Pakistan’s Blasphemy Knife (The Huffington Post)
Posted in Op-Eds on Nov 22nd, 2010
After the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963, a white reporter asked Malcolm X in reference to civil rights movement, “You feel however, that we are making progress in this country?” Malcolm responded by saying, “No. You stick a knife into my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, that’s not progress.”
Such is the condition of the likes of Asiya Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman accused of blaspheming Prophet Muhammad, facing the death penalty under section 295B of the Pakistani Penal Code. This is the same law that has subject Pakistani Ahmadi Muslims to...
Repeal the blasphemy law (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Letters to Editors, Print on Nov 20th, 2010
BALTIMORE, MD, US: I write with reference to Nasim Zehra’s brave call for repealing the blasphemy law in her article of November 17 titled “Time to repeal the blasphemy law”. General Ziaul Haq enacted this law to legitimise his usurping of power. The result has been that in the decades following its imposition, dozens of members from minority communities have been killed because of the misuse of the blasphemy law. Repealing this statute would earn Pakistan international respect.
Faheem Younus
Clinical associate professor
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Published in The Express Tribune,...
Why this public obsession with religion? (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Op-Eds, Print on Oct 30th, 2010
Lateef Khawaja was a retired man who lived a few houses down the road from us in Lahore. Everyone considered him to be a pious man but there were a few things he would never do: carry prayer beads in public places, compel kids to go to the mosque, or despise the youth for listening to English music. And there was one thing my parents would always do: ask me to request Khawaja sahib to pray for my success before annual exams.
Islam in Pakistan was a private affair back then, not a public obsession. My childhood memories of public display of Islam in Pakistan are limited to a bearded Quran teacher...
Do we even want this barbarism to stop? (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Op-Eds, Print on Aug 24th, 2010
What are some of the key features of the Sialkot tragedy? Innocent young men being mauled by a mob filled with hate, and with dozens of people standing by, including the police, all doing nothing. These are not the hallmarks of a regular terror attack where in a split second dozens of lives are lost.
There is a striking parallel between the Sialkot lynching and the massacre of more than 90 Ahmadis in Lahore on May 28 this year. Those worshippers were just as innocent — and the assailants filled with just as much hatred, even a willingness to give up their lives in the process. At the same time, there...
Denying relief on the basis of belief (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Letters to Editors, Print on Aug 20th, 2010
BALTIMORE, US: This is with reference to Abdul Manan’s article “The politics of relief: Aliens in their own land” (August 18). It was sickening to read the news story about 500 flood-stricken Ahmadi families being discriminated against by the government and clerics in southern Punjab. Let the record show that this is the same community who responded valiantly for the help of hundreds of thousands of Pakistani earthquake victims in 2005. Less than 100 Ahmadi families were affected by that earthquake. Not only that, but the Ahmadi community responded benevolently towards millions in Indonesia after...
A matter of shame (The Express Tribune)
Posted in Letters to Editors, Print on Jul 17th, 2010
MARYLAND, US: As an American Muslim of Pakistani descent, I am appalled and disgusted at reports of what happened to dozens of Hindus after a Hindu boy drank water from a cooler situated outside a mosque situated in Karachi’s outskirts. Such acts find no support either in the teachings of Islam or in the founding principles of Pakistan. Islam is fundamentally committed not only to freedom, but also the protection of minorities. During the time of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), non-Muslims frequently visited and enjoyed meals inside the vicinity of mosques. Our country’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah,...
Troubling answer to query ‘Where are moderate Muslims?’ (Boston Globe)
Posted in Letters to Editors, Print on Jul 8th, 2010
NEWS OF suicide blasts at a Lahore, Pakistan, Sufi shrine, which promotes a moderate version of Islam, is unsettling (“Attack on Pakistani shrine leaves 35 dead,175 wounded,’’ Page A6, July 2). Even more disturbing is the backdrop of terror attacks in the same city that killed at least 93 Ahmadi Muslims, another moderate sect within Islam, just over a month ago. Both groups have been labeled as heretics by the Wahhabi school of thought because of their views.
During my visit to Pakistan in 2004, I asked friends the question many Americans had asked after Sept. 11, 2001: Where are the moderate...
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