Aasiya Bibi, a low class labourer who was accused of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad by the two women who had an argument over water and backed by religious leaders of her area is one of the darkest examples of abusing religion for nefarious purposes. A self proclaimed imam (prayer leader) of the local mosque and many others who were questioned in the highest court of law, Supreme Court of Pakistan, were proved to be lying all those years when Aasiya was kept behind the bars and her family displaced to save their lives.

I would not waste time in explaining the case as the Supreme Court’s detailed verdict has been self explanatory and unarguably the best analysis of how the case was concocted and a heinous conspiracy hatched against the weakest segment of our society which is poorest of the poor and also belonged to the most exploited minority in Pakistan.

My concern is, why weren’t all those witnesses and the main accusers including the Prayer leader of mosque trialled for lying in the court of law and causing irreparable loss and damage to the lives of accused and her family including her children and what compensation was offered to Aasiya Bibi for wasting more than 10 years of her life in jail?

During her appeal in the Supreme Court there were protests going on around the whole country demanding the court to “Hang Asia” which only increased after her acquittal, disgustingly #HangAsiaDefend295C was trending amongst the religious extremists on twitter and other social media sites.

Secondly, since Asia has been acquitted of Blasphemy, then why the authorities not letting her leave the country as she has been offered asylum by Canada and her children are already there. According to sources quoted in Daily Mail, Asia is unwell and is being denied medical care and is currently kept in a safe house in Karachi.

In a recent interview with BBC, the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Asia will be leaving very soon, it has been almost three weeks since that interview took place and we have found no development regarding her leave from the country so the reality speak of a very different story then what Mr. Khan stated.

Sources also say that she has been kept under Army supervision in Karachi and they are not letting her leave because they want assurances that Bibi will not speak up on her experiences in Pakistan as that would give Pakistan a bad image, despite the fact that the country will get an even worse image if she dies within the protective custody.

The law of Blasphemy is the stringent one in Pakistan, allegations of Blasphemy aren’t something to be taken lightly in Pakistan, people have been assassinated over the accusations of blasphemy before even going through a trial. If we look into the history of this law, this law dates back to pre-partition India when it was introduced in 1860, this was meant to protect the feelings and religious sentiments of people belonging to any religion. Pakistan inherited this law when it came into being in 1947, it was later amended in the military rule under General Zia ul Haq, who brought up two more sections into this law which included the death penalty on defamation of the Prophet Muhammad and life imprisonment on defaming the Quran. Following are some points which everyone in Pakistan should know :

. Only around a dozen cases were reported prior to the amendment of this law in 1986 according to Centre for Research and Security Studies.

. Around 1300 cases have been reported since the amendments.

. Most of the cases reported were against Non-Muslims.

. Most of the cases have been found to be filed to settle personal and financial disputes.

. At least 65 people have been murdered in Pakistan after being accused of blasphemy since 1986 according to a recent think tank report.

. It is non-bailable offence.

The law of Blasphemy is being misused to settle personal scores and gain control and power by the strong and religious leadership, it is now time that we realise that this law is the most abused law in Pakistan. There are many people who were accused of Blasphemy and evidence weren’t enough to prove them guilty but are still in prison for years because no judge is willing to give a judgment in favour of the accused due to the societal and religious pressure and transfers the case to another judge. Junaid Hafeez, a university professor was accused of alleged Blasphemy has been in prison since more than 5 years because the judge transfers his case to another judge.

Asia Bibi who was also falsely accused of Blasphemy to settle a personal dispute has been rotting in prison for more than 7 years, there are many more examples of the people who have been falsely accused and their lives have been ruined, is this not injustice? Is this not the time that the State of Pakistan revisit this law and make some changes if not remove it so that it cannot be abused by people who wants to control minorities and others who do not agree with them.

In a world where people are free to chose which religion they want to practice and no one has an authority to push his/her beliefs on others, where nearly every country is bound in social contract of safeguarding the rights and lives of minorities by the UN charter, destroying the worship places of Qadianis or any other minority group must have been viewed as a heinous crime and the perpetrators must have been prosecuted and punished. But unfortunately, those who took the responsibility of that attack take pride in doing so and the law of the land stand muted because these religious leaders are the real power bank for all major political parties so enjoys utmost immunity on all matters.

