most of the time, i write blogs because they give me a chance to show how smart i am, to validate my intellect amongst a handful of people who read them. some days, they even make me think that i am a 'great' person who is affecting change.
that's bullshit. one blog post doesn't change shit.
but perhaps a consistent, constant and clear stream of conscience-based ideas can, over a great length of time, get people to start thinking differently.
even then, change doesn't come about through thoughts - its when those thoughts become actions that we get to see change.
but consistency is a fickle monster to tame.
when i logged on this morning, the chattering clouds were awash with the flood of salman taseer's murder.
and many of us, petrified by the killing of someone who held the same vices as us chose to don the cloak of sanctimony, and condemned the heinous acts of those who were celebrating this death.
and in doing so, we all willingly waded into the already rancid cesspool of contradictions which is our society.
for starters, celebrating deaths is a pretty shitty act.
but if we start thinking that it is a refuge only taken by the stone-age , FATA-living, honor-killing, beard-measuring fundamentalists, we need to think again.
for starters, one of the reportedly eight fan pages of taseer's killers had over a 100 fans. when i clicked through their profiles, they were also fans of stuff like Enrique Iglesias, Family Guy, 300, Coke Studio, the Godfather.
a prominent ahmed qureshi-clone blogger, dan qayyum, constantly tweeted that it was time to take out all the liberal extremist cunts. his previous tweets had been about how roy hodgson wasn't good enough his beloved liverpool.
see the contradictions here?
unfortunately, its not like those of us who stood under the banner of liberal or humanist values have never done the exact same.
honestly, did you go around feeling horrified when people celebrated the death of baitullah mehsud? or have you been one of the many people who tweeted or facebook statused or whatever that it is horrid to speak ill of the dead, before unleashing a tirade against the still-dead zia ul haq for his murderous policies?
i don't want to speak of ill of governor taseer, but i also don't want his death to be a moment where we whitewash the past.
his death was barbaric, and there is no denying that.
but if we feel sick, its also because we fear that we are going to be killed too. not because of how we feel for asia bibi, because if we truly cared we would have taken to the streets a long time ago.
but because like the deceased governor, we enjoyed the acts our state holds illegal, and like the governor we could enjoy them because of the power we wield.
the problem with pakistan is extremism, but let's not fool ourselves that its only one side that's extreme. we keep running further to the side of intolerance, we keep getting more and more bigoted. and then we tell ourselves that only the other side is to blame.
to be honest, i can't say much for the future of pakistan etc, because what is the point of that debate? we can't even have a moment of understanding anything amongst ourselves. we can't even look into our own contradictions in an honest way.
i am not trying to hold onto my usual blogging alter-ego of being holier than thou. and i am frankly sickened by all that has developed today. but somewhere, i can also see that i am not sickened because of my principles but because of my fears. and i'm not alone here.
when we act out of fear, we act in a fucked up way. the guard who shot taseer knew deep inside that he wasn't doing so for the sake of the Prophet - he knew he could just use that as a cover up. he did so because he feared the kind of pakistan where salman taseer could fulfil his ideals. he was afraid.
and now we are just as afraid, because we fear a pakistan where malik qadri's ideals are going to get fulfilled.
i want to write something authoritative like 'we must not act out of fear' but i know that's me trying to act all cool and brave. the reality is that i am not sure i can start expunging such deep seated fears from my self. i can't really ask you to do the same.
[edit: i have removed the following lines "he took a stand yes, but in light of all his other stands, it was more in line with his constant stance of needling the provincial government of the PML-N rather than his own belief in the ultimacy of human rights." because as @mypplwannajump and @sisyphusgrey point out, its unfair to reduce his stance to just that. fair point in my view. i would still implore against letting our anger blur our vision of the past, but still the governor had a strong principled background on this issue.]
Will you keep writing just as before? Or will you be more cautious now?
ReplyDeleteSome are saying they'll speak with greater force now. My parents want me to stop, period. I can't blame them. It's one thing to love your country and to speak up because you want to see it get better, but is it worth risking your life?
Many have been killed and will continue to be killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan...and for what? I remember that line from The Kite Runner when Rahim Khan says that things will get far worse before they can get any better. We're at that point now.
We are at that brink, the sudden crack which causes a bridge to collapse. This is bad, but only if you look at Afghanistan you realize how much worse it can really get.
