Sectarian war in Pakistan: Turn the Tables before this blind, raging hatred engu lfs us all By Sana

Saleem January 14th, 2012 On Saturday evening a group of men attacked a mosque in Manghopir, they slapped the children, ransacked the mosque, kicked the shelves holding the Quran, smashe d and broke the loud speakers and threatened and accused the children of disrupt ing a carol. How dare the mosque call for prayer while the children were singing carols? Its b een a week now and instead of the culprits being punished the victims have apolo gised fearing their lives. Are you shocked, outraged beyond belief about the sheer apathy on such an outrag eous event? Well, let me ease your pain, heres what really happened: On Saturday evening a group of men attacked a church in Manghopir, they slapped the children, ransacked the church, kicked the altar which had the bible on it, smashed and broke the loud speakers and threatened and accused the children of d isrupting prayers. How dare the children sing carols while they prayed? No FIR was registered; inst ead the Christian community apologised to the attackers. It should all make sense now the apathy. The absence of outrage, the fear of dea th that forced the victims to apologise to their attackers, it all fits in just perfectly. Theres no need for an outrage, no action should be taken against the attackers be cause it must have been the fault of the choora Christian children who must have d eliberately been singing carols loudly to disturb the prayers. The joyous little kids preparing for mass were faced by an angry mob carrying an axe. Their cheerful singing turned into frightened whimpers. They may never sin g carols again. Good riddance! We must also applaud the Imam Sahab who brought both community leaders to reconc ile. Reconcile they must. The Christians should tell their children to not delib erately disrupt prayers, to not use the mike and loudspeakers for a few hours on ce a week as an excuse to disrupt the concentration of the pious Muslim men as t hey pray, they must be careful. Next time they plan on singing carols, they must shut the doors and windows of the church tightly so that their devious ways do not interfere with the sacred. For the Muslim men, they shouldnt have slapped and attacked the children but its okay since they were angry. Who wouldnt be if the loudspeakers disrupted their co ncentration? Its unfortunate but the Christian community should understand it is the children that caused the outrage. Imam Sahab is secretly delighted this happ ened; those few good men might as well receive a pat, for they will be topic of discussion at street corners, at shops and in houses. Verses will be quoted and murders will be reasoned. All will be merry again. Did you hear about Shahzad Warraich? He was dug out of his grave, exhumed becaus e his burial could have resulted in a law and order situation. Save your outrage p

lease. Do not be deceived by his name. Just another one of them Ahmadis posing to be a Muslim they should know better than to think that wed share our ground of bur ials with them. Twenty-nine more of them were dug out of their graves recently, maybe now theyll understand, apologise and take their dead elsewhere. What about the mobile company that had to issue a disclaimer about their religio us beliefs in a daily newspaper. Because of course if you cant type Muhammad on you r mobile phone it must be the doing of the devious Ahmadis, just another one of t heir ploys to reject our faith. This will happen again and again because this isnt just bigotry. Its blind, ragin g hatred that can stand no other. And it is our silence that has and will contin ue to let it breed. Ask yourself, would you remain silent if the same had happened in a mosque? If a group of men had ransacked a mosque because the fajr prayer disrupted their sle ep, if your loved one was dug out of his grave from a graveyard?! If you had to prove your religious beliefs in fear of losing your business, would you then jus tify it and encourage others to remain silent? If this isnt the society you wish for yourself and your children, why contribute in making it that way for the other? Why then the apathy when it comes the other? Its the Christians, the Shias and th e Ahmadis now. It will not be too long till this blind, raging hatred engulfs us all too. If we dont find it in ourselves to stand against bigotry, to express outrage agai nst this barbarism, to be compassionate towards those that suffer than wed be wel l on our way towards self-destruction. Heck, were already there. Sana Saleem blogs at Global Voices, Asian Correspondent, The Guardian and her pe rsonal blog Mystified Justice. She recently won the Best Activist Blogger award by CIO & Google at the Pakistan Blogger Awards. The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group. Source: The Dawn, Karachi URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndPluralism_1.aspx?ArticleID=63 74

COMMENTSI think if pakistani govt. dont stop the fundings from saudi arabia and other gulf countries this thing will prevail in their society.This is the high t ime pakistani people should choose their leader who are well versed with Islamic Values. By shahzan - 1/16/2012 11:01:25 AM I applaud Sana Saleem for her outspoken piece. If men are cruel in the name of r eligion and if they cannot respect the religious sentiments of others, they ceas e to be human beings. By Ghulam Mohiyuddin - 1/14/2012 2: