No time for celebration

Every time we allow expression of bloodlust in pro-Qadri protest go uncontested, we inch towards death of our society.

Mumtaz Qadri has been convicted and sentenced for the murder of Governor Salmaan Taseer. This is a reason for cautious rejoicing. Firstly, the mere fact that we choose to celebrate the conviction of a self-confessed daylight murderer and commend the judge for bravery is a manifestation of the low expectation society that we live in. Mumtaz Qadri would have been sentenced in any civilised society and although emotional and evocative the decision would still have been routine in an average functioning legal system. The judge would not have been termed as courageous, but merely doing his job. However, we do not live in an average civilised society.

The Mumtaz Qadri episode is by no means over, especially considering that the ‘ghazi’ who had braced himself for death has chosen to exercise his temporal right of appeal before the High Court. Yet his conviction does provide us with an opportunity to engage in some introspection over the whole affair. The motivations of Mumtaz Qadri in undertaking the barbarism that he did, in my opinion was not only to assassinate Governor Taseer but also send a message that no serious discussion on blasphemy law will be permitted. Infinitely disturbingly, Qadri succeeded on both counts: Governor Taseer is martyred and there is deafening silence on the blasphemy law debate. The aftermath of Salmaan Taseer’s murder saw mindless medieval ignorance, pathetic apologies and wishy-washy condemnation. It was easy to condemn the death of a brave statesman with “ifs” and “buts”, but it required some courage to reiterate and honour his stance on blasphemy law, unfortunately very few people stepped up.

The judge who has sentenced Qadri was just doing his job, but he deserves our praise and awe, because not many are. There are countrywide protests being carried out against the judgment by a consortium of religious parties. Not only is the murderer Qadri glorified but also there is clear and unequivocal incitement to violence against the gallant and honest judge. A few days earlier, a group of lawyers decided to attack and vandalise the courtroom of the particular judge, i.e. Anti-Terrorism Court, Rawalpindi. The Honourable Supreme Court jealously guards its “judicial independence” against any potential infringement by the federal government. One would think that calling for the blood of a judge and physical attacks on a courtroom may also be considered as very clear, direct and tangibly violent infringement of “judicial independence”. If there is a better case for taking “suo motu” cognisance, I have yet to come across it. Admittedly, taking “suo motu” cognisance of this fiasco will not be very popular with a certain, fairly large segment of the society and will also adversely affect the street credibility of the Court, but in theory the courts are there to do the “right” thing, we already have the parliament for capitulating and doing the “popular” thing.

The amount of discussion on blasphemy law before and after the murder of Salmaan Taseer gives a fair idea of the effectiveness of Mumtaz Qadri. Recently, I read about a teenage girl charged for blasphemy for a spelling error. The surreal, dehumanising episode did not get nearly the same attention that an incident of this nature mandates (with exceptions of course). Mumtaz Qadri has impacted the society that we live in, in more ways than we are willing to concede. As an example, the “Ghazi Illam Din” narrative that was routinely and lazily brought up in the aftermath of Salmaan Taseer’s assassination was hardly ever challenged by enlightened and cautious liberals (‘cautious’ being the operative word here). The intuitive question of what is so incredibly heroic about killing an unarmed Hindu publisher was deliberately not asked. The unsaid rule is that self-preservation is paramount. The only problem is that it is not really self-preservation, every time we allow the expression of undiluted bloodlust in a pro-Qadri protest go uncontested, we are inching towards the death of our society as we know it. Each occasion, on which the grim and insane edicts of homicidal theocrats go unchallenged, Mumtaz Qadri wins.

As for the celebrations on the Qadri verdict are concerned, I would not want to jump the gun. There is no revenge for the murder of Salmaan Taseer’s murder. In his chillingly exquisite essay, “Revenge is Sour”, George Orwell writes that the idea of revenge and punishment is a childish daydream. He goes on to say there is no such thing as revenge in any meaningful sense. Revenge is an act which you want to commit when you are powerless and because you are powerless: as soon as the sense of impotence is removed, the desire evaporates also. In the case of Mumtaz Qadri the impotence is painfully tangibly present and so is the hollow desire for revenge. Justice on the other hand is what we really should be demanding. Justice in this particular instance entails a lot more than the conviction and even the execution of Mumtaz Qadri. Whereas it is absolutely imperative for our survival as a society to see Qadri convicted and sentenced, the culture that sustains and allows the Qadris to survive and thrive is the adversary that cowardice compels us to ignore.

Had it been not profoundly tragic, it might even have been funny to see the couple of hundred liberals trying to put up a resistance on face book, twitter and study groups against the thousands on the streets cheering Mumtaz Qadri on. A particularly gory example of the partitionist and segregationist nature of our society was a couple of days ago. The Khatoom-e-Nabuwwat Tehreek along with almost all religious parties had given a call for a shutter down strike against the conviction of Mumtaz Qadri and for their unbridled freedom to spew sectarian ignorance. On the same day I received multiple invitations through e mail for candle light vigils for the demise of Steve Jobs. The moistness and the fake sob fest in a country, probably without an authentic Apple dealership would have been mildly amusing had it not been on the same day that the brutish fanaticism of Qadri was eulogized and vulgarly paraded on our streets.

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