Pakistani nation is in shock!!
Two boys rounded up in broad daylight and literary being beaten to death, pleading for mercy amongst a crowd of people who were getting amused and occasionally throwing stones to spice up the low scale reenactment of holocaust. This was not 1st century BC Rome, it is 21st century AD Pakistan.
As the nation's bloggers and facebook users express outrage, they sink to a new level of hypocrisy. The incident in Sialkot was neither new nor first. Nor it was contradictory to what is being advocated in every mosque in this nation. One would have thought that the advent of private television channels would be a harbinger of some pleasant change but in vain. Most of these channels continue to promote televangelists and anchors who all advocate one think,
'ibratnaak saza'!
People like Zaid Hamid, Aamir Liaquat Hussain and Shahid Masood continue to spread hatred, and are instantly rehired by another television channel when they quit the first one. They are popular but again so were the murderous games in Rome, slavery in Southern states of US and female circumcision in Egypt. Yet today, not one of these countries has a persona so devoid of conscience, to allow these acts to be legalized or even hear out some one advocating them. Courts would send the perpetrators of such acts and their promoters to jail if not gallows.
But sadly this is Pakistan. We talk about stoning people to death, killing them in cold blood or cutting of their hands in the name of religion. We forget quite conveniently while imparting Islamic teachings that this and any punishment if they are indeed set out in Islam, will be meted out by Courts. At best the presence of a government form a post script in our mosques if they are mentioned at all. O, yeah they are indeed always mentioned as puppet of the West etc but their legitimacy is not to be acknowleged.
Sadly the chronic disease has also affected the judges of the nation many of whom often give statements, that 'punishment will be meted out', instead of what the jurists world over would say that is, 'justice shall be done'.
The social fabric of this nation has withered and at the core of the problem is abandonment of a principles based set of values for a rule based set of religious teachings. President of Pakistan and Chief Justice of Pakistan may have taken notice of the incident but unless we change our course books, remodel our schools, ban our madrassas and dishonor the honor killers, it falls well short of progress.
Two boys rounded up in broad daylight and literary being beaten to death, pleading for mercy amongst a crowd of people who were getting amused and occasionally throwing stones to spice up the low scale reenactment of holocaust. This was not 1st century BC Rome, it is 21st century AD Pakistan.
As the nation's bloggers and facebook users express outrage, they sink to a new level of hypocrisy. The incident in Sialkot was neither new nor first. Nor it was contradictory to what is being advocated in every mosque in this nation. One would have thought that the advent of private television channels would be a harbinger of some pleasant change but in vain. Most of these channels continue to promote televangelists and anchors who all advocate one think,
'ibratnaak saza'!
People like Zaid Hamid, Aamir Liaquat Hussain and Shahid Masood continue to spread hatred, and are instantly rehired by another television channel when they quit the first one. They are popular but again so were the murderous games in Rome, slavery in Southern states of US and female circumcision in Egypt. Yet today, not one of these countries has a persona so devoid of conscience, to allow these acts to be legalized or even hear out some one advocating them. Courts would send the perpetrators of such acts and their promoters to jail if not gallows.
But sadly this is Pakistan. We talk about stoning people to death, killing them in cold blood or cutting of their hands in the name of religion. We forget quite conveniently while imparting Islamic teachings that this and any punishment if they are indeed set out in Islam, will be meted out by Courts. At best the presence of a government form a post script in our mosques if they are mentioned at all. O, yeah they are indeed always mentioned as puppet of the West etc but their legitimacy is not to be acknowleged.
Sadly the chronic disease has also affected the judges of the nation many of whom often give statements, that 'punishment will be meted out', instead of what the jurists world over would say that is, 'justice shall be done'.
The social fabric of this nation has withered and at the core of the problem is abandonment of a principles based set of values for a rule based set of religious teachings. President of Pakistan and Chief Justice of Pakistan may have taken notice of the incident but unless we change our course books, remodel our schools, ban our madrassas and dishonor the honor killers, it falls well short of progress.
Yes, change starts with the children and what they are taught.
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