Faith and practice: Are your beliefs that hollow?

When Mr Salmaan Taseer was murdered, there was no shortage of people who said, “But why did he have to speak out against blasphemy laws? He should have known better.” As if something as sacred and deep rooted as a religion is threatened by a differing point of view.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | Int'l Desk
Source/Credit: Pakistan Today
By Waqqas Mir | April 9, 2012

The year is 1948. Major Mahmud, an Ahmadi, is murdered in a manner described by the 1954 Justice Munir Report as “singularly brutal.” He is an army officer. His car suffers a breakdown close to a place where an angry mob has held a meeting denouncing Ahmadis — this is 1948 when Pakistan does not have its own constitution providing for a definition of a Muslim and a non-Muslim. Major Mahmud is chased by a crowd after they learn of his beliefs. He suffers multiple injuries from blunt instruments. He is helpless against the attacking mob which stabs him multiple times till his entrails fall out. But this isn’t the majority’s problem, right?

The year is 2012. An Ahmadi school teacher is picked up by the police and dies in police custody, allegedly because of torture. People fail to protest. After all, he is an Ahmadi and many people die of torture in police custody so why should he get special attention?

A woman commits suicide after being the victim of an acid attack. The media raises questions while shying away from others. A popular talk show host becomes an apologist for the attacker — detailing how women almost ask for these crimes to be committed against them. Mr Javed Chaudhry’s article was repulsive in many ways. As a lawyer, I have all the respect for anyone wanting to explain why people commit crimes since society often does not discuss that. But there is a difference between an explanation and a justification; the latter imparts a moral quality to heinous acts. Even the most skilled advocate would think twice about running the sort of misogynistic defence that the likes of Mr. Chaudhury have furthered. I said skilled, not typical.

A society’s reaction to crimes against its most vulnerable is important. Equally important is its reaction to crimes committed against people who further unpopular discourse. This after all is a society where many politicians including the increasingly self-righteous and popular ones explain suicide bombings by blaming drone attacks. As if every child being brainwashed in suicide bombing schools has lost someone or every instructor there has suffered a loss and turned vengeful. That is the beauty of rhetoric, I guess.

When popular opinion makers and politicians say the absurd many will just accept it. When Mr Salmaan Taseer was murdered, there was no shortage of people who said, “But why did he have to speak out against blasphemy laws? He should have known better.” As if something as sacred and deep rooted as a religion is threatened by a differing point of view.

Every time I write about these issues I get a ton of emails saying that we have bigger problems, that corruption and power cuts affect people’s lives more than these issues. And my reaction, each time, to such reasoning is the same; I am deeply disturbed. It is easy for people to say “we have bigger problems” when they have never been the target of a systematic campaign aimed at certain viewpoints or beliefs. Adopting a deeply selfish stance to the plight of others might have reasons but again it is not justified. Not by any variant of logical reasoning if you care about law or justice. Why should our imagination be so limited? Why can’t we tolerate or even defend unpopular viewpoints expressed by people?

There is something deeply rotten about a society where murderers are greeted with rose-petals while victims are blamed. The discourse surrounding these issues is inherently twisted and the opinion makers engage in a great disservice by not clarifying the issues. Of course all crime should be condemned but that does not mean that we stop condemning certain crimes because they involve people who say things that make us uncomfortable. Islam is not threatened if someone takes issue with the way blasphemy laws are implemented or the way they have been drafted. Man made laws can have many problems and many of our laws do. If people can make a general argument about how the justice system often fails to deliver, why shouldn’t someone be allowed to target its specifics and speak for people who are victimised? You do not have to agree with someone’s faith or beliefs but that does not have to result in you failing to condemn the fact that people are targeted because of their beliefs.

This culture of becoming apologists for criminals is hurting us deeply. Then there are also the likes of Mr Zaid Hamid who decided to approach the apex court of the land to deal with traitors. Here is the first bit of bad news for Mr Hamid: your lawyer doesn’t seem to have given you the right advice. And here is some advice: if you believe in a country and in a religion, then you insult both if you think that disagreement is a threat. I vehemently disagree with what Mr Hamid says and also with what most blatantly patriarchal television hosts say when crimes are committed against women. But the solution is not to kill their speech. The solution, I believe, is more speech. Let the fearmongers insult their own intelligence. But I am not willing to allow them to threaten our collective freedom. And if our freedom matters to us then we should use that to condemn, in the strongest terms, the crimes against the most vulnerable members of our society. There is nothing to be gained by becoming apologists for the most heinous crimes. In fact, we imperil our own freedom each time we do so.

And shame on those who raise slogans of patriotism and religiosity only to go running to courts just because someone disagrees with them. Genuine love for country or religion is never this hollow.


The writer is a Barrister and an Advocate of the High Courts. He is currently pursuing his LL.M in the US and can be reached at wmir.rma@gmail.com or on Twitter @wordoflaw

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