I too feel ashamed at the fact that minorities are treated like lesser beings. I have two Christian maids and find them more honest and hardworking than the Muslim men who work in our house. We need to campaign to get rid of the draconian blasphemy law.

There you go again,

Everyone here is blaming the religion. Don’t people understand, that Islam exists in the West as well, in US, there are 7 Million Muslims, so why don’t we have such “atrocities” against others done by Muslims living in the West, and I am one of them, lived in US for 20+ years.

As far as I can tell, its the system and culture of the country, not the RELIGION to be blamed. In Pakistan blame just as easily Blame Islam, Mullah, Masjid, etc. for all the problems being faced in that country.

In US, you can practice your religion, whatever it may be without any fear. You will not be redicule if you have a Full Beard, drive a sports car or luxury car to work, jog, join a health club, while spoting a full 1 foot Muslim Beard. There are many Tableeghi Jamat Professional Computer Scientist Muslim Brothers that even wear Shalwar, Kameez, Taliban Style Turban to work, along with Full Sunaat waali beard to their work places in USA, no one bothers them, infact people appreciate them for their hard work and honesty, and BRILLIANT Mind.

Is this possible in so called Islamic republic of Pakistan? Just the other day, I was on youtube, and some boys in Islamabad were cheering and joking and insulting a fellow and made his video and posted on youtube, where other Pakistanis joined the laughter and insulting remarkers. The fellow’s Crime. He was driving a convertible Sports Car, Imported while sporting a Full BEARD, wearing Shalwar Kameez and turban. People were calling him Mullah, and that he is probably in a rush to go to Lal Masjid, and other non-sense. These sort of comments probably would Less likely to occur in the West. Infact the opposite is true, as I quoted above.

Sorry for the long reply. We need to do some soul searching and Find where the fault really lies. Just don’t blame RELIGION for everything.

The heinous episodes recounted in this article are just the tip of the iceberg and support the author’s conclusion that seeing the Taliban or al-Qaeda as a threat does not represent a glimmer of hope.

As far as I am concerned, it is just the opposite. It is indication that we are continuing to go down the drain. We now have someone or something “new” we can turn our attention to and continue to hide our heads under the sand very much like ostriches.

How many external entities have granted us respite from looking at ourselves? America, India, Russia, communism, the Shia, the Christians, the Ahmadis, the Muslims who do not follow Islam the “right way”, the West, the TV, the media, the weather, the British, the bureaucracy, …

I believe that our State has the characteristics of a fascist state and that it continues to exist as a fascist state becuase our people’s inclinations are of a fascist nature. Our strongest social institutions are power-worship, wealth-worship, authority-worship, status-worship, no-questions-asked obedience to fathers, religion and formal authority, …

Threat or not, this mind frameset is buying support for the ghastly Taliban-elimination war, yet another fascist proceeding. This is total lack of respect for human rights. If the Taliban are guilty of anything, even elementary human rights reuqire that they be tried and condemned, not eliminated with a war-machine, killing and maiming thousands and thousands of innocent in the process. If our rulers have chosen this solution, it only goes to show how weak they are, institutionally and morally.

Too bad and too sad, but we are morally bankrupt. No glimmer of hope.

Iam an indian hindu..working in one of those big tech parks in bangalore..people like Abdul kalam sir ( former president of india) often says looking at us that a new freedom struggle is been fought by the youngsters..yes to lift us from poverty…as we hindus and muslims fought together against the british….we youngsters lets fight together against every extremism. no religion teaches us to kill or hate….lets make this subcontinent a developed place

Most people in this site are obsessed with religion. Religion is an individual matter and should be left like that. But for majority of muslims, it is a DEKHAWA,and nothing else.They follow religion only when it suits them, and ignores when it goes against it. Islam forbids healthy people begging from anyone, and inspires people to work for their bread. But forty percent of adult muslims do not work and live off the benefits. They think it is their divine right and they take a pleasure that they are fooling the white kaffirs. I wonder who the real kaffir is…

I agree that when most people think of Islamic laws they think of human rights abuse, degradation of women, and forced compliance with outmoded, irrelevant dress codes.

The sad reality is that Islam has been hijacked by misogynistic power hungry mullahs who have convinced their followers that it is OK to impose their beliefs and traditions on everyone.

Women don’t have rights. Non-muslims don’t have rights. Other muslims don’t have rights. The only rights they are allowed to have are the ones graciously bestowed upon them by the largesse of the all powerful, dogmatic mullahs who are beyond all reproach and accountability.

Why should a Christian or Parsi or Shia or secular Sunni have to forcibly obey the whims of these power hungry, sadistic mullahs?