The Ahmadis were declared non-Muslims in the constitution of Pakistan, but that does not take away their right to live and practice according to their religious beliefs as this is the basic right of every human being and it’s guaranteed under the constitution of Pakistan. It’s hard to believe that the believers of Islam can be so intolerant towards a handful of people which doesn’t pose any threat to the majority of population and if our religious leadership would have handled this matter intelligently and addressed the weaknesses in this faith with dignity and respect, I believe that their future generations would have landed on the correct path which is Islam but we have lost it all the way.

We also have a very narrow view of looking at options that emerge in the outer world and have a tendency to blame the outcomes of all our mistakes on others as if the whole world has got nothing to do but to conspire against us which is excessively overdone. I don’t mean to say that other nations of the world (especially those who are declared as our enemies like India, Israel, etc) have no role to play in our chaos. Naturally they would not miss any opportunity to destabilise and destroy us by using all the weaknesses that exists in our social and religious framework but if we get caught in their trap and react as per their plans then we are the ones to be blamed. Here I would like to quote a saying of Hazrat Umer RA (4th Caliph of Islam) which means as:

“We are not those who deceive others but neither are we so gullible that we don’t understand when others try to deceive us”.

In short, if Christian colonies are gutted and people belonging to that faith are killed; or Hazaras are brutally murdered in Quetta; or Qadianis are persecuted and their places of worship are destroyed in our so called Muslim country only because we have an overwhelming majority and it gives us the right to do whatever we deem as correct, then similarly we don’t have a right to object the destruction of Babri Masjid in India, or mass slaughtering of innocent Muslims in Myanmar, or the inhuman treatment and killings of Muslims in Palestine. We need to shun our double standards with our actions if we want others to treat us with respect and dignity as merely a lips service would not help us at all.

Food for thought.

Pakistan is a country with 48.76% of women population according to the recent census in the country, it is also considered one of the worst countries for gender equality, the world economic forum’s global gender gap report for 2017 ranked Pakistan 143rd out of 144 countries in the gender inequality index.

It’s a traditional practice in Pakistan to invest less in education of females than of males because parents expect better employment reward for boys. Even if women studies, they are not allowed to do job in their field of study by their parents or by their husbands after marriage.

Every year in Pakistan, thousands of women become doctors, but very few of them practice because they have to perform their duties as a housewife after marriage.

In rural areas of Pakistan, women are treated just like slaves, they get food and clothes and that’s it, they can’t make decisions about their life, about whom they can marry, similarly in urban areas women face a lot of difficulties if they work, like sexual harassment, not getting equal pay, it is almost impossible for a woman to survive on her own in Pakistan without any male support

If we look into this problem of gender injustice in Pakistan, we will find out that it’s because of the extreme religious point of views, Pakistan has approximately 97% of Muslim population and it is largely considered in Islam that it is men’s duty to provide food and shelter for women, women can only work if it is really necessary to survive, that also in a working environment where her modesty is not compromised, a women cannot go out without a male family member, a lot of ulemas and muftis have given fatwas that a women can’t work or study in a place where she is interacting with other men. According to advocate Faiz Syed (an Islamic scholar), no women can work without any financial problem, if there is no financial issues then women must stay home.

These traditional religious practices might be good 14 centuries ago but now in today’s world, it is considered as harassment, to stop a woman from doing work or going out alone is harassment, it is her basic human right to work as whatever and wherever she wants.

Are we Pakistanis really competing in today’s world by following useless traditions of centuries ago? I think it’s time that we speak up against the religious atrocities being done by extreme religious views holders and give people their basic human rights.

Generally we hear this term of “Islamic Country” or “Muslim Country” quite often and Pakistan is considered to be one such place. I would like to ask a question here that ‘what makes a country Muslim or Kaafir (Infidel)?’

In my honest opinion, a country cannot be of any religious orientation, but the people living there can have a clear majority of people following a particular faith along with different minority groups following other religions and the country’s laws and security apparatus are obliged to treat every citizen equally without any discrimination. Ideally, in a place where mixed minorities co-exists, it is the responsibility of state to act fairly and impartially to ensure the safety and security of all minority groups including the freedom to practice and preach their beliefs peacefully, but in case of Pakistan, the state institutions responsible for providing protection and justice to the oppressed or endangered minorities have been reportedly involved in their persecution which is very ironic. we have seen incidents where police officials who are responsible for protecting the ones that are accused of offences like blasphemy or anti sharia acts are killed under their protection by themselves and the murderer are often framed as heroes by the entire society and if someone dares to speak against this brutality, their voices are shut with force or by a bullet. On the other hand, we have witnessed Judges of lower and superior courts have acted in bias and convicted individuals allegedly involved in such practices without substantive evidence and although most of these convictions are turned down in the appeal process but that earlier conviction makes the lives of the accused miserable and many were persecuted even after their release whereas few lucky ones manage to escape from there and take asylum in other countries.

