Pakistan Press On Forced Conversion, Forced Marriages And France’s Islamophobia: New Age Islam's Selection, 5 November 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Desk
5 November
2020
• Forced Conversion And Forced Marriages Of Minorities
In Pakistan
By Kamila Hyat
• Is Pakistan Safe For Women?
By Saman Masud Khan
• Ideology, Cadre, Political Parties And
Leaders
By Syed Akhtar Ali Shah
• The Past, Present And Future Of Gender-Based
Victimization (Part 1)
Dr Izza Aftab And Noor Ul Islam
• The Absurdity Of France’s Islamophobia
By Inam Ul Haque
• In The Name Of Free Speech
By Fahad Hassan Chohan
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Forced Conversion And Forced Marriages Of
Minorities In Pakistan
By Kamila Hyat
November 5,
2020
Terrible
acts of violence and suffering take place in houses across our country because
of the inability of the government to pay heed to the laws it has itself put on
the books. Most recently in Karachi, a 13-year-old girl Arzoo was kidnapped
from inside her house while playing with her brother and sister and, according
to the reports we have so far, possibly married to the 44-year-old neighbour
who had kidnapped her. She was also forced to convert to Islam. The matter was
then taken to the court which decided to send her back with the husband. Her
mother was not allowed to see the teenager in the courtroom despite making many
pleas for a meeting of a few minutes.
This is not
an unusual story. It has occurred even though the Child Marriage Restraint Act
which abolishes the marriage of a person aged below 18 in the province of Sindh
is on the statute books of the province and other laws against forced conversion
are also in place. Yet the question is when the government will make any real
effort to enforce these laws. The Sindh government has said it plans to
investigate the matter of Arzoo and determine what happened. But time has
already been lost. The family has been traumatized and any action coming now
will be late but still welcome.
The case of
Arzoo is not isolated. In other parts of Sindh, Hindu girls have been forced to
convert and marry in a very similar way. Often a local cleric is involved. The
matter is one that has been brought to the notice of authorities again and
again by minority groups. But nothing changes. No one seems to bother beyond
the usual protest by the familiar human rights and other groups which take up
these issues nothing really moves.
Indeed,
there is evidence that the attitude of people is growing more and more extreme
and rigid by the day. The remarks made by some government ministers on the
issue of minorities may have had a role to play in this. It is now time for
change. Recently, Prime Minister Imran Khan quite correctly spoke out against
what happened in France and the use of cartoons derogatory to the Holy Prophet
(pbuh) in a classroom. But even as he spoke, we wonder if he was thinking about
the multiple cases which occur in his own country.
Certainly,
he has not said anything about Arzoo or the other girls who are forcibly
converted and married to men usually far older than themselves. The question
has been asked of why it is only girls who feel compelled to convert this way
and not boys of a similar age. We need the prime minister and the federal
government to at least speak out on the matter. Only if this happens will the
case receive the kind of attention it deserves. The Sindh government has moved
and is doing what it can but we can only hope this will be enough.
Beyond the
issue of girls being forcibly converted, there are also many other matters
concerning minorities in the manner in which they are treated. We often take up
the issue of minorities in other countries and how they are suffering abuse or
mistreatment at the hands of persons in those nations. It is good that we speak
out. Certainly someone needs to speak out for the Muslims of Kashmir and those
of Palestine. Even though Pakistan has been largely silent on Palestine, it has
spoken out for Kashmir. It now also needs to speak out for minorities in its
own country. There is no reason why that should not happen.
In the
original State of Medina that Imran Khan has told us so much about, even Jewish
people were called in to give their opinion on various issues and to
participate in meetings about these matters. Minorities were not ostracized,
they were not punished, they were not penalized only because their religion was
different to that of the ruling group.
This is
something we need to learn from. We must go back in time: look at history,
learn from it and also learn from the examples of other countries. Today we do
not want to be converted into anything that looks like the India that exists
today. It has become a terribly dangerous place for many people to live in.
These people include the large Muslim minority of that country and the Dalit
group which is discriminated against on the basis of cast.