This may be off topic but the following phrase is used quite often. “any moslem who does not follow the teaching of Islam is not a true moslem.”

These kind of statements does not mean a thing. People and kids are getting killed and maimed in name of Islam. In Mumbai, hundreds of childen were maimed by mindless gunfire by Kasab and Co. They went about claiming to be in service of Islam.

Many moslems just walk away from guilt and shame, by saying Islam does not sanction it. They sound rather irrelevant and hackneyed.

Come on, be brave. Accept that violence in name of Islam is real. It will be only then you would be able to do anything about it.

Wow Naveen, where their is a will, their is HOPE. The bloggers here provides the proof that ISLAM is CARING and COMPASSIONATE. Do not loose hope and carry on the good work.
With people like YOU and the attached bloggers, PAKISTAN will rise.

Whenever I think of Islamic laws, I think of abuse of human rights. I think of Hadood laws and the Blasphemy laws. Someone, please prove me wrong, and logically, please. Can’t we Muslims just be humans.

I am amzed by the other writers on the same subject. Islam has shown every body the real subject to deal with each other and how to respect the minorities and their relligion.
But if any moslem who does not follow the teaching of Islam is not a true moslem. The person who goes against the spirtit of Islam is not a Moslem. Please do not judge us against the terrorist and claim to be the real fundamentalist. Islam is for giving and respects the other relegions.

I personally believe all the problems facing pakistan will be sorted out if you confine Islam into four walls of a mosque removing it from your day to day life. once you are out of mosque after the prayers, I think you are a human being like all other. speaking personally, we hindus never see a priest unless there is a religious function or pooja in our home. I don’t talk about religion in family circles.

Our people need more and proper understanding of the Law and teachings of Islam. Education is the only way that can help them. Law needs to be forced in a more strict manner so that the criminals dont get away with a bail. These sensitives issues need to be highlighted in a proper manner so that a learning is created through it. Many MNA’s are sitting in the national assembly, enjoying the luxuries through our hard earned and paid taxes. They need to take out time from their busy foreign trips and spend time with their own people, I believe. The government need to support minorities and women in a strong manner. Child marriage should be be treated as a severe crime and the law offenders should be penalized harshly so that the others will think thousand times before taking any such steps.

I read the comments of other people. I agree that any non muslims in Pakistani, and should have equal rights as Pakistanis and their religious beleives should be respected by every one.
This brutality is not confined to poor and underdeveloped countries. Developed nations have committed more brutality in the world. Like treating the prisoners of with extreme cruelty, in spite of guideline of UN resolution about the rights of prisoners of war.

Why blame laws? There is no law in Pakistan condoning either of the two acts mentioned by Naveen here. It is a fact that he people are becoming more selfish and willing to harm others for their own gains. The only solution is to return to the true teachings of the religion.

Good article.

We need to do some soul searching to see why minorities feel the pressure to convert to Islam in Pakistan. The number of minorities has significantly declined since partition. That is not the sign of a country that celebrates diversity.

This needs fixing.

Dear Sir,
There cannot be hope without society investment in arts and culture. Finer aspects of life seem to be getting scarcer in whatever we hear from Pakistan. Gone are the days of Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Nusrat Fateh Ali. Even Junoon seems distant.
It reflects in the blogs on Dawn. I have not come across a blog on art or film. [ Quite thankfully there have been a couple on cricket].

Pessimism won’t help, we must hold on to this glimmer of hope. I think such events have been happening in our society forever. There have always been some people who commit such hideous crimes and who condemned those crimes. My glimmer of hope is the empowerement of media in every form especially social media. Earlier many stories like these used to go un-reported, un-noticed, but now they come into light almost instantly and people debate on them and spread awareness about these social issues. I hope crimes like these will reduce in the near future if not elminated.

I remember when I was a kid in the 1970s we had Christian Mass services on TV during Christmas, and restaurants did not have to close during the day in Ramadan. We have since gone backwards in terms of human rights. I am Muslim but I had many Christian and Parsi friends growing up in Karachi.

After 60 years of independence, we are truly a failed state. Between the mullahs, the generals and the zamindars, the country is suffering.

We will not progress as a country until we truly free our people from slavery by abolishing the medieval feudal system and rein in the mullahs to make religion a private, not a State, matter.

Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, there is not even a glimmer of hope in the form of any inspired, visionary leadership to steer the country out of this morass.

All good and bad attributes in our society including described by Naveen are built in our culture and tradition. People converted to Islam but they did not covert their old practices that were deeply rooted in them before they became Muslims. We are the same people as we used to be prior to converting to Islam and have not changed a bit by being Muslims. So what is the solution of our ills that we inherit?

disappointed with no hopes

“La Ikraha fid deen”. There is no compulsion in religion. Islam is the other name of tolerance. It was through this virtue that made Islam acceptable and fastest growing relgion in the world.

