ISLAMABAD: Acting President Farooq H Naik said that minorities have equal rights in the country and suggestion is under discussion to give special seats to minorities in the Senate.
Expressing these views during a meeting with Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan Ulrika Sundberg, Farooq H Naik said that there is no discrimination with minorities in the country and they are equally treated. He said that Constitution of the country protects the rights of minorities in the country.
He said that government is working on priority basis for the prosperity of minorities in the country and a separate ministry is also established for them. Farooq H Naik said that government has fixed five percent specific job quota for minorities while every year Aug 11 is celebrated as Minorities’ Day.
Farooq H Naik thanked Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan Ulrika Sundberg and government for playing important role in development of social departments of the country and for their active role of Sweden in Friends Of Pakistan Forum. Appreciating the different steps of Government for the development of minorities Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan Ulrika Sundberg said that these steps would be useful for inter-religious harmony.
During the meeting both the participants agree that terrorists are enemy of humanity and joint efforts should be done to eliminate them. -Online
http://news.wateen.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9016
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Minister ‘forcing’ Christian to share property with brothers
By Ali Usman
LAHORE: Provincial Prisons Minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor is allegedly pressing a Christian to give a share of his property to his brothers who have converted to Islam and stand charged in two cases,
Daily Times has learnt.
Siddiq Masih – a resident of Christian Colony, Wassan Pura – has lodged an FIR against his brothers – Riaz and Arif, both of whom have converted to Islam. Chaudhry Ghafoor is allegedly pressing him to withdraw the cases against them. In December 2004, Arif and Riaz had made fake documents for the ownership of a 16-marla plot in Christian Colony and sold it for Rs 700,000. The property was originally in Siddiq’s name.
On October 3, 2009, Riaz and Arif accused Siddiq of committing blasphemy. Four days later, they came to Siddiq’s place with a mob, saying they were making a claim for their share of the property as they had donated it to a madrassa. Riaz and Arif also threatened Siddiq with “dire consequences” after he called police.
The same day, Siddiq filed an application against his brothers. On November 6, 2009, Siddiq lodged another FIR against them for beating up his son. Later, Siddiq, Riaz and Arif received a letter from Lahore PML-N Senior Vice President Mirza Javed, saying he had been advised to form a committee to resolve the matter in consultation with Ghafoor.
Meanwhile, Ghafoor told Daily Times he had not pressured anyone for anything. He claimed that Siddiq was “implicating Riaz and Arif in fake cases because they have converted to Islam”.
LAHORE: Provincial Prisons Minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor is allegedly pressing a Christian to give a share of his property to his brothers who have converted to Islam and stand charged in two cases,
Daily Times has learnt.
Siddiq Masih – a resident of Christian Colony, Wassan Pura – has lodged an FIR against his brothers – Riaz and Arif, both of whom have converted to Islam. Chaudhry Ghafoor is allegedly pressing him to withdraw the cases against them. In December 2004, Arif and Riaz had made fake documents for the ownership of a 16-marla plot in Christian Colony and sold it for Rs 700,000. The property was originally in Siddiq’s name.
On October 3, 2009, Riaz and Arif accused Siddiq of committing blasphemy. Four days later, they came to Siddiq’s place with a mob, saying they were making a claim for their share of the property as they had donated it to a madrassa. Riaz and Arif also threatened Siddiq with “dire consequences” after he called police.
The same day, Siddiq filed an application against his brothers. On November 6, 2009, Siddiq lodged another FIR against them for beating up his son. Later, Siddiq, Riaz and Arif received a letter from Lahore PML-N Senior Vice President Mirza Javed, saying he had been advised to form a committee to resolve the matter in consultation with Ghafoor.
Meanwhile, Ghafoor told Daily Times he had not pressured anyone for anything. He claimed that Siddiq was “implicating Riaz and Arif in fake cases because they have converted to Islam”.
Persecuted by all
By Rafia Zakaria
Wednesday, 24 Feb, 2010
Wednesday, 24 Feb, 2010
At least one of three Sikhs who were abducted for ransom about a month ago by the Pakistani Taliban was killed on Sunday, Feb 21.
The murdered man, Jaspal Singh, and his fellow kidnap victims were Pakistani citizens who lived in Khyber Agency’s Tirah Valley.
Their abductors were demanding a ransom payment of Rs30 million, to be delivered by Sunday. The other two in the group are allegedly still being held by the Taliban, although there is some confusion since some reports say that two beheaded bodies were found in Orakzai and Khyber agencies.
There are also unconfirmed reports that decapitated heads were delivered by the Taliban to the gurdwara in the area, and that letters found with the bodies warned elders in the region not to disclose the case to the media.
The killing of minorities by the Taliban is not a new issue; their elimination and demands for the payment of a jizya tax have been an ideological staple of the Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The plight of Christian, Hindu and Sikh minorities in and near Swat and the tribal areas is particularly precarious, with their livelihoods and day-to-day existence threatened by the encroaching presence of the Taliban.
