As Pakistan sinks further into the abyss of Islamism, will it ever rise from the grave and address the elephant in the room that ‘blasphemy’ is?
Earlier last week, a Sri Lankan man Priyantha Kumara was burnt alive by a murderous mob in Pakistan’s Sialkot on allegations of blasphemy. Disturbing visuals of Kumara’s body burning even as the mob gathered around to take selfies and video with the burning man had gone viral on social media.
Note: Disturbing visuals, reader discretion advised.
With chants of ‘gustakh-e-nabi ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda sar tan se juda’, fanatics in Pakistan have burnt a man alive after accusing him of blasphemy. The victim was a Sri Lankan pic.twitter.com/7S2FDMRTzw
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) December 3, 2021
The mob can be heard chanting ‘Gustakh e Nabi ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda, sar tan se juda’ chants. This chant loosely means the only acceptable punishment for saying anything audacious about Prophet Muhammad is beheading.
What is unfortunate is that this kind of barbarity coming from Pakistan has become so common that it does not shock one anymore. What is even worse is that Pakistan is playing down the horrifying incident. Let us analyse Pakistan government’s response to this barbarity.
On December 3, 2021, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan referred to the attack on Priyantha Kumara as ‘vigilante attack’.
The horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot & the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan. I am overseeing the investigations & let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law. Arrests are in progress
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) December 3, 2021
The mob that was chanting and calling for beheading of Kumara was ‘vigilante attack’. Khan, very curiously, skipped the part that Kumara was burnt alive on allegations of blasphemy. The police had admitted that the so-called vigilante mob had brutalized and tortured the Sri Lankan man before setting him on fire. Arman Maqt said that Priyantha Kumar was beaten to death by the mob on the Wazirabad Road before his body was set on fire. The SHO Maqt said that the police lacked staff and was ‘helpless’ in front of the mob of hundreds of fanatics.
The police stood mute spectator as mob chanting and calling for beheading of a man burnt him alive for ‘blasphemy’ because they were ‘helpless’. The post mortem report said that most of the body of Priyantha Kumara was burnt, and several bones were broken due to the torture by the mob.
Here is what Pakistan’s Foreign Minister said.
The political leadership & Pakistani nation strongly condemn killing of a Sri Lankan national. We offer our sincere condolences to bereaved family, govt & people of #SriLanka & will ensure perpetrators are brought to justice. Such acts have no place in our faith & country.
— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) December 4, 2021
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, too, condemned the ‘killing of a Sri Lankan national’. Like his boss, he, too, skipped the part that Kumara was killed over allegations of blasphemy.
Dictionary defines blasphemy as “the action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk.” In Pakistan, ‘blasphemy’ is punishable by beheading/being burnt alive, while a murderous mob which believes this is just takes videos and selfies with the burning body.
Pakistan and blasphemy
Pakistan has stringent laws against blasphemy with punishment ranging from jail term to death penalty.
In October 2020, Pakistani bots had decided to boycott French products over French President Emmanuel Macron’s allegedly ‘Islamophobic’ comments. Subsequently, in a video statement at the UNGA, Imran Khan tried to justify what was happening back home. He had said, “The Prophet lives in our hearts. When he is ridiculed, when he is insulted, it hurts… We human beings understand one thing: The pain of the heart is far, far, far more hurtful than physical pain. And that’s why the Muslims react to this.”
He further added that people from the west do not understand the sentiments attached to the Prophet. He also compared the pain suffered by the Jewish during the holocaust to the pain induced in Muslims by insulting Prophet Muhammad. Khan had thereby insinuated that killing of non-Muslims is justified if they ‘insult’ Prophet Muhammad because it hurts the sentiments of Muslims.
In April this year, workers and activists of Islamist group Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) ran riots in Pakistan on non-fulfilment of four demands it had put up for Imran Khan government. The demands were originally made in November last year, following the beheading of 46-year-old Samuel Paty by a teenage Jihadi terrorist in France and the subsequent criticism of Islamists by French President Emmanuel Macron. TLP also took offence to the display of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad in public in one city in France.
Islamists in Pakistan had taken to protesting against the French in Karachi. The former Ameer Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi had even asked the Imran Khan government to launch a jihad against France. At that time, Imran Khan had said how there needs to be a worldwide campaign for more stringent blasphemy laws against Prophet Muhammad. “Inshallah, there will come a time that even in Western countries, people will fear making the mistake the insult the Prophet. A worldwide campaign is needed to achieve this,” he had said.
As recent as October 2021, at least four Pakistani policemen were killed after TLP rioters who were armed with AK47 rifles, running riots on street of Lahore during anti-blasphemy protests. TLP, a banned Islamists outfit in Pakistan, has been protesting against the Charlie Hebdo cartoon depicting Prophet Muhammad and have been demanding expulsion of France’s ambassador and release of their leader. This was part of their ongoing protests since 2017. The cartoon was first published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2006. In 2015 January, Islamists led a suicide attack on their office for the caricature/blasphemy.
