Karachi Gang Rape and Taseer's Assassination
I will be honest, I never really liked Salman Taseer or Pakistan Peoples Party for that matter. However, the way this man's assassination has been handled, is very disgusting to say the least. I am going to compare his murder to the Karachi gang rape. Oh and before I go on to say or write anything further, let me just say that, I understand that there will be some people who disagree with my views.
In the Karachi gang rape case, people deviated from the situation and crime, by talking about what kind of a character the girl had, what she was doing so late in the night, where she was coming back from, by highlighting her live-in relationship with her boyfriend, but the truth is, all these kinds of things are irrelevant to the crime that happened. A girl was RAPED, period! There are no ifs and buts in this. In every other country in the world when the rapist is tried in a rape case, these kinds of things are not looked at, whether the girl has a loose character or whether the girl was living with her boyfriend or partying. A rape is a rape. The amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan regarding Rape and Adultery raised a lot of eyebrows calling it un-Islamic. However, the Women's Protection Bill give a lot of freedom to rape victims to ask for justice.
Many people sympathised with the girl, many criticised this heinous crime, there was terror that spread through the areas of Defence and Clifton, women were mortified at the thought of girls getting raped in their area and city. At the same time, there were people that actually forgot completely about the fact that, this girl has been raped and went on and on about how in a way, she deserved what happened to her, she asked for it. Let me just remind you, those who are saying she asked for it, or she deserved getting raped or whatever happened to her, are you the perfect angels yourself? Do not tell me you have NEVER EVER SINNED IN YOUR LIFE. You know why? That is not possible. We all sin, we all have our weak moments. No one is perfect. While referring to girls, this famous Urdu phrase comes to mind. No one is a 'hoor pari'.
Similarly, in the case of Salman Taseer's assassination, people started bringing their own agenda in to it. People started commenting on whether he deserved it or not. People started celebrating his death, being happy at the fact that 5th January is a holiday for educational institutions and they won't have to go to school, college etc. Like the gang rape where the victim and main issue got sidelined, similarly people had seemed to forgotten the main crime here. Someone was killed. No matter how he was as a person or as a political leader, he was still a human being and being happy at the passing away of a fellow human being and the torture, pain and suffering this is bringing his family, is beyond pathetic and disgusting. You are a sadist if you celebrate a fellow human being's death. He was no Hitler who massacred millions of Jews, what was his crime? That he drank?
Doesn't Allah say that you cannot kill one of my creations? Why is the punishment for murder, the death penalty in Shariah?
The Quran says:
The Quran says:
What we should take key from this direct quotation from the Quran is, "by way of justice and law." What this means is, in Islam the death penalty can only be applied through a court and that also for the most serious of crimes. Ultimately and what it comes down to is, God does not need a protector or a guardian. He is the one that created us. One's eternal punishment is in the hands of God and god only. It is not up to us to decide, who needs to go from this world and who can stay. Whatever Salman Taseer did, he was still a respected man in the eyes of many, a father for his offspring, a husband, a man who had the courage to say what was on his mind.
There are very less people who have the courage to speak their mind, be it whatever they want to speak about. Those people that sent me death threats in the Facebook Inbox, saying it is Allah's will that he was killed and praising the person who 'murdered' him, to them I would say, there is no place for Vigilantism in Islam. One must be properly convicted in a Shariah court, before a punishment i.e. the death penalty can be meted out. Even in Allah's eyes, the death penalty is for someone who has committed the most serious of crimes and how can we think otherwise being Muslims? Shouldn't it be that being Muslims, we should follow Allah's guidelines? What sort of Islam is this? A twisted version of Islam to suit our actions and justify our behaviour, that is the kind of Islam that most people propagate and follow these days. No one has actually understood Islam, otherwise there won't be people like Qadri, who took things in their own hands and decided to play God.
Just take a look at this photograph.
It is a photograph of Salman Taseer's daughter crying at the Polyclinic her father's dead body was brought to. Do you think she and the person next to her are faking their tears? What would you do if in her place, it was your father who was assassinated? We never think things through from another person's perspective. We are always blinded by our own agenda, hate, biases and never think what it would feel like if we were put in such a situation. No one has a right to kill someone or take someone's life. I wouldn't have cared if my father drank alcohol, organised parties or how he was politically, at the end of the day, first and foremost he would have been my father and I would have been devastated at my loss.