Yet the Taliban are not the only threat to Pakistan’s religious and sectarian minorities. The past few months have seen the emergence of horrifying cases of systematised persecution of religious minorities.
These instances extend from the individual, such as the case of 12-year-old Shazia Masih who was allegedly tortured and killed while she was employed by a former president of the Lahore Bar Association, to cases such as that of Gojra and Korianwala where mobs were mobilised and Christians were burned alive in their homes.
The latest case of Siddiq Masih is an illustration of the lack of societal outrage against the persecution of minority groups. In this instance, the Punjab minister for prisons,Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, reportedly persuaded two Christian brothers to convert to Islam and transact a real estate deal that would hand over a 16-marla plot in Christian Colony owned by their brother Siddiq Masih.
According to some reports, the two brothers were addicted to drugs and wanted easy cash with which to procure them. In 2004 they converted to Islam and then produced fake ownership documents that showed them as the true owners of the land.
The deal did not go through as planned and in October 2009 the two accused their Christian brother of blasphemy and alleged that he had desecrated the Quran.
Siddiq Masih had already lodged a case against his brothers but provincial minister Abdul Ghafoor is now said to be involved in the case, and is reportedly pressing him to withdraw the case and turn the land over to his Muslim brothers — so that he may purchase it at a pittance.
If the story is true, and many insist it is, the case demonstrates the manner in which the blasphemy laws have become convenient instruments in the hands of anyone who chooses to target minorities.
These laws, contained in various sections of Pakistan’s criminal code, forbid the damaging or defiling of a place of worship (Section 295-A) and outraging religious feelings (Section 295). Section 295-C states: “Whoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person or makes any gesture in the sight of that person or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.”
The trial must be presided over by a Muslim judge in a sessions court. Defaming the Holy Prophet (pbuh) can lead to a death sentence and defaming the Quran can lead to life imprisonment.
In practice, evidentiary requirements for witnesses are sometimes relaxed by judges overcome by religious zeal to inflict punishment on the accused.
The blasphemy laws have thus in effect become legal tools allowing the majority religion to persecute minorities or the weak under pretextual charges of having defamed the Quran or the Holy Prophet.
Despite calls for the repeal of these laws from minority groups as well as human rights organisations, recent debates on the blasphemy laws are being directed toward the revision rather than repeal of existing legislation.
The appointed (rather than elected) minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, has promised that a “revised” blasphemy bill will be introduced in parliament later this year.
This move again reflects the lack of political will to take on Islamist political parties such as the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, which has declared that no one “has the power to touch the blasphemy laws” and has threatened legislative and street protests if the revised bill is introduced.
All this despite the fact that scholars such as Asghar Ali Engineer have declared the current form of the laws to be un-Islamic in that they were introduced to legitimise Gen Ziaul-Haq’s regime, and make little effort to ascribe to the evidentiary or doctrinal standards of classical Islamic law.
If the Taliban kill minorities as part of their project to attack the Pakistani state, the Pakistani state in turn allows the perpetuation of a legal system that leaves minorities vulnerable to persecution at the whim of anyone who chooses to accuse them of blasphemy.
This juxtaposition blurs the moral lines between the state trying to maintain the rule of law, and anti-state forces such as the Taliban trying to destroy it. At the heart of the problem lies the assurance that the lives of minorities who are crushed between the barbarity of the Taliban and the corruption of the state are ultimately expendable and unworthy of protection.
The recent beheading reflects in gruesome detail the tyranny of the Taliban. But the continued existence of the blasphemy laws are perhaps equally damning indictments of the Pakistani state.
The writer is a US-based attorney and teaches constitutional law and political philosophy.
rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The unholy law
It is widely believed that the draconian Blasphemy Law is used for the miscarriage of justice; it is exploited ruthlessly by fanatics to settle scores with rivals and by religio-political parties to gain political leverage over administrative apparatuses.
In Jawaid Ghamdi’s book, The Penal Shariah of Islam, Ghamdi maintains that capital punishment can only be given to a person who has killed someone, or to someone who is guilty of spreading disorder in society. With reasonable certainty, during a seminar organised by People’s Resistance (PR), Islamic scholar Dr. Khalid Zaheer confirmed the notion that there is no blasphemy law in Islam.
Despite the fact that the law has no Islamic underpinnings, successive democratically elected governments in Pakistan have proved reluctant to remove this controversial law from the books. The fact is, the law has little to do with religion, and everything to do with the changing socio-political climate in Pakistan. It is important to remember that the Blasphemy Law emerged – and endures – in a particular social context, and is thus beholden to the history of Pakistan. Here, Dawn.com contextualises the law and maps the reasons for its resilience.