I believe that religion is a personal affair and its between an individual and God and that no one is allowed to judge people and issue certificates of paradise or hell for anyone. The real job of religious scholars is to build the character of people and lead them by example but unfortunately, they are doing everything but this. The main driving force behind them is to retain the power seat that they are enjoying since almost 1400 years now right after the fall of Khilafat-e-Raashida by controlling the religious sentiments of the population. They have been hands in gloves of corrupt rulers and the history is continuously repeating itself without failure.

I believe it is high time to come out of this shell and defy from being a part of their game. Its time to try and impress people by our good deeds and character and follow the Sunnah (ways) or our Prophet (PBUH) rather than merely following their commands like pawns. Its time to stop discriminating against the religious minorities like Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and even those who have deserted Islam and converted to other faiths or even became Atheists and try to win them back by love, care and affection. Its time to highlight the goodness of every individual and stop discrimination on the basis of Gender, beliefs or sexual orientation. This is the only way to attract them to the right path and secure a place in paradise rather than persecuting them as Allah SWT says that a murderer will not even smell the paradise and will descend in hell eternally.

Share if you agree and correct me if I am wrong.

Acknowledgement and disclaimer:

I sincerely thank my brother who has been my mentor and supported me all the way in addressing crucial but controversial issues.  The reason for starting this blog in English is to address those who are very fortunate to have everything in life and history proves that if these people wake up, they become the agents of change.

Before I start, let me make it clear that all the views presented here are based upon my own understanding of my religion Islam and I have every right to express my views as a Muslim but if it hurts anyone’s feelings, I sincerely apologise from the bottom of my heart. Also if you disagree with any of my views and believe that I am carrying wrong understandings about my religion, please reply in comments and I will love to correct myself.

Blasphamers agaisnt Blasphemy 

I belong to a country where blasphemy is punishable by a death sentence if proved in the court of law but ironically most of the victims of this law have either been killed in tailored mob attacks and the perpetrators of those attacks have largely remained unaccountable. I know it’s a very sensitive subject to talk about so I would like to make it very clear that I am a Muslim who believes in all the fundamentals and pillars of Islam, that our Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) as the final Messenger of ALLAH has taught us by His teachings and actions.

We are a society where everyone claims to be the slave of Allah and his Messenger PBUH, and to prove it the most common name for boys in Pakistan starts with Mohammad and the most common business name starts with Madina. But do we even think twice about the required sanctity of our names when we involve ourselves in illegal activities or acts of low morals or ethics? Do we ever think before selling faulty goods or hoarding basic commodities for higher returns even if it means millions of people going to bed without food for a day? Or do we even think about the sanctity of our company’s name when we bribe the authorities or get our loans written off even if it means more debt on every child being born in our country? Is it not blasphemy to use the names of our Prophet or their family members and companions to deceive others?
If it is true, then we are a nation where majority of our population are blasphemers and should be dealt accordingly, right? Fortunately, that doesn’t come under the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. The law only concerns with person(s) accused of passing derogatory remarks against our Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) and in most of the cases that accused person(s) happens to be a non-Muslim(s).
I humbly admit that I am not a scholar of Islam but it’s an integral part of my faith that my Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) has been sent as a mercy to the whole of mankind and He has never punished anyone for being abusive or disrespectful towards Him. The reason for Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) being acknowledged as the most merciful and compassionate person of all times even by non Muslims is that He has always forgiven even the worst of His enemies and left a legacy of love and compassion that is unquestionable even today.

I always wonder why wasn’t the old woman who used to throw garbage on our Beloved Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) on a daily basis wasn’t killed? Or why our Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) refused to curse the population of Taaif when Hazrat Jibrael (Gabriel) asked him to do so? Or why Rasool Allah (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) did not kill all those people of Makkah who always tried to harm Him and Islam, after Makkah was conquered? We can find numerous examples where our Beloved Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) and His companions have not only refrained from unnecessary executions and bloodshed, but also, prayed from Allah Almighty to guide them to straight path.
The only example which can be authenticated by the all jurors of Islamic history is that of Ibn-e-Khattal who was ordered to be killed when Makkah was conquered, and if we ponder deep into the context of that judgement we can easily verify that the man was a habitual liar, conspirator against Islam, and used Islam as a deception to kill his old enemy who migrated to Madina after embracing Islam. He not only killed that man but also reverted back to his old religion upon his return to Makkah and has plotted dangerous conspiracies against the Muslims. Hence, we don’t need to be a scholar to comprehend the nature of his crimes and the possible reasons for his execution.