The first
issue is for the government to ensure that laws in place on the statute books
are respected and abided by. The police must be educated about these laws and
some steps taken to guide them on how to act when cases occur. The attitudes
within the police force are of course no different to those of the general public.
Many believe that minorities are in some way inferior to the majority group in
this country. This policy has to be corrected. It should begin by trying to
re-educate the police force and also the lower judiciary
But beyond
this better material has to go into the textbooks that are studied by children
in schools and read in other places including madressahs. Madressahs of course
present a difficult problem in the sense that their curricula are so different
to that of mainstream schools that it will be difficult to change them although
the government has promised this will be done. In the meanwhile, at least in
the mainstream schools where books published by the provisional text book
boards apply, material has to be provided to children which teaches them
respect for all religions no matter who follows them or what these people
believe.
Humanity
must be the first principle of our lives. Humanity belongs to all persons and
it is not based around any particular sect, any particular religion or any
particular school or belief. Certainly, this has become the norm in many
developed countries. It must be brought into our own country bit by bit and
piece by piece.
We took
many steps back in the 1980s during the days of the Zia dictatorship. There is
now evidence that we are still moving further back and that the current
government has done nothing to stop this. In some ways it may have encouraged
it. This has to change. Steps forward have to be taken so that in the future
there are no cases like those of little Arzoo and no sufferings like that seen
by a mother outside the Sindh courtroom where her daughter and her so-called
husband were taken.
----
Kamila Hyat is a freelance columnist and former
newspaper editor.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/739116-terrible-suffering
-----
Is Pakistan Safe For Women?
By Saman Masud Khan
November 4,
2020
A common
feature of coercion is the abuse of power to subjugate the rape victim,
especially in situations where deprivation or dire consequences are threatened.
Categories of rape can include marital rape, stranger rape, gang rape and
systematic rape during war.
Pakistan's
laws previously included rape in the Offence of Zina Ordinance 1979, which made
the crime a religious offence, subject to different standards of evidence and
punishment, and subject to the appellate jurisdiction of Shariah Courts. The
effect of Section 8 of the Ordinance was reversal of the presumption of
innocence -- “guilty until proven innocent”. This resulted in the Ordinance
becoming an instrument of oppression against women.
In 2016,
Pakistan adopted the Protection of Women (Criminal Law Amendment) Act, which
reclassified rape differently from fornication and adultery and substantively
revised sections of the Pakistan Penal Code that dealt with the crime. If the
accused is not recovered for appearance before the court, Section 512 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) allows for evidence to be recorded in the
absence of the accused and a trial to be held in absentia until he is
apprehended.
Human
rights activist I A Rehman stated at the time: “the Act introduces new
dimensions in violence against women. In the past, a case was only registered
when a woman was physically tortured. Now, even mental torture is considered a
punishable crime.” As provinces cannot alter the CRPC, which is a federal law,
new recommendations like the 2016 Act provide civil remedies such as protection
orders, residence orders and monitoring orders. Since the Act specifically
deals with protection of women, it could help make police forces more receptive
to problems and laws that deal with violence against women.
However,
despite the existence of a legal mechanism to protect women, there is
ineffective and lacking implementation of the same. Even if policies have been
explicitly laid down, societal and cultural ‘values’, which are often
regressive, dictate how these are implemented.
The
Qanun-e-Shahadat Order 1984 deals with ‘proof of facts’ in legal proceedings.
It is pertinent to mention Section 21(j), which has a discriminatory effect on
prosecution of rape cases. Cases reported ‘late’ are due to psychological or
logistical reasons, or simply because the police dissuade victims from filing
cases. This works against women, as their intentions are viewed as ‘mala fide’,
or worse, seen as a conspiracy to falsely implicate the accused.
The
Criminal Code now enables a female victim to bring forth credible witnesses, of
either gender to support her claim. A medico-legal examination can prove the
rape took place, if DNA is collected within 72 hours, as per requirement. One
cannot bring up a woman’s past sexual history in a rape trial to destroy her
credibility, after the deletion of Section 151(4) of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order
1984.