A numbers game
The Pakistani Blasphemy Law originated from the 1860 British Penal Code, which contained a few clauses that protected the interests of diverse religious groups in undivided India. From 1984 to 2004, 5,000 cases of blasphemy were registered in Pakistan and 964 people were charged and accused of blasphemy; 479 Muslims, 340 Ahmadis, 119 Christians, 14 Hindus and 10 others. Thirty-two people charged with blasphemy had been killed extra-judicially. Eighty-six percent of all the cases were reported in Punjab.
Pakistan’s minorities
The religious minority demographic of Pakistan’s population is 3.7 per cent (an estimated six million). There are approximately 30,000 Sikhs, 20,000 Buddhists, 1,822 Parsis, and 600,000 Ahmadis (an exact estimate is difficult to obtain because of their reluctance to register as non-Muslims in the census). Other religious groups are Bhais, Kalasha, Kihals and Jains.
Hindus and Christians are the two biggest minorities. They comprise 83 per cent of the non-Muslim population in Pakistan. Ninety-three per cent (2.4 million) of all Hindus live in Sindh and 81 per cent (2 million) of Christians live in the Punjab. Those accused of blasphemy over the years primarily hail from the following divisions of the Punjab: Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Toba Tek Singh, Jhang Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sargodha.
Urbanisation is providing opportunities to minorities for upward social mobility, which in turn is perpetuating awareness about individual rights and their assertion in the public spheres. For the feudal mindset, this empowerment has become a challenge and the blasphemy law is providing a way for landowners – as well as those dependent on the landowners’ good favour – to keep minority subjects in fear, and thus under control. Increasingly radicalised mullahs in rural areas are helping landowners maintain their stranglehold over minority workers.
Divide and school
The radicalisation of Pakistani society, which manifests as a heightened intolerance for religious minorities, has been traced back to various social developments. One of them is the mushrooming growth of madrassahs in Pakistan, a phenomenon perpetuated by the Afghan war. Historically, madrassahs were considered a particular type of educational institution and never confronted the state as an institution, though they are responsible for creating a stringently static mindset.
Madrassahs have become important and influential; Pakistan has 16,059 high schools and 15,725 madrasahs: the total high school population stands at 1.6 million while there are an estimated 1.5 million madrassah students (though a group of researchers has claimed that madrassahs accounts for less than one per cent of enrollment). Madrassahs are in the forefront of producing a particular world view based on Alam-e-Islam (World of Islam) and Alam-e-Kufr (World of Infidels).
The Maududi mindset
Meanwhile, the new influence of religion in the political sphere has contributed to the persistence of the Blasphemy Law. In the twentieth century, the politicalisation of religion was mainly a reaction to the colonisation of Muslim lands by western powers. Religion played an effective motivating role for political parties seeking independence of their homeland. As politics and religion collided, Islam seeped out of the madrassahs and into modern educational institutions.
The Maududi mindset is a product of the above-mentioned paradigm shift, and served to facilitate the entrenchment of Political Islam. It was no accident that Syed Maududi of the Jamaat-e-Islami, in a quest for a holy community and with aspirations of dominating the state apparatus, demanded an Islamic system of governance for this nascent state.
This and other pressures exerted by Maududi and his accomplices later translated into The Objectives Resolution, the anti-Ahmadi movement of 1953, and the declaration that no non-Muslim could be the head of the state in the Constitution of Pakistan. Maududi’s legacy eventually prompted General Ziaul Haq to revive the British-era Blasphemy Law, but in a skewed fashion.
Reality reassembled
Pakistani society was also polarised by Gen Zia’s introduction of a separate electorate in 1985. It was another major step to reduce the status of minorities. Earlier, in the joint electorate system, the minorities still had some clout as a representative could not ignore the votes of non-Muslim constituencies. But by introducing a separate electorate, the military dictator isolated Christian voters.
A majority of Christians, who had earlier supported mainstream parties and were aware of the larger issues facing the country, lost sight of this wider view – the Christian vote became mired in personal and religious issues. The divide was particularly evident with regards to sensitive issues like imposition of Shariah, Hudood Ordinance and the efforts for the repeal of the Blasphemy Law. Although the separate electorate law was done away with in 2002, the damage over 17 years had taken a toll and Pakistan’s Christians found themselves politically marginalised.
Mission of hate
The culture of Political Islam and ‘jihad’ in the 1980s also led to the widespread dissemination of anti-minority propaganda. Hate literature was constantly churned out by various religio-political groups that spat venom not only on non-Muslims, but also against other Muslim sects.
Under the Pakistan Penal Code in 2006, the government banned 16 books, 12 weekly magazines, 9 monthlies and one daily newspaper to discourage the circulation of hate material. In 2005, the government had already banned about 133 publications. The amount of money spent by extremist organisations to produce offensive literature still runs into millions of rupees every month. Inevitably, the literature targets Shias, Ahmadis and Christians, and is freely available in the areas of operation of sectarian and ‘jihadi’ organisations.
