Politics of Insult and Violence

Accidents and un-expected tragedies are the parameters for collective life of nations and societies through which their mentality and behavior can be measured. Throughout the world, sudden accidents, calamities and natural disasters affect the normal routine of life but human response to these incidents is determined in the context of historical background, institutional well-being and political strategies adopted by social institutions of the country. At these crucial times, the religious & political leadership and people of all spheres of life are presenting their thoughts and point of views. By studying the response in such situations, every nation’s collective psychology, emotions and mental tendencies can be analyzed and compared with other nations of the world. Such occasions, also provide the intellectual circles of the world, an opportunity to perform an x-ray analysis of a particular country since not only external body but also the bones and ribs (internal structure) of a nation at collective level can be observed through their thoughts and emotions.

Our homeland is facing a similar situation since the decree of death sentence given to an implicated prisoner who is facing a court trial for killing the former Governor of Punjab. Numerous discussions between different schools of thought have been initiated in our society since then. For some people, size of mob is the criterion of being on the right path by presenting Imam Ahmad Bin Hambel’s quote as an authority. ”Our funerals will decide about who was right and who was wrong“. Others are negating this logic by presenting the case of Hazrat Usman’s(R.A) funeral which was attended by a minute number of people. Such discussions ignore the basic principle that while presenting any incident or opinion of a personality, the context of the whole scenario must be kept in mind. Very often, it so happens that evil powers misguide general people by misusing Ahal e Haque’s (true leadership’s) metaphors. Our society is already the victim of numerous differences and divisions for the last many decades and every school of thought judges others according to their own standards. Such attitude will increase the divide between different segments of the society.

It is a famous proverb that once some cats were praying earnestly for raining of meat from the sky. A dog which was passing nearby exclaimed that how ignorant and fool these cats are who don’t even know that it is the bones that fall from the sky and not the meat. Following the footsteps of cats and dogs, we as a nation are arguing with each other over our self-proclaimed truths, thereby ignoring the eternal principles of nature and ground realities.

During the bloody partition of Indo-Pak subcontinent, it is said that an old man was praying to his God after burying his son and was killed by another person of a different religion, who was also calling the name of his own God while doing this act of brutality.

Upon seeing such rage and violence, a sensitive soul is bound to ask his creator: “O Allah: Where have we lost our humanity! One human kills his fellow human being in your name. You are the Rab (Nourisher) of both of them while they want to destroy each other in order to raise your name. The situation has reached to such an extent that followers of the Prophet Muhammad (May peace be upon him) attack each other while using Prophet’s (May peace be upon him) name who himself was statue of peace and blessings for whole humanity. Every sect takes pride in this destruction and bloodshed of other sects, thereby, inviting and encouraging the future generations to raise this religious violence to a higher level.

Once a sacred city was established for a particular sect. A stranger who had heard the fame of the city managed to reach there after a long journey. When he entered the city, he saw that every man and woman was deprived of one eye and one arm. He was told by citizens that the city was so sanctified because if anyone committed a sin, he used to go to the altar house and cut his one arm and put out his one eye as a self-punishment to his sin. In the city, only those children had their both eyes and arms functioning normally who were not of adult age and could not read their sacred book. All the citizens were happy and satisfied with the feeling that they were leading their lives according to God’s decree & His book and felt proud of their cut organs and disabilities.

A few days ago, news of a young child attracted huge attention of media who cut the claw of his hand after being impressed by an emotional speech of a so-called religious scholar.  His only fault was that he raised his hand unintentionally in affirmative response to a question that is logically, morally and religiously ridiculous. Thus, by cutting the claw, his body was purified from the sin which he committed unknowingly.

We have to ponder upon the quality of religious lot that is teaching us our religion. Under their guidance, humanity is destroying its own very existence and well-being while they are satisfied that they have obtained the consent and approval of God and his Messenger (May peace be upon him). They consider killing each other as an act of performing a sacred obligation and they believe that their deeds are perfectly in accordance with God’s decree and his revelations.

 The tragedy of our society is that our politics has developed the thirst of human blood. The so-called religious and political leadership that has been enforced on the society is always ready to play dirty politics on the dead bodies of innocent human beings because every act of blasphemy, denigration and human murder make their politics alive. Politics that lack the objective to bring about collective betterment is dependent upon violence, scandals, allegations and tragedies. There is a dire need to investigate how and when the mentality of hate and violence entered our national character and the sacred name of religion began to be used for persecuting someone for the individualistic and exploitative means.

A few years back, an essay of a former student leader was published in a famous newspaper of who lives abroad and has repented on his wrong-doings in the student life. In that essay, he described an incident in which they killed their own friend and held a strike for many days on his dead body thereby achieving political benefits. Mahirul Qadri writes in his book "Yaad e Raftagan" that during college life, their hostel warden was a Hindu. He wanted to shuffle the students into different rooms against their consent. So, they organized a strike against him by saying that their rooms were being separated in order to stop them from offering their prayers collectively. Consequently, the warden had to retreat from his stance and the students had a triumphal victory over the Hindu warden. Similarly, Abdul Islam Khursheed writes in his autobiography "Row me hai Rakhshay Umar" that when they (Muslim students in civil line college) wanted to strike in confliction with Congress, the principal did not give them permission. In response, they broke the infrastructure of college by saying “yesterday there was degradation of the Holy Quran in procession of their rival students”. The principal retreated at once and they succeeded in organizing the strike. Interestingly, Mahirul Qadri belongs to “Jamat e Islami” and Abdussalam Khurshid was a worker of “Muslim League”.

 Think, ponder and analyze!!

Translation: Mr.Muhammad Kashif Farooq, Haroonabad