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

– Winston Churchill

[They are EVERYWHERE!]

Honest article and well raised issues. The current troubles we face as a nation can be attributed to one thing — shameless hypocrisy in the name of religion. This pattern is universal in the subcontinent and more disgustingly in Pakistan. Unfortunately this is fueled further by hatred of minorities that has been encouraged by the guardians of religion for their selfish goals. And the ‘moderate’ hypocrites also refuse to acknowledge the mistakes committed in the name of religion in Pakistan.

The raw deal for women and atrocities meted to the minorities in Pakistan are as unconscionable as the surge of Taliban. These evils have arisen from the abuse of religion for political purposes without envisioning the effects.

“…the courts frequently condone child marriages…” Bad enough that there are many judges whose integrity may be suspect, I didn’t realize they were fundo judges too like many people have become. Or maybe they just want to go back to a primitive Jirga system where there’s no intelligence or integrity.

The cancer of narrowness and intolerance runs deep and wide in our society, and it will take a certain kind of visionary leadership to start a therapeutic process. Unfortunately, there is not a glimmer of that on the horizon.

Sad but true. It is time we did some soul searching.

Why is it that the entire country loves to join hands and get riled up about America and politicians and anything that involves a foreign enemy but no one seems to care about women / minority rights and other issues that would require some introspection, as the problem is clearly with us and not ‘them’? The whole nonsense about being an under-developed country is the biggest cop-out ever, by the way. The state condoning the rape a of child is not illiteracy, it’s a crime (and please don’t sugarcoat it and call it a ‘marriage.’ I really don’t see a glimmer of hope either, until someone with enough courage stands up to fight for the separation of religion and state comes along.

Naveen has raised all very important issues. Frankly, I feel ashamed when I see what we have been doing with minorities. What I don’t understand is that why the minority abuse issue is mixed with the taliban issue. In a larger context it is correct that our rulers have been guilty of human rights violation(Bangladesh saga is a prime example) and Taliban does exactly the same.I believe that we as a nation has a lot to do to protect the minority rights and human rights in general. What writer has failed to understand is that the example she gave about the exploitation of religion by the villagers and the under age marriage phenomena is not accepted or condoned by any group, sect or party. Taliban on the other hand is an ideology which believe and preach the killing of innocents. Taliban justify their barbaric acts in the light of their interpretation of religion(which has nothing to do with Islam). This is a fight of the very existence of Pakistan.Our brave soldiers are giving their lives for our mother land. I don’t think it is fair by any means to dilute the seriousness of Taliban fight by comparing it to any other issue, even if it is done unknowingly(like in this case).

Like the dishonorable ‘Honor Killing’ — Blasphemy ‘law’ in Pakistan is yet another shameful medieval instrument to persecute the hapless minorities.

It is time for a 21st century Pakistan to abolish this ignoble ignominy.

Had the obsolete & stale laws presently enforced in Pakistan been replaced, ‘the glimmer of hope’ would have turned into ‘ray of hope’ eventually bringing full optimism to the less-optimistic or pessimistic personalities.
The modern laws compatible with the present life style must be re-drafted by the sovereign parliament followed by interpretation (of all newly enacted laws) by the apex court sitting in a full bench capacity.
Definitely, that alone would guarantee a quick and an affordable justice to all.

The people of Pakistan are tired of lack of justice or a delayed justice.
“Justice delayed is justice denied”———————The said statement would never be needed as a reminder again—hopefully.

The ‘Pakistan Penal Code’ needs an over-haul and updating of its ‘stale laws & punishments.’
The ‘Criminal Procedure Code’ is also full of ‘fault-lines’ creating undue hardship for many.
The ‘Law of Evidence’ must be rectified enough to accommodate all-important issues of significance, which remain ‘un-answered’ throughout the trial because of the inherent defects.
The practice of ‘under-age marriage’ should be strictly punishable with a harsher and more rigorous law.
All the loopholes in the law must be removed for the sake of ‘fair enforcement’ of the law in question.
The law of “Blasphemy” is applicable only in the due course of law by the State alone; hence cannot be misapplied at all.

On the contrary, when the public start taking the law in to their own hands, then there comes a real trouble because anti-social elements or the naive people always play in the hands of some other ‘interested parties’ hidden behind the scene.
Such ‘anti-Pakistan’ hidden-forces always look for an opportunity where they can fuel the ignited fire, so that a chaotic condition start emerging and the country’s reputation is on the line.
Therefore, the motivated opportunists, who are looking for igniting a criminal activity for their own designs, would never ever spare any available chance where they could fuel a minor infraction and turn the same in to a very real messy situation.
Since such anti-social elements constantly work for their back-stage forces (masters), the public should remain vigilant about them; and never let such ‘rogues’ take over criminally in the streets.