The defunct Sipahe-e-Sahaba Pakistan (now operating under the name of Ahle Sunnat wal-Jammat Pakistan) used to distribute more than a dozen pamphlets and booklets in which so-called ‘objectionable material’ from Shia history books was reproduced, and readers were urged to get rid of these ‘blasphemers.’ It is disappointing to note that this hate literature is popular amongst various government offices and as recently as 2005 was openly found on the tables of government officials. In the face of such official apathy, and in some cases, complicity, it is no wonder that accusations of blasphemy were frequent in the Punjab, which is home to most sectarian outfits.
Revisiting the law in Pakistan
The extremist organisations’ incitements to hate and violence have sadly turned into actions and reality have a direct bearing on the public’s conduct towards minorities, particularly those accused of blasphemy. A review of major blasphemy cases over the last 26 years and interviews with the accused revealed that the law is used by zealots to suppress liberals and others who think differently. Over the years, it has become evident that the Blasphemy Law singles out non-Muslims for persecution.
Non-Muslims who offer a rebuttal to the abuse of radicalised clerics and youngsters are branded as criminals guilty of blasphemy. The judiciary, meanwhile, faces perpetual pressure from the fanatics, a pressure that jeopardises the delivery of justice.
It has been reported that for the safety of the accused, cases have been transferred from the courts to other ‘safer’ locations. These measures have caused hardships to the accused and his/her family. Still, in many cases, the accused in a blasphemy case was killed extra-judicially because imams incite people and issue fatwas urging the public to kill the alleged blasphemer. In some cases it was also observed that the religious affiliation of the law-enforcers eclipsed their professional mandate as they became party to attacks against blasphemy accused.
In other Muslim countries, blasphemy is dealt with under state law instead of Sharia law. For example, in Indonesia, the maximum penalty for a convict under is five years imprisonment. In 1994, Maulana Kausar Niazi, former Chairman of Islamic Ideology Council, remarked that Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law needed modification, while noted intellectual Akbar S. Ahmed stated that the law was mostly invoked to put an end to political vendettas, land disputes and political rivalry.
At the recent PR seminar, Dr. Zaheer mentioned that even though there are several mentions of blasphemy committed by the polytheists of Makkah and hypocrites of Madinah against Islam and its Prophet (PBUH), no worldly punishment has even been hinted at in the Qur'an.
Instead, the Qur'an urges Muslims to ignore what the blasphemers were doing, to not participate when they blaspheme, and create circumstances that do not allow blasphemy to take place. Dr. Zaheer pointed out that Muslims must apologise to non-Muslims for the unwarranted crimes in the past committed against them in the name of religion to ease tensions. He stated that Muslims should condemn, or at least not hold those individuals as their heroes, who murdered non-Muslims accused of blasphemy because they become inspirational to the youth of the community.
If a Blasphemy Law must exist, from an Islamic point of view, Dr. Zaheer believes it must satisfy the following conditions:
a) Capital punishment cannot be given to a person who is found guilty of committing blasphemy. According to the Qur'an, capital punishment can only be given to murderers and those who take the law into their hands. (Qur'an; 5:32)
b) The punishment should be applicable to those found guilty of blasphemy against revered personalities, deities of all faiths and it should be equally applicable to both Muslims and non-Muslims. The Qur'an says: "Don't use abusive language against their false gods lest they should use the same language against yours in retaliation." (Qur'an; 6:108)
Ultimately, though, most civil society participants in the debate on the blasphemy law believe that to ensure the fundamental human rights of all citizens, irrespective of class, caste and creed, as envisaged by Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the current government needs to repeal the law without further delay.
Mansoor Raza is a Karachi-based researcher affiliated with an international NGO, and can be reached at mansooraza@gmail.com.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Pakistan: Faisalabad, young Christian sentenced to life imprisonment for blasphemy
Imran Masih, a 26 year-old businessman, indicted for burning pages of the Koran. Before his arrest he had been tortured by a gang of Muslims. Catholic activists: artfully fabricated accusations, we will seek to "save his life". Calls for reforms and constitutional bans on religious parties, the ...
Faisalabad - A court in Faisalabad sentenced to life imprisonment Imran Masih, a young Christian, for having insulted and desecrated the Koran. Additional session judge, Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, handed down the sentence under Article 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code - better known as the blasphemy law - because the 26 year old apparently burnt verses from the Koran and a book in Arabic "on purpose", to "stir up religious hatred and offend the feelings of Muslims." Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) of the Catholic Church, promises to “battle to save his life. "
On July 1, 2009 Masih, a shopkeeper by profession, was brutally tortured by a group of Muslims, then arrested by police on charges – perfectly fabricated- that he had burned pages of the Koran. On 11 January, the judge sentenced him to prison for life, which he will serve in the federal prison in Faisalabad where he is currently confined. The court also imposed an additional penalty of 10 years' imprisonment and payment of 100 thousand rupees (just over 800 euro), under section 295-A of the Penal Code.