According
to the NGO ‘War Against Rape’, cases of rape are underreported and conviction
rates are low (under three percent, across the country, with the exception of
gender-based violence courts recently operationalized). Research conducted on
rape cases registered in Punjab by Jang Group and Geo Television Network shows
1,365 cases in 2017 and no fewer than 3,881 cases in 2019. The Sustainable
Social Development Organisation (SSDO) revealed a 200 percent increase in cases
of violence against women in Pakistan in the first three months of 2020.
In the
latest Motorway gang-rape case in Lahore, the perpetrators broke the car
window, looted valuables, dragged the family to the side of the road, where
they gang-raped the woman in front of her children. This incident happened just
five days after the dead body of a five-year-old girl, who was raped, was found
in Karachi. In January 2018, the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl in
Kasur, Punjab led to nationwide outrage in a similar manner.
The public
pressured the government to find the culprits and give them exemplary
punishment. The demand of public hanging was widespread; however, public
execution is not a real solution as it resolves public anger via aggression and
covers the state’s complicity in creating conditions that result in such crime
but does little to prevent the occurrence of such crimes in the future.
Women in
Pakistan are blamed for putting themselves in dangerous situations; or in the
case of marital rape, not being subservient. The judiciary has a very small
percentage of female judges and hardly any female public prosecutors. Trials
are held in open court, with nothing barring onlookers from making gestures
that mock victims. Minors are not awarded special care, nor shielded during the
identification process and given in-camera trials as a matter of routine. Bails
are granted casually when the crux of the evidence is based on medical
findings.
Offenders,
once released, find ways to torment the victims and their families, against
which the state awards no tangible protection. There are very few shelter homes
for women seeking refuge. Going to a shelter home is still considered taboo and
perceived as the last resort of women who have been turned away by ‘respectable
society.’ There is no existing long-term rehabilitation plan for victims
supported by the government.
In 2020,
the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
commended the state of Pakistan for setting up GBV courts. However, it was
stressed that more can be done to improve access to justice by ensuring non-discrimination,
removing economic barriers, and implementing further capacity building
measures.
A case can
take about 3-4 years to conclude, which contravenes the National Judicial
Policy of the Supreme Court, 2009 (revised 2012), which stipulates that: “All
cases punishable with imprisonment from seven years and above including death
cases shall be decided within a period of one year.” Despite policies like
these, the police waste tremendous amounts of time in so-called investigations
and almost always fail to submit the charge-sheet within the 14-day period (as
also directed under the policy and liable to disciplinary action by the
courts).
The
government, including provincial governments, must repeal discriminatory laws
against women. To make justice accessible, laws must be put in place for women
who may be deterred due to social and psychological reasons from reporting.
This would include building better facilities for the preservation of forensic
evidence; and eliminating the two-finger test, among other actions required.
More importantly, the government needs to legislate on sexual offences that
have not yet translated into legal language in order to award women legal
protection.
----
Saman Masud Khan is a lawyer and activist.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/738639-is-pakistan-safe-for-women
------
Ideology, Cadre, Political Parties And Leaders
By Syed Akhtar Ali
Shah
November
03, 2020
“After
ages, political process has returned to our village. Tomorrow is a convention
of the party,” remarked a jubilant worker on the joining of a turncoat on a
social media forum. On my inquiry if the party was deficient of committed
workers in the area, the young activist replied, “The party base is there, the
structure is there too, but the ideology is missing.” The area in question
happened to be an area which had always remained vibrant with ideologically
committed party cadre.
In the
broader perspective, history tells us that ideologies have played a vital part
in changing the world. Change is a constant phenomenon and ideology acts as a
propelling force to bring about such a change within society. No doubt leaders,
philosophers and ideologues alone did not bring such a change, but they had
done so with a well-knitted team of dedicated people imbued with the ideology
of change. This team which we may also call a cadre vehemently pursued and
carried forward the message. The ideological process emerging out of the
material conditions always remained the central spirit of a movement, catalysed
by a leader.
In this
process, history witnessed different stages of social development with a change
in the means of production. We witnessed transformation of feudalism into
capitalism and imperialism; a worse form of capitalism. While capitalism had
its ugly shape in the form of class exploitation it also gave birth to the
concept of nation sates and values of democracy. With this also emerged
political parties acting as vehicles to carry forward the political philosophy.
