March
02, 2007
Frenzied Fanatic Fells Female Minister
While the people of Pakistan were still reeling
under the shock, only a day earlier, of the Samjhota
Express carnage in India incinerating 69 passengers,
a berserk fanatic, Ghulam Sarwar Mughal, shot and
killed Zille Huma Usman on the morning of February
19 at the Muslim League House in Gujranwala some
50 miles from Lahore. She was Punjab’s Minister
for Social Welfare.
The bigoted cleric claimed that he committed the
act as he was ordained by God to cleanse the society
of progressive and liberal women, particularly those
in positions of leadership. He believed them to
be deviants from the norms of conduct prescribed
by Islam! Women’s place, he claimed, was in
home and behind veils. The ignorant, ill-informed
cleric, a stonemason by profession, who preferred
to be called a “Maulvi” (a religious
scholar), also admitted that he wanted to kill Benazir
Bhutto some years back for the same reason but failed
to get close to her at a public meeting owing to
tight security.
He had been arrested earlier on suspicion of being
a serial killer of four women of easy virtue but
was set free for want of sufficient evidence.
Arrogating to himself the role of lawmaker, judge,
jury and executioner, he killed Zille Huma, 37,
mother of two teenager boys, wife of a doctor who
was at the time of the murder attending a training
course in Canada. She was a scion of a well-respected
family of Gujranwala. Her forbearers were all Muslim
Leaguers and were associated with Pakistan movement.
Having done her MA in Political Science, she had
herself been participating in the political and
social activities of her area and striving in particular
for the progress and welfare of women.
Ironically enough, she was being pelted with rose
petals by her audience while the assassin moved
near her and shot her at almost point blank range.
And, it was her wedding anniversary day!! She was
to leave the following day for Canada to join her
husband there.
Apart from the poignant human tragedy, the episode
draws attention to the march of a section of the
society on the misleading path set for them by the
myopic men in robes. The nation is evidently pulled
in two opposite directions. Gen. Musharraf and his
team are endeavoring to reinforce “enlightened
moderation” into its psyche, while the seeds
of so-called “Islamization” planted
by his predecessor, Gen. Ziaul Haq – though
for political gains - have also grown thick and
tall particularly in neighboring Afghanistan under
the banner of Taliban and the adjoining areas of
Pakistan. The Madressas along the border are the
breeding grounds of these religious zealots.
The people of Pakistan, for the first thirty years
of the state’s existence had an emotional
attachment to their religion but it did not overwhelm
their worldly activities and calendar. The fervor
for Islam was introduced by Zia to counter the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan and to produce cadres of
Mujahideen. How the Taliban grabbed power in Afghanistan
after the withdrawal of the Soviet forces, and its
fallout on the madressa-products of Pakistan are
in common knowledge. One finds now the society sprinkled
profusely with young men in turbans, beards and
robes. They are deep in attachment to their faith
but quite shallow in their knowledge of it. The
situation is fully exploited by the religious groups
of political parties who have the advantage of having
the pulpits of the country at their disposal. The
military government has, on the other hand, the
guns at their disposal; but a gun can kill a man
but it cannot genuinely change his mind.
An editorial in Dawn, Karachi, has made an apt assessment
of the situation: This regression from normality,
it said, has many causes, one of them being the
misuse and misunderstanding of the Qur’anic
injunction that calls upon believers to ‘preach
good and prevent evil’. However, Iqbal quotes
Mishkawth to say that everyone does not have the
right to preach. Today, from the illiterate to the
highest among the politicized clerics, everyone
believes he has the right to preach good and evil
of his own notion, and if anyone resists, it is
his duty to enforce these with resort to force,
if necessary. This is a direct outcome of the relegation
of the fundamentals of Islam - love, brotherhood,
tolerance, peace and general good - to a secondary
place and a misplaced emphasis on Islam as a political
doctrine that brooks no opposition, tolerates no
dissent and seeks conformism with resort to violence,
even if the victim is an innocent person like Zille
Huma.
It is wrong to consider this a law and order problem.
Ignorance and bigotry have gone deep into society,
and those who can reverse the situation are non-political
ulema, if there are any. The government’s
responsibility is that it should not surrender to
bigotry and, instead, encourage such of the ulema
as have the moral and intellectual strength to take
on the challenge.
Before the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and
the emergence of Gen. Zia women of Pakistan enjoyed
equality with their men folk. They could move freely
without veil that was considered a symbol of backwardness,
ride bicycles, drive cars and enter any vocation
that pleased them. Years before Benazir became the
Prime Minister, they were working as doctors, lawyers,
members of legislative assemblies, engineers, journalists,
Ministers and ambassadors. Even in villages, women
did not wear Hijab; it is a recent phenomenon. Western
media’s tendentious view of Muslims after
9/11 led them to assert their Islamic persona and
pick up the veil they had discarded decades back.
Ignorance and bias of the semi-literate clerics
egged them on to follow the reactionary path.
The bigoted, obscurantist Mullahs with anti-Western
prejudice became purveyors of misogyny. Prejudice
is the child of ignorance. And, prejudice against
women is rooted in the desire to keep them in subjugation.
Misogynism is the socialism of incorrigible idiots.
And, Zille Huma’s assassin, Sarwar Mughal,
stood out even among the community of heartless
and brainless fools.
He is in police custody now and may soon be tried
by a court of law. As the great Roman orator, Marcus
Cicero, said as far back as 44 BC, “Let the
punishment match the offence”. And, let us
pray for the return to moderation of those sections
of the society who have gone awry under the influence
of the ignorant and bigoted Mullahs.
arifhussaini@hotmail.com