Peter Jacob, executive secretary of NCJP, while not openly criticizing the ruling, speaks of " not a good verdict " and "lack of freedom" of the judiciary. The Catholic activist announces appeal to the High Court and promises that "we will do our best to save his life", because all these cases of blasphemy "are perfectly fabricated."
The Catholic Commission also calls for "serious constitutional and legal reforms" to root out extremism and the abuse of religion in the politics of Pakistan. "Religion - reads a NCJP document - is the main pretext in the hands of Religio-political parties, who played a major role in bringing the country to this edge."
Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha and Peter Jacob, President and Executive Secretary of NCJP, stress that " Pakistan should draw a lesson from Bangladesh”, referring to the recent verdict of Bangladesh court that barred religion in politics "The affairs of state and the politics - highlight the Catholic leaders - should be treated independently, not covered by the cloak of religion" because they end up isolating the minority and denied their rights.
The blasphemy law was introduced in 1986 by Pakistani dictator Zia-ul-Haq and has become an instrument of discrimination and violence. The norm is contained in Section 295, paragraph B and C of Pakistan Penal Code and punishes with life imprisonment those who offendsthe Koran and with the sentencing to death those who insult the Prophet Muhammad. Based on NCJP data there are nearly 1000 indictees. It also provides a pretext for attacks, personal vendettas or extra-judicial killings: 33 in all, made by individuals or angry crowds.
(Spero)
The 2,700 year old Pashtun link to Israel
A genetic study to investigate a connection between the lost tribes of Israel and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and northern Pakistan will be funded by Israel, according to a report in The Observer.
Israeli anthropologists have claimed that the Pashtuns may be one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel in light of longstanding historical and anecdotal evidence. No scientific proof has ever been able to demonstrate a conclusive link.
However, an Indian researcher based at the National Institute of Immuno-haemotology in Mumbai will now spend time at a leading Israeli institute, Technion to study the findings of her research. Shahnaz Ali collected the blood-samples from members of the Pashtun Afridi tribe living near Lucknow, India. Previous research in a similar area failed to determine a link either way.
According to the report, 10 of the original 12 tribes of Israel were pushed into exile 2,730 years ago when the Assyrians conquered the kingdom of Israel. Modern-day Jews belong to the two remaining tribes of Benjamin and Judah, according to Jewish history. Ever since, speculation has centered on the exact whereabouts of the lost tribes. Claims of their traces in China, Burma, Nigeria and Central Asia have been offered in the past. It is believed that the tribes settled in areas around latter-day Northern Iraq and Afghanistan therefore making the Pashtun link the most compelling.
Navraas Aafreedi, an academic at Lucknow University said, “Pathans, or Pashtuns, are the only people in the world whose probable descent from the lost tribes of Israel finds mention in a number of texts from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars alike, both religious as well as secularists.”
However, Ali still remainsl cautious. "The theory has been a matter of curiosity since long ago, and now I hope a scientific analysis will provide us with some answers about the Israelite origin of Afridi Pathans. We still don't know what the truth is, but efforts will certainly give us a direction," she told the Times of India last year.
(Dawn)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Christian man 'murdered' in Pakistan prison for not paying bribe
Islamabad, Jan 8 : An Asian rights group has accused Pakistani police of extra judicial killing of a 31-year-old man of a minority community who had refused to pay Eid "bribe" to cops.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Friday wrote to the UN special rapporteur on torture, extra-judicial killings calling for its intervention into the murder of Abid Javed Francis, 31, who was arrested "without charge" and later tortured to death in a police station.
IANS has a copy of the letter and case details.
Francis was "beaten and abused in a number of police stations and Karachi central prison for not paying bribes in the lead up to Eid, and was thrashed in front of his mother Venice alias Zeenat", the AHRC alleges.
According to the rights group, the medico-legal department of a Karachi hospital has confirmed that the man's death was caused by the "injuries he received during the custodial period".
"No action has yet been taken by the Sindh provincial government," the AHRC letter says demanding prosecution of 11 accused police officers, including the superintendent of Karachi central prison.
Francis, an electrician by profession, was a Christian and was arrested Nov 22 last year.
The police first demanded "Rs.10,000 (USD 125) and later Rs.50,000 (USD 625) in bribe from his family that resides in a slum settlement".
Police blackmailed the victim by filing a false case of possessing illegal arms and the charge was logged through FIR two days after his arrest.
Ten minutes after the first FIR was filed, Francis was charged with stealing a motorbike.
On Dec 7, his mother was informed that her son was ill and when she went to see him she found him "stripped to his underwear, on a stretcher in an open area, exposed to chill".
