Say no to intimidation — I

Those who incited Salmaan Taseer's murder used the ‘liberal elite’ label to malign his humanitarian cause.

Perseverance is perhaps the only rational way to deal with adversity. But it is toilsome, and so requires patience. Owing to the magnitude of our problems, our reactions are often impulsive. It is a natural instinct, understandable since everything we do seems pale in the face of rampant violence.

In the wake of Salmaan Taseer’s death, most of us found ourselves plunged into a dilemma. I confess that attending a vigil a day after Salmaan Taseer was assassinated did little for my optimism. One candle against 27 bullets. There we were a few hundred, marching around the press club with candles in our hands, demanding Taseer’s killer be punished. We chanted and we held banners, we called him a martyr. A few days later, newspapers carried pictures and headlines of around 40,000 men condoning the murder and demanding the release of the assassin.

It was impossible not to make the comparison. Analysis, scrutiny and comparisons followed. The one force that kept us bound together was our stance against intimidation. Our frontiers shrunk further, as those in favour of the assassin and those against the killing were now being minimised to labels. Almost infectious, even obituaries couldn’t refrain from using them. Not only is this counterproductive, it is also maligning the cause. Taseer was killed because he took a stance for a Christian woman. His stance was based on humanitarian grounds, those who incited his murder used the ‘liberal elite’ label to malign his cause, divert attention from the humanitarian adversity and later to justify his murder. It is then ironic that we continue to use these labels and marginalise the cause.

It doesn’t end here — like a reoccurring nightmare, just eight weeks after Taseer’s assassination, Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was also gunned down. His assassins left pamphlets and claimed his death was imminent due to his support for reformation of the blasphemy law. Bhatti’s death has brought us back to square one. Even though there are no celebrations or huge rallies in favour of the assassin, the writings on the wall are clear. It is worth recalling that rallies before and after Taseer’s death called for murder and listed three names. Two of the three have been shot dead.

It is important not to lose our sense of rationality even at the time of grief and loss. Following Bhatti’s assassination, MNA Asiya Nasir delivered a heart-rending address in the National Assembly. There was this one question she asked that needs to be answered: Why did the government fail to clarify that no committee was working on the reformation of the blasphemy law? It is ironic beyond belief that we find ourselves in the middle of such debates right after one of us is shot in cold blood.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2011.