Source & Credit: Ithaca NY News
By Afzal ur Rehman | June 20, 2010
I want to draw attention toward deteriorating human rights and religious tolerance in Pakistan. Whereas the atrocities are committed by a few, it is perhaps the silence of the Sunni majority that enables them to do so. This silence gives the perpetrators tacit approval for their horrific deeds and prevents the authorities from taking decisive action. Politicians pay only lip service because they feel that their voters do not want them to take any effective actions.
On May 28, during Friday prayers, two squads of gunmen entered a pair of mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a minority Islamic sect, in Pakistan's southeastern city of Lahore. Methodically, they emptied AK-47s into the assembled worshippers, lobbed grenades and exploded suicide vests. Their rampage has claimed 95 lives.
Tehrik Taliban Punjab claimed responsibility for the attacks. Those who survived the massacre said that the terrorists faced no resistance from the police during their attack and had sufficient time to examine the dead bodies and kill those who were still alive.
While the terrorists and their sponsors gloated over their accomplishments openly, no condemnation of killing of innocents was heard from the mantle bearers of Islam in the mosques of Pakistan or from the authorities charged with protecting the citizens.
The normally vociferous media were unusually reticent. Some commentators expressed dismay at the violence, but few dared to voice support for the Ahmadi community itself. Politicians turned yellow. Few spoke in support of Ahmadis. Even fewer visited the bereaved.
Widely watched satellite TV channels in Pakistan give regular air time to clerics who call for killing of Ahmadis during their appearance on television. Authorities pay no attention.
Even though the attack against Ahmadis was the largest in the province of Punjab, killings of Christians, Shias and other minority religious groups, just for the crime of practicing their faith, have been routine and continue to be tolerated. Almost universally, no prosecutions occur.
The silence of outrage from the Sunni majority is deafening. It makes one think of the words of President Bush — "With us or against us." It is time that the silent Sunni majority in Pakistan and their counterparts in America, most of whom are probably peace-loving and just-minded, to be vocal in opposition to the acts of religious fanatics, lest they be counted among them.
Dr. Afzal ur Rehman lives in Vestal.
Read original post here: Abuses in Pakistan deserve condemnation
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