Protecting minorities

Politicians and clerics should get out in front of the blasphemy issue and try to change minds.

Speaking at an interfaith conference in Islamabad, President Asif Ali Zardari called on clerics and religious scholars to take the lead in preventing the misuse of blasphemy laws, conveniently forgetting that it is the government that has the primary responsibility to protect minorities. He said this even as Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman accused of blasphemy is, still in jail. After Mr Taseer’s death, his own party, which was in government hardly did anything to prevent the misuse of the law. In such an atmosphere, silence is to be expected, but if there is anyone who has a responsibility to break the mould, it is our elected representatives.

Certainly, religious scholars have a role to play. They can provide the intellectual cover and credibility for this necessary task. But even that will do little good so long as the political class cowers at the thought of even addressing the issue. Any attempts to reform the laws have been instantly killed in parliament and the hope of it ever being taken up again seems remote. Even in obvious cases of injustice, there is always the fear that speaking out publicly will lead to being targeted by extremists.



We also have to acknowledge that the reason politicians remain so reluctant to even bring up the blasphemy laws is that there is widespread support for these laws. Anyone accused of blasphemy has more reason to be scared of the mob than the law. So far, no one has ever been executed by the state for blasphemy but many have been killed by murderous mobs. Until this mindset is changed, there is little hope for reform. Politicians and clerics should get out in front of the issue and try to change minds but we should understand that this, too, will take decades since the state has been exploiting religious sentiments against minorities for too long for change to occur overnight. This is a generational struggle but we should at least begin the fight immediately and not shirk our duty.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2013.