It is not up to us to judge whether what he did was Haram or Halal, whether what he did was right or wrong, it is not our place to do that. It is up to Allah and Allah alone to do that. We are not sin free ourselves. There are many things that Islam tells us not to do, yet we do that every day. The Mullahs or extremists themselves who bomb and kill innocents in Pakistan actually drink, watch porn, rape children, have forced sex with women and collect ammunition. Is that Islamic? Not really.
The whole point of this is, stop taking things in your own hands. Islam also says that anger is NOT good for us and our religion was never for spreading hatred. Our religion is supposed to be the name of tolerance. We are supposed to be patient and brave whatever bad times we face and hope and pray for good times. Why spread hatred by sending out Anti-Salman Taseer messages? Why spread hatred in your own heart because that is what you would do, if you speak bad about someone. Islam was all about forgiveness and I deliberately used the word was. These days, no one forgives and forgets. Everyone holds grudges and remembers everything. Rubs it in and discusses something to death. This isn't how it should be.
Let us leave Islam out of this now, what are you people showing the world as Pakistanis? Everyone must be pointing fingers at Pakistan and laughing. Pakistanis are people who kill their own people in the name of politics. These are people who have no qualms about murdering someone or bombing innocents. What does this show as a nation as a whole? We are weak? We are ready to kill each other over every single incident that happens? Unfortunately and this happens everywhere, when a well known person gets killed or dies, it gets highlighted by the media and people more, it is more spoken about, it is not the case with all the other people that die. It is not that Salman Taseer was someone special, he was just a public political personality and this is why his assassination is being talked about a lot. This happens not only in Pakistan but all over the world. Famous people are under public scrutiny more, they are under the radar.
Why is it that we as humans, forget something good that someone does and just remember the bad things? Not only Salman Taseer or the famous people, but in general what has been observed is, when things are good, they are good, when they go bad, no one remembers the good. They only pinpoint at what made it bad. I hate this quality about people, they only remember the negative or bad aspects and qualities about someone, they overlook the good, even though in most of the cases, the good outweigh the bad. Like I have kept on repeating before, none of us are perfect, we do not and should not judge a person and we should not take matters in to our own hands.
If you do not like Salman Taseer, the more you talk about him, the more you will provoke his followers to raise a voice about him and in the end it will not be of any benefit to your cause. There is no point to fuel a fire. At the end of the day, the only people that are going to get hurt are Pakistanis, like in the case of people being killed in Karachi after a firing. The only people that are going to get hurt are your own people, can't you understand that? You killed Salman Taseer, fine, but what is the point of killing all the other innocent people along? Why did the people in Karachi have to die? What is the use of this domestic violence within the country? All this is going to do is destabilise the country and the government, and in both cases, it is us that suffer. No one else.
For now, lets treat it as a criminal case, without bringing any sidelined issues in to it and without judging his person or character. He was assassinated, he was shot down by a person and it is a CRIME. In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of your God. Salman Taseer is the victim and I beg that please don't make him an idol. Let him remain a victim of this heinous crime. Whether you hate him or you supported him, there is no point because the more you talk about him, the more he will be idolised as a hero. It was a sad day for Pakistan, not because of who was killed, but because someone was killed and it caused people to divide, take matters to their own hands, become pseudo-politicians online spewing hatred and passing all sorts of remarks and comments. It was a sad day for Pakistan because a lot of its people celebrated another human being's death.
In the Karachi gang rape case, people deviated from the situation and crime, by talking about what kind of a character the girl had, what she was doing so late in the night, where she was coming back from, by highlighting her live-in relationship with her boyfriend, but the truth is, all these kinds of things are irrelevant to the crime that happened. A girl was RAPED, period! There are no ifs and buts in this. In every other country in the world when the rapist is tried in a rape case, these kinds of things are not looked at, whether the girl has a loose character or whether the girl was living with her boyfriend or partying. A rape is a rape. The amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan regarding Rape and Adultery raised a lot of eyebrows calling it un-Islamic. However, the Women's Protection Bill give a lot of freedom to rape victims to ask for justice.
