| Islam and Tolerance | |
| 17 Jan 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com |
| Salman Taseer left without saying sorry to me | ||
I must say that the ruling Pakistan People\'s Party is also responsible for the death of Salman Taseer. When Taseer criticized blasphemy laws, his own party, including President Zardari, never took a stand for him. Law minister Babar Awan said that nobody would be allowed to make any change in the blasphemy laws. The views of Taseer were misunderstood because the US is also demanding from Pakistan the repeal of blasphemy laws. Common Pakistanis don't like US interference in Pakistan. That was why Taseer was declared an American agent by many right-wing parties.--Hamid Mir | ||
| Salman Taseer left without saying sorry to me | |
By Hamid Mir 15 January 2011 It's very difficult for me to write about Salman Taseer. Once he was a good friend and later he became a ferocious enemy. He spoke against me on many television shows as a governor and I wrote against him many times in the last few years because he joined hands with the dictator Pervez Musharraf after the imposition of emergency on November 3, 2007. I was standing for the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, and Salman Taseer tried to stop the restoration of deposed judges first by helping Musharraf and then by helping President Zardari. Musharraf appointed him governor of Punjab in May 2008 with the hope that Salman Taseer would persuade Zardari to accept the former dictator as president for five years. Musharraf was wrong. Zardari ultimately forced Musharraf to resign and occupied the presidency with the help of Taseer. Within days of becoming president, Zardari arranged my meeting with Taseer and forced us to forget our differences because Zardari knew that we had been friends for 20 years (from 1987 to 2007). Unfortunately, Zardari failed to remove the mistrust between his governor and a journalist. We embarrassed the president of Pakistan. In the next two years, we spoke against each other many times, especially when Zardari imposed governor\'s rule in Punjab to suppress the movement for the restoration of deposed judges. Zardari and Salman Taseer failed to stop that movement and finally they were forced to restore the judges. My differences with President Zardari and Salman Taseer were over after that. During the floods last year, Taseer showed a big heart and had a truce with me. It was August 2010 when Taseer gave me a surprise. He saw me in the flood-hit area of Multan and sent a message of reconciliation through his media adviser, Farrukh Shah. I accepted the offer because I was impressed by the fact that the governor of Punjab was trying his level best to help the flood victims. We had tea together after many years. He praised my visits to the flood-hit areas in boats and I praised his commitment for the flood victims. Taseer wanted to discuss many things, but I was going to Muzaffargarh with Prime Minister Gilani. I wanted to say sorry to him but he said: "No need of saying sorry. You won my heart by your flood coverage. We will meet again in Lahore, will spend a nice evening together, and I will say a very colourful sorry to you." He laughed and I said goodbye to him with a promise to meet him again in Lahore. Just one day before his assassination, I was in Lahore and had tried to contact him. I was informed that Governor Sahib was in Islamabad. Next day, I arrived back in Islamabad and late afternoon my colleague, Rana Jawad, told me that Salman Taseer had been shot in front of my favorite restaurant in the capital. I was stunned but then I smiled. I told my colleague: "Taseer is a hard nut to crack; he will survive". My colleague said that only a miracle could save him because Taseer had got many bullets in his neck. Now I was nervous. After a few minutes, I came to know that a police commando had fired more than 27 bullets on Taseer. The police commando was angry with Taseer because he had taken a position against the country\'s blasphemy laws. There was no justification for killing someone just for criticizing a law. I was more disturbed when I started receiving text messages in support of his killer the same evening. Many religious leaders refused to condemn the assassination of Salman Taseer. I took it as a challenge and decided to get condemnation from the head of the biggest religious party of the country. Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) chief Maulna Fazalur Rehman was in Saudi Arabia that day. I contacted him on the phone on my TV show and asked: "Will you condemn the murder of Salman Taseer?" I was surprised when Maulana Sahib tried to avoid my question. He was not in a mood to condemn the murder but I went on repeating my question. Finally, Maulana Sahib condemned the murder of Salman Taseer. It was not my victory. It was the victory of all those who believed in the teachings of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The founder of Pakistan believed in the rule of law. No individual has the right to become a judge and punish someone without hearing his point of view. When I finished my show, many extremists started threatening me. But I was not alone. A big majority of my colleagues, including the critics of Taseer, encouraged me. More than 500 religious clerics issued a statement in support of the assassin and declared that no Muslim should participate in the funeral prayer of Salman Taseer because the late governor was trying to release a Christian woman convicted in a