You are free to burn their temples

Source: Pakistan Hindu Activists

Liberal Pakistanis are again ashamed of the state of religious freedom in Pakistan. And they often seem to wonder where things go wrong. Unfortunately, many of these unsuspecting patriotic nationalist liberals will never figure out that everything went wrong since the foundation of their beloved country.

A country that was supposedly built for the rights of a communal minority turned out to be a theocratic hell for its own minorities. Who is even surprised?

You are free to go you temple? Watch this brazen attack on a temple in the broad daylight.

Another bad day for #Hindus as Ganesh #Temple in Bhong city of Rahimyar Khan was attacked by miscreants. The beasts daringly live telecast the attack on Facebook: https://t.co/uVq8UYBkQB pic.twitter.com/SzGrtIxEzk

— Kapil Dev کپل دیو (@KDSindhi) August 4, 2021

Ironically, in the month of August, and days before the “national minorities day.” So what was the “real cause” this year, you would wonder? Oh yes, must be another property dispute. What really happened was that an 8-year-old Hindu child either defecated or urinated in a mosque and the Sunni mob unleashed their wrath on the first Hindu structure that they found. Here is the Urdu language report from the almost-state-run news channel ARY News.

As usual, there was some lip service from the “liberal faces” of the ruling PTI, namely Interior Minister Fawad Chaudhary and the Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, who has the most pointless portfolio of all Pakistani ministers.

The attack on the Hindu temple in RYK is not simply condemnable but violates our constitution & the basic human rights of our citizens. MoHR in touch with RYK police since yesterday to ensure action ag perpetrators – got report – following up – our Parl Secy going to visit today.

— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) August 5, 2021

However, it is important to remind that these same hypocritical figures were leading from the front with the ruling party’s Hinduphobic propaganda against India regarding the annexation of the Indian State of Kashmir. Both PTI and their liberal nationalist allies cannot deny responsibility for all the flames of Hindu hatred that they have stoked throughout their term. Of course, Pakistani conservatives are Hinduphobic by definition but the intellectually dishonest facade of PTI liberals must be challenged.

Surely, Pakistan has always been a terrible country for anyone who is not a Muslim. This is the very foundational basis of this Muslim Supremacist theocratic republic. However, the kind of disgusting Hinduphobia state propaganda that the PTI government has unleashed has not been seen in recent years. At least not since the 1999 Kargil War and its aftermath. The state-backed emergence of the Tehreek Labaik Pakistan which has now gotten out of control of their original masters has not helped the situation either.

It is too late for the disingenuous and ideologically confused PTI liberals and corrupt bureaucracy babus to do the fire-fighting against the damage done by the religious fundamentalists that they have enabled. It is too late for half-hearted efforts to fake a soft and enlightened image of a theocracy with mob rule.

It is only laughable when these nationalist liberals quote Jinnah on minority rights. They completely seem to miss the irony when they fail to see the consequences of creating a state motivated by communal hate. Probably what Jinnah really meant by his well-meaning August 11 speech was this.

You are free to burn your temples.