Hashim Qureshi
On November 13, the blood of humanity was spilt mercilessly on the streets of Paris. ISIS barbarians shed the blood of humanism in the name of peaceful religion of Islam. The title of the one who brought the message of Islam is one the grace for the two worlds. Among all prophets, he is the one ordained to bring the message of bliss. The Creator of the Universe has not given authority to anybody of killing anybody. He has not permitted any human being to usurp the right of another human being. He has considered killing of a person equal to killing entire humanity.
In his name more than 150 innocent people were killed and over 300 persons were wounded, many critically. How can anybody have the right to indulge in such heinous crime?
Regrettably, I cannot summon courage to write on this carnage in Paris. I am trying hard to record my protest on this inhuman act of massacre. Humanism demands that I should distance myself from these barbarians. That is why I am struggling to script these lines here.
People know Paris as the city of infatuation; the city of bright springs and freedom and equality. The innocent people gunned down in this city never knew what was their fault or crime. We also know that the innocent people of Iraq, Libya and Syria, too, had no fault whatsoever. However, the first principle of seeking justice is that the oppressed should not stain his hands with blood. Gunning down one innocent in revenge of gunning down another innocent person is not just and permissible. It is revenge.
Pakistani columnist Wusatullah Khan wrote: “that two and a half months ago the dead body of Alkurdi was found lying on the seashore of Turkey. Except a few rich Muslim countries, the rest of them were shocked. Europeans opened their doors for Syrian refugees.” He writes “that 95 per cent Muslims do not accept the jihad concept of al-Qaeda and Daesh. Various Muslim groups like Shia, Sunni, Deobandi, Barelvi, Wahhabi, and Salafi etc. sometimes admit each other into the Islamic fold and sometimes exclude them from the fold. Sometimes they link them up. Was ever until today a decree (fatwa) issued during last twenty years from Islamic centres like Al Zahra University, office of the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Darul ulum Deoband or Madrassa Rahimiyah Qom to the purpose that al-Qaeda, or Daesh or their advocates are excluded from the Islamic circle for perpetrating disturbance on the earth. Whenever such a question is raised, its answer is evaded”.
More than twenty million Muslims reside in European countries. Their youth are excelling in education, science, business and many other fields of activity. They are adequately supporting their parents and family members left behind in mother countries. In addition, they are using all clandestine methods to obtain citizenship for their relatives in European countries.
I can bring an instance to memory when in Holland. “A case of brother and sister marrying was reported to an Asian Embassy. A person trying to obtain citizenship for his brother would show marriage with the wife of the brother. If a brother and his wife are settled in Europe, he tries every possible way of bringing his brother and brother’s wife to that country as citizens. They do it by administering divorce and then remarrying of course on paper. After five years, they again submit divorce papers. Many religious scholars have declared it disallowed (haram). Late Maulavi Noorani had often said that this was a prohibited and illegal practice.” However, the axiom is that necessity is the mother of invention.
The point I want to make is that the Muslims and the people of the East have played a hundred and one tricks to wriggle out of poverty and destitution. In the process, they also got enlightened with education. The father of Pakistani nuclear bomb Abdul Qadir was also studying in Holland and was associated with the atomic energy institution of that country. He came to Pakistan equipped with atomic formula. Thousands of scholars from Asian and African countries received education from European universities. Great intellectuals like Qaed Azam Muhammd Ali Jinah, Allama Iqbal, Gandhiji, Pandit Nehru, Dr, Ambedkar, Zulfikar Ali Bhutoo, Chou En Lai and others received education in European universities and worked to contribute to the welfare and uplifting of human beings. This Europe opened doors for more than two million Muslims from Syria and Iraq. The Arab States, who go about trumpeting the Islamic lesson of goodwill, did nothing except becoming mute spectators of their death dance. “How brazenly they give long sermons that if the Muslims in the west are in trouble, their brethren in the East should become partners in their pain.”
