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Islam and the Media ( 20 Jun 2013, NewAgeIslam.Com)

Pakistan Government Bans Some Pages of Multilingual Islamic Website New Age Islam: Not Difficult To See Why

New Age Islam Edit Desk

June 20, 2013

The Pakistan government has banned some of the pages of New Age Islam including an article on Shah Rukh Khan in Urdu.

This is another example of how Pakistan government gags the media in Pakistan. Journalists and reporters inside Pakistan have earlier been killed or incarcerated for exposing the wrong policies of Pakistan government. New Age Islam which has been in the forefront of the war against terrorism, fundamentalism and sectarianism has always criticised the wrong policies of successive Pakistan governments.

New Age Islam has also criticised and condemned Pakistan government’s inactivity in protecting the rights of minorities in Pakistan. But ironically a terrorist ideologue of Pakistan, who also heads a dreaded anti-India terrorist Lashkar recently had offered Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan Pakistani citizenship when Shah Rukh Khan had expressed his anguish at some of the issues of being a Muslim in India. Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba head and terrorist mastermind Hafiz Saeed had invited Shah Rukh Khan to become Pakistani citizen if he felt insecure in India which the super star had declined.

One of the Pakistani bloggers Mohammad Izhar ul Haque had written a sarcastic piece in Urdu on the subject highlighting the current state of affairs of Pakistan, particularly of Karachi where extortionists and killers carry out their business without any fear. The sarcastic and humorous piece was reproduced by New Age Islam for its readers. But its contents did not go well with the Pakistani government and they banned the page to prevent the global readers from reading the intelligent piece of writing by Mohammad Izhar ul Haque.( The screenshot of the banned page is given here).

The humorous piece by Mohammad Izhar ul Haque of Pakistan was in the backdrop of the controversy over Shah Rukh Khan’s signed article published by the Outlook and the New York Times in January in which he had expressed his frustration at being a Muslim in India. In the article titled ‘Being a Khan’, he had written:

“I sometimes become the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India.” He had further said, “There have been occasions when I have been accused of bearing allegiance to our neighbouring nation rather than my own country – this even though I am an Indian, whose father fought for the freedom of India. Rallies have been held where leaders have exhorted me to leave and return what they refer to my original homeland.”

Shah Rukh Khan’s statements were a reflection of the jibes and taunts Muslims are subjected to by the communal forces only, not by the majority of the Indians as the majority of Indians are secular-minded and have given a cult status to not only Shah Rukh Khan but also to Amir Khan and Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan and a number of other Muslim film stars and other artists. Dilip Kumar aka Yousuf Khan is another mega star who enjoys the status of a living legend in India.

However, the former Pakistan Home Minister took this opportunity to embarrass India by issuing a statement asking the government of India to provide Shah Rukh Khan security and ensure his safety. Later, the master mind of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, known now as 26/11, Hafiz Saeed also said that if Shah Rukh felt insecure in India, he could come and settle in Pakistan.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed

Shah Rukh, Indian government and the film fraternity took strong exception to the unwanted remarks by Pakistan’s home minister Rehman Malik and terrorist Hafiz Sayeed. Shah Rukh himself came out with his stinging response to the remarks of the Pakistanis saying that he was proud to be an Indian and he was very much safe in India. He said, “"I never said I am insecure. I am secure in our country, we are all secure in our country," adding that outsiders "should not give me unsolicited suggestions".

The Indian government also criticized Rehman Malik and Hafiz Saeed for creating unnecessary controversy and asked them to first take care of the minorities of the Pakistan and not to bother about the safety and security of Muslims in India. Union home secretary R.K. Singh said, “Islamabad should be concerned about the security of its own citizens rather than worrying about others. We are capable of looking after our own citizens, let him worry about the security of his country's citizens," union home secretary R.K. Singh said.

Pakistani writer Mohammad Izhar ul Haque’s Urdu column posted on his blog was written in the same context. In his fictitious story the writer says that Shah Rukh had finally accepted Hafiz Saeed’s offer and decided to settle in Pakistan. He called on the writer over the phone and sought his advice as to which city of Pakistan would be best for him to settle down. We are producing a translation of some excerpts of the column for our readers to know what happened next and what might have irked the Pakistani government:

“The very next day Shah Rukh Khan called me again. He said, “In your country, I mean in my new country, kidnapping for ransom is the latest cultural norm. So obviously, posh areas like Defence will not be appropriate for me. Settling down in such an area would prove suicidal.” I agreed with him and said that Gulistan-e-Jauhar would be safe for him because it was neither very affluent like the Defence nor very poor like Lalu Khet.”