Now let’s take a look at ourselves, we as Muslims, as the flag bearers of the Great Messenger of Islam (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) and His message. Are we really worthy of calling ourselves followers of the greatest human the universe has ever witnessed? Who has been declared as a mercy for every creature in this universe including us humans. The Prophet (Peace and Blessings be upon Him) who refused to even curse his worst enemies and continuously tried to invite them to the straight path. And remember that although we Muslims might see one another as the followers of different fiqah (schools of thoughts) but the non Muslim world views all of us as Muslims and if our actions are bad, we are painting a bad picture of Islam and pushing the world away from our religion and we will be answerable to Allah for this on the day of judgement.

Lying is strictly prohibited in Islam and our Beloved Prophet (Peace and blessings be upon Him) have condemned a liar more than any one else but if we see ourselves today, we have become the nation of liars. We lie to ourselves by comforting against the call from our inner conscience when we are about to commit a sin. We habitually lie to others even if it means deceiving them. We lie about our religion to justify our actions although it leads to a negative image for Islam in the eyes of others. We do everything that has been prohibited in Islam, yet when it comes to laws like Blasphemy, we take up our arms and go out to hunt those accused.
Islam is the most modern and complete religion of all times. It has everything a human needs to lead a successful life. Moreover, it gives society a framework to take the best form where we can lead a life on the principles of equality, empathy, accountability and justice without taking into account one’s religious beliefs or social orientations. Realistically speaking, these principles are the foundations of many western countries and it should be viewed positively as the success factor, which they have derived from our religion whereas we have abandoned it and lost the course

If India starts war???

India’s hostility towards its neighbours especially Pakistan is not a new phenomenon. We have been informed about countless incidents of cross border firing with light and heavy weapons on our border inflicting casualties of civilian and soldiers alike. But the recent streak of its oppression in Kashmir and along the boundary represents a new hysteria. After 9/11 attack, the world has taken a collective position of fighting against Terrorism and extremism has been rightly painted as the root cause of it. Since then, we have witnessed numerous campaigns to associates the extremism to Islam and Muslims were demonised around the world mainly by the western media and the world is not the same place for Muslims as it used to be. We can surely conclude that this campaign is by design as it conveniently ignores the extremist elements belonging to other religious or ethnic groups and the result is indispensable loss of tolerance and objectivity in great democracies and the election of radicals like Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in USA.
The world is changing but this time it’s changing for worst. After WW2 there was a general consensus of all the nations to de escalate the venom and vengeance against each other’s and exercise maximum restraint in the events that could lead to wars and the United Nations emerged as a platform to launch the grievances. Although UN has been quite effective in the past but its inability to take action against its powerful members or their pet countries has undermined its importance and it has become nothing more than a debating club.

The world is going back to its historical position and this notion represents imminent threat of a conflict that would make WW1 and WW2 look like a picnic and it might start with a Pakistan – India war.
We hear the term that “If India Starts War it will be destroyed” several times in a day from politicians and people who represents our armed forces and my question to all those living in a fool’s paradise is “are we not in war with India yet”.

The world has changed and so is the methodology of war. In the modern time of espionage and covert operations the wars are fought on perceptions and India has imposed that war on us since a very long time. It’s a full fledged war of narratives where perceptions are deemed more important than reality, the most recent example of this was “Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction”.

India has always been our enemy but recently it has been successful in building the narrative that Pakistan is a nuclear nation with rogue army and our politicians and some elements of our society which are being financed and funded heavily by the Indian lobbyists, have been instrumental in sealing the stamp on its rhetoric. Media, NGOs and politicians have been working together to frame this gloomy picture in the minds of gullible population that Pakistan can’t survive without having good relationship with India and we need their goods to survive which is absurdly destructive. Some of my friends in Pakistan would certainly not like this article but the fact is, we can’t even live without watching their films and TV soaps and we have become so insensitive that even movies like Border, Gadar, Phantom etc have not repealed our addiction.

The war has already started and those who chose to fool themselves by thinking that bilateral trade will change the situation, have every right to do so. It’s oppression against the determined Kashmiris, border skirmishes with our forces, funding and militarising our enemies within and using them to target innocent civilians are just few too many to open our eyes. We should learn our lessons sooner than later. If we think we can’t survive without India, take an example of Israel. It is one strong nation surrounded by its enemies on all sides but still is one of the strongest nations in the world today. Defiance is strength, compliance is weakness. It’s a war that everyone of us will have to fight, ideologically, socially and emotionally and leave the rest on our armed forces which are capable enough to tackle any hostility by our enemies.

