Pakistan’s
Passport Fiasco: A Victory for Fanaticism
By Siddique Malik
President
www.SpreadFreedom.com
US
Islam
does not require its followers to have their religion
mentioned in their passports. Never mind this
though, Pakistan’s politico-religious elements
recently concluded that Islam indeed had such
a requirement, and the country’s entire
administrative machinery surrendered to this absurd
conclusion.
No one dared to expose these demagogues; neither
the self-appointed president, General Musharraf,
nor the supposedly liberal-minded prime minister
Shaukat Aziz or any of his patsy cabinet members.
These occupiers of the halls of power eloquently
exhort their compatriots to defeat fanaticism,
claim to be great proponents of freedom and democracy
(American government has no choice but to take
them on their hollow claims), but they don’t
have the slightest courage to confront religious
fanatics. One wonders how can these rulers fight
terrorists who represent the advanced stage of
fanaticism? Is America betting on wrong horses?
It was just a few months ago that the religion
column was dropped from the passport. But in response
to the clerics’ demands to restore it, software
to produce Pakistan’s newly designed machine-readable
passport, was urgently modified to grant the bugaboos
their wish. The hands of the ‘Islamic Republic’
are tied with the ropes of the mullahs’
whims.
A religion that empowers and encourages its followers
to communicate directly with God without the need
to go through brokers and agents of religion,
is being exploited by insecure, uncharismatic,
illogical and destructive politico-religious demons
for the purpose of self-glorification. The real
tragedy is that these ‘religioholics’
are getting away with this blasphemous abuse of
religion.
At the risk of being called repetitive, I am inclined
to once again ask the question: where is the Islamic
tenet that requires Muslims to have their religion
reflected in their passport? It is another thing
that Pakistan’s professional exploiters
of religion can get away with modifying the religion
to suit their needs.
The passport was the only area in which Pakistan’s
non-Muslim citizens experienced a semblance of
equality with their Muslim compatriots. The simple
entry in the passport stating that its holder
was a citizen of Pakistan, without a mention of
his/her religion, had become a breath of fresh
air, a source of pride for those Pakistanis who
cherish human equality, and a beacon of hope for
better days ahead. This short-lived solidarity
with human dignity did not agree with the country’s
fascists, and understandably so. Hatred, arrogance
and ignorance are main aspects of their behavior.
The real tragedy is not that these bigots attempted
to have the passport’s nascent religion-neutrality
quashed but that they were able to force the government
succumb to their ill-based pressure. On what basis
can Pakistan’s rulers now claim to be champions
of moderation and tolerance?
Recently, Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice
declared that Pakistan was a great role model
for the Muslim world. Excuse me? If this was the
desired level of quality of freedom and equality,
then there was no need to launch a monumental
Operation Iraqi Freedom that has already cost
thousands of lives.
It is ironic that Pakistan’s army chief
could overthrow an elected government by simply
sending a handful of soldiers to take over the
country’s TV stations and airports, send
the country’s chief justice packing along
with a few other judges because they were about
to declare this seizure illegal, declare himself
president, force the parliament to yield custom-made
constitutional amendments to meet his peculiar
needs, make the government and the ruling political
party subservient to his wishes, but could not
put a few fanatics in their place. His deafening
silence over the passport fiasco amid his cant
claims of commitment to ‘enlightened moderation’
spoke volumes as he threw his government’s
paper tigers to the wolves of bigotry.
Civilized societies have learnt dignified ways
to stymie the tyranny of the majority which is
the natural eventual product if the needs of the
minorities are allowed to slip into statutory
oblivion. These societies keep requirements and
rituals of the religion at bay, in the domain
of the followers’ personal lives and perceptions.
Once all citizens have a genuine and legal claim
to equality, an amazing sociological phenomenon
gets underway. People electrified with a breath-taking
energy unleashed by the powers of bolstered self-esteem
and patriotism, achieve great things, consolidating
their social and economic viability and in the
process bringing tremendous strength to their
country.
In this arena, America, of course, has outperformed
all civilized societies. Not only it bestowed
the gift of equality on all its native sons and
daughters, it did the same to every single one
of millions (no other country attracts the same
number of immigrants as America does) of those
who were drawn to it from all parts of the globe,
like metal is drawn to the magnet. The name of
a Jewish immigrant scientist (Einstein) in a land
of Christians became synonymous with intellect.
On the other hand, in Pakistan, official references
to the name of its native son, Noble Prize-winning
scientist (AbdusSalam) became a taboo because
his faith put him on the wrong side of the religion
of the country’s majority.
Civilized societies have de-linked even genuine
(repeat: genuine) features of religion from the
matters of the state, to the great benefit of
their minorities. Millions of Christian public
school children in America cannot be taught bible
at school because it would violate the right of
their non-Christian classmates not to study bible.
On the other hand, by including the mention of
religion in the passport, Pakistani government
has allowed something that is not even a requirement
of Islam but simply a figment of the perverted
imagination of the country’s fanatics, to
become a matter of the state.
Clearly, Pakistan is on a wrong track.. When the
Taliban army destroyed the Bamyan Budhhas, it
was not just an act of persecution of a minority
but an attack on a religion, itself. It was not
just an attack on a place of worship but an attack
on a place in the name of which Buddhists around
the world worshiped. It was no different than
would be an attack on the grand mosque in Mecca,
towards which Muslims worldwide bow their heads
in prayer.
Pakistan desperately needs to change its course.
But before this could materialize it will, once
and for all, have to eradicate politico-religious
intellectual terror. However, this will not happen
until Pakistan’s government and especially
its all powerful president, stop talking and start
acting. Only when this happens, will Pakistan’s
government become a reliable partner in the global
war against terrorism.
Epilogue: The passport fanatics have struck again
and the government has caved in again. Days after
the passport fiasco, these fanatics attacked a
marathon in Pakistani city of Gujranwala in which
athletes of both genders were participating. The
fanatics claimed that these marathons had endangered
Islam. They virtually ordered the government to
stop allowing these marathons, and their leader,
Fazlur Rehman openly directed his followers to
use force against runners. Pakistan’s Talibanization
is on a fast track.
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