Hardly ten days might have passed since Shah Rukh settled in Karachi when he called me again. He said, “I have a question. I had gone shopping. On my return, my family said that someone had come and given a chit on which it was written, ‘Keep Rs Ten lakh ready. We will come tomorrow after the prayer of Zuhar and receive it.”

The truth is I already knew about such chits before I had advised Shah Rukh to settle in Karachi. One of my friends had told me that such letters or chits are now sent to homes too apart from shops. The resident of a flat had refused to act according to the message. The next day he was beaten black and blue in front of other residents. The residents along with the witnesses had learnt the lesson from the incident. The point is that to spend the life peacefully in a city like Karachi one has to follow such latest cultural norms. So I told Shah Rukh, “Look Khan, if you had been in a rich area like Defence or Bath Island, you would have had to pay millions or billions of rupees for your release on ransom. The advantage of living in a middle class area is that the matter can be sorted out in only Rs ten-fifteen lakh. I think it is not difficult for you to pay such a small amount every month or two.”

After 15 or 16 days Khan called me again and asked, “Yaar, what is the fuss about Aqeedah (belief system/sect/school of Islamic legal thought)? In India no one asked me about my Aqeedah. Here people in robes of different colours come to my house and ask about my Aqeedah so that the political party corresponding to my Aqeedah may make me a member. What does Aqeedah have to do with a political party? I explained to him that here we have political parties of different Aqeedahs and all the political parties have resolved to take part in elections with members belonging to their Aqeedahs as members. If you are Ahl-e-Hadith, you can contact Maulana Sajid Mir. If you are a Deobandi, you should meet Maulana Fazl ur Rehman and if a Bareillvi, you should pay a visit to either to Haji Fazl Karim or Sarwat Qadri”.

This interesting conversation goes on. The story moves further:

“Hardly a week had passed before Shah Rukh called me again and asked, “Why was Mahender Singh killed and Raghubir Singh kidnapped?” I feigned ignorance and said, “Mahindra Singh, who?” He said, “You know very well that hundreds of Sikhs are being killed and kidnapped in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” I told him that it was all the conspiracy of the Jews and the Hindus and America and Israel are involved in it.” He said, “How?”

I told him, “If you want to live in Pakistan you should turn a blind eye to everything and declare it a conspiracy of others.”

It went on. He would always ask questions about Hazara Shias and other minorities. One day he asked, “Why Hindu families migrate to India every month? And does the respected religious leader who had invited me to Pakistan know about the migration of the Hindu families?”

The writer is fed up of his unending questions and bangs the phone down.

Now the readers themselves can decide what was so objectionable in the column which irked the Pakistan government that they decided to block the page. The column had in fact not even been written by a New Age Islam columnist but by a conscientious Pakistani writer and had been posted in his blog.

Another article that has been blocked by Pakistan is one titled “The elements of Sex and death in the suicides of terrorists” written by a regular New Age Islam columnist Nastik Durrani. (The screenshot of the page is also given here)

If the Pakistan government does not like what is written in the columns, and, of course, one can easily see why it won’t, it should strive to rid Pakistan of the social and political ills that have gripped the Pakistani society. But it can definitely not be done by allocating funds worth cores of rupees to the terrorist organizations like Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba as the new Shahbaz Sharif government of Punjab has done recently.

Addendum:

In the latest development, the Pakistan government has blocked this page too that gives the information of the blockage. Moreover, it has blocked some more pages, especially the Urdu articles which can be read by the general readers of the Pakistan. It can be understood why Pakistan has become so concerned over the contents posted on New Age Islam. It has exposed the duplicity of the Pakistani government in dealing with terrorist, communal and sectarian forces of the country. The URLs of all the pages that have been blocked are given below:

Shah Rukh in Pakistan

https://www.newageislam.com/urdu-section/mohammad-izharul-haque-محمد-اظہار-الحق/shah-rukh-in-pakistan--شاہ-رخ-خان--پاکستان-میں/d/12152