Skip to main content

The Last Man Who Stood Against the Injustice of the State | Naeem Shamim


I could hardly believe my senses as the news was unfolding itself in the most atrocious manner possible but sadly, it was.  It started with a red ticker reporting an incident of loud gunfire in Islamabad. It then turned out that a VVIP was being targeted in the capital. Later it was updated that the person on the barrel end of the guns was none other than the Governor of the Punjab, Salman Taseer whose death had been called upon by thousands of Imams and Mullahs four days prior in Friday Sermons and post congregation rallies. A few more moments and I read with wet eyes on my drawing room TV screen the news that sent shivers down my spine.
Salman Taseer had been assassinated apparently by one of his guards who in his nonsensical mullah intellect accused him of blasphemy for his act of siding with a poor Christian lady Asia Bibi and for calling the draconian Pakistani Blasphemy laws as Black Laws. It was horrendous to visualize the scene in the mind’s eye – Mumtaz Qadri was readmore at alufaq.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Religious freedom in Canada

The Government of Canada, led by a conservative parliament majority, announced February 19, 2013 the official opening of the Office of freedom of religion. With a budget of five million dollars, the Bureau is responsible for "protecting religious minorities threatened and defend their rights, to fight against the spread of hatred and intolerance based on religion and to promote Canadian values ​​of pluralism and tolerance. »The creation of this Bureau also fits in a broader attempt Harper government's make coexist conservatism and multiculturalism. Surfing ambiguity According to the principles of classical liberalism on which is founded the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the state can not Read full post here...

Forced to flee Pakistan

When Zakria Nasrullah Khan heard the third gunshot, he realized it wasn’t a tire bursting or a car backfiring. It was two men shooting at him and his mosque, the one that his father and 6-year-old son had just entered. The one he and other security volunteers were guarding, unarmed. The one the terrorists barricaded from the inside as they shot worshippers. “I haven’t felt more desperate than that point in time,” he said. The May 28, 2010 attack in Lahore, Pakistan lasted for hours, complete with grenade and suicide bomb explosions. More than 60 people were killed, including Khan’s father and several friends. His son, now 8, survived with no injuries. A month later, Khan received death threats: one text message was two mock headlines announcing his death and his acceptance of mainstream Islam. The message ended with: “Now you choose which headline you want to become.” Another time, a gunman chased him and shot at his car. He barely     readmore...

Sikhs deserve the dignity of being a statistic

In the  aftermath of the mass shooting in a Sikh gurdwara  in Oak Creek, Wis., a sea of reporters have asked many Sikh leaders and activists to quantify how many Sikhs had been targeted in hate crimes and murders since Sept. 11, 2001. Although I have helped chronicle hate crimes against the Sikh American community for more than a decade, I could not tell them. Even as the White House, U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation express their commitment to protecting Sikh Americans in response to the massacre, there is one glaring problem with how the federal government monitors hate crimes against Sikhs in America: It doesn’t. The FBI tracks all hate crimes on  Form 1-699, the Hate Crime Incident Report . Statistics collected on this form allow law enforcement officials to analyze trends in hate crimes and allocate resources appropriately. But under the FBI’s current tracking system, there is no category for anti-Sikh hate crimes. The religious identity of t