I wish we could get the law repealed because that would be the only thing which would make these lunatics think they failed; but the way things are going, it would be like killing one germ when there are a thousand more, reproducing by the second. And for that we risk our lives by speaking out?
I lost all faith in my country today.
its tough to say anything about writing just yet, but i think we need to re-examine our own points of views. i just don't think that we are addressing what it is that is afflicting our society. the battle lines of liberals and fundos are fake, because in reality both sides keep getting extreme. i would like to say to you that you should keep writing, but i don't know if i can make such a grandiose statement.
ReplyDeleteThere are rare moments in life when one feels or should feel ashamed of where he belongs from. I've to say today is one such moment for me. All I can say is there is a Mumtaz Qadri in everyone of us. Its just too abominable an act. For the fuckin' love of God, who is a man to decide what transpires between one's beliefs and his God? We want to play God. We're beasts of the highest echelon.
ReplyDeleteI have a post entitled, Bring Me The Head of Qari Hussein Ahmed. And I was not happy that Baitullah Mehsud was killed, I just felt a sense of minor relief, with a sense of "The Fight Will Go On". Because after Baitullah was killed, we had the GHQ thing and then the Waziristan campaign.
ReplyDeleteI actually did think about how I felt when Baitullah was killed, a little while after I saw that Qadri page. You're right about there being extremism on both sides, but I think it's more about some strange propensity for self-destructiveness that Pakistanis have. I'm not kidding about the last sentence, I seriously think that our in our militarised state, there is some sort of propensity for not so much suicide, as the desire to be remembered, and go out with a bang if you need to to make sure you're remembered.
When you wrote about self destructiveness, I had been thinking a few days before about that phrase. Maybe that phrase applies to the people of this country and how they define their Pakistaniat? Maybe a desire for normalcy would be the right antidote.
For now I might recommend you pursue the line of inquiry on self-destructiveness.
I'm afraid I have disagree with you two counts.
ReplyDeleteFirst, and this may sound rather elementary, but fear is not the only motivator for peoples actions. It is entirely conceivable that Qadri murdered Taseer for the love of his Prophet. This may make you unconformable because perhaps you're religious or for whatever other reason but since neither you nor I were privy to his state of mind I don't how you could so authoritative state that he was motivated by fear.
Secondly, I don't see how you can put Taseer's stand down to realpolitik. I fail to see how he could imagine to gain in any political way from taking up the Asia's case especially in a province where the vast majority agreed with the PML-N stance. To say he did it to 'needle the provincial government of the PML-N' really makes no sense because any reasonable prediction even before he took up the issue would suggest that he had nothing to gain from taking a stand on the blasphemy law.
SG disagree on the first count, but concede slightly on the second.
ReplyDeletei don't know much, but i do know is that no one commits murders out of love. if you can justify a cold blooded murder with love, then love no longer matters. why do people murder? why do they take lives? you don't do that for love, im sorry but i think humanity backs us up on this.
secondly, ST had a lot of causes, and almost all of them were linked to him being a counter-balance against the sharif government. i realise that i might be overstating the case here, but there is a sense of realpolitik here. more importantly, i can't understand how we are suddenly going to paint him as a saint. he was a brave man, but he wasn't a saviour.
There is extremism on both sides, but only one side has the guns and is dying to use it.
ReplyDeleteno matter what we say its another human being like me & all of us who's blood was spilled on the streets like many before & I don't have a vague notion of who takes the credit for it but the image in our mind that is nothing but just a misty feeling . Do my fellows think that guy Quadri could have rolled out of his bed this morning & looked into the mirror & said ok I'm going to slam dunk Salman today ?? for sure not, he must be having kids & family too, all the relations that salman had,a father, brother, son & all other burdens so how could he risk his life ?? that question & motive needs to be answered . That brain washing needs to be shaved not for just u & me but for the nations that needs to stand tall . Thats what I think .
ReplyDeleteArslan dude, Qadri had planned the governor's murder three days ahead. So when he woke up in the morning, he looked at his fucking face in the mirror and told himself exactly that : i am going to kill Salmaan Taseer.
ReplyDeleteThere are no motives. It's just plain effing irrationality and intolerance that has been brewing in our country and will get stronger if we do not raise a voice.
its not about who went... its about how he went. two wrongs don't make one right.
