the Sharia laws, a thief’s hands are chopped off
and a woman accused of adultery is stoned to death. As a result,
millions of indoctrinated people are jubilant about the bright prospects
of a truly Islamic order and its quick dispensation of justice. The
women charged with adultery or some other sexual transgression would be
readily sent to the next world; thieves with chopped off hands would
prove a warning to any prospective offenders of the consequences of
stealing. Such things would kindle the light of righteousness on the
heavenly structure set up in Pakistan. No more worries. Worries would
become a thing of the unholy past.
What the Pakistani Islamists and extremists have set their sights on
are not confined to the borders of their country. Theirs is a universal
call for all the ‘true believers’, everywhere. They have a sacred task
ahead of them. They should move forward and do what their Islamist
leaders tell them to do. In fact, most Pakistani Muslims, who are
otherwise quite gentle and kind people in their dealings in their daily
lives, support the idea of a such a truly Islamic state that is on the
model of the caliphate of the seventh-century Arabia. The call for
sharia laws has become the rallying cry and the heartbeat of these
people.
How has religious orthodoxy and extremism affected the people of
Pakistan can be illustrated from the case of Mumtaz Qadri. By all
accounts, he was an ordinary man, certainly an indoctrinated poor soul,
who was in the squad of the personal bodyguards of Salman Taseer, the
governor of Punjab. He killed Mr Taseer in the most gruesome manner by
shooting him with 28 bullets at close range. He committed this ghastly
crime because Mr Taseer had opposed the notorious blasphemy laws and
tried to speak on behalf of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, who was
languishing in prison after her trial and conviction under the blasphemy
laws on concocted charges.
On Qadri’s arrest and subsequent trial, large crowds held public
demonstrations in the country in his favour. He was the ‘hero of Islam’.
The role of thousands of lawyers in this sad story was equally
alarming. They were over-zealous and were in the forefront of such
demonstrations. These ‘educated’ people like uneducated or poorly
educated people also saw and see the blasphemy laws vital to protect the
name and honour of Almighty God, the Holy Prophet and the Qur’an.
Therefore, when we discuss widespread indoctrination, a person with
common sense or ordinary intelligence will soon realise the havoc caused
by uncritical thinking and morbid indoctrination.
When Qadri was eventually executed for his premeditated murder,
hundreds of thousands Pakistanis in many cities in Pakistan demonstrated
in his favour, naming him the ‘hero of Islam’ and a ‘martyr’.
Moreover, he received the same passionate support from the Pakistani
communities living in Europe and elsewhere. Many ordinary people of
European origin were simply amazed at what these people were saying and
doing in free democratic countries.
In addition, the objective of Islamic parties and their
indoctrinating clerics was to fight against what they regarded as
western values, such as democratic forms of government, gender equality,
freedom of expression and belief. Under this system, religious
minorities have only a secondary status in Islamic Pakistan. A change of
religion from Islam to any other faith is out of question. Those
abandoning Islam run great risks; they become apostates and their
punishment is death. However, there is a lot of goodwill towards any
non-Muslim who converts to Islam. By such an act, a convert to Islam
becomes the member of Islamic community and can have unlimited divine
favours here and hereafter.
To sum up, the phenomenon of Islamist terror, whose recent example
was in Lahore, is not some incidental aberration but rather a result of a
politically and religiously motivated world-view that has an
ideological background. It is safe to say that most Pakistanis favour an
Islamic order and the introduction of the sharia laws in their country
because that will lead to a prosperous present and a virtuous future.
However, they do not necessarily support the terrorist methods and bomb
blasts of the extremists. They would love to see a peaceful
transformation to the Islamic order without the terror of the Taliban
and other militant groups they have seen for many years. The support
for such an outlook is not limited to ordinary, uneducated and
indoctrinated people either. Many well-educated people also stand with
the upholders of Islamist ideology and the champions of the sharia laws.
The call to turn to ‘real Islam’ echoes the feelings of a country of
200 million people. Where things are heading in Pakistan gives no room
for complacency.