Many people sympathised with the girl, many criticised this heinous crime, there was terror that spread through the areas of Defence and Clifton, women were mortified at the thought of girls getting raped in their area and city. At the same time, there were people that actually forgot completely about the fact that, this girl has been raped and went on and on about how in a way, she deserved what happened to her, she asked for it. Let me just remind you, those who are saying she asked for it, or she deserved getting raped or whatever happened to her, are you the perfect angels yourself? Do not tell me you have NEVER EVER SINNED IN YOUR LIFE. You know why? That is not possible. We all sin, we all have our weak moments. No one is perfect. While referring to girls, this famous Urdu phrase comes to mind. No one is a 'hoor pari'.
Similarly, in the case of Salman Taseer's assassination, people started bringing their own agenda in to it. People started commenting on whether he deserved it or not. People started celebrating his death, being happy at the fact that 5th January is a holiday for educational institutions and they won't have to go to school, college etc. Like the gang rape where the victim and main issue got sidelined, similarly people had seemed to forgotten the main crime here. Someone was killed. No matter how he was as a person or as a political leader, he was still a human being and being happy at the passing away of a fellow human being and the torture, pain and suffering this is bringing his family, is beyond pathetic and disgusting. You are a sadist if you celebrate a fellow human being's death. He was no Hitler who massacred millions of Jews, what was his crime? That he drank?
Doesn't Allah say that you cannot kill one of my creations? Why is the punishment for murder, the death penalty in Shariah?
The Quran says:
The Quran legislates the death penalty for murder, although forgiveness and compassion are strongly encouraged. The murder victim's family is given a choice to either insist on the death penalty, or to pardon the perpetrator and accept monetary compensation for their loss. (2:178)
The Quran says:
"...Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command you, so that you may learn wisdom." (6:151)
What we should take key from this direct quotation from the Quran is, "by way of justice and law." What this means is, in Islam the death penalty can only be applied through a court and that also for the most serious of crimes. Ultimately and what it comes down to is, God does not need a protector or a guardian. He is the one that created us. One's eternal punishment is in the hands of God and god only. It is not up to us to decide, who needs to go from this world and who can stay. Whatever Salman Taseer did, he was still a respected man in the eyes of many, a father for his offspring, a husband, a man who had the courage to say what was on his mind.
There are very less people who have the courage to speak their mind, be it whatever they want to speak about. Those people that sent me death threats in the Facebook Inbox, saying it is Allah's will that he was killed and praising the person who 'murdered' him, to them I would say, there is no place for Vigilantism in Islam. One must be properly convicted in a Shariah court, before a punishment i.e. the death penalty can be meted out. Even in Allah's eyes, the death penalty is for someone who has committed the most serious of crimes and how can we think otherwise being Muslims? Shouldn't it be that being Muslims, we should follow Allah's guidelines? What sort of Islam is this? A twisted version of Islam to suit our actions and justify our behaviour, that is the kind of Islam that most people propagate and follow these days. No one has actually understood Islam, otherwise there won't be people like Qadri, who took things in their own hands and decided to play God.
Just take a look at this photograph.
It is a photograph of Salman Taseer's daughter crying at the Polyclinic her father's dead body was brought to. Do you think she and the person next to her are faking their tears? What would you do if in her place, it was your father who was assassinated? We never think things through from another person's perspective. We are always blinded by our own agenda, hate, biases and never think what it would feel like if we were put in such a situation. No one has a right to kill someone or take someone's life. I wouldn't have cared if my father drank alcohol, organised parties or how he was politically, at the end of the day, first and foremost he would have been my father and I would have been devastated at my loss.
It is not up to us to judge whether what he did was Haram or Halal, whether what he did was right or wrong, it is not our place to do that. It is up to Allah and Allah alone to do that. We are not sin free ourselves. There are many things that Islam tells us not to do, yet we do that every day. The Mullahs or extremists themselves who bomb and kill innocents in Pakistan actually drink, watch porn, rape children, have forced sex with women and collect ammunition. Is that Islamic? Not really.
The whole point of this is, stop taking things in your own hands. Islam also says that anger is NOT good for us and our religion was never for spreading hatred. Our religion is supposed to be the name of tolerance. We are supposed to be patient and brave whatever bad times we face and hope and pray for good times. Why spread hatred by sending out Anti-Salman Taseer messages? Why spread hatred in your own heart because that is what you would do, if you speak bad about someone. Islam was all about forgiveness and I deliberately used the word was. These days, no one forgives and forgets. Everyone holds grudges and remembers everything. Rubs it in and discusses something to death. This isn't how it should be.