Pakistan: A nightmare for minorities and sane, non-radical individuals
Tales of atrocities against non-Muslims in Pakistan are as old as time. The country was established on the principle of two nation theory that Hindus and Muslims cannot live together peacefully. In 1876, Aligarh Muslim University founder Syed Ahmed Khan said, “I am convinced now that Hindus and Muslims could never become one nation as their religion and way of life was quite distinct from each other.”
In 1929, Mahashay Rajpal was murdered for publishing Rangeela Rasool, a satirical take on the domestic life of prophet Mohammed. Mahashay Rajpal ji in 1912 started “Rajpal and Sons” from Lahore. He would publish Hindi, English, Urdu and Punjabi books on social, political and religious topics. The pamphlet was originally published anonymously under the name “doodh ka doodh aur panee ka panee”. On the surface, Rangeela Rasool had a laudatory tone of Mohammed’s life but at the same time pointing out uncomfortable truths about his domestic life.
Muslims of modern day Lahore, then a part of British India, were outraged at Rangeela Rasool. When Mahashay Rajpal was acquitted of his charges three years later, Jinnah was upset. In a provocative speech at the Jama Masjid in July 1927 Jinnah warned that should the judgement not be reversed, Muslims would be compelled to take the law in their own hands. Even avowed secularists like Motilal Nehru remarked to his son that “the Musslmans of India have all gone mad”.
In 1927, the same year he was acquitted, there were two unsuccessful attempts on Mahashay Rajpal’s life — a wrestler named Khuda Baksh attacked him in September 1927 when he was sitting in his shop but Khatri Rajpal ji caught him and handed him over to the authorities. Khuda Baksh was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.
The next month, a Muslim man named Aziz Ahmed attacked Swami Satyanand ji mistaking him to Khatri Rajpal. Luckily, the attack was not fatal and Swami ji recovered after a couple of months. On April 6th, 1929 a 19 year old carpenter named Ilm ud din stabbed Mahashay Rajpal on his chest eight times while he was seated in the outer verandah of his shop. Mahashay Rajpal did not survive the attack succumbed to the injuries.
His murderer was defended in Court by Jinnah himself and Muhammad Iqbal, a raging favourite among Indian liberals today, eulogised him. Today his grave is a religious site in Pakistan and Pakistani textbooks eulogize him with the title of “Ghazi”.
In 2011, Pakistani leader Governor of Punjab in Pakistan, Salman Taseer was assassinated for having ‘liberal’ views on blasphemy. Salman Taseer was murdered because he believed a hapless Christian woman should not be executed for alleged blasphemy. He believed that the woman is innocent of the charge and came out strongly in her support in public. Except, on 4th of January, 2011, Salman Taseer was assassinated by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri for his position on Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
The assassination instantly turned Qadri into a hero, as one would expect from a Jihadist state. He was showered with rose petals as he was dragged into the Court. “Death is acceptable for Muhammad’s slave,” his many supporters chanted.
Qadri had significant support from the Pakistani masses. The ordinary citizens of Pakistan were baying for Asia Bibi’s blood. Some offered rewards for anyone who could summon the courage to murder her, others wondered why she hadn’t been murdered yet. Others wept with joy when the Pakistani court awarded her the death sentence, the first woman to receive the death penalty in the country. One Maulvi said, “We had been worried the court would award a lesser sentence. So the entire village celebrated.”
When a seemingly moderate Salman Taseer decided to put human life above ‘blasphemy’, he paid for it with his own life.
Pakistan has become even more radical than it has ever been
It has been almost 100 years to that day and in the year 2021 in Pakistan a man was burnt alive because he ‘blasphemed’. What is unfortunate is that the godforsaken country seems to have reached a point of no return as far as radical Islamism has concerned. We have all seen how Imran Khan, who was once the poster boy of liberals especially in India for his ‘good looks’ and ‘cricketing charm’, has ended up being a sidekick of radical elements in the country.
When Islamist group Taliban took over Afghanistan, things became much clear when Pakistanis cheered for the ummah. Over the years, after Taliban regime was toppled by US invasion, it was Pakistan that gave shelter to the leaders of radical group and nourished them so that when US pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban, with reinforced strength, can take over. Pakistan has been harbouring terrorists, some of who have ‘kill the ones who drink cow urine’ as sole purpose in life. ‘Cow urine drinker’ is the jibe often used to refer to Hindus because they consider cows holy.
The level of radicalisation is so staggering that now even the Pakistani leadership is too afraid to call out radicals for their radical views on blasphemy.
The way Joker in Batman wanted to watch the world burn, Pakistan, too wanted to do that till hell came home and their own country started feeling the burn. Which is why it has turned into the hell hole that it is.