Although
these imperialists have captured most of the lands in the world and exploited
the resources of the conquered, every phenomenon, in terms of the Marxist
lexicon, has its own contradictions. Colonial imperialism also spread ideas of
democracy, nationalism, socialism and national liberation. The natives of colonies,
especially India, went abroad to seek education where they were not only
exposed to those ideas but also intermingled with freedom loving writers, poets
and political activists who made lasting impressions on their minds. For
instance, “liberty, equality, fraternity” the slogan of the French revolution;
the writings of Rousseau expounding the general will of the people and people’s
sovereignty; Locke’s political theory in support of constitutional monarchy and
creation of the state by the will of the people; Voltaire’s championing of
reason, cosmopolitanism, justice, human dignity and tolerance as well as
progress; Bacon’s scientific reason; JS Mill’s individual’s liberty; Darwin’s
theory of evolution; Karl Marx’s theory of socialism; Tolstoy’s peace and
non-violence, fired their imagination.
Having read
those thinkers and observed political parties, they also yearned for notions of
liberty, self-rule and equality of opportunities. The otherwise scattered
people torn into castes, tribes and ethnic groups could only be woven together
through an organisation. Hence the idea to establish a political party was
born. The emergence of political parties cobbled the divided groups with a
sense of nationalism and pride in their own culture. These parties, particularly
the Indian National Congress, developed party cadres which ran the network all
over India. Those cadres under the leadership of Gandhi provided pool of
leadership at national and local levels. Soon, they were able to organise mass
movement for national liberation, ultimately resulting in independence in 1947.
In contrast to this, the Muslim League could not organise cadres and the
leadership remained in the hands of a few feudal lords.
One of the
major fault lines in the governance of Pakistan was the revolving of politics
around the political elite belonging to the feudal class. Congress and the
government in India also remained under the charisma of Jawaharlal Nehru, which
was carried over by his daughter and then grandson Rajiv. However, with the
passage of time and new emerging realties, the charisma of the Nehru family no
longer worked. The voters have moved away from charisma-led Congress to the BJP
which represents the middle class and is credited with an elaborate system of
cadre-based leadership. The success of the party is largely due to its
well-organised cadre system.
The magic
of the charisma of different dynasties is no longer appealing to the people.
This is why in Pakistan new political forces have emerged in the traditional strongholds
of charisma-based parties. One of the major reasons is that these parties are
in the habit of relying upon the past laurels of their dead leaders and never
gave serious thought to organising ideologically trained cadres. For decades
the same old faces occupied all positions of prominence which in turn not only
made the younger aspirants feel alienated but the fast expanding trading class
and professionals also found the party unwelcoming to them. These new emerging
classes found opportunities of political growth in the newly-formed parties. On
the contrary, in the UK, the Labour Party and Conservative Party have developed
cadres acting as nurseries to provide new leadership whenever the need arises.
The lessons
drawn from the political development in the country and of developed
democracies are that only a political party that has a sound cadre can survive
the rigours of time and remain popular.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2270924/ideology-cadre-political-parties-and-leaders
----
The Past, Present And Future Of Gender-Based
Victimization (Part 1)
Dr Izza Aftab And Noor
Ul Islam
November 5,
2020
Gender
inequality issues are structural in nature. It would not be wrong to say that
women suffer from time poverty. What starts from the preference of a son leads
to a cycle of victimization throughout a woman’s life. Some of the atrocities
women face include honor-killings, rape, abductions, acid attacks, domestic
abuse, harassment, dowry and unequal opportunities in major spheres of life. It
is a sad picture to visualize that the deep-rooted misogyny in Pakistan’s
societal structure has put us in a place where our country is suffering in its
pragmatic spheres of economic, social and political life. To date, few fields
of study and occupations are still ghettoized by the concept of gender. It is a
norm to see women taking on the responsibility of household and caregiving
tasks – an unpaid burden that suffocates many – who want to resist but cannot.
