On Friday a mob of hate filled Muslims went on a killing and looting spree in the small christian community of Gojra, a village about 160 kms from Lahore. The reason for doing this? An alleged incident of the desecration of the Quran at a christian wedding.
7 People were killed in this rampage Some 50 houses were burned down and more than 100 were looted by the protesters, Bhatti (federal minister for minorities) said on CNN.
I am ashamed, we are always worried about our image these days and the image of our country, we as a blogging community have been organizing a “go green” campaign for the 14th of Aug, to highlight the brilliance of our nation but sadly there seems to be no point to a campaign like this when our nation resorts to atrocities like Gojra.
We tout the fact that Islam is a religion of peace, we scream to the rafters when a hate incident against Muslims takes place anywhere in the world, are we going to stay silent when our own countrymen are slaughtered in the name of Islam?
Not I, to kill someone is unforgivable in Islam and other religions of the world, if the demonstrators were so sure they should have reported the incident to the police and registered a case against the accused in court. Not that our blasphemy laws have been giving justice to Christians in the past but to go on a murder spree is not just condemnable and insane it is against the nature of humanity itself!!
I hope the government brings those who did this unspeakable act to justice, I hope they are put to the sword and I hope that when they go up there before their maker they are put into the depths of hell for what they have done.
This is not what Pakistan is or should be known for, this is not what our Qaid promised to the minorities in his famous address. This is the same bigoted hate filled lunacy that has turned men into animals in this nation. Let us unite and stand with the christian community in gojra and other minorities who face persecution for what is their right, to pray to whomsoever they wish.
Update Sun 02 Aug midnight
Up till now 800 people out of which 17 are known culprits have been booked by the government for rioting and killing in Gojra. I salute this action, let us show the world what we are not what these madmen want us to be.
Heinous. Hopefully the culprits will be tried to set an example and most importantly, the religious leaders of the country will for once step in and do their job: DENOUNCE and EDUCATE.
Faisal, Thank you for being a voice against such violence committed in the name of religion. Sometimes I think we would be much better off without religion in this world. There would be no our God and their God bullshit.
This is unfortunate…perhaps first incident of its kind in Pakistan, on the other hand, India is very known for such sort of exploitation. Before labelling it to religion, first certain factors have to be seen:
Firstly, it is responsibility of government to bring law n order. Incase of any incidence of desecration, the culprit should be given instant punishment. In recent years, it has been seen, that due to bad law & order, people have started taking law into hands. They have started killing those who rob or who commit crimes. It is due to failure of Govt.
Secondly, due to the absence of Govt., there is every possibility that those elements, who want to defame our country and religion might have played this game just to gain their own benefits.
Thirdly, seemingly, peace started to prevail in country after successful army operation in Swat. To create unrest again, this game might have started.
Pakistan and PAkistanis have a reputation of being peace loving people. They are tolerant to the minorities. Such incidents of desecration have been occured previously, but not such reaction was seen before. Since minorities have been living here in peace, Pakistan has one of the biggest Shrine of Sikhs which is attended by Sikhs throughout the world. Christians are open to practice and propagate their religion. There are churches in almost all major cities of Pakistan. Even Hindus are present in parts of Sindh and they openly attend to their rituals.
So its not fair to label this to the religion, we cannot afford to miss the important unseen factors that are playing in our country for sometime now.
Dear Pakiman No one is blaming or labeling this to religion, I have not said in this post that any religion is responsible in any way.
On your first point : Yes it is the governments responsibility to protect its citizens but if a mob of 800 people decide to raid and pillage an area then the government would need a battalion which cannot be mobilized immediately
I agree with you on the second and third points this looks like a move to destabilize Pakistan again, but please do not sugar cot your words by saying such incidents have never happened before.
check these links, maybe you will realize we are not as peace loving as you think
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=200972\story_2-7-2009_pg7_4
http://blog.taragana.com/n/angry-muslim-mob-loot-destroy-christian-houses-in-pakistan-97727/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-381012.html
These are just three… there are hundreds, try googling Christians attacked in Pakistan
@ terry perhaps you can explain better to Pakiman having lived as a christian in Pakistan what it is like…he seems to think something like this has never occurred before.
@ Madiha I agree but along with religious leaders those who follow them i.e us should also be out on the roads protesting right now in thousands demanding justice where are the protesters? I don’t see any, except for the victims themselves!!
I added your blog to bookmarks. And i’ll read your articles more often!
Benazir Bhutto Shaheed in her book “Reconciliation†gives a detailed outlook of Pakistani society. Nawaz Sharif though claims and pretends to have secular agenda but always supported the right wing fanatics. On the other side PPP pledges to protect the minorities, women and children of Pakistan. It pledges to protect the weak from the strong. It pledges to undo laws that are discriminatory against minorities, women and children. It calls upon the people of Pakistan to give it a constitutional majority to build a society where the weak and underprivileged are freed from archaic state laws. Eye-witnesses said the attackers involved in Gojra incident were members of a banned outfit and carried sophisticated arms. I wonder what his district president was doing at that time and why he is implicated in the case. PML (N) manifesto unveiled to every one. There support for Taliban is damaging country. While President Asif Ali Zardari has asked Minister for Minority Affairs Bhatti to proceed to Gojra and stay there till the situation calms down and affected people return to their homes. Thanks God federal government is fully alive to the situation.
@ Sadia maybe next time they can help prevent it also? 800 men should raise some sort of alarm bell somewhere before they reach their targets right?
@ Faisal, just read your reply to my comment.
@ PakiMan, this is not the first incident that has ever happened, yes this was the biggest of them all, but minorities have been accused of desecrating Islam, the Quran and the Holy Prophet and they have been punished by death and destruction of their family, their properties and local churches. To keep up you should start reading the Pakistan Christian Post http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/.
I understand religion is a sensitive issue, but the saddest part is even the Government of Pakistan shows ZERO Tolerance to any minority that desecrate Islam is punishable by death and this gives the people the leverage to take the Law into their own hands and punish minorities without verifying the truth.