ReplyDeleteAhmer, so much self-loathing liberalism! I kind of see where you're coming from but honestly, so what if they're contradictions on our end? That we cuss out Zia even if he's dead, and that now, we're more scared than sad (I think that's sort of what you were trying to get at).
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone should be apologetic about being scared of a situation that signals your life choices getting more constrained than they already are.
As for Qadri, I don't know if he was acting out of fear or love (I'm pretty sure he got paid/threatened himself) - he pretty much just threw his life away.
Anyhow, the liberal/privileged self-hate plaguing our lot is getting too burdensome (determining what career you want to pursue "graphic design is too frivolous"; why am I more comfortable speaking/writing in English?; "maybe I should travel in a bus..."; "I hate living in this Defence bubble") Now, you're asking us to...actually I'm not even sure anymore but either way, too much pressure!
It is really pathetic to see such a helpless government anywhere in the world. They had two very vocal politicians in favor of correcting the blasphemy bill and one of them was forced to go silent (most likely other will as well). Can you get anymore weaker than that?
ReplyDeleteIt's a long, dark, lonely winding road but history shows time and again that the pen is mightier than the sword.
ReplyDeleteBeing raised in a secular country where freedom and equality of nearly every sort is ingrained and enshrined in law it is very difficult to understand Pakistan.
Sad truth is, no man is an island and the murderer is as much a product of his society as the man he slayed.
Fear and superstition kill thought stone dead and it is only through education that these obstacles can be overcome.
How that is achieved is up to the people of Pakistan. If they do not have the will or courage to improve their lot for the sake of their children then it's fairly obvious that things won't improve. Ever!
For even the most stupid understand that you reap what you sow.
KK I would say rather than fear, Taseer's killer (and proponents of death sentence for blasphemy in general) are motivated by a survival instinct. or rather, the blasphemy laws and apostasy laws are simply very effective means for a religion to survive and remain strong. I don't think it's fear, exactly, it's more like bullying.
ReplyDeleteAs ever, yours is a very balanced post. It is very important to looks things as an outsider to analyhse objectively. Good post especially for the circumstances.
ReplyDelete@maryamj:
ReplyDeleteOh, I feel your pain. It's so difficult to actually experience what life is like for the others, right? Travelling in a bus is...too much pressure! OMG!
I'm usually not this snarky,but,seriously?
btw,maryamj,you do have a point that ahmer may be questioning himself a little more than necessary - to be sickened merely out of fear that the same may happen to us one day is justified, if maybe not as noble as being sickened on the basis of principle alone.
but really, ahmer - it's never so simple, is it? we are all sickened both because we abhor someone getting murdered like this, and because we are afraid that it will happen to us one day. someone once said to me that there are only two real emotions in the world: love and fear. So I think it is possible to act not out of, but despite fear - to use that fear as a motivator,much as we can channel anger. After all, courage is not the ABSENCE of fear - it is merely acting IN SPITE OF fear.
my tweet on exterminating liberal extremists was in response to someone calling for the removal of all extremist elements. And to me, the liberal extremists who selectively pick out only the worst in the western culture, and try to convince us that this is what liberalism is about, are just as bad as the religious extremists.
ReplyDeleteThere are many good things we can take from other cultures and they don't usually have to be about drinking, partying, or praising Veena Malik for example. (If nothing else, her appearances on BiggBoss were highly cringeworthy)
I'm not going to stop eating at Burger King or sipping coke just because I disagree with our psuedo-intellectuals when they try to ram their own extremist views down our throats - the greatest example being their views on the blasphemy laws. Anyone opposing their point of view is labelled a fanatic, a fundo or a lunatic. I'm all up for amending the law to include a clause punishing false accusers just as harshly as blasphemers, but the law must stay or we'll just have an open season on abusing the things we hold most sacred. The problem in this case was the way the liberal extremist crowd hijacked a very sensible demand and turned it into an 'us against them' thing. Those calling for just the amendment had their voices drowned out by those calling for repealing the law altogether, which an overwhelming majority of our population strongly opposes.
If me and others in this country who appose repealing this law, are to be labelled as fanatics and jahils by this crowd, does that not make them extremists at the opposite end of the spectrum?
In my opinion calling for repealing the law altogether is tantamount to blasphemy itself, even if it technically may not be. But yes there's a dire need to amend the law to ensure idiots like the guy who accused the doctor of blasphemy for throwing his business card in the bin, should get the death penalty for invoking something as serious as blasphemy just to settle personal scores.