Let us leave Islam out of this now, what are you people showing the world as Pakistanis? Everyone must be pointing fingers at Pakistan and laughing. Pakistanis are people who kill their own people in the name of politics. These are people who have no qualms about murdering someone or bombing innocents. What does this show as a nation as a whole? We are weak? We are ready to kill each other over every single incident that happens? Unfortunately and this happens everywhere, when a well known person gets killed or dies, it gets highlighted by the media and people more, it is more spoken about, it is not the case with all the other people that die. It is not that Salman Taseer was someone special, he was just a public political personality and this is why his assassination is being talked about a lot. This happens not only in Pakistan but all over the world. Famous people are under public scrutiny more, they are under the radar.
Why is it that we as humans, forget something good that someone does and just remember the bad things? Not only Salman Taseer or the famous people, but in general what has been observed is, when things are good, they are good, when they go bad, no one remembers the good. They only pinpoint at what made it bad. I hate this quality about people, they only remember the negative or bad aspects and qualities about someone, they overlook the good, even though in most of the cases, the good outweigh the bad. Like I have kept on repeating before, none of us are perfect, we do not and should not judge a person and we should not take matters in to our own hands.
If you do not like Salman Taseer, the more you talk about him, the more you will provoke his followers to raise a voice about him and in the end it will not be of any benefit to your cause. There is no point to fuel a fire. At the end of the day, the only people that are going to get hurt are Pakistanis, like in the case of people being killed in Karachi after a firing. The only people that are going to get hurt are your own people, can't you understand that? You killed Salman Taseer, fine, but what is the point of killing all the other innocent people along? Why did the people in Karachi have to die? What is the use of this domestic violence within the country? All this is going to do is destabilise the country and the government, and in both cases, it is us that suffer. No one else.
For now, lets treat it as a criminal case, without bringing any sidelined issues in to it and without judging his person or character. He was assassinated, he was shot down by a person and it is a CRIME. In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of your God. Salman Taseer is the victim and I beg that please don't make him an idol. Let him remain a victim of this heinous crime. Whether you hate him or you supported him, there is no point because the more you talk about him, the more he will be idolised as a hero. It was a sad day for Pakistan, not because of who was killed, but because someone was killed and it caused people to divide, take matters to their own hands, become pseudo-politicians online spewing hatred and passing all sorts of remarks and comments. It was a sad day for Pakistan because a lot of its people celebrated another human being's death.
Well written. Read people.
ReplyDeleteThank you Haroon :)
ReplyDeleteI agree, this is a crime and should be punished as such.
ReplyDeleteThank you for agreeing and reading :)
ReplyDeleteFirst of all let me tell you that I am a seasoned professional in my field. The writer does not seem to understand that it is not just about murder. It is about our religion and our beloved Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) who is utmost sacred to us. A person can not be a Muslim unless he loves Allah and his Prophet S.A.W more than anything. I think Salman Taseer was wrong in justifying the acts of the Christian women when she was convicted with evidence. Whatever Qadri did was out of the love of our Prophet. S.A.W. (Even Rehman Malik (who does not even know Sura' Ikhlas) admitted that if someone insulted our Prophet S.A.W he would be the first one to kill that person. As that is totally allowed in Islam. The acts of trying to protect the women after she was proven guilty and convicted of the crime, and saying bad about the blasphemy law is just like saying bad about our Prophet. S.A.W.
ReplyDeleteIt is the unanimous agreement of the imams that whoever insults the prophet should be executed and I am quoting several references here and you can check.
The scholars are unanimously agreed that a Muslim who insults the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) becomes a kaafir and an apostate who is to be executed. This consensus was narrated by more than one of the scholars, such as Imaam Ishaaq ibn Raahawayh, Ibn al-Mundhir, al-Qaadi ‘Iyaad, al-Khattaabi and others. Al-Saarim al-Maslool, 2/13-16
I read what you wrote but unfortunately I do not agree. Nothing justifies murder. Not even love for the Prophet, religion and the Quran.
ReplyDeleteTimes have changed, if someone is doing something against the religion, he will be judged by Allah SWT on the day of judgement. That is what it is there for and that is why we have angels on our shoulders.
You cannot just grab a gun and go start shooting anyone, even if according to you, he should be executed.
If he should be executed, then he should be tried in a Shariah court and then executed. Every commoner does not have a right to do that. This is why Islamic law is there.
