The Sialkot incident in which a Sri Lankan factory manager, Priyantha Kumara, was brutally bludgeoned to death by an enraged mob of the factory’s workers for alleged blasphemy and his body dragged into the street and burnt has elicited cries of shame, expressions of disgust, and the usual laments about this having nothing to do with religion, across the board.

The universal shock, horror and outrage is understandable, given the extreme brutality on display, but this is neither the first such incident in our country nor, given the rise of extremist religious ideas, likely to be the last.

Nearly half a century of ‘accommodating’, encouraging and using the religious card for internal political and external strategy considerations has unleashed this Frankenstein’s monster that even its authors are unable to control, let alone eliminate. One cannot help but ask, Quo Vadis, the Quaid’s secular, non-religious state?

The case, it seems from reports, involves the attempt by a strict disciplinarian foreign manager to overcome our lack of efficient work culture, a minimum requirement for an enterprise exporting to famous brand houses in the world.

On the day in question, Kumara inspected the factory premises, pulled up the cleaning staff for inefficient working, and removed posters from walls that had to be whitewashed. Amongst them was a religious poster.

Although after some workers protested at this (inadvertent) blasphemy Kumara apologised, but some amongst the workers present nevertheless instigated them to attack Kumara. He fled to save himself to the roof but fate had decreed a violent death for him at the hands of a now swelling mob, including, it is reported, some outsiders.

A colleague, Malik Adnan, tried to shield and save Kumara from his attackers, but even he was bludgeoned, though thankfully not seriously enough to kill him. His valiant efforts have been recognised by the authorities, and he has been awarded a Tamgha-i-Shujaat, the civil award for bravery. The worst outcome was reserved for Kumara, whose brains were bludgeoned out of his skull and then his dead body (half naked) dragged out in the street and set on fire.

The wonderful local police force arrived with an officer and three constables in tow, only to be reduced to passive bystanders in the face of a by now overwhelming mob. Our police are in any case normally wary of intervening in such outbreaks of religious violence since they fear being labelled blasphemers too. In the recent Tehrik-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) confrontations, the death of seven of their compatriots without even a whimper of consolation from the authorities has probably persuaded the police in such situations to double their concern about their own safety first.

So much for our law enforcement. Madness grips people on such occasions, partly at least because they have little faith in our justice system providing justice. Blasphemy accused Asia Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Mulook, out of the best motives, suggests the army or paramilitary should have been called out, given the universally acknowledged truth that our police cannot handle such incidents. But his demand is belied by the role of the Rangers called out in support of the police in the TLP confrontations, which ended up as a mere ‘presence’, without risk or meaningful action.

The course of rising religious extremism cannot, it seems, be diverted to saner channels, let alone quelled by the so-called ‘moderate’ ulema usually in the service of the state. The arguments in Islam about the correct interpretation of the Quran and the Prophet’s (PBUH) message are as old as the religion itself. Extremist interpretation in the service of the monarchies that emerged after Islam spread into an empire remain a fact of life and feed into today’s extremist positions.

Even a cursory glance at the Prophet’s (PBUH) behaviour with and attitude towards those who insulted and abused him (early days) and those accused of apostasy (later), would disabuse us of the notion that barbaric behaviour of the sort witnessed in Sialkot has anything to do with our faith.

Examine cursorily the track record of persecution and killings on alleged blasphemy charges. The Supreme Court, in its judgement exonerating Asia Bibi on blasphemy charges in October 2018 revealed that 62 people had been killed over the years since the dark night of Ziaul Haq’s reign on blasphemy allegations without any recourse to even our flawed justice system.

Recently, a mentally challenged man was accused of burning pages of the Quran in Charsadda. Though the police in this instance guarded and saved him from a bloodthirsty mob, they suffered two police stations burned down in retaliation. In 2012, Rimsha Masih, aged 12, was accused of blasphemy but was fortunate to be finally exonerated. Mashal Khan was killed by fellow students who alleged he had posted blasphemous material.

Shama and Shazad, a brick kiln couple, were burnt alive in 2014 by being thrown into the kiln where they worked for alleged blasphemy. And let us not forget Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, who was gunned down by his security guard in Islamabad merely for defending falsely accused Asia Bibi. The assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, emptied his automatic weapon into Taseer’s body, calmly reloaded and discharged a second magazine into the victim.

The other members of the Governor’s security detail did not even fire a single shot at the assailant, who just as calmly, after the grisly murder, put down his weapon and surrendered. So much for our security structure. Mumtaz Qadri today has a shrine over his grave, erected by the Barelvis, the sect to whom he belonged, and who have now emerged as the TLP to be ‘mainstreamed’ and used as the latest incarnation of our establishment’s undying love affair with religious extremist groups.

Blasphemy today stands weaponised and is used for perfectly mundane earthly purposes such as a land grab, revenge, or some other motivated reason. It has little to do with religion, if it ever did. The Prophet’s (PBUH) honour, respect and dignity reside deep in our hearts as Muslims. But we cannot deviate from his path down the slippery slope of barbarism without forfeiting our claim to be his devout followers.

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Copyright Business Recorder, 2021