Sinister Cultural Marxist
2nd March 2011, 08:10
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/20113271659294319.html
Pakistan's minister for minorities has been shot dead by armed men in Islamabad.
An official at the Pakistani capital's Shifa Hospital said Shahbaz Bhatti arrived dead after Wednesday's attack, in which his driver also got killed.
Police said they were still confirming whether Bhatti, the only Christian in the Pakistani cabinet, was the intended target.
He had been threatened by Muslim religious groups in the past because he had spoken out against the country's controversial blasphemy law.
Mohammad Iqbal, an Islamabad police official, said that the attack happened as Bhatti was leaving his home on the way to work.
The anti-blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since November when a court sentenced Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, to death.
On January 4, Salman Taseer, the governor of the most populous province of Punjab, who had strongly opposed the law and sought presidential pardon for Bibi, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said it is most likely that Bhatti was assassinated "because of his involvement in the recommendation to amendments to the blasphemy law.
"It shows that nobody is secure in this country, although Bhatti had received many death threats, due to the blasphemy law row".
No group immediately claimed the attack, but private Pakistani TV channels showed pamphlets at the scene of the killing that were attributed to the Pakistani Taliban warning of the same fate for anyone opposing the blasphemy laws.
Bhatti had earlier requested extra security after receiving threats and shooting at his house in Islamabad by unknown assailants.
Hardline Sunni Muslim Theocrats seem to be purging or terrorizing any moderate Muslim, non-Sunni Muslim, Christian, or Hindu from Pakistan. They are willing to use an anti-blasphemy law to dictate behavior to non-Muslims. There are seriously disturbing tendencies in Pakistan right now.
"Islamists" don't pose the threat that histrionic secularists and Christians argue in most of the Muslim world, but I think Pakistan seems to be an exception. In most place, political Islam recognizes the role for minority voices in their country, and the need to avoid an overly militant interpretation of Shariah law. It is wonderful, for instance, to see the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood embracing moderate politics (at least for the time being), or the Tunisian party embracing ideological pluralism. But the Taliban are as ruthless as ever, and seem intent on making that ruthlessness the "Status Quo" in Pakistan. What is worse, they seem to want to make it the law of the land. I don't want to sound anti-Muslim, of course, most of the victims of this violence are themselves Muslims who have different interpretations of the faith, like Shiites and Ahmadiyya Islam. So what I'm saying isn't anti-Islam. However, it seems that a certain very dangerous interpretation of Islam is now dominant in Pakistan, where it is OK to literally kill people, especially minorities like Christians who say politically incorrect things about certain laws or religious figures.
With rising food prices and a rising reactionary movement across the country, could we see a rightwing takeover in Pakistan? Should we be as hopeful and optimistic of a revolution there as in, say, Egypt? What kind of inroads can the secular left or tolerant religious leaders make against this kind of bloody resistance from the religious fanatics?
Pakistan's minister for minorities has been shot dead by armed men in Islamabad.
An official at the Pakistani capital's Shifa Hospital said Shahbaz Bhatti arrived dead after Wednesday's attack, in which his driver also got killed.
Police said they were still confirming whether Bhatti, the only Christian in the Pakistani cabinet, was the intended target.
He had been threatened by Muslim religious groups in the past because he had spoken out against the country's controversial blasphemy law.
Mohammad Iqbal, an Islamabad police official, said that the attack happened as Bhatti was leaving his home on the way to work.
The anti-blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since November when a court sentenced Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, to death.
On January 4, Salman Taseer, the governor of the most populous province of Punjab, who had strongly opposed the law and sought presidential pardon for Bibi, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said it is most likely that Bhatti was assassinated "because of his involvement in the recommendation to amendments to the blasphemy law.
"It shows that nobody is secure in this country, although Bhatti had received many death threats, due to the blasphemy law row".
No group immediately claimed the attack, but private Pakistani TV channels showed pamphlets at the scene of the killing that were attributed to the Pakistani Taliban warning of the same fate for anyone opposing the blasphemy laws.
Bhatti had earlier requested extra security after receiving threats and shooting at his house in Islamabad by unknown assailants.
Hardline Sunni Muslim Theocrats seem to be purging or terrorizing any moderate Muslim, non-Sunni Muslim, Christian, or Hindu from Pakistan. They are willing to use an anti-blasphemy law to dictate behavior to non-Muslims. There are seriously disturbing tendencies in Pakistan right now.
"Islamists" don't pose the threat that histrionic secularists and Christians argue in most of the Muslim world, but I think Pakistan seems to be an exception. In most place, political Islam recognizes the role for minority voices in their country, and the need to avoid an overly militant interpretation of Shariah law. It is wonderful, for instance, to see the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood embracing moderate politics (at least for the time being), or the Tunisian party embracing ideological pluralism. But the Taliban are as ruthless as ever, and seem intent on making that ruthlessness the "Status Quo" in Pakistan. What is worse, they seem to want to make it the law of the land. I don't want to sound anti-Muslim, of course, most of the victims of this violence are themselves Muslims who have different interpretations of the faith, like Shiites and Ahmadiyya Islam. So what I'm saying isn't anti-Islam. However, it seems that a certain very dangerous interpretation of Islam is now dominant in Pakistan, where it is OK to literally kill people, especially minorities like Christians who say politically incorrect things about certain laws or religious figures.
With rising food prices and a rising reactionary movement across the country, could we see a rightwing takeover in Pakistan? Should we be as hopeful and optimistic of a revolution there as in, say, Egypt? What kind of inroads can the secular left or tolerant religious leaders make against this kind of bloody resistance from the religious fanatics?