I have backed it up by saying in the Quran. No to vigilantism. Thanks.
Pakistan - a beautiful country of beautiful people spoiled by kathmullahs and helplessly watched by literate people.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
ReplyDeleteI agree no one has the right to take the life of another no matter how serious the crime.
ReplyDeletethank you for agreeing.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Salman taseer never said anything for which he was murdered. His murder was just work of a sick mind. I just don't know how this society will improve where rape and murder are not justified.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, we still have to try. It is us who can change it collectively!
ReplyDeleteare you the perfect angels yourself?
ReplyDeletegood question!!!! we r not bt yea we have enough time to point out others
"""
No one is a 'hoor pari'."""
yea n if someone is thts lack of oportunity?? :0 may be or may be not...
People started celebrating his death, being happy
ReplyDelete"""is it allowed in Islam???""" let us remind those people ur unfolowing Prophet Muhammad PBUH . .. gustak e rasul .. so kill ur urself nw !!!
He was no Hitler who massacred millions of Jews!!!
ReplyDeleteso much hatred abt hitler..why nt churchil and rosevelt??? the only thing is people who loose battles r bad as shown by western media.. had hitler be the champion u wuld be writing churchil ???
What sort of Islam is this? A twisted Islam for our own benefits...(pointing to mulas)just calling people kafirs...are they so good...go and establish a shariat system..problem is they dun want it..u knw why most of thm willl be hanged..including molvi diesel!!! they just use islam for their halwaaassss (halwa=sweets) and i call thm halwa eaters not mulanas!!!
ReplyDeletedrinker party organiser..ok i ask those people how many of u dun drink?? desi sharab (shapar wali in slang wordings) locals like muree bla bla company and thn high priced drinks (imported ones) all are available in this Islamic Republic Of ISLAM!!! and so whose drinking thm?? people frm europe?? or pakistanis??? its a bad thing...bt does tht makes someone to put on the kiling list??? are u sure Mr taseer was a drinker...may be Mr taseer dint offered thm a drink ..whtever for these nonsense people whtever media mulas or whtever source tell thm thy start beleiving..at the death of BIBI Benazir people gave votes to PPP .. reason?? bibi mar gai...brrr i feel pakis are still not a nation...combination of nations...jats,...arain..baloch pakhtoon
ReplyDeleteagreed to ur post!! well writen !!!!!
ReplyDeleteIn reply to Jan 19 post.
ReplyDeleteWho will change the thinking/society. Most of the educated people are out side the country. If you live outside Pakistan you will realize how dark our society has become. What bothers me the most is we will justify the wrongdoings as right. I don't want to go in details about our society. But truly I have a small hope that things are going in right direction. Because of freedom of press and freedom of justice (chief justice). I hope they continue to survive.
When a NATO soldier is killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, you must also be sad. Doesn't matter they kill innocent people, but its all irrelevant to you.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous who is obviously bitter, human loss and suffering of any kind/scale should be frowned upon, people should be sad about what is going on, this blog entry does not mean I don't care about Soldiers being killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, or wherever people are losing their lives.
ReplyDeleteYou jumped to conclusion, you assumed I only care about Salman Taseer's assassination and I don't care about any other kind of suffering, where that is not the case. Next time you want to write such a bitter comment, please don't be anonymous, have the balls to do it with your name.
What kind of a religion is that the one who is killed is a Shaheed (martyr of Islam) and the one who has killed is a Ghazi (warrior of Islam)?
ReplyDeleteThere are Facebook fan pages being made for the killer and the killed. People are joining both sides in bunches and majority of them don’t even know the exact statement given by the one who was killed. I know for sure that both of them cannot go to heaven but both of them cannot go to hell either. One of them has to be right but which one?
Here, we are killing in the name of the same Prophet who prayed for clemency of people of Taif when they stoned him. The same prophet who forgave Abu Sufyan and Hind despite that they had killed his beloved uncle Hamza.
its a good post to start with. the reason why people started juding the girls character was after sharmila faruqis unnecessary and unwise description and manipulating the whole story. similarly, its the opinion leaders who created second thoughts in the minds of people after taseer's murder.
Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeletecompletely agree with each nd every word u wrote!!
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeletewao....the second paragraph just took word out of my mouth ,
ReplyDelete1 word so true !