Almost, all troubles start for selfish reasons leading to the endangerment alone of the “Writ of the state”.

All the residents of Pakistan irrespective of ‘the Cast or Creed’ are equally entitled to the guaranteed rights granted under the charter of rights and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Therefore, there should be nothing to worry about.

“Anyone harms another is liable under a civil or a criminal penalty.”

Sana has commented well. It is for the government to correct and implement these colonial era laws forthwith.Abdul Rasool is using his daughter to fulfill his own desires, this is inhuman. There should be a law to ban underage marriage and all girls marrying in the country should produce a certificate confirming that they have attained the age of puberty before their marriage can be registered.People producing bogus certificates should be arrested and told that the marriage cannot take place now.
All citizens of Pakistan have the same rights, people wrongly think that being muslims they have rights over other religions.Once again it is the duty of the government to educate people about this perception.

we dont have to lose hope as hope is the thing that make a person an extra odeniry human in life.

there for always hope for the best.

In islam Muhammad (S.A.W) says respect the religions of others and all the muslims need to teach this to their children.

Good and realistic, however some of us did think this was a ray of hope because inspite of the many problems we have as you highlighted above, the very fact that we now seem to be at leasty mentally united against the taliban is a big step forward.

I agree its hard to find a silver lining in this cloud of despair but look when you’re at the bottom of the barrel its a festival if anything goes right.

Once we rid ourselves of the Taliban… we might stay united for the other rot also plaguing us who knows?

So I wonder if Zahid Hamid is aware of such instances and if yes he addresses those too in his programs. I have noticed that even if a minor incident has occurred in India many years back, he continues to refer to it in his show years later as an example of intolerance of Indians.

Root cause of all issues are with people. Its not an issue with an under-developed country, but an under-developed mind.

It is woeful that brutality is condoned on the grounds of our contry being “under-developed”, and the supposed lack of an upward trend is the yardstick measuring our congeniality and tolerance! Our kind has clearly not been touched by the milk of kindness. The art of introspection is lost on all. I stand grieved and humbled by such lack of contrition.

Its really sad to know that. I was really shocked at the extent of sufferings that our non-muslim countrymen have to endure due to these controversial blasphemy laws. Another disturbing aspect of this is that whenever someone is apprehended for commiting any such act, no thorough investigation in to the matter is carried out and people just get out of their minds and start targetting other innocent non-muslims. I totally agree with sana.Its high time that we realize to correct ourselves instead of pointing fingers at others.
For blaming somebody else for our miseries is simpler than realizing and correcting our own mistakes.
As Mahatima Ghandi said that u have to be the change u wish to see in the world.

In an under-developed country, such incidents are to be expected. The real measure of change is not whether they are happening or not, but whether they are happening more or less than before.

Blasphemy law and other such laws are only going to make the world more biased against muslim countries.

I think until religion is not the dominant factor in all matters, public and private, in Pakistan, then there is little hope for true reform. Even if the economy recovers and Pakistan witnesses rapid industrial growth, social and cultural development will have to catch-up. The two are not necessarily intertwined. Religion certainly is not to be abandoned but it must eventually retreat from public life into the private realm.

Zahida’s case came up because it was a reported crime. And you are right about the draconian practices of our bureaucracy.

A good first piece, Naveen. A sombre one, and one that I hope is not indicative of the way the country as such is going. Keep them coming, especially for those of us ensconced in the overly comfortable bosom of continental Europe!

I have seen so many such problems that I long ago had to give up all hope for any reform. One has to call a spade a spade and hit the nail on the head rather than beat around the bush.

It’s a rather realistic approach to facts around us. I wouldn’t call it pessimism, it’s the reality check we all need. Unfortunately the orientation of our beliefs and approach to things is ‘messianic’. When it comes to bringing about change we solely depend on the ‘other’ to do it rather than believing in ourselves. It is this belief that hinders our understanding of misery around us and the issues that need to be tackled; living a single track life where we pick one ‘factor’ and blame our life long miseries on it. The horrors our people have put up through, it’s sad that some of us have chosen to live like ‘victims’ rather than survivors. Our inner pessimism can only be shed by giving ourselves a reality touch. One person can’t solves our problems just like one person can’t be blamed for all our wrongs.

Thank you for addressing these issues. I’ve never understood the purpose of the ‘blasphemy’ law.

Christian boy asking right of way? Imagine if it was a Hindu girl!