"He was on a glucose drip, unable to open his eyes. Due to her protests he was moved to a civil hospital in Karachi. Doctors took a CT scan of the victim's head and moved him to the neurology ward, where he was pronounced dead Dec 10," according to the AHRC letter.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Gojra report proposes amending blasphemy laws
* Tribunal calls for immediate action against those responsible
* Calls for capacity building of law-enforcement agencies *
Identifies factors that led to riots
FAISALABAD: An inquiry report on riots in Gojra in August – which killed several people – proposes amendments to the blasphemy laws. An inquiry tribunal – headed by Lahore High Court Judge Iqbal Hameedur Rehman and tasked with looking into the tragedy that killed seven people – also warned the government on Sunday that “the Gojra tragedy must be taken seriously and the needful [should] be done on war-footing without further loss of time”. The violent protests in Gojra triggered ethnic tensions and resulted in the displacement of 96 Christian families. The inquiry tribunal notes in the report that the country is already facing grave challenges in the form of terrorism and militancy – which, in addition to destroying the economy, have “disfigured our national image all over the world ... we cannot afford any other menace, [such as] sectarian disputes”. It says efforts to control such unrest must begin immediately. The 258-page report recommends action “without any discrimination against those responsible for commission and omission”. The report also proposes amendments to Pakistan Penal Code sections 295, 295-A, 295-B, 295-C, 296, 297, 298, 298-A, 298-B, 298-C, anti-blasphemy laws, relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Police Order 2002. It recommends that federal intelligence agencies be mandated to provide “first-hand information at the divisional level”. It also calls for the capacity building of the Special Branch, the establishment of a special force for the protection and protocol of VIPs and other vulnerable persons, the exclusion of district nazims in issues related to law and order, the establishment of intelligence and crime prevention branches, rules for effective utilisation of police in terms of Article 112 of Police Order 2002, the constitution of a district religious dispute resolution board, and categorisation of districts on the basis of sensitivity. The tribunal reached the conclusion that the riots were a result of the “inability of law-enforcement agencies to assess the gravity of the situation, inadequate precautionary and preventive measures taken by law-enforcement agencies, a lukewarm stance by the Toba Tek Singh DPO, the failure of intelligence agencies in providing prompt and correct information, a defective security plan, the irresponsible behaviour of the administration, the complete failure of police while discharging their duties, the non-enforcement of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, omissions to take steps under sections 107 and 151 of the CrPC, the lack of a decision to invoke the Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) 1960 – which amounts to letting the miscreants loose to wreak havoc during the course of the riots – and several other factors”. app
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Questions of identity and loyalty
By Irfan Husain Wednesday, 18 Nov, 2009IMAGINE if a Hindu or Christian officer in the Pakistan army had shot dead 13 soldiers and wounded 40 in a lethal rampage. Think of the backlash in a country where our minorities are so badly treated at the best of times.
Fortunately, beyond heated speculation about his motive, and the odd threat, there has been no violence following Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s unprovoked attack on his fellow soldiers at the US army base in Fort Hood in Texas.
One line of investigation is the extent to which he acted out of an impulse to kill American soldiers. Among the many articles about this outrage posted on the internet was a presentation he gave to fellow doctors at an army facility a few months before the attack. While he was supposed to speak about a medical topic, he suddenly veered off into a long and detailed exposition about the duties of Muslim soldiers fighting for the American government.
Many of the audience were horrified at the extreme views Major Hasan expressed.
Investigators have also found an exchange of emails between the psychiatrist and an extremist preacher in Yemen. In addition, there have been some money transfers to Pakistan that have excited interest. Now, questions are being asked about why all these facts and views had not alerted the authorities to Hasan’s Islamist ideology.
Clearly, here is a case of divided loyalties. While many of us feel the tug of competing philosophies, we generally compromise and muddle along without resorting to such violent actions to resolve the contradictions of modern life.
Although being a doctor, he was not required to fight other Muslims, Hasan still felt uneasy at the prospect of serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. The fact is that he had other options to pulling the trigger: he could have resigned his commission, or refused to serve as a conscientious objector, and accepted the consequences. The fact that he decided to turn his gun on his fellow soldiers speaks of an extremist mindset, rather than a troubled mind.
In the 21st century, as unprecedented numbers move from their homeland to distant lands to seek a better life, questions of identity and loyalty are assuming greater urgency.
In Major Hasan’s case, he was clearly torn between his religious belief and his professional loyalty to the US army. The conflict arose when he was told he would soon be sent to serve in a country where the US was at war against Muslims.
Normally, people are not asked to make such stark choices when they migrate. A shopkeeper or a farm worker just gets on with his life, trying to save money for his family. But if they are Muslims, their loyalty to their host country is increasingly suspect in a post-9/11 world.
However, this inner conflict over loyalty and identity is not limited to Muslims: many American Jews have dual nationality, and soldiers from among them have received leave of absence to serve in the Israeli armed forces at times of need.
In the Yom Kippur war of 1973, many Jewish American pilots flew missions with the Israeli air force. Thus far, their loyalty has not been tested as there is no possibility of a war between Israel and America. However, there have been cases of American Jews spying for Israel.
