Abandoned in life; forgotten in death: Shia minority of Pakistan!

[asad71]

Alas! Current Iranians and Shias do not bother to follow the teachings of the great Imam Ruhullah Khomeini.The West had found the Imam a threat because he had asked for rapprochement of the Shias and Sunnis saying that the differences between the two were neither on fundamentals nor principles.This message of unity was what the West had termed "exporting revolution" by Iran.

 

[TimeTraveller]

The writer is a Lahore-based lawyer. The views expressed by the author are his own saroop.ijaz@tribune.com.pk

‘Pakistan’s 9/11’, ‘Never again’, ‘united we stand’ and similar expressions of resolve and the severity of the situation post-APS, Peshawar were all natural, and perhaps justified in that moment of grief, and above all, horror. The All Parties Conference, the National Action Plan, the moving to tear tribute songs; it was ‘the’ moment. Except, it wasn’t. We perhaps, have spent all our outrage post-APS, Peshawar. Shikarpur happened weeks later, and the Media could not cover it because of the hysterics and silly frolics of two of our National leaders were keeping us busy. Sixty people died in Shikarpur. They were Shia. Peshawar has happened again, it is murder again this time, and those dead are Shia. It is a pity that they had to die just before the World Cup; nobody has the time for remorse, grief or horror. The Nation is bleeding green, while the Shias simply bleed.

Language gives much away. Many on the Media were conflicted between using ‘Shaheed’ (Martyr) and ‘Jaan Bahaq’ (dead) for those who died in the imambargah in Peshawar. Bewildered, they ask, why were namazis killed? Who can do such a heinous act? One would have thought them to be hopelessly naive, if one didn’t know better. Let us still break it down for them: they were killed because they were Shia, by extremists who believe themselves to be devout Muslims and further believe that the Shias are ‘kafir’ (infidels) and ‘wajibul qatl’ (liable to be murdered). Elevated talk of proxy wars, ‘sectarian violence’ and global politics does not obscure the fact that there are people, seemingly reasonable and formally educated, who believe that Shias are infidels and practice unsavoury rituals and are part of some secret conspiracy; you and I know these people and have heard many of them on national television and read them in mainstream Urdu papers.

They do not openly advocate murder, yet are expert proponents of the second worst thing: demonising and ‘otherising’. To mention the sect of those killed is to create ‘sectarian strife’, sometimes, it seems is worse than the killing itself. Since the killers are part of a global conspiracy to destabilise Pakistan and fuel ‘sectarian violence’.

Shias in Pakistan are not mainstream, the State does not own them, and the Shias who make it to the top do it in spite of being Shia and in most cases, change the topic when personal beliefs are brought up.

The entire point of ‘defining moments’ and tribute songs is to humanise the conflict and the loss. We managed to do it admirably post-APS, Peshawar. Yet, with the systematic killing of the Shia, we are unwilling to humanise them, and insist upon a language that makes them victims of some (partly imagined) global conflict. The dead are mere statistics. ‘innocent citizens’, ‘Pakistanis’ and many other terms are used to refer to those killed in imambargahs by all of our National leaders except the obvious: ‘Shias were killed for being Shias.’

An essay of Jean-Paul Sartre, “Reflexions sur la question juive” or “Anti-Semite and Jew” that I have previously relied upon in this context is worth repeating to our democratic leaders and their condemnations of the murder of Shias. Sartre writes about the democrat being a “feeble protector” of the Jews being persecuted, “The democrat says, ‘There are no Jews’, and he says, ‘there is no Jewish question’. This means that he wants to separate the Jew from his religion, from his family, from his ethnic community, in order to plunge him into the democratic crucible whence he will emerge naked and alone, an individual and solitary particle like all the other particles.”

To dehumanise the victim is to abandon her. The Shias are dehumanised in life by the ASWJ and LeJ affiliates, for whom they are nothing but embodiment of ‘kuffar’ and then dehumanised in death by well-meaning, ‘patriotic democrats’ by lumping them in a large pool of the entire citizenry, obscuring the reason for their murder and their identities.