blasphemy case. This statement came from anti-Taliban Barelvi scholars who had lost their leaders like Mufti Safraz Naeemi at the hands of Taliban in 2009. All the top religious scholars of Lahore, including the prayer leader at the Governor House, refused to lead the funeral prayer. Barelvi ulema took a very extreme position. On the other side, some English newspapers declared that blasphemy law was the main cause for the killing of Salman Taseer. This too was an extreme position. It was a very difficult situation for the host of a popular TV talk show. I took another risk. On the day of the funeral, I interviewed another important Islamic scholar, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, in my live talk show, who expressed condolences to the family of Taseer. Mufti Muneeb belongs to the Barelvi school of thought. He was one of the first Islamic scholars who came out openly against suicide bombings of Taliban on my TV show five years ago. Mufti Muneeb also opposed the views of Salman Taseer on blasphemy laws but he never approved of the murder of Taseer. I was relieved after the statement of Mufti Muneeb. At least someone from the clergy came out openly against the killing of Salman Taseer. I think Salman Taseer was a misunderstood man. His son, Aatish Taseer, portrayed him as an enemy of Jews and Hindus in his writings just because Salman Taseer left his Indian Sikh mother, Tavleen Singh, in 1980. Salman Taseer left Talveen to save his first marriage with Yasmeen Sehgal but Yasmeen demanded divorce when she came to know that Taseer had a son from a Sikh woman. After divorcing Yasmeen he married Amna. In fact, Salman Taseer adopted western ways of life in his private life but Aatish Taseer wrongly accused his father of having religious hatred against Jews and Hindus. The assassin of Salman Taseer also had a wrong impression about Taseer, and he killed the governor of Punjab as an enemy of Islam. Aatish Taseer and the assassin police commando, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, represent two extremes. One is a liberal extremist who levelled unfounded charges against his father. The other is a religious extremist. I am sure that both these extremes are very dangerous for our values. I am also sure that these extremists cannot take over Pakistan. We will fight both religious extremists and liberal extremists. I must say that the ruling Pakistan People\'s Party is also responsible for the death of Salman Taseer. When Taseer criticized blasphemy laws, his own party, including President Zardari, never took a stand for him. Law minister Babar Awan said that nobody would be allowed to make any change in the blasphemy laws. The views of Taseer were misunderstood because the US is also demanding from Pakistan the repeal of blasphemy laws. Common Pakistanis don't like US interference in Pakistan. That was why Taseer was declared an American agent by many right-wing parties. We can compare this controversy with the cases of Binayak Sen and Arundhati Roy in India. They are facing sedition charges because they are outspoken like Salman Taseer and they are hated by the right-wing. They are facing death threats and they are supported by the US and unfortunately support from the US is definitely a disadvantage in South Asia. Personally, I also believe that there is no need to change the blasphemy laws right now because these laws were passed by our parliament in 1992, and we cannot afford new controversies these days. Prime Minister Gilani has written in his autobiography published in 2006 that the late Benazir Bhutto was also an opponent of changing the blasphemy laws. But we must not allow anyone to kill somebody just for criticizing these laws. Freedom of expression is assured in Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan. I think human rights bodies must fight the case of the poor Christian woman convicted in blasphemy in high court and supreme court. They should not force the president of Pakistan to announce a pardon because it will further create divisions in our society. We must resolve our problems through the rule of law. Religious parties once again showed their street power on January 9 in Karachi in support of blasphemy laws. Sunni and Shia scholars never condoned the murder of Salman Taseer but they were together in defending the blasphemy laws. Unfortunately there is no unity among the liberal parties. Some leaders of the ruling PPP tried to use this controversy for the removal of Salman Taseer from Governor House because they wanted to take over his chair. They even forced Taseer to apologize but he refused. Now the same PPP leaders are trying to put the blame of the assassination of Salman Taseer on Nawaz Sharif. This is dirty politics. We need unity to fight extremism. We need the courage and bravery of Salman Taseer to defeat every kind of extremism. Salman Taseer left without saying "a colorful sorry" to me but his death gave a new life to the forces of tolerance in Pakistan and these forces will keep fighting against extremism. I am sure we will defeat them, not with the help of the US but with the help of our own values based on tolerance. We need a "made in Pakistan" solution for fighting terrorism and extremism. A "made in US" solution will completely destroy us. Source: The Times of India URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamIslamAndTolerance_1.aspx?ArticleID=3945 |
12:26 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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