The lockdowns highlighted the much invisible work of women. All this is also
evident from the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 – which places Pakistan on 151th
position out of a total of 153 countries. Economic participation and
opportunity, educational attainment, and health and survival are the categories
of the index where Pakistan ranks among the bottom ten countries. Thus, gender
inequality is a plague in our society that can be deemed to be inherited and
resistant to progressive changes. Those ‘in-control’ remain insensitive to the
muffled cries of many who are victims of heinous injustices and crimes.
The
spillover effects of domestic abuse are evident in the personality of children
– who eventually perform the same roles as members of the next generation
The life of
a woman in Pakistan can be summed up as an algorithm of patriarchal
restrictions. According to UN Women, in Pakistan, only 40.7% of data is
available for indicators to monitor SDGs from a gendered perspective. With all
these facts in place, it is significant to determine whether Pakistan’s
performance to achieve sustainable development goal number 5 is sufficient to
invigorate the achievement of ‘Gender Equality’. Target 5.1 seeks to ‘end all
forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere’. In this
regard, UN Women provides data on ‘legal frameworks that promote, enforce and
monitor gender equality (percentage of achievement, 0 – 100)’. There are four
relevant areas that cover this indicator – ‘overarching legal frameworks and
public life’, which has a level of achievement of 54.5 percent, ’employment and
economic benefits’ at 75 percent, ‘marriage and family’ at 46.2 percent, and
there is no data on the area of ‘violence against women’ to assign an
achievement percentage to it.
Target 5.2
aims at ‘eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls in the
public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of
exploitation’. Amidst COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns, UNFPA projected that
for every 3 months of lockdown, 15 million new cases of gender-based violence
could be expected. The Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2017-18) reports
statistics on the proportion of ever-partnered women and girls aged 15 years
and older, who were subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by
a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. The results
showed that 20.6 percent women faced psychological violence, 13.6 percent faced
physical violence, and 3.6 percent faced sexual violence. Psychological abuse
is prevalent in many areas of the society, but only extreme cases are
highlighted or reported. Women don’t have the option to live in any other way
because of their socioeconomic dependence on the situation. The spillover
effects of domestic abuse are evident in the personality of children – who
eventually perform the same roles as members of the next generation. A
violence-free life is a basic human right, yet, raising one’s voice against
domestic abuse, especially spousal violence, has become a taboo in our society.
Target 5.5
deals with ‘ensuring women’s full and effective participation, and equal
opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political,
economic and public life’. According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary
Union, in 2020, the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments
of Pakistan is 20.2 percent, which is a decrease from 22.52 percent in 2012.
Moreover, the data from UN Women shows that the proportion of elected seats
held by women in deliberative bodies of local government is 17 percent. The
Elections Act of 2017 mandated political parties to award five percent of their
tickets, on general seats, to women candidates. Unfortunately, our political
culture is also tainted with verbal sparring in the form of objectionable and
derogatory remarks for women by notable politicians. With regards to this
target, another indicator deals with the proportion of women in managerial
positions. In 2016, according to the ILOSTAT – Labor Force Survey, this
statistic stood at 2.9 percent in Pakistan. Similarly, according to a 2017
report by IMF, there are only 3 percent of female legislators, senior officials
and managers in Pakistan against a world average of 29 percent. Contrary to all
these statistics about our country, a 2015 report by McKinsey estimated that in
a ‘full potential’ scenario – when men and women participate equally in the
economy – a resultant 26 percent could be added to annual global GDP by 2025.
This leaves much to think in the form of the loss of productivity, and
ultimately progress – we as a nation are facing.
-----
Dr. Izza Aftab is the chairperson of the
Economics Department at Information Technology University, Lahore. She is also
the Director of the SDG Tech Lab and the Program Director of Safer Society for
Children. She has a PhD in Economics from The New School University (NY, USA)
and is a Fulbrighter.
Noor Ul Islam is currently working as a
Research Associate at the SDG Tech Lab established in collaboration with
Information Technology University, Lahore, UNDP and UNFPA. She is a
post-graduate in Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/685378/the-past-present-and-future-of-gender-based-victimization-part-1/
-----
The Absurdity Of France’s Islamophobia
By Inam Ul Haque
November
04, 2020
Dear Mr
Macron... you have finally said what you, and most like you, have felt all
along. Your animosity towards Islam. Your lack of ample knowledge of Islam and
your lack of compassion for millions of French Muslims, whom you accuse of
non-assimilation; and whom you want to relegate as lesser French citizens under
the guise of an impending bill to ‘strengthen the laïcité’ — separatism between
state and religion.
You have
said it on record that Islam is in crisis worldwide. And your government
supports the republication and wider dissemination of the caricatures of
Islam’s beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). And all this is done
under the garb of ‘freedom of expression’ as France deems fit.
Taking on
the crisis of Islam first. One would wish you to understand the fundamental
difference between a faith, its basic building blocks, its enshrined principles
and its followers. Followers are a motley crowd believing in different
interpretations of the Holy Scriptures — just like in the other two great
Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Judaism. Followers, at times, take verses
out of context to justify acts not permitted under any religion. Did you say
Christianity was in crisis when a Christian shooter in 2019 attacked a mosque
in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing scores of innocent Muslim worshippers? No
individual represents a faith.
I hope your
knowledge of the history of the world is sufficient for you to understand the
context of the Religious Wars (16-18th centuries) in Europe and the
colonisation of vast swathes of Asia and Africa by Western powers including
France; and the forced conversions by Christian missionaries, unleashed in
these unfortunate lands, to inject civility into their poor and hapless
subjects, considered the ‘Whiteman’s burden’. Could we blame the great
Christian religion for these wanton acts of commission and omission, including
the continued brutalisation of places like Mali to this day for economic
benefit?
One would
wonder where the enshrined principles of French Revolution (1789-99), “Liberté,
égalité, fraternité, ou la mort! (Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!)”,
would fit in the spirit of French political discourse today. And if what
Voltaire (1694-1778) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and many others
stood for, was only applicable to people of Christian faith.
Today’s
debate considers millions of French Muslims immature citizens unable to
comprehend ‘secular republicanism’. A French polling company, IFOP, in 2016,
estimated French Muslims to be around four million. This number is phenomenally
increased, considering continued migration and France’s area of influence in
the Francophone world. Insulting the Prophet of your second largest religious
community and remaining callously insensitive to their feelings is not only bad
politics, it is poor leadership. These are your people. Liberty, equality and
fraternity should apply to them also, especially the liberty to wear a
headscarf by the women, who choose to do so.
Your
argument about the freedom of expression is also a non-starter, as it was
settled in the aftermath of Salman Rushdie’s infamous book, The Satanic Verses
(1988). Twenty-first century civility forbids a freedom of expression that
hurts a sizeable group of people who cannot avoid to be affected by it —
directly or indirectly. Your nude beaches are your business but tinkering with
the religious symbolism of any religion, including Islam, would be asking for
trouble. Muslims do not believe in any hurtful freedom of speech, neither
should you… the elected President of a civilised country having millions of
Muslims.
So Mr
President! It is not Islam that is in crisis, it may be some Muslims who cannot
defend their faith and their rights; who get confused by the cacophony of
propaganda against their great faith; who are unnecessarily apologist for every
wrong that is committed in the name of their religion… who are in crisis. Why
would a faith ordained by the Lord Himself be in crisis? Especially once we all
— you too — believe that He is all powerful, all knowing and all encompassing.
Did you ever profess Christianity was in crisis, or Judaism in decline?
Dear Mr
Macron! It is not Islam that is in crisis, it is the bigots who rule over them
and dominate them; and who generally engage their mouth much earlier than their
brains — without full comprehension of a divine religion — who are in crisis.
Islam will live on and flourish... as it has all these centuries... long after
you and me go to see our Creator. And maybe the grandchildren of many French
people would be blessed to be Muslims. The ravages of the coronavirus are at
work to catapult this engineered world order. Maybe a just and non-exploitative
system rises from it ashes. Who knows?
It is the
same Prophet (PBUH), who was on friendly terms with King Najashi, a Christian
of modern day Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). It was Muhammad’s (PBUH) influence
that forbade pillaging other religions’ places of worship, called to spare
people seeking asylum in places of worship during warfare and ensured the
sanctity of other religions and their followers more than 1,400 years ago, when
there was no liberty, equality and fraternity in Europe; as it reeled under the
tyranny of serfdom and human exploitation. There is more to learn.
