Targeting shrines

In their war against the country, the Taliban have singled out religious symbols as a particular target. In particular, shrines have been a target because they are a representation of the moderate strain of Sufi Islam. The latest shrine to be targeted was one in Shikarpur and seems to be indicative of a disturbing increasing trend of targeting such sites across the country and especially in Sindh (Karachi’s Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine was hit by a suicide bomber in October 2010). The blast killed four people and injured 12. Essentially, the Taliban have declared war on any interpretation of faith that is different from the rigid one that they follow and want to impose their harsh and retributive brand on an unwilling population. That they are willing to resort to murder to do so only makes them so much more dangerous.

The deeds of the Taliban and their allied militants seem to go against a pluralistic view of faith because in their worldview, all music should be banned, as should be television and films, and women should not be sent out of the home, not even for an education. Pakistan’s Sufi heritage is slowly being replaced with a culture that is foreign to us. We are stuck in an ideological battle but so few of us are willing to fight back and live in abject fear. Our social mobility and freedom is under threat but we have refused to take a stand against this outrage. One of the biggest obstacles is, ironically enough, the government itself, which more often than not, has not acted against those who have been involved in such attacks. To date, hardly any arrests, let alone prosecutions and convictions, have happened in cases of attacks on shrines and this failure to act has sent the worrying signal to the militants that the state will not react. The influence of the groups involved in attacks on shrines dates back to the Ziaul Haq era, when a combination of Saudi money and the need to rally people behind the mujahideen cause in Afghanistan led to the promotion of an exclusivist interpretation of religion. This worldview needs to be changed.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2013.