The arrest and successful prosecution of a number of young Britons of Pakistani origin for terrorist plots and attacks has also raised questions about loyalty. Many in the UK, even very liberal and tolerant people, are appalled that these young men have turned against the country in which they were born, raised and educated. This is an extreme case of confusion over identity, and an angry rejection of the values of the host community.
In India, there was the recent furore over the fatwa issued by an Islamic group at Deoband forbidding Muslims from singing the national song, Vande Mataram. Usually sung at schools, the official song has been shorn of any Hindu content, and is a hymn in praise of Mother India. By issuing this fatwa, the Indian ulema have put their community in the difficult position of choosing to further isolate themselves from the mainstream, or risk being ostracised.
Indian Muslims in the previous generation were often viewed as a fifth column whose true loyalties lay with Pakistan. Most younger Muslims have put this sentiment behind them, and see themselves as Indians. And apart from occasional outbursts of communal violence, they are well integrated into the fabric of Indian society.
Generally speaking, dual nationality does not really pit one identity against another. At heart, the first generation of migrants retain strong links with their home country. These feelings of patriotism are diluted over the next generation, until total cultural assimilation takes place.
However, the real crisis arises when an individual’s loyalty to his adopted country is pitted against his most deeply held religious beliefs. Thus, when Muslims in the West are convinced by radicals that their adopted countries are acting to dominate and defeat fellow Muslims in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, they are torn between these conflicting pulls.
This is not to excuse people like Major Hasan, but to try and explain why they act as they occasionally do. No religion, including Islam, teaches its followers to take up arms against innocent civilians to kill innocent civilians. And certainly, suicide is a sin in every religion.
In any case, there are several aspects to our identity, and religion is only one of them. But for some, it assumes overwhelming proportions, dominating and subsuming all others.
This is when such individuals can turn against their fellow beings in a nihilistic outburst of violence.
To rationalise this act, they cite their religious belief, as if their faith is superior to all others and somehow justifies killing innocent people.
Major Hasan’s rampage has raised deeply troubling questions, and no doubt his trial will ensure that this debate over identity and loyalty will resonate for a long time. No doubt, too, that many Muslims around the world condone and even admire his murderous attack.
But they need to consider how this single act has placed a cloud of suspicion over other Muslims serving in the American armed forces. They should also ponder over the ultimate futility of terrorism as a means of gaining political ends.
(Dawn)
In Major Hasan’s case, he was clearly torn between his religious belief and his professional loyalty to the US army. The conflict arose when he was told he would soon be sent to serve in a country where the US was at war against Muslims. —Reuters/File Photo
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Christian janitor died saving Muslim students
By Ivan Watson, CNN
Islamabad, Paksitan (CNN) -- Life is slowly getting back to normal at the women's campus of Islamabad's International Islamic University.
The young women who study here chatter on the school's well-manicured lawns, their brightly-colored scarves and Pakistani dresses blowing in the wind on a sunny autumn day.
Barely three weeks ago, this quiet place of learning was the scene of a nightmare. On October 20, two suicide bombers launched near simultaneous attacks on both the men's and women's side of the campus.
Afsheen Zafar, 20, is in mourning. Three of her classmates, girls she describes as "shining stars," were killed on that terrible day.
Still, she says the carnage could have been much worse if not for the actions of a lowly janitor, who was also killed.
"If he didn't stop the suicide attacker, there could have been great, great destruction," Zafar says.
"He's now a legend to us," says another 20-year-old student named Sumaya Ahsan. "Because he saved our lives, our friends' lives."
The janitor's name was Pervaiz Masih. According to eyewitness accounts, the attacker approached disguised in women's clothing. He shot the guard on duty, and then approached the cafeteria, which was packed with hundreds of female students.
Masih intercepted the bomber in the doorway, however, and the bomber self-detonated right outside the crowded hall, spraying many of his explosive vest's arsenal of ball bearings out into the parking lot instead of into the cafeteria.
"The sweeper who was cleaning up here saw someone outside and went towards him," said Nasreen Siddique, a cafeteria worker who was wounded in the head, leg and arm by the blast. "[Masih] told him that he could not come inside because there were girls inside. And then they started arguing. And then we heard a loud blast and all the glass broke."
"Between 300 to 400 girls were sitting in there," said Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik, the rector of the university. "[Pervez Masih] rose above the barriers of caste, creed and sectarian terrorism. Despite being a Christian, he sacrificed his life to save the Muslim girls."
Masih was a member of Pakistan's Christian minority, traditionally one of the poorest communities in the country.
When the attacker struck, Masih had been on the job for less than a week, earning barely $60 a month.
Masih lived with seven other family members, in a single room in a crowded apartment house in the city of Rawalpindi. Until the attack his mother, 70-year old Kurshaid Siddique, worked as a cleaning lady at a nearby house to help make ends meet. Now, she makes a daily pilgrimage to the cemetery where Masih is buried.
Siddique is inconsolable. Asked if she was proud that some people were calling her son a hero, Siddique waved a hand in the air dismissively, answering, "My hero is dead now."
