Fighting The Shadows

OCTOBER 2001 - How much longer does the President wish to wait before he really cracks down on the mullahs who have no other purpose than to use a religious cover and wage a war that will earn them the political clout they have hungered for? Already people have died, business has suffered and people from all parts of the country have faced unnecessary hardship just because the mullahs, who unlike the rest of us don’t really have to go to work daily, need their fix and take out processions, shout slogans and burn effigies. For too many years, they have used the cover of a religion and our collective inability to read and understand Arabic, to exploit us in the name of God. They have no comprehension about the spirit of their faith and they have no desire to support the causes that deserve support. Instead, at every opportunity, they try to extract maximum mileage from issues by which they can fan hatred, spread discontent and project as barbarians from the Stone Age. They have no love or compassion for the common people of Pakistan who have again and again, rejected them and their warped, myopic worldview. And yet they continue ranting and raving.

For years, privately, the ordinary people of Pakistan have seen the mullahs as ridiculous objects intent on gobbling enormous quantities of halwa and possessing little knowledge of the religion or its interpretation in a world where people no longer travel on camels. Instead of reinterpreting the religion to make it a living part of the people’s daily lives, they have simply flooded simple and sensible tenets with all the mumbo jumbo they could cook up. As the spirit has receded, it has been replaced with a plethora of rituals that has no meaning and cannot please the Maker or cleanse the human soul. The more twisted and confounding these rituals have become, the more people have switched off mentally about what the mullahs have to tell them. There is no element of rational and calm discussion between the people and the self-proclaimed advocates of their faith. And yet even the strongest willed amongst us would rather not take them on.

Most Pakistanis are poor and the vast majority lead lives on the edge of poverty barely able to keep together body and soul. Ask these simple people what they want and it won’t be revenge from the rest of the world or death to the infidels. None of them want to lead the lashkar when it plants the green and white flag on the Red Fort and none of them are interested in bayoneting the Hindus and freeing the people of Kashmir from the tyranny of the Indians. They feel for the Kashmiri people – who doesn’t, but this is not their priority in life. Their lives are so precarious and their desires so basic that the grand design of conquests and liberation are concepts that are beyond their lives. The simple folk of this land show more humanity than all the mullahs put together and multiplied by a billion. They are poor no doubt, but they have a spirit of generosity that you cannot find in city people. All they want is to lead their lives in peace and get two square meals a day, yet the state apparatus has for years terrorized and harassed them through the petty officials under whose malevolent eyes these people live. The police insult them, exploit them, rob them and kill them. They have absolutely no compunction about inflicting the most barbaric and inhuman punishment on innocent and guilty alike. Wherever possible, the mullahs have led mobs with frenzied slogans to attack and destroy whole communities. The Ahmedis and Christians have suffered grievously at their hands as have Hindus and the police have played important supporting roles in such atrocities, being at best silent spectators and often, part of the mob, aiding and abetting those who are driven by hatred and bestiality.

Whenever this land has been hit by calamities, the religious parties have been found wanting. The people of Pakistan are generous with their charity even though they have very little to share. Don’t think of the landed gentry or that miniscule minor minority which is loaded, but the average person in the street. It may come as a surprise to many that the charity pie runs into something like Rs 7 billion annually. Although many charities support these figures as being accurate, even if one were to discount this sum by half, the sum is still astronomical. Of this amount, it is estimated that the ‘jihadi’ parties walk off with a cool 75% and in the sacrificial skin trade, another lucrative source of funding, the Jamaat holds almost 80% share. In effect it represents a huge tax free, query free coffer. These funds are not used for the welfare of those who need succour, but in fanning sectarianism, violence, intolerance and bigotry. The sad statistics that no longer shock the Pakistanis stare us in the face every day. Dozens of Shia doctors have been murdered in Karachi and the sight of the faithful offering Friday and Eid prayers with gun men patrolling the prayer areas is a sight that should shame every one of those who use religion as a weapon with which to destabilize and demoralize an entire country. No tolerance can flow from the tongues of those who scream and shout sermons at the top of their voices; not the word of God or the gentleness of His love and mercy, but hatred and anger hurled into the atmosphere. What unity can these self-styled gentlemen inspire who are unwilling to stand and say their daily prayers with another of their kind? And yet, among them are men of learning and wisdom, who have the knowledge and understanding of their faith and who can soothe the people in the hour of their greatest need. Sadly these are few and their voices are lost in the roar of the zealot and the sound of automatic gunfire.

As we face one of the gravest ordeals of our existence about the outcome of which no one can make any prediction, it is a pity that instead of rallying together as one people, the mullahs are bent on destroying property and lives for a cause that is politically motivated. It may be their desire to support the Taliban, but who have the Taliban been fighting and killing for years? Hindus, Israelis or Muslims? Is it Jihad when Muslims kill Muslims and in such cases, who is waging Jihad? The Taliban or the Northern Alliance? The Russians destroyed Afghanistan and the Americans are doing likewise, but the sad thing is that the poor and oppressed people of that ill-fated land have continued to suffer. The Taliban who have ruled over 90% of the land have done nothing for their people and the millions starving and fed by Islam’s arch enemies is a slur on all those who wage a holy crusade yet treat their people worse than animals. Instead of waging a war against America and shouting slogans against their government, the mullahs should have long ago channeled their much evident energy into improving the condition of their beloved Afghans. But then, why go to Afghanistan? What about our own people the bulk of whom are poor and need help. How many times has anyone seen a picture of Maulana Sami ul Haq for instance, doing flood relief work, or funding a dispensary or starting a family planning clinic? We all know the answer. Slogans don’t fill stomachs and pushing and shoving doesn’t build nations. The mullahs of Pakistan have no faith in the people with whom they share this country and what’s worse, they don’t feel a thing for them. Their lives are spent promoting petty and shallow causes under the cloak of religion. The people know this and that is why they reject them time and time again, as they have done this time. The crowds that have shouted slogans and burnt public property are small and largely comprise disgruntled Afghan refugees who are being manipulated in this situation. Pity the nation who has champions that only fight shadows.