There wasn’t anything anti-Semitic about what he said but it was factually incorrect.
SIALKOT: This is with reference to Tazeen Javed’s article of February 11, titled “Calling all the bullies”. At the risk of sounding just like the kind of bully to which the learned writer is referring, I will say that Najam Sethi wrongly labelled Jemima Khan as a “Jew” when, in fact, she isn’t one. There wasn’t anything anti-Semitic about what he said but it was factually incorrect.
I will agree with my liberal friends here who would say that calling someone a Jew shouldn’t be a big deal (and I completely agree with them), but in a society which is as myopic and narrow-minded as ours, and where religious bias is at an all-time high, it is indeed an issue that should be tread with caution. After all, Maulana Fazlur Rehman must be fully aware of the psyche of the people which in general seems to judge others on the basis of their religious beliefs.
Syed Awais
Published in The Express Tribune, February 14th, 2012.