Only then we will have people think twice about throwing around false accusations.
And yes Roy Hodson is a clueless twat.
"And to me, the liberal extremists who selectively pick out only the worst in the western culture, and try to convince us that this is what liberalism is about, are just as bad as the religious extremists. "
ReplyDeleteThey are not. Because unlike religious extremists, they don't go around killing people. Get that through your skull.
Masuud:
ReplyDeletethanks man :)
TLW:
as always, really insightful comment. two things to discuss here.
the reason i mentioned baitullah was because i sensed a resonance there. obviously you and i, because of cultural and social leanings, didn't go around distributing sweets, and our minds adviced caution. but what was analogous was that when he was killed, there was a fleeting sense of relief that perhaps now, we will head towards a utopia (which i honestly had a very vague idea of.) that's what i suspected the qadri backers (obviously not all of them) felt as well, that we would be heading towards some utopia where islam isn't threatened. like us after baitullah, the details and feasibility of said utopia was sketchy, but that wasn't stopping us.
the self-destructiveness bit is extremely intriguing. you see it from our suicide bombers to our batsmen to the kids on bikes in sea view. there is something to investigate here for sure.
Arsalan, Anon 1234:
even if the murder was pre-planned, the question of what it means to murder and the sense of responsibility accompanying such a grave destructive impulse is not new - everyone from hamlet to doyestovesky has been trying to figure that one out. but as you both say, this impulse to seek solace through destruction - regardless of whether it actually works - is something that many in our country seem to be embracing.
Sami:
true.
MaryamJ, Nabeel:
both of you seem to think i'm going OTT and being self-hating here, but i disagree. i didn't mean to come across as feeling guilty (despite nabeel's rare outburst of snarkiness, i have also known the dilemmas you pointed out) but my point was that we can't keep thinking that just because we're not "from the steets" or whatever we don't have the right to make an argument. however, the only way to make that right valid is to argue at the level of national discourse, rather than on the basis of our power. the entire debate needs both sides, but we feel that we don't have the right to speak out because of our existential crises, and while that may be true, there is no reason we can't challenge that and give ourself a justified seat at the table.
as for the issue of fear, i didn't mean to say we should eliminate it, and nabeel your idea of acting inspite of it is the ideal explanation. however, i had brought the issue up because the knee-jerk reaction on the liberal end was to immediately beatify salman taseer, and that made little sense to me. he took a brave, noble stand, but that didn't change the past. i was curious as to why all of us, myself included, felt so gripped by the death. and to make my point clear, if babar awan or jamshed dasti would be murdered tomorrow, i can guarantee it won't have the same reaction, hence its not just about the murder.
nesta:
ReplyDeletealways appreciate your measured insights man. as you say, what we need is will and courage. unfortunately, education has not seemed to prove to be a panacea just yet. the educated in our country feel either extremely snobby, or conflicted about their privileges and act out in ways that perpetuate these problems far worse than most other causes.
rabia:
i don't think we are speaking of different things here. bullying to save the religion occurs because of a fear it might die out. and this is, as you put it, bullying and little else.
venkatesh:
thanks.
Dan Qayyum and zf:
Dan, i'd like to thank you for the measured response, and the decision to eschew the inflammatory language you had used on twitter.
for starters, the point zf makes is very potent. there are a no murders being committed by the anti-blasphemy brigade. i don't want to debate the alleged moral equivalency of blasphemy and murder, but the former can be judged in court and by God, while the latter is the ultimate decision humans can take, and not a light one at that.
as for the law itself, i had addressed it in a post for dawn i hope will be out soon. the short drift is that i feel the blasphemy law is abhorrent because it reduces all that is sacred to frivilous, mundane and profane things. since the Prophet never institutionalized this law himself nor felt the need to behave in such a manner, i wonder why it exists now, and especially why does our nation have the strictest version of this law in the world. and as far as i can see, it belies a great sense of insecurity that we can't make our argument through words and deeds, so we need to punish and kill.
imagine if the Prophet was alive today, and someone slandered him. would he be rounding up his battalions to wage war, or would he engage in a civil debate? i see your point about amendments, and on a pragmatic level, considering how deeply insecure and twisted this debate is on both sides, it appears to be a fair concession. but for someone who believes in belief, this is an abhorrent law, because it assumes that all that i hold sacred is ransom to someone's words.
the lack of condemnation & the shameful celebration & applause for this brutal,cold blooded murder is an indictment of our society’s mentality.the tv anchors,newscasters & newsreporters are all justifying this murder by saying ST shouldn’t have said what he said.