In a real National Action Plan, the prime minister will first admit to the mass killing of the Shias, and then assert that nobody will be allowed to brand anyone else a ‘kafir’ or give any pronouncements on the faith of anyone else; anyone who tries this will have to face the might of the State. The prime minister cannot do that. Punjab has to be kept safe. The ASWJ and the SSP might not bring a lot of seats; however, they do bring votes. The prime minister cannot do that because the State can’t. The State has practised ‘takfir’, most notably while declaring the Ahmadis ‘kafirs’. If and when the real National Action Plan finally comes, it will start with the State apologising and giving the solemn guarantee that giving proclamations on personal faith is none of the State’s business. Sounds despairingly naive and idealistic at this point, right? It is, and so is the situation in our fight against the enemy.

What about General Musharraf’s recent tell-all? Admitting that the Pakistani security establishment “cultivated” the Taliban in his tenure. Why has hell not broken loose and heavens not crumbled? Because firstly, we already knew that, and secondly, as a former army chief, he has impunity and the gallant media warriors cannot brand him as a foreign traitor, agent, etc. Who will apologise for this? No one will. The harvest of this and past cultivation are the namazisin imambargahs in Rawalpindi, Shikarpur and Peshawar.

Shias are not the only groups under attack in Pakistan. Everyone is under attack, to a varying degree though. Yet, some are more vulnerable for now than others. To be dishonest to one victim of murder will and does lead to dishonesty about all victims of the same murderer. It is the job of the politician to play petty politics over dead bodies and it is sickening to see the circus of provincial versus federal government responsibility to protect. In times of war, leaders rise above petty point-scoring or they don’t; and nations do sink and states fail. As long as the ASWJ and LEJ leaders have government protocol and societal deference, this battle is a losing one; and not just for one group of the killed but for all.

Fortunately, we do have the distraction of the World Cup, so prepare for the ‘War’ on Sunday and bleed green, and try not to remember that the Shias in Peshawar simply bleed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2015.
Abandoned in life; forgotten in death – The Express Tribune

A very well-written masterpiece! All applause for the author!

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Thanks For Tagging Sir..........

 

[Daneshmand]

My answer to that is: Shea are hypocrites!!!.

Look what happen to them in Iraq with all the killing and rape of their women they still blame on terrorists and baathist while both words are vague and pointing to no one in particular.

that's just to satisfy sunnis while we know that sunnis in general takfiris when it comes to the Shea.

You can't solve a problem if you don't put your finger on the real cause of that problem.

Ignoring the real cause make you circling in an endless circle you just cheat your self.

Sunni weather in Iraq or Pakistan support the terrorism mainly for religious reasons.

the main thing is that they believe that Shea are either Kuffar or Fasiq (punk). Ask any Sunni how many Islamic Branch we have he or she will answer you like that ( Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali) So what does that means?

It means that every one out of these four is not Muslim add to that a little bit of fabricated slur then you have inhuman that is ready to be killed by any way.

I think the cure to that is that Sunni clerics recognize the Shea as Muslims and admit that takfiries are the enemy of the nation other wise this slaughter of shea will continue for only god knows how long.

No doubt that is some others fueling the hate towards the shea since their main goal is trigger a Sunni-Shea war that will last decades!!! within that period of time they have already done their goals.

I believe the main feeders to this conflicts are two Saudis who support the Wahhabis and Qattaries who feed the extremists.

That fire once ignited it will spare no regime but who care since they already build their futures some where where they think no one will get to them.

Well, the problem is actually not Sunni Islam but Takfirism which has taken over Sunnism in the last 4 decades, largely due to preaching backed by money from Saudi Arabia. This is a more acute problem among the hard line Sunni sects such as deobandism and wahabism with majority of Sunnis be Brelvis or Sufis having been sidelined.

At any rate, though Shias are paying a heavy price, but this problem is an intra-Sunni problem that Shias can not fix. As time goes by the Takfirism is becoming more of a problem for Sunnis themselves as can be seen in Pakistan, where the army is fighting Sunnis or in Arab lands where Sunni Arab armies are fighting their own created monsters. It will take probably a century or at least a few decades, before Sunnis will be able to sort it out between themselves. Shias meanwhile should concentrate on progress in geostrategic, political and scholarly fields.

