Outrage?

We are all liars, hypocrites & scamsters whose only service to a cause or belief, even religion, is only lip service.

Feigning outrage at an idiotic video, one poltroon, a man of low intellect, has gained what he was fishing for: a pardon from the terrorists, who had vowed to to eliminate him for his ostensibly secular political leaning. But as his secular leaning is a fraud, the man’s religious credentials are doubtful.

Consider. The man said if he had the chance, he would kill the man who produced the video which put our outrage industry into overdrive. What was stopping him from doing his religious duty? As a federal minister of the (failed) state of Pakistan, he very likely holds a gratis blue passport on which the US State Department could not have refused him a visa. Instead of inducing ordinary Pakistanis to murder that they can simply not commit because of the difficulty of a US visa, our man should have himself flown to California and done what was required.

As for setting a bounty on the head of a man who lives in the US, this theoretically religiously outraged person knows one thing very well: that his money is safe. Either the intending killer will never get a visa, or, if he does and manages to kill a worthless demon, he will promptly be arrested, tried for murder and be put away for long enough to never be able to claim the reward. The whole thing is a fraud. It can never come to fruition.

What minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour — who should be prosecuted for what he did to the Pakistan Railways — wanted was to suck up to the terrorists who were after his blood. Now, with the lip service he paid to Islam, the man has been pardoned. And make no mistake: it is only and only lip service. Those who pardoned him for simply saying something he never intended to do in the service of Islam are, therefore, of the same ilk. Their pardon of this man puts their love for religion in grave doubt. Or are they so simple-minded that they could not see through a very transparent ruse?

But one cannot really blame Bilour. Expending hot is all this entire nation is after all about. There are banners up across the country that address the film-maker warning him ‘ub tumhari khair nahi’. All the ones I have seen carry a minjanib footnote with the name of the man threatening Nakoula Basseley Nakoula with dire consequences. What do these men intend to do about carrying out the threat?

Nothing. Pure and undiluted nothing. These are all empty threats. The blessed name of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) has been sullied and these people in Pakistan are simply expending hot air with no intention of doing anything practical about the matter. Instead of hurling empty threats, they should all be on their way to the US of A to sort out that Egyptian Copt.

Now for the outrage. The unbeatable Saroop Ijaz attributes it to what he aptly terms the outrage industry. But consider the television interviews of some young men in a Karachi rally Friday last week. When asked why they were there, one said for shughal — fun! The other one had no clue. You will be able to see these when the government eventually unblocks YouTube.

Consider also the image of the young man splashed across the front page of this newspaper the day after. The image is from Peshawar and the youngster is clearly a Pathan, who we all think are the best Muslims in Pakistan. The man is looking straight into the lens as he makes off with a sack full of loot!

Is this outrage at blasphemy?

We are not true to anything, not even to the religion we pretend to be madly in love with and are willing to die for. We are all liars, hypocrites and scamsters whose only service to a cause or belief, even religion, is only lip service. We are masters of expending hot air. And while we are at it, we do not hesitate to burn down our own country.

The real blasphemers who should be taken to task are in our midst. And Bilour sits at their head.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2012.