Haroon Riaz
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?
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.
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.
Filed under: Commentary | Tagged: arson, blasphemy, burning, fascism, Hinduism, Hinduphobia, human rights, Islam, Jinnah, Kapil Dev, liberals, mob, National Minorities Day, nationalists, Pakistan, PTI, Rahimyar Khan, religious freedom, Secularism, Shireen Mazari, temple, theocracy | Leave a comment »
The Truth Journal 
The World Abandons the Afghans Again
Let’s move beyond the idea of Afghanistan being a mysterious mountainous country in Central Asia. Let’s move beyond the idea that is an unconquerable, unscalable terrain where superpowers go to die. Let’s even move beyond the idea that it was where Osama Bin Laden was taking refuge during the Mullah Omar Taliban regime.
Let’s think about the Afghans for a minute. What they have gone through for the last five decades.
Think about the women and children stranded outside Kabul To many Airport as the city was falling to the Taliban. Think about the others throwing their babies over the fence to US soldiers. Think about the men clinging on to the landing gear of the escaping B-57s and falling into the abyss of death. Nobody with a will to live or any hope for a future would do any of that.
Perhaps all the considerations for Afghan human rights were overlooked when President Biden decided to evacuate the military in the most bizarre fashion. To many, it seemed that it has undone all the hard work that the United States and its allies had put in to return Afghanistan to civilization. President Bush called the withdrawal a mistake, and while you can blame all the ills of the world on him, he deserves credit for dismantling the Mullah Umer Taliban regime in Kabul, which is back under occupation now.
First of all, even the idea of negotiating with the medieval-minded Taliban was an abomination, I guess nobody is surprised that the Taliban while the Americans conveniently made a deal with them for their exit. The role Pakistan has played in this transition has been disgusting to say the least. Pakistan has been using the Afghan people for its supposed strategic depth to fend off foreign threats from Afghanistan. Its policy of funding and supporting Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan has only made its Western border more insecure instead of secure, while also destroying Afghan society in the process. With their mixed signalling of both urging the US not to leave and facilitating the Taliban to the gates of Kabul, with Pakistani ISI chief praying alongside them, is a new low even for a morall bankrupt regime like Pakistan.
It is perhaps not enough cost to pay that the Taliban are searching house to house looking for the allies who served the US forces and international organizations. It is perhaps not enough cost to pay that the Taliban are beheading sportswomen and murdering comedians. It is perhaps not enough cost that the Afghan society has been condemned into dark ages for the foreseeable future again. But of course, you had to stop forever wars.
There is no wonder that the United States could not fund Afghanistan forever. There is no wonder that the Afghan government and its bureaucracy were rife with corruption. There is no wonder that the allied forces had to exit at some stage. But like this? It has been the greatest disgrace for the United States since the Capitol riots, if not since Vietnam or ever.
The worst nightmare of the people of the Taliban has come true. Perhaps the moment Donald Trump and Joe Biden were elected.
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Filed under: Commentary | Tagged: Afghan women, Afghanistan, democracy, dipomacy, human rights, International Relations, Islamic fundamentalism, military, Pakistan, politics, Taliban, withdrawl | Leave a comment »