 

[Zibago]

First of all we r talking about Pakistan and not Syria or some other country
On this thread,what has the West go to do with the killings of Sunni Shia voilence in Pakistan.
What about the attacks on Hazars, Christians, Ahmediyas. Why r they demanding asylum in other countries (China,Sri Lanka, Australia).Why r Pakistani Hindus from Sindh migrating to India in large numbers.
Is the West responsible for this madness.
Please remove the blinkers which u were wearing

1)Hazaras are targeted for their sect by sectarian outfits and their pro army stance by BLA
2) Shias are targeted because um Only 50 percent Sunnis in Pakistan accept Shias as Muslims – Pew Survey
2)Christians are targeted not by any groups per say but sadly by people they call neighbours and friends over mostly petty economical issues
3)Ahmadies and Hindus same reasons as christians
4)The government can only jail and fine people who spread hate but cannot jail people who believe this hate

Well, the problem is actually not Sunni Islam but Takfirism which has taken over Sunnism in the last 4 decades, largely due to preaching backed by money from Saudi Arabia. This is a more acute problem among the hard line Sunni sects such as deobandism and wahabism with majority of Sunnis be Brelvis or Sufis having been sidelined.

At any rate, though Shias are paying a heavy price, but this problem is an intra-Sunni problem that Shias can not fix. As time goes by the Takfirism is becoming more of a problem for Sunnis themselves as can be seen in Pakistan, where the army is fighting Sunnis or in Arab lands where Sunni Arab armies are fighting their own created monsters. It will take probably a century or at least a few decades, before Sunnis will be able to sort it out between themselves. Shias meanwhile should concentrate on progress in geostrategic, political and scholarly fields.

You have no idea how hate filled Pakistani sunnis have become Only 50 percent Sunnis in Pakistan accept Shias as Muslims – Pew Survey

I forgot where i read it but shias are actually a bigger part of Pak armed forces than their population percentage

 

[Daneshmand]

You have no idea how hate filled Pakistani sunnis have become Only 50 percent Sunnis in Pakistan accept Shias as Muslims – Pew Survey

I have rather a good idea. But this endemic, has its own solutions. During Nazi rule of Germany, over 90% of population was filled with hate. But once the Nazism was defeated, not even 10% of people of Germany remained Nazis. We have to look forward for a day, when Takfirism is defeated. Already the world is awakening to the dangers posed by these Takfiris. Be the Chinese, or the Russians or the West. Even in Pakistan I am sure, the high echelons of Pakistani military is learning its lessons. After all they are bombing the Sunnis and are waging a war against the Sunnis who have become Takfiris.

 

[Zibago]

I have rather a good idea. But this endemic, has its own solutions. During Nazi rule of Germany, over 90% of population was filled with hate. But once the Nazism was defeated, not even 10% of people of Germany remained Nazis. We have to look forward for a day, when Takfirism is defeated. Already the world is awakening to the dangers posed by these Takfiris. Be the Chinese, or the Russians or the West. Even in Pakistan I am sure, the high echelons of Pakistani military is learning its lessons. After all they are bombing the Sunnis and are waging a war against the Sunnis who have become Takfiris.

How would you deradicalize folowers of a mullah who says shias are kafir and those who donnot believe that are also kafir after serving 7 years in a Karachi prison and threatened with more time if he does not pipe down?

 

[Daneshmand]

How would you deradicalize folowers of a mullah who says shias are kafir and those who donnot believe that are also kafir after serving 7 years in a Karachi prison and threatened with more time if he does not pipe down?

There is no such thing as de-radicalize. It is just a catchy word. That is all. Such people have to be made irrelevant, economically, politically and militarily. Sidelined. They should not be allowed any voice in media, their rights to government and corporate employment taken away and continuously ridiculed by state machinery. They can go on and believe in their BS, but they will be a weak and marginalized segment within society. As Germany did in Post-Nazi era. It is a long road. Right now they seem to hold power because, the state has allowed them to have power. Once state decides that they must be made irrelevant, they will become irrelevant.