Pakistan is a society that has lost its moral values. It’s a crowd of different nations that refuses to be united even against India. We are people who hate each other and thus do not need an enemy to destroy us. We are corrupt to the core but expect our rulers to be like Umar RA. Our self interests are bigger than the national interests. We are a Muslim majority country where every Muslim have a different Islam and yet we are not ready to consolidate. Our clerics and scholars have been busy in targeting each other’s sects but failed to deliver when it comes to creating a just, equal and accountable society.

It’s time for us to engage with each other and try to build a common ground where we all can put our feet on, putting out ethnic and sectarian associations behind before it’s too late.

Ever wondered why most of the nations in Islamic world is in fire? Is it because Allah is testing us? Good thought to fool ourselves out but why do we fail to realise that it is the wrath of Allah and we are being punished for our deeds? How many of us even think when handing over our servants their wages that is it possible for them to run their household in this amount of money? How conveniently do we ignore the basic rights of those who work hard to serve us, we shout at them, yell at them, abuse them and all sorts of other things to crush their self respect and at the end of the year, give them Zakat so that they remain indebted to us forever. Is it a good way of retiring the obligation of Zakat by using it to enslave other humans who are equal to us in the eyes of our Lord? Why our hearts don’t bleed when we come across the news that in Pakistan, a father has asked his son and daughters to consume poison before committing suicide himself because he was unable to feed his family? Why don’t we see that 14 years old girl who was raped by the gang of ruling political party in Pakistan as our own sister or daughter? And why do we chose to ignore the people in Syria, Yemen and Iraq losing their lives due to hunger and poverty?

If we carry on with our lavish lifestyles despite the anger in the masses being spiralled, soon there will be the day when our kids will go to school with our driver and will never return home because the poor driver could not tolerate our luxuries and slaughtered them. Or our security guards will kill our family and take whatever they could from our houses. Or the maid we have for cooking will mix poison in our meals because she lost her sanity because she couldn’t afford to feed her kids despite working like a slave.
I guess it’s time to wake up, but will you?

If we all are here to do good deeds in order to qualify for the best eternal life hereafter and as a Muslim it’s an integral part of my faith, then a question comes in my mind and that is, what are we really doing in this transitional life?
If we examine the fundamentals of Islam, we can concede that an Islamic society should have the best justice system, unity, social equality, tolerance to those who disagree or have a different opinion, social security for the vulnerable citizens, free education, free health care, equal employment opportunities based on merit only, protection of resources of every individual without considering his/her religious beliefs or cultural values, and the list goes on endlessly.
But then, are we really doing what our religion teaches us? Unfortunately when we see the Muslim countries around the world, we can easily conclude that not only are we not following Islam but actually doing exactly opposite of what our religion teaches us. Then I ask myself a question as who is responsible for all this? When I was in Pakistan, I used to believe exactly what the majority of every Muslim country believes, it’s the West. West is responsible for corrupting our system in which nothing can be achieved without bribes or solid social contacts. West is responsible for electing those rulers who destroy our economy and social justice structure by looting the state resources and plundering massive wealth for themselves and hey, they get elected again, probably the westerners come and vote for them in the elections.
West is responsible for keeping our children out of schools, colleges and universities.
West is responsible for not building hospitals and also for not providing the necessary amenities to the citizens of Pakistan.
It’s the white westerner imposters who lead our prayers and mobilise the different sects in Muslims to kill each other after labelling them as infidels.
It’s all westerner judges in our courts who wouldn’t pass a single judgement unless they get their fair bribe which usually is from the criminal side as they are the ones who have money.
Yes it is the westerners who force us to lie when we sell the goods. It’s the west that teaches us to rape minor kids, employ people on wages with which they can’t sustain themselves and their families thus looking for other illegal means to make money, kill innocent people for greed or in the name of Allah SWT or our Prophet SallallahoAlaiheWassallam (PBUH) who have not only forgiven his enemies but also prayed for them to be guided by Allah SWT.
And it is the west that has banned us from building dams in our country so that we suffer long electricity load shedding and floods can be viewed as a natural calamity that kills thousands every year.
If you still believe that it’s the non Muslim west responsible for all our problems then
GOD BLESS YOU.