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An incurable disease?
by Murtaza Haider
Given the brutal violence against the Shias in Pakistan over the past three decades, Shias have started to wonder if there is a future for them in Pakistan.
While hundreds of thousands of Shias had migrated to Pakistan in 1947 in the hope of building a new life for themselves and their future generations, many are now contemplating emigrating from Pakistan to save their lives and property.
Hundreds of Shias have been murdered by the Deobandi militants in Quetta in the past few months alone. In the last couple of weeks, Shias have been taken off buses, lined up and shot dead. Quetta, however, is not an exception. Shias are not safe in any major town in Pakistan. Their places of worship, religious processions, and civilian and religious leadership has come under relentless attacks while the State's machinery has either refused or failed to protect Shias and other religious minorities in Pakistan.
According to South Asia Terrorism Portal, 3,700 civilians, mostly Shias, have been killed and another 7,700 wounded since 1989 in sectarian violence in Pakistan. Elsewhere, several thousand Shias have been ruthlessly murdered in sectarian violence in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Pakistan. In the last decade alone, the number of Shias killed by fellow Muslims is an order of magnitude higher than those who died at the hands of non-Muslims. These stats are at odds with the mainstream rhetoric of the religio-political Muslim parties who argue for one people under Islam.
In 2004, I visited India for the first time. I attended the Friday prayers in the historical Delhi mosque. The cab drove me right to the main gate and I walked freely into the compound. Later, I visited the Bara (large) and Chota (small) Imambargah in Lucknow. I walked into both places without any hindrance. The same was true for mosques and shrines in other cities that I visited in India. Weeks later when I went to Pakistan I realised how far things had deteriorated vis-Ã -vis India. While I was able to walk into Sunni and Shia places of worship in India without being stopped at checkpoints by the police, I was not able to do the same in Pakistan.
The streets leading up to Imambargahs in Pakistan were guarded by police against possible attacks on Shias. Even Sunni shrines were heavily guarded by the police and private security guards; I made a painful realisation. In the supposedly Hindu India, Muslims' places of worship existed in relative safety while in a Muslim Pakistan, mosques and shrines had to be guarded against the wrath of fellow Muslims.
I am not oblivious to, or ignorant of, the wholesale violence against Muslims in Gujarat in India, or the discovery of 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves in Kashmir, or the breakout of sporadic communal violence in Mumbai that often leaves many Muslims dead. However, if one were to focus on the rest of India, especially the States in South India, Muslims live in relative peace. On the other hand, there is no place left in Pakistan where one can claim that religious minorities are not threatened by extremist Muslims.
An incurable disease? | Blog | DAWN.COM
by Murtaza Haider
Given the brutal violence against the Shias in Pakistan over the past three decades, Shias have started to wonder if there is a future for them in Pakistan.
While hundreds of thousands of Shias had migrated to Pakistan in 1947 in the hope of building a new life for themselves and their future generations, many are now contemplating emigrating from Pakistan to save their lives and property.
Hundreds of Shias have been murdered by the Deobandi militants in Quetta in the past few months alone. In the last couple of weeks, Shias have been taken off buses, lined up and shot dead. Quetta, however, is not an exception. Shias are not safe in any major town in Pakistan. Their places of worship, religious processions, and civilian and religious leadership has come under relentless attacks while the State's machinery has either refused or failed to protect Shias and other religious minorities in Pakistan.
According to South Asia Terrorism Portal, 3,700 civilians, mostly Shias, have been killed and another 7,700 wounded since 1989 in sectarian violence in Pakistan. Elsewhere, several thousand Shias have been ruthlessly murdered in sectarian violence in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Pakistan. In the last decade alone, the number of Shias killed by fellow Muslims is an order of magnitude higher than those who died at the hands of non-Muslims. These stats are at odds with the mainstream rhetoric of the religio-political Muslim parties who argue for one people under Islam.
In 2004, I visited India for the first time. I attended the Friday prayers in the historical Delhi mosque. The cab drove me right to the main gate and I walked freely into the compound. Later, I visited the Bara (large) and Chota (small) Imambargah in Lucknow. I walked into both places without any hindrance. The same was true for mosques and shrines in other cities that I visited in India. Weeks later when I went to Pakistan I realised how far things had deteriorated vis-Ã -vis India. While I was able to walk into Sunni and Shia places of worship in India without being stopped at checkpoints by the police, I was not able to do the same in Pakistan.
The streets leading up to Imambargahs in Pakistan were guarded by police against possible attacks on Shias. Even Sunni shrines were heavily guarded by the police and private security guards; I made a painful realisation. In the supposedly Hindu India, Muslims' places of worship existed in relative safety while in a Muslim Pakistan, mosques and shrines had to be guarded against the wrath of fellow Muslims.
I am not oblivious to, or ignorant of, the wholesale violence against Muslims in Gujarat in India, or the discovery of 2,156 unidentified dead bodies buried in unmarked graves in Kashmir, or the breakout of sporadic communal violence in Mumbai that often leaves many Muslims dead. However, if one were to focus on the rest of India, especially the States in South India, Muslims live in relative peace. On the other hand, there is no place left in Pakistan where one can claim that religious minorities are not threatened by extremist Muslims.
An incurable disease? | Blog | DAWN.COM
