They’re not our martyrs

And why the twisted narrative can’t change

When someone pens down this era in the history of the country, they’ll write about the shaheeds and the martyrs who lost their lives to violence – and some other people that were there, too. Terrorism has touched our lives in vicious ways, stripping us of our loved ones, our liberties and our sanity – but it seems that the narrative works differently depending on what faith you identify with: ‘martyr’ if you’re a Muslim and just a plain ‘victim’ if you’re anything else.

Peshawar was witness to one of the worst instances of Taliban-fueled violence, leaving 81 dead and another 140 wounded. The city has maintained its status as one of the most troubled places in Pakistan for a while now. So the attack, while revolting and disconcerting, is not surprising. The two Taliban men who did the deed are en route to heaven to find their 72 prizes while we’re left to pick up the pieces. But it seems as though we’re not sure of what pieces to put together. The narrative after each Taliban attack on a Muslim community has screamed for the shaheeds and the martyrs, but the Christian community has been given no such courtesy. There are semantics at play which change the manner in which we consume information – these semantics will take a Christian martyr and strip him of his Christianity so he can be nothing more than a Pakistani by the time he finds his way to you.