ReplyDeletethe sane,rational ppl in pakistan have got no platform or outlet left.the best that can be done is to share by email,facebook,retweets & any & every other way blogs,articles,newsreports that show the way,that oppose our society being held hostage by these murderous barbarians.
The following links are a sampling of some good articles on this issue,check them out by clicking on the links below:
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/05/salmaan_taseer_last_man_standing
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2040792,00.html
http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2011/01/pakistani-writers-and-bloggers-react-to-salmaan-taseers-death/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/05/pakistan-salman-taseer-liberal
share such articles as much as possible,so that the pakistani ppl can have exposure to saner thoughts.
i completely agree - it is very important for us (defined as 'not from the streets' here) to make an argument and to join the discourse instead of shy away from it as many do. The point about the level is critical - much of the writing about and around the death, including this post, has been at a level that the streets may not relate to or understand - and I don't mean to be elitist. That's why I really liked Faisal Qureshi's show yesterday where he tried to present a basic understanding of the argument (http://blip.tv/file/4591914).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm curious about how many of the self-proclaimed 'liberals' are taking on people who support the assassination. I think everyone knows at least one person who defends the murder - why not confront them? There's a few on my Facebook feed who have been, to put it lightly, insensitive. Few are willing to step up and say hey, it's wrong to celebrate someone's death.
nabeel:
ReplyDeletebefore the murder i had actually written a blog about how we can take the argument to the 'masses/streets/appropriate cliche'
its just been published today: http://blog.dawn.com/2011/01/07/the-blasphemy-debate/
completely agree that we need to confront people that we come across, instead of bemoaning about those we can't do anything about
@ Nabeel I do think it's a little pitiful when a student whose annual tuition amounts to $50,000/year wants to travel by a bus in Pakistan just because s/he wants to rub shoulders with the masses. S/he may mean well but I can't help but think it's condescending. But yes, I absolutely agree with your last comment about directly talking to people who support the assassination instead of just bemoaning the death of morality in our country on twitter.
ReplyDelete@ Ahmer. Agreed: "The only way to make that right valid is to argue at the level of national discourse, rather than on the basis of our power". And your new post about arguing about blasphemy in a religious context is a perfect follow-up to that argument.
My issue not just with your write-up but with other blog posts and comments has been the surprise at how somebody who likes justin bieber can also like Qadri? How does listening to Coke Studio/Justin Bieber etc. equal to political liberalism? Or more specific to your post, why can't a liberal celebrate the death of say, Baitullah Mehsud. Or why can't we feel worse about the death of someone whose colorful lifestyle mirrored our own? The reason Taseer's death has inspired so much debate is because for a lot of liberals, it symbolizes an attack on their own opinions, which I think is ok. But you're right, while such discussions maybe cathartic, they may not necessarily accomplish much.
OK..now back to work :D
Maryam,it's all about the attitude! Someone whose tuition is Rs. 50,000 (~$600) a year may be too proud to travel in a bus and someone who pays $50k a year may be happy to do so - I know both kinds,and I'm sure you do too. Initially that curiosity may be condescending but when you do it day in,day out, you will often gain an appreciation for the perspective of the 'masses'. In my experience,people have often been sobered by interacting more than superficially with the underprivileged. That goes for me too. It is sobering,exhilarating,and joyful,but also difficult and often painful.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that in this context,I don't really care what the original motivation of the person is,as long as it results in meaningful,sustained interaction. Talking to your maasi while she's in your house serving you is not interaction,dropping her home at 11pm after a party is not interaction - doing what she does will result in meaningful conversation. Any efforts at briding the inequality divide are good in my eyes. We (the overprivileged) have to start SOMEWHERE.
oh,and i strongly believe that these discussions can accomplish a lot if,say,simply the people who commented above go away and act differently.
Great post, I admire the writing style :) A little off topic here but what theme are you using? Looks pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteWeb Hosting | Web Design
@boundless tech
ReplyDeletethanks. the theme is called awesome inc. i know i was also a bit embarrassed when i saw that name, but its pretty nifty.