End in Sight
for This Tyranny?
By Farooq S. Khan
Houston, Texas
Zilla Huma Usman, a Punjab Government
minister and community activist, was shot dead
last Tuesday by an extremist for refusing to wear
the veil.
Who is the culprit behind this crime?
Those who have been telling innocent people to
go out and find a person who disagrees:
1. Be the judge yourself.
2. Run the trial yourself.
3. Decide the punishment yourself.
4. Execute anyone who disagrees with you.
All those who sermonize what is right and what
is wrong must tell the people that a person must
be tried by a court of law to be punished not
for disagreeing with you. We are witnessing this
disconcerting attitude everyday: an innocent person
ties a bomb and dies thinking he is punishing
the infidels!
Please call your representative of the National
Assembly in Pakistan especially and in the Muslim
world generally to make a law that if an Imam
or a mullah or Ayetullah does not agree with that
fact that only court of law can judge and punish
a person then he should not be allowed to speak
to the public. Free speech does not allow to preach
against the law.
If we fail to do this then our own children will
be murdered for wearing pants and shirts or for
not wearing a veil or just because one happens
to disagree with them.
Clerics are preaching that non-Islamic dress is
haram. Now we should wait for the news that a
man wearing pants has been shot dead.
In Bajure Agency, barbers have stopped shaving
beard because religious zealots have threatened
to kill the barbers if they shaved the beard of
their customers.
All of them are required to tell the people that
killing is murder and punishment can only come
from a court.
Is there an end in sight for this tyranny?
