Remembering Salmaan Taseer By Pervez Hoodbhoy

FROM DR KALIM IRFANI

"Political assassinations occur everywhere. But the Pakistani public
reaction to Taseer's assassination horrified the world. As the news
hit the national media, spontaneous celebrations erupted in places; a
murderous unrepentant mutineer had been instantly transformed into a
national hero. Glib-tongued television anchors sought to convince
viewers that Taseer had brought ill unto himself. Religious political
parties did not conceal their satisfaction, and the imam of Lahore's
Badshahi Masjid declined the government's request to lead the funeral
prayers. Rehman Malik, the interior minister, sought to curry favour
with religious forces by declaring that, if need be, he would "kill a
blasphemer with my own hands".

------------

Salman Taseer was murdered on January 4, 2011

Remembering Salmaan Taseer
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
Published: January 1, 2012

The writer teaches physics and political science at LUMS and is a
former head of the Physics Department at Quaid-i-Azam University. He
holds a D.Phil in nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

Governor Salmaan Taseer died at the hands of a religious fanatic on
January 4 last year. Fearlessly championing a deeply unpopular cause,
this brave man had sought to revisit the country's blasphemy law
which, as he saw it, was yet another means of intimidating Pakistan's
embattled religious minorities. This law — which is unique in having
death as the minimum penalty — would have sent to the gallows an
illiterate Christian peasant woman, Aasia Bibi, who stood accused by
her Muslim neighbours after a noisy dispute. Taseer's publicly-voiced
concern for human life earned him 26 high-velocity bullets from one of
his security guards, Malik Mumtaz Qadri. The other guards watched
silently.
In this long, sad, year more has followed. Justice Pervez Ali Shah,
the brave judge who ultimately sentenced Taseer's murderer in spite of
receiving death threats, has fled the country. Aasia Bibi is rotting
away in jail, reportedly in solitary confinement and in acute
psychological distress. Shahbaz Taseer, the governor's son, was
abducted in late August — presumably by Qadri's sympathisers. He
remains untraceable. Shahbaz Bhatti, another vocal voice against the
blasphemy law, was assassinated weeks later on March 2.

Political assassinations occur everywhere. But the Pakistani public
reaction to Taseer's assassination horrified the world. As the news
hit the national media, spontaneous celebrations erupted in places; a
murderous unrepentant mutineer had been instantly transformed into a
national hero. Glib-tongued television anchors sought to convince
viewers that Taseer had brought ill unto himself. Religious political
parties did not conceal their satisfaction, and the imam of Lahore's
Badshahi Masjid declined the government's request to lead the funeral
prayers. Rehman Malik, the interior minister, sought to curry favour
with religious forces by declaring that, if need be, he would "kill a
blasphemer with my own hands".

In psychological terms, the reaction of a substantial part of
Pakistan's lawyers' community was still more disturbing. Once again,
they made history. Earlier it had been for their Black Coat
Revolution, apparently welcome evidence that Pakistani civil society
was well and thriving. But this time it was for something far less
positive. Television screens around the world showed the nauseating
spectacle of hundreds of lawyers feting a murderer, showering rose
petals upon him, and pledging to defend him pro-bono.
Another phalanx of lawyers, headed by Khawaja Sharif, former Chief
Justice of the Lahore High Court, rose up to constitute Qadri's
defence team. In his court testimony, a smugly-defiant assassin
declared that he had executed Allah's will. Justice Sharif agreed,
saying that Qadri had "merely done his duty as a security guard". He
said it was actually Taseer who had broken the law of the land by
attempting to defend a person convicted of blasphemy and, in doing so,
had "hurt the feelings of crores of Muslims".
Taseer's was a high-profile episode, but there are countless other
equally tragic ones which receive little public attention. Surely it
is time to reflect on what makes so many Pakistanis disposed towards
celebrating murder, lawlessness, and intolerance. To understand the
kind of psychological conditioning that has turned us into nasty
brutes, cruel both to ourselves and to others, I suggest that the
reader sample some of the Friday khutbas (sermons) delivered across
the country's estimated 250,000 mosques.
It is surely impossible to hear all khutbas, but a few hundred ones
have been recorded on tape by researchers, transcribed into Urdu,
translated into English, and categorised by subject at
www.mashalbooks.org. Since there was no conscious bias in selecting
the mosques, they can be reasonably assumed to be representative
examples.
Often using abusive language, the mullahs excoriate their enemies:
America, India, Israel, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Shias, and Qadianis.
Before appreciative crowds, they breathe fire against the enemies of
Islam and modernity. Music is condemned to be evil, together with life
insurance and bank interest. In frenzied speeches they put women at
the centre of all ills, demand that they be confined to the home,
covered in purdah, and forbidden to use lipstick or go to beauty
parlours.

But the harshest words are reserved for the countless "deviant"
Muslims. Governor Taseer was considered one. The former minister for
foreign affairs, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, is another. In a foul-mouthed
speech that the reader can hear on the above website, Qureshi is
denounced as "haramzada" by Maulana Altafur Rehman Shah of Muhammadi
Masjid in Gujrat and described as a "keeper [mujawar] of graves".
Quoting Nawa-e-Waqt, this maulana of the Ahl-e-Hadith school calls
Qureshi a lapdog who stands with his "cheek on the cheek of Hillary
Clinton". What, he asks, could be a matter of greater shame?
Parliamentarian Jamshed Dasti, also accused of grave worship, is
harshly condemned for being unable to name the first five verses of
the Holy Quran.
One presumes that most listeners have enough intelligence to ignore
such violent fulminations. But at times their effects are deadly. One
such sermon, according to Qadri's recorded testimony, was the turning
point for him. He had heard a fiery cleric, Qari Haneef, at a
religious gathering in his neighborhood, Colonel Yousuf Colony, on
December 31, 2010. It is then, says Qadri, that he made up his mind to
kill his boss. Qadri had participated in the gathering in his official
uniform, reciting the naat in praise of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). His
official gun had been slung around his shoulder at the meeting. Four
days later, he fulfilled his goal.

To be sure, not all khutbas are ugly and violent. But even if 10
percent are — and the data suggests this is an underestimate — that
still makes for roughly 25,000 dangerous ones every week. A civilised
society cannot sustain this for too long. Surely, the Pakistani state
will sooner or later have to come up with a mechanism for regulating
what can be said at religious gatherings. A possible model might be
that of Egypt, where khutbas are pre-recorded and approved by the
ulema of Jamia Al-Azhar. Without some agreed form of control, Pakistan
shall sink ever deeper into religious anarchy and fanaticism.


Published in The Express Tribune, January 2nd,  2012.

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