Minorities’ protection
Speaking at an event in connection with Minorities Day at
the Aiwan-i-Sadr (Presidency) on July 28, 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan
revealed that the Kartarpur Corridor will be opened in November in time for the
550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. This will open the door for
Sikh yatris to visit the holy site. Minorities Day was being observed in
connection with Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s address to the Constituent
Assembly on August 11, 1947. In that address on the eve of independence, the
Quaid had laid down the principles on which the new state would be created,
especially on its attitude to religion. Basically, the Quaid enjoined us to
create a tolerant, inclusive society that would respect all religions,
especially minority faiths. The white stripe in our national flag is a symbol
of the vision of the Quaid, acknowledging and including our religious
minorities in the national make up. Imran Khan referred during his speech to
the role model of the Madina state, where not only were religious minorities
protected, but forcible religious conversion and subsequent forced marriage, as
has been rife in Sindh and other parts of the country with regard to Hindu
girls, was unheard of. The Prophet’s (PBUH) example of the treatment of
non-believers, even those who treated him harshly, is our shining example to
follow. It was precisely this treatment that won over the hearts and minds of
those non-believers to Islam. Therefore Imran Khan’s pointing to the
inadmissibility of killing someone because of their religion rings as true
today as it did in Madina.
Having stated these pristine principles of the state and
religion, some serious introspection is required regarding whether we have
adhered to that vision or not as a state and society. A relatively tolerant
Pakistan has been rendered virtually unrecognisable over its life, especially
in the last four decades. Religious extremism, given an unprecedented fillip
during the Afghan wars, has rendered the Quaid’s Pakistan a country where
hatred for other faiths and even different sects amongst Muslims has eaten away
the vitals of our tolerance. One only has to recall that the murderer of then
Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, who was hanged for his crime, has virtually
been elevated to the status of a saint and his grave turned into a shrine by
the benighted followers of a certain sect. On the other hand, Maulana Fazlur
Rehman, who has been centrally instrumental in bringing the opposition together
against the government and has now delivered an ultimatum to the government to
resign in August or face a march on Islamabad in October that will shut down
the capital, joins many clerics in our society in reiterating the finality of
the Prophethood of Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH). Surely, this is an issue long
settled, and the ‘anxiety’ on the part of such clerics may owe more to politics
than religion. The October date is significant in this context since that is
the month Aasia Bibi was finally freed one year ago. It is in defence of that poor
Christian woman, falsely accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death, that
Salmaan Taseer was martyred. If the Maulana hopes to mobilise the supporters of
Mumtaz Qadri, Salmaan Taseer’s assassin, thereby, it speaks volumes for the
manner in which religion, particularly on such sensitive and controversial
issues, has become woven into the warp and woof of our polity.
Perhaps it is time not only to return to the principles of
Madina, as Imran Khan wishes us to, but also to the words of wisdom of the
Quaid who, recognizing the diversity of religions in our country, enjoined us
to truly imbibe the lessons of peace and tolerance that lie at the heart of
Islam and treat our religious minorities with the respect they deserve. Were we
to achieve such a milestone, Imran Khan would be more than justified in
claiming that the Naya (New) Pakistan he has proclaimed, has truly arrived.
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