She pulls out a framed photo of her son, pictured wearing a button down white shirt and a thick mustache. When Masih's three-year-old daughter Diya sees his photo, she reaches for it, saying, "Mama, I want that picture."
From time to time, Diya turns to her mother and repeats one word, "Papa."
The Islamic University offered to give Diya a free education and employ Masih's widow, Shaheen Pervaiz.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has promised to award Masih's family 1 million rupees (about $12,000) for his bravery.
"He is a national hero because he saved the life of many girls," said Shahbaz Bhatti, minister of minorities in the Pakistani government. "As a Christian, a person of minority, he stood in front of the Taliban to protect the university."
But the grave of this national hero is a sorry sight. It is located in the poorer, garbage-strewn Christian half of a neighborhood cemetery, less then three feet from a muddy road.
Masih's mother and widow visit every day. One of his sisters crosses herself, then stoops down to pick up an empty pack of cigarettes someone threw onto the little mound of earth.
The family had to borrow money to pay for Masih's funeral and they are now behind on paying the rent. If the government money comes through, Masih's mother would like to decorate her son's grave.
"I would like him to have his name in cement with a nice poetry verse," she says. "And there should be a fence surrounding his grave."
(CNN)
Islamabad, Paksitan (CNN) -- Life is slowly getting back to normal at the women's campus of Islamabad's International Islamic University.
The young women who study here chatter on the school's well-manicured lawns, their brightly-colored scarves and Pakistani dresses blowing in the wind on a sunny autumn day.
Barely three weeks ago, this quiet place of learning was the scene of a nightmare. On October 20, two suicide bombers launched near simultaneous attacks on both the men's and women's side of the campus.
Afsheen Zafar, 20, is in mourning. Three of her classmates, girls she describes as "shining stars," were killed on that terrible day.
Still, she says the carnage could have been much worse if not for the actions of a lowly janitor, who was also killed.
"If he didn't stop the suicide attacker, there could have been great, great destruction," Zafar says.
"He's now a legend to us," says another 20-year-old student named Sumaya Ahsan. "Because he saved our lives, our friends' lives."
The janitor's name was Pervaiz Masih. According to eyewitness accounts, the attacker approached disguised in women's clothing. He shot the guard on duty, and then approached the cafeteria, which was packed with hundreds of female students.
Masih intercepted the bomber in the doorway, however, and the bomber self-detonated right outside the crowded hall, spraying many of his explosive vest's arsenal of ball bearings out into the parking lot instead of into the cafeteria.
"The sweeper who was cleaning up here saw someone outside and went towards him," said Nasreen Siddique, a cafeteria worker who was wounded in the head, leg and arm by the blast. "[Masih] told him that he could not come inside because there were girls inside. And then they started arguing. And then we heard a loud blast and all the glass broke."
"Between 300 to 400 girls were sitting in there," said Professor Fateh Muhammad Malik, the rector of the university. "[Pervez Masih] rose above the barriers of caste, creed and sectarian terrorism. Despite being a Christian, he sacrificed his life to save the Muslim girls."
Masih was a member of Pakistan's Christian minority, traditionally one of the poorest communities in the country.
When the attacker struck, Masih had been on the job for less than a week, earning barely $60 a month.
Masih lived with seven other family members, in a single room in a crowded apartment house in the city of Rawalpindi. Until the attack his mother, 70-year old Kurshaid Siddique, worked as a cleaning lady at a nearby house to help make ends meet. Now, she makes a daily pilgrimage to the cemetery where Masih is buried.
Siddique is inconsolable. Asked if she was proud that some people were calling her son a hero, Siddique waved a hand in the air dismissively, answering, "My hero is dead now."
She pulls out a framed photo of her son, pictured wearing a button down white shirt and a thick mustache. When Masih's three-year-old daughter Diya sees his photo, she reaches for it, saying, "Mama, I want that picture."
From time to time, Diya turns to her mother and repeats one word, "Papa."
The Islamic University offered to give Diya a free education and employ Masih's widow, Shaheen Pervaiz.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani government has promised to award Masih's family 1 million rupees (about $12,000) for his bravery.
"He is a national hero because he saved the life of many girls," said Shahbaz Bhatti, minister of minorities in the Pakistani government. "As a Christian, a person of minority, he stood in front of the Taliban to protect the university."
But the grave of this national hero is a sorry sight. It is located in the poorer, garbage-strewn Christian half of a neighborhood cemetery, less then three feet from a muddy road.
Masih's mother and widow visit every day. One of his sisters crosses herself, then stoops down to pick up an empty pack of cigarettes someone threw onto the little mound of earth.
The family had to borrow money to pay for Masih's funeral and they are now behind on paying the rent. If the government money comes through, Masih's mother would like to decorate her son's grave.
"I would like him to have his name in cement with a nice poetry verse," she says. "And there should be a fence surrounding his grave."
(CNN)
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