A few self-styled leaders, maulavis and Islamic scholars try to justify such barbarian acts by claiming that these are not terrorist Muslims. Were Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin Muslims? That time is gone. We should remember that even during that period, Muslims had not lagged behind in perpetrating bloodshed and massacres. During Ottoman period, thousands of women from European and Asian countries were taken prisoners and made servants and concubines. Were not our ancestors resorting to such inhuman treatment to innocent people? We need to come out of the past and no excuse can wash off the atrocities that we perpetrated in the past.
Consequences of such attacks in Europe and in the US (after 9/11) have been simply awful. For Muslims travel in Europe and the US is fraught with much trouble and hassle. Admission of Muslim students in professional and non-professional colleges has become very difficult. Muslims receive humiliating treatment in buses, trains and airplanes. At immigration counters, they are meted out insulting treatment. Hatred is expressed towards them in shops and offices. Obtaining a job has become extraordinarily difficult for them. “It is true that not every Muslim is a terrorist but it is also true that every terrorist who is caught is a Muslim.”
Ultra nationalists in Europe are becoming stronger and stronger with each passing day. Political parties that could never make any mark are now making coalition governments frequently. The day is not far away when these parties will converge into majority and then it will become difficult for the Muslims to live in Europe. They will not be able to breathe freely. They will be left with no alternative to run away from Europe to save their lives and honour. The type of attacks made in Paris will change the psychology of the people and European secularist and the avalanche of hatred will sway liberals. All the factories of so-called human rights will pull down their shutters. “This is precisely what one Mayor of France has demeaned. Right wing ideologue and French Mayor Robert Chardon has demanded complete ban on Islam in France. He has said that France needs a Martial Plan according to which Muslims have to be thrown out of France and sent to those countries where Islam is prevalent.” We should not forget that more than sixty lakh Muslims from Arab countries, Africa and Asia are living in France.
Let us examine our conscience and ask how many Islamic countries have protested against Paris carnage? In how many countries Muslims came out on streets on the call of their rulers to protest against this inhuman act? In which Muslim country did the national flag fly half mast in the memory of the innocent people murdered in cold blood? Which Islamic university issued a fatwa against this carnage? The French people got killed in the sea for bringing foodstuff to the Palestinians in Gaza Strip.
In Peshawar, Taliban barbarians killed 130 schoolchildren. Entire world expressed shock and sorrow and condemned the barbaric act. However, when the Pakistani army did carpet bombing in Waziristan and tribal areas as a result not a leaf survived on the tree branches not to speak of houses, schools, hospitals and other structures, no human being raised voice against this inhuman act? The reason was that the grim picture of dead bodies of Peshawar schoolchildren was fresh in the minds of people. However, when gruesome murders like this happen in other places like India, USA or Europe, why do we become mute spectators? Are we not becoming prejudiced and hypocrites’?
Those who seek to find justification for violence and killing in scriptures are the worst enemies of humanity. No scripture and no religion in the world preaches killing of human beings. Those who do these heinous acts are the worst enemies of Islam, a religion of peace and fraternity.
Terrorism gives birth to violence, injustice, prejudice and extremism; it is antidote to progress and development. Humankind has gone through a long struggle to achieve the level of education, knowledge and scientific advancement. Terrorism negates all these achievements. It is a poisonous snake and before it is able to spread its venom all around, the head of this snake has to be smashed.
I do not expect that fluttering of Pakistani and ISIS flags in our mosques and public gatherings will be given up after the tragic event in France. We know these flags are hoisted in the expectation of “remuneration” from concerned quarters. However, based on my knowledge of Kashmirian emotionalism and the element of hatred, I am confident that people with conscience and human instincts will hate terrorist acts like these. Experience has shown that terrorism turns civilization into ruins. After all, terrorism is an enemy of progress, humanism, respect, human fraternity, religious tolerance and science and art. It breaks God’s finest creation meaning humankind into pieces. It does not allow the dearest sons of parents even to find a shroud for their dead bodies.
(The writer is Chairman, JK Democratic liberation Party)
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