KU Islamic Dean Dr. Shakeel Auj Shot dead: Apparently another “blasphemy” related issue.

It seems that this blasphemy thing has taken another precious life. This time Karachi University Dean of Islamic Studies Department was killed by some unknown gunmen.

Apparently, the issue is related to some blasphemy allegations on him for some academic opinion he gave.

According to The Express Tribune:

The tragic incident followed the killing of Dr Maulana Masood Baig, another teacher of the same faculty, who was targeted in a similar fashion in North Nazimabad a week earlier, said Gulshan-e-Iqbal Superintendent of Police, Abid Qaimkhani.

The story further says:

On November 6, 2012, Dr Auj had registered an FIR 460/12 in the Mobina Town police station, stating that a message, declaring him guilty of blasphemy, and thus liable to be killed, was circulated via a mobile phone number, 0303 273 8856.

The FIR, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, stated that the deceased professor wanted the police to take legal action against those responsible for circulating this message because the accusation of blasphemy with the explicit words ‘Dr Shakil Auj maloun ki saza, sar tan se juda [Beheading is the punishment of accursed Dr Shakeel Auj]‘ could get him killed.

Later, during police investigations, the names of four of Dr Auj’s colleagues, including a former dean of Islamic Studies Faculty, Dr Abdul Rasheed, surfaced for their alleged involvement in the circulation of these text messages.

We should strongly condemn this barbaric act in the name of some supposed blasphemy issue. Islam is against all kinds of injustices even with the enemy (let alone a respected professor):

“O ye who believe! Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity, and let not hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do.” [Al-maeda ,8]

Religious extremism was always there in Pakistani society but in the past decade government especially army and military dictatorship of General Musharraf exploited sectarianism and such issues to forward war agenda. People like Tahir ul Qadri, Zaid Hamid, Faisal Raza Abidi etc were promoted in the media to spread venom against other sects and school of thoughts using concepts like blasphemy or some supposed historical concepts. Few years ago, Salman Taseer (Ex-Governor Punjab) was killed by Mumtaz Qadri (a police officer) on blasphemy issue where Salman Taseer merely criticized a man made law 295-C.

Even few days ago, a media channel Geo was targeted for some alleged blasphemy where an anchor used a sectarian song on some actress’s re-enactment of wedding. This was done with the backing of ISI and army who were settling their political scores against the channel. Even many so called liberal and progressive civil society members and political figures backed this insane allegation campaign.

Allah never allowed forceful following of religion and in Quran He clearly mentions that :

“There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. “(Al-Baqarah, 256)

It’s time for us to start adopting reasoning and critical thinking in religious affairs instead of blindly following verdicts of clergy or state.  I hope someday principles of justice will prevail against prejudices and hatred.

 

 

Malala Issue, drones, NWA operation and fog of this fake war on terror

Recent events of march against drone strikes and attack on Malala Yousafzai have raised some important questions in my mind. These questions are mainly related to the timing of the event and how past events were dealt by the government and security institutions.

If Benazir Murder case is resolved then a lot can be understood about this fake war. For a start, one should ask that how was it possible that some rogue terrorists were able to delete or tempered the mobile communication record from the area? As far as I know that only ISI or some other high level intelligence organization like CIA (Like NADRA data they can surely access this data too) can do it.

These incidents like Benazir, Malala, Islamic University blast or Peshawar market blasts (denied by Talibans) happen at crucial times when anti-war protests take momentum or some crucial decisions are being made about further operations.

Another interesting event is the letter written by Afghan (Pentagon puppet) President Hamid Karzai to PTI’s Chairman, Imran Khan. For those who think that Malala issue is not related to drones and military operations or this fake war, there are few things to ponder upon (If they have the brain to do so). Why the president of a country would like to write a letter to Imran Khan and show the concerns which are shown by social-class and sectarian fascists in Pakistan and pro-imperialism media in USA? It seems Imran Khan and PTI’s march against drone strikes not only disturbed the plans of Pakistani sectarian and social-class fascists but also disturbed the pro-war scum internationally.

Another thing to understand about drone, NWA operation and Malala issue is that Imran Khan is scheduled to lead a protest in front of UN on 26th October 2012.

We need to find answers for these questions. For a start on Malala’s issue, government’s own interior minister Rehman Malik denied the involvement of TTP. Even if it is TTP then there are more than 15 (some say 30) groups working as TTP.

Some are fighting for revenge, some are being funded by international enemies of the country who want Pakistan to remain stuck in this war and some are local criminal gangs. Unless they are not identified clearly, word Taliban has no meaning. Free and Fair investigation can only be done in current scenario through Supreme Court or some investigation body working under SC. But again judiciary is being badly cornered by the government and army due to corruption and missing persons cases. That is why I say for a start we need to find the names behind Benazir murder case.

People say that these tribes and terrorists are ideologically connected. Ideologically connected is also a vague term. People with same customs, cultures or grievances  or may be some other common points can be termed as ideologically connected. With this logic most Indians can be termed as RSS, most USA can be connected to Bund or KKK, all Irish people can be termed as IRA, all British people can blamed for the crimes of East India Company, most Israelis can be linked with Stern gang, most Germans can be linked with Nazis etc. Without addressing the root causes, one cannot solve this issue and waging a war against populations after some isolated incidents doesn’t look very intelligent especially after a decade of destruction.