Instead of
escaping in criticising the great faith of millions of your citizens for
political point-scoring, try to find and address the underlying causes of
unrest in your country. It is the selective application of liberty, equality
and fraternity. It is the racial profiling and discrimination against Muslims
in your urban ghettos on a daily basis. It is the ubiquitous, endless media
tirade and careless statement like these. It is the dissemination of hurtful
material with mala-fide intentions. It is forcing majority of innocent
fence-sitters in your country to take unnecessary sides, polarising a peaceful
society. It is social inequality and lack of opportunity especially for your
Muslim citizens that you and other French governments need to address. Hiding
behind the thick wall of Islamophobia will never help.
Remember!
It is for people like you that the beloved Prophet of Islam (PBUH) decreed,
“Kindness is a mark of the faith, and whoever has no kindness, has no faith.”
Let this hadith be your guide next time around you give a judgment on Islam.
For now concentrate on the French economy.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2271049/the-absurdity-of-frances-islamophobia
------
In The Name Of Free Speech
By Fahad Hassan Chohan
November
04, 2020
Your
liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins. This oft-quoted
adage may have several variants — and a couple of famous personalities to
attribute it to — but the point it drives does not have various
interpretations. The West, in particular, is mature enough to pick the lesson
behind this quotable quote pretty well. But, unfortunately, when it comes to
Islam, this refined and educated part of the world ignores this basic lesson of
decency and civility in the name of the so-called freedom of expression. Even
most of those who lead the western world go the extreme of offensive remarks
and sacrilegious acts when exercising what they call their fundamental right.
Emmanuel
Macron, the President of France, did no good when he — while justifying the
display of the blasphemous images of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a
French classroom by a middle-school teacher, Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in
retaliation a week later by an 18-year-old Muslim Russian immigrant in Paris
suburbs — insisted on the secular character of the French society, in sheer
disregard to the feelings of about 1.8 billion Muslims the world over.
Mind you
this is the same French President who himself gets offended at criticism and
jokes. Macron had fiery words to return to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
after a joke about his wife was shared on Facebook. The irony is incredible. A
man who cannot tolerate a mere joke on his wife goes all out in the defence of
the absolutely derogatory images concerning the most sacred personality for
Muslims. Whereas Macron should have exercised a statesmanlike maturity, he
vowed not to “give up” the offensive images and insisted “Islamists want our
future” — remarks that has stoked further tensions.
The Muslim
world is enraged — and quite understandably so. Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan came up with severe criticism of his French counterpart and went to the
extent of saying that he needs medical treatment. He also appealed to his
people to shun French brands. Erdogan’s announcement was preceded days earlier
by boycott calls in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world in protest against
Macron’s provocation. Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad defended
Muslims’ right to be angry and avenge themselves.
Angry
reactions continue to pour in — from politicians, religious figures, academics
and the common people — with some calling the French leader a “Satanist” and
others reminding how “Macron is following in the centuries’ old tradition of
Europeans telling Muslims how we need to interpret or live our religion …
because of the actions of a handful of Muslims”.
While the
French government has reignited the fire of Islamophobia, it should have rather
worked to defuse tensions between religious communities — as also pointed out
by our Prime Minister, Imran Khan. Describing Macron’s words as an
“encouragement to Islamophobia”, the Prime Minister said this was the time for
the French leader to have provided a “healing touch and denied space to
extremists”.
In a highly
matured reaction, Prime Minister Imran insists on unity among the Muslim world
to counter Islamophobia. He has written to the leaders of Muslim-majority
countries, asking them “to act collectively to counter growing Islamophobia in
non-Muslim states”. He mentioned the “dangerous cycle of actions and reactions
[that is] set in motion” just because non-Muslims did not understand the “love
and devotion Muslims all over the world have for their Prophet [PBUH] and their
divine book the Holy Quran”.
Towards the
conclusion, one would want to question the West’s double standards when
exercising their birth right to free speech: What forces the westerns to
tighten their lips when it comes to questioning the events related to
Holocaust? Under what moral principles has Holocaust denial been outlawed in
the West?
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2271048/in-the-name-of-free-speech
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