A Serenade of Self-Destruction

“A Serenade of Self-Destruction “ By Sophia Chawla

 

March 3rd, 2012. KARACHI, PAKISTAN: A deadly bomb blast ripped through shops and dwellings in a Shia village, killing about 49 Shia Muslims and wounding 135. We see here, once again, an example of the onrushing Sunni-Shia conflict in Pakistan. Now, my knowledge about the causes behind this conflict is highly lacking (except for the fact that, like all other Sunni-Shia conflicts in the Muslim world, there is a dispute over the heir of the Prophet Muhammad), but such conflict further exhumes the troubled role of religion in the founding foundations of Pakistan.

Pakistan was founded in the year 1947 by Karachi-native Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. A Shia and “non-devout” Muslim himself (people ascribed this title due to him drinking alcohol and eating pork, two “haram”, or forbidden elements in Islam), Jinnah claimed Pakistan as an “Islamic Republic”, a place where Muslims–who were serious minorities in India at the time–could become the majority by basking in a land of the religious free and by creating ideas and fostering innovations they never had the chance to do in British India because of the surrounding religious-fueled hatred that would suppress them. Although Jinnah’s motives seemed vague and innocent in nature, little did he know that his creation would remain to be one of the biggest political groundbreakers and blunders of modern Muslim history.

The blunders began its slow, slithering course after the Qaid-a-Azam died. His death left the Pakistani people with the title “Islamic Republic” hanging over their heads like a shrill fluorescent light bulb. So to maintain this title of “Islamic Republic”, Pakistan did not exactly enact Sharia law, but instead, tried to “grape pick” select concepts from the Quran to preserve Muslim culture and pride. One of them—which were brewing in the minds of British rulers and Indian Muslim politicians even before Pakistan was created—was the Blasphemy Law. The Blasphemy Law under the British prescribed punishments for intentionally destroying or defiling a place or an object of religion and trespassing on religious beliefs through oral, written and physical action. These Laws were inherited by Pakistan the day it was founded. Departing from a seemingly secular air into the murky waters of a religious zone. The law was morphed and proliferated by “Quranizaiton”. The pinnacle of this Quranizaiton was achieved after 1980, thanks to the notorious Zia-ul-Haq setting off the spark with his Islamizaiton policies. A slew of clauses were added to the chapter of religious offences in the Pakistan Penal Code. Clauses like the anti-Ahmadi laws, the anti-derogatory laws, the anti-Quran laws, the anti-Quran defamation laws, the prophet blasphemy laws and many others were piled on more and more to this measure that the law must be as long as a mini-constitution by now.

Now keep this radically mutated law in mind and drag in the current Shia killings into the picture. We can see that blasphemy is a clumsy finger and concept of shifting blame. And even worse, one can blasphemize their religion by using their own religion. That is the very problem of religious sectarianism: it tears the meaning of blasphemy asunder, leaving it as a disembodied shard of mosaic lying in each sect and these shard have nooks and crannies so inconvenient that never shall they puzzle back together with their lost counterpart. One can be a weapon and victim simultaneously.
Same can be applied in the Shia killings in Pakistan. Their religion is not the religion of Pakistan…

…or, whatever that means.

Right now there is nothing but a serenade of self-destruction in Pakistan, a composition of expressive love by the means of violence and hatred. Muslims kill Muslims. Commonly, religion is meant to be a collective unit of believers to create one, collective identity, a flock of sheep shepherding their way through life. And collectivism calls for interdependence. Interdependence is a rosary that says that you are my other me, my brother, my sister. Therefore, killing you would mean I am killing myself. Given this widely known idea, we can see what exactly the “Islamic Republic” of Pakistan is undergoing. Its people self destruct as they destruct others.

 

 

6 thoughts on “A Serenade of Self-Destruction

  1. To this excellent commentary on the sorry state of affairs of Pakistan, I like to add Ayat 93 from Sura 4 An-Nisaa:

    وَمَن يَقْتُلْ مُؤْمِنًا مُّتَعَمِّدًا فَجَزَآؤُهُ جَهَنَّمُ خَالِدًا فِيهَا وَغَضِبَ اللّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَعَنَهُ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُ عَذَابًا عَظِيمًا

    Sura Nisa 4:93 But whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and God has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment.

  2. Thanks for the additional evidence Mr. Farroki. I know everyone is aware of religion killing religion, but I don’t think people are aware of the fact that religions can have as much internal warfare and conflict as their secular counterparts. Ideally, this line from the Qur’an should be followed by every Muslim, Sunni or Shitte. However, there must be more ulterior motives at hand that transcend these principles of morality. These motives, in fact, let people re-define what is moral and what is not, making religion in general a vulnerable instrument of self-orchestration.

  3. This strain of nihilistic true believers have created their version of hell on earth and visiting great punishment on the innocents. The silent majority has to stand up and utterly condemn this fatally flawed vision of Islam.

    • Nasik, I know what you mean. But there has been so much utter codemning and protesting theoughout the years. The Problem, though, is that some of it was not as effective due to fear. Fear is actually what drives people most to protest, but also drives people away feom it. It’s a double-sword power.

    • What is happening in Pakistan is not a Shia-Sunni conflict. I was watching Hamid Mir’s Capital Talk in which he went to Abbas Town in Karachi. All the residents/victims unanimously said that Abbas Town community is mixed and both Shias and Sunnis have lived there and are living in harmony. There were several prominent Karachites on the scene too including the veteran leader Meraj Mohammed Khan. They were all saying that this a murder of innocents and down trodden Pakistanis.

      The same explosion not only killed Shias but many Sunnis also. To characterize this as Shia -Sunni conflict is a disservice to the memory of all Pakistanis killed in the recent genocide. It is one sided action by one party. It is widely accepted that Lashkar e Jhangvi is bent on genocide of Shias . Unless they are controlled or eliminated and such thinking in all quarters the serenade of self-destruction will go on.

      Syed Suhail Rizvi

  4. Mr Rizvi, thank you so much for your insight and perspective. Indeed it’s important to look at other angles of the issue. Unfortunately our media unknowingly colors our perceptions so much that I myself don’t realize sometimes.
    But I am just so curious. What, exactly, is causing this conflict? What are its roots? Has it been happening for a long time in Pakistan? Because to my knowledge, it seems more apperent in the media now than in the past. Do you know what are the underlying causes?
    By the way, this question is open to everyone else as well.

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