When are we going to learn the lessons from past mistakes? Or Pakistan army and government are committed to repeat another 1971?

Missing Persons Case, Nationalism and Islam Ka Qila

I hope people who support agencies on missing persons issue will either get hidayat or suffer the same in this world to see how it goes.

There were people in Nazi Germany who suppored such acts and supported Hitler’s crimes in the name of nationalism. It is surprising to see our nationalists also claim for Pakistan as “Islam ka Qila” and forget the principles of justice and humanity given in Quran and Sunnah.

Most of these nationalists like fake liberals support these acts due to their sectarian and social class prejudices. The only thing is that they add nationalist flavor to it.

This nationalism and worship of army cannot be associated with any country using the words “Islamic Republic” and I see it as another form of Shirk as teachings of Allah are being sidelined for new Gods like State, Army etc. Iqbal righly said:

In taza khudaon main baRa sab se watan hai
Jo pairhan iss ka hai, woh mazhab ka kafan hai

Yeh bott keh tarasheeda-e-tahzeeb-i-navi hai
Gharat gar-e-khashan-e-deen-i-nabawi hai

Baazu tira tawheed ki quwwat se qawi hai
Islam tira dais he, tu Mustafawi hai!

I often criticize the hypocrisy of fake liberals but today I want to remind those nationalists who consider Pakistan as Islam Ka Qila that Islam doesn’t allow these type of unjust actions and violations of human rights. If some of these missing persons have done some crimes then even in that case army, government and security agencies cannot deny them of their rights including the right to defend themselves in court. If they believe in Islam and consider Pakistan as Islamic Republic then they should know what are the principles of justice in Islam. Islam doesn’t allow injustice with worst enemies of Islam:

“O ye who believe! Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity, and let not hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do.” [Quran : Al-maeda ,8]

Two Thought Provoking Messages Of Quaid To Pakistani Nation.

” You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State ”

– Quaid e Azam M. A. Jinnah on 11th August, 1947

“The adoption of Western economic theory and practice will not help us in achieving our goal of creating a happy and contended people. We must work our destiny in our own way and present to the world an economic system based on true Islamic concept of equality of manhood and social justice”

–Quaid e Azam M. A. Jinnah on the occasion of the Opening Ceremony of The State Bank of Pakistan on 1st July, 1948

Pakistan! Expectations, achievements, disappointments, hope and the way forward.

“We should have a State in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find free play.”(Muhammad Ali Jinnah)

On 14^th August 1947, a new country emerged on the globe, a nation based on an ideology of truth and justice based on the golden principles achieved the milestone of establishing a state in which they can practice and preserve their Islamic ideology.

As our founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah said:

“Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved, which has come to us as a precious gift and treasure and which, we hope other will share with us.”

The expectations were high and the path was difficult but the leadership of Jinnah with its clear and sincere objectives made it possible for a nation suppressed by a superpower at that time (the British Empire) and the Hindu majority (especially the Brahman Ideology which was not willing to give us the status of equal human beings) to get the precious goal of freedom.

Efforts from inside and outside enemies started from the beginning to de-stabilize and fail this nation and despite all these efforts we are celebrating the 61st anniversary with hopes of a better tomorrow. During that time though we saw failures and disappointments in our national course of life, we saw the separation of our eastern part because of our deviation from our ideological path and the interference of our enemies, the darkness of martial law times, attacks on supreme court and constitution of the country, sectarian and ethnic violence invoked by enemies of Pakistan within us and outside our country and corrupt leadership.

With the failures and disappointments I also see the gifts from Allah to our nation and the achievements we did, we are one of the few nuclear powers of the world, we have one of the most beautiful areas of the world, the mountains full of natural resources, the deserts with treasures of coal in Sind, oil and gas resources of Baluchistan, the sporting achievements in cricket, hockey, squash and snooker, the fertile land we have and above all the people willing to do something!

The biggest asset a nation can have is the potential of its people, our nations has produced heroes like Abdul Qadeer Khan, AbdusSalam , Imran Khan, Jehangir Khan, AbdusSatar Edhi and there is a list of people who achieved milestones and glory for the nation and we are proud of them.

Though the present state of crises (economic, judicial etc) makes me depressed and frustrated but when I see sparks of potential and strong will in my people a ray of hope runs through me. It happened to me on occasions such as we saw during the earthquake of 2005 when the whole nation rose to the call to help their brothers in the north, the display of national unit and solidarity during the long march in which people from all parts of the country, belonging to different ethnic, sectarian and other backgrounds gathered with unity to give a message that we love our country, we are not willing to give it up to anyone, we are the custodian of our national constitution and we will protect our institutions and country.

I strongly believe that we can change the present and can make a great future for our country, we have got all the necessary ingredients as a country and as a nation backed by a strong ideology we have, the only thing we need to have is unity and commitment with strong leadership once we as a nation are able to get these then no power on earth will stop us from achieving our goals of prosperity, social and economic justice, rule of law and the preservation of national values for which we all have to work hard with selfless devotion.

History tells us that nations become great during the time of crisis and the present crises are a chance for us to achieve the greatness our founding fathers struggled for, it’s we who have to stand up for our country:

“You have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of Islamic democracy, Islamic social justice and the equality of manhood in your own native soil.”(Muhammad Ali Jinnah)

May Allah help us and guide us all.

Long Live Pakistan!

Source: http://syedfaisal.wordpress.com