No change: Several clerics condone Taseer’s murder

LAHORE: The Tahaffuz Namoos-i-Risalat Mahaz (TNRM) observed Friday as the Tahaffuz Namoos-i-Risalat Day.

In a sermon given at Jamia Masjid Rasulia Sherazia, TNRM president Raza-i-Mustafa Naqshbandi said there could be no compromise about the honour of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). He commended Mumtaz Qadri, Taseer’s confessed assassin, saying that the self-submission had been an act of bravery.

Jamatud Dawa leader Maulana Muhammad Hussnain Siddiqi, who led the Friday prayer at Masjid Qadsia, said the government should seek a quick endorsement of Aasia’s conviction from the Lahore High Court. He said whoever dared support a ‘blasphemer’ would meet the same fate as Taseer.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairman Dr Mehdi Hasan said it was lamentable that there were people ‘celebrating’ a death. He invoked a Punjabi wisdom ‘dushman maray tay khushi na kariay, sajnan vi mar jana’ (don’t celebrate the death of an enemy, as your friends, too, will die), and said that if nothing else they should have considered the pain they would cause to the bereaved family.

“More than ninety five per cent of Pakistan’s population is Muslim,” Dr Hasan said, “Why is then a movement or campaign to protect the honour of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) needed. No one can dare commit blasphemy here.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2011.