Our abject surrender to the extremists (II)

KARACHI / ISLAMABAD: First Salmaan Taseer and now Shahbaz Bhatti — both members of the ruling party, one a governor the other a minister, murdered in cold blood. And for what? They were not advocating anything other than the prevention of the misuse of this law. All Muslim leaders, religious and political, continuously stress the fact that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Unfortunately, some of the practitioners of this great religion, those wielding the power of the gun and the power of the pulpit, completely ignore these noble objectives, and are doing everything in their power to prove the leaders wrong. All persons involved in such actions should be arrested and charged under the blasphemy law for wrongfully accusing people of committing blasphemy.

What is even more unfortunate is the alacrity with which those in government have bent over backwards to appease these extremists. Proof of that is forcing Sherry Rehman to withdraw her bill, which had only sought a modification to the existing law. And that brings me to the question: What has happened to the party of the courageous Benazir Bhutto? Clearly, it seems to have lost its spine along with its great leader.

Karl Menezes

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2011.