 

[Malik Alashter]

I have rather a good idea. But this endemic, has its own solutions. During Nazi rule of Germany, over 90% of population was filled with hate. But once the Nazism was defeated, not even 10% of people of Germany remained Nazis. We have to look forward for a day, when Takfirism is defeated. Already the world is awakening to the dangers posed by these Takfiris. Be the Chinese, or the Russians or the West. Even in Pakistan I am sure, the high echelons of Pakistani military is learning its lessons. After all they are bombing the Sunnis and are waging a war against the Sunnis who have become Takfiris.

Bro my best answer to you is go and read history.
Their teaching from the childhood is that Shea if not kuffar they are astray. just read about how man Shea got killed by these people.

They simply despise us. They think they are the chosen people while Shea are astray they revile the Sahabah!.

Bro I have no problem with them. Many of them are nice peaceful ones, but with this mentality they wont build or help to build peace within their home country.

 

[Abii]

Alas! Current Iranians and Shias do not bother to follow the teachings of the great Imam Ruhullah Khomeini.The West had found the Imam a threat because he had asked for rapprochement of the Shias and Sunnis saying that the differences between the two were neither on fundamentals nor principles.This message of unity was what the West had termed "exporting revolution" by Iran.

He also had another message: velayate faqih.

No thanks.

Anyway, all over the planet, religion is the cause of misery. Every corner where religion has the final word, the foul smell of misery and death lingers. The answer isn't ultra-nationalism. Let's be rational and secular people like the civilized people of the world today (Western Europeans for example). Those people were savages. They made us look like prophets. Look at them now. We are rational creatures capable of logic and reason. Religion has been the death of the region, not the Soviets, not the Brits and not the Americans. It's our capacity for stupidity and lack of reason that has got us to where we are.

 

[WAJsal]

Why can't people forget Shia and Sunnia for a second ?

 

[suresh1773]

2)Christians are targeted not by any groups per say but sadly by people they call neighbours and friends over mostly petty economical issues
3)Ahmadies and Hindus same reasons as christians
4)The government can only jail and fine people who spread hate but cannot jail people who believe this hate


You have no idea how hate filled Pakistani sunnis have become Only 50 percent Sunnis in Pakistan accept Shias as Muslims – Pew Survey

I forgot where i read it but shias are actually a bigger part of Pak armed forces than their population percentage

Christians have been targeted. What about the recent attack on a Church in Peshawar by TTP which killed 100 ppl & injuring a equal number. A Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead by Taliban for opposing Blashpemy. Salman Tasser,the Punjab Governor was shot dead for trying to save a Christian lady who was charged with Blasphemy law.

About Pakistani Hindus,there r reports of kidnapping Hindu merchants for ransom. Those who pay ransom r released while the rest r shot dead.

 

[Zibago]

Christians have been targeted. What about the recent attack on a Church in Peshawar by TTP which killed 100 ppl & injuring a equal number. A Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti was shot dead by Taliban for opposing Blashpemy. Salman Tasser,the Punjab Governor was shot dead for trying to save a Christian lady who was charged with Blasphemy law.

About Pakistani Hindus,there r reports of kidnapping Hindu merchants for ransom. Those who pay ransom r released while the rest r shot dead.

Even the ENLIGHTENED MODERATE Musharaf had to back track himself from amending the blasphemy law no one in Pakistan has the guts to commit a political(or actual) suicide by repealing the blasphemy law

 

[Bang Galore]

There is no such thing as de-radicalize. It is just a catchy word. .

I agree completely.

 

[Pakistani E]

These things will unfortunately continue until a more robust reaction from the state and the society. Hate preachers, sectarian bigots are allowed by the state to roam free. The state that allows the mob to over rule it doesn't last long and descends into anarchy. This is what we see happening. Self convicted Shia killers are allowed to roam freely in double cabin cruisers, protected by militias of armed of religious fascists while Ahmadis are disarmed just before a terrorist attack.

This is the reality of Pakistan, the only way to stop this madness is to stop the mob and the mullah from over ruling the state. But as I write this, a rabid terrorist supporter and enabler sits in the middle of the capital while the security forces confess their helplessness. Well they might as well pack up and go home and let them have this country. That way at least the citizen will know that the barrel of the gun is more stronger than the rule of law so they can take measures to protect themselves.

The state is dead.

 

[SamantK]

https://twitter.com/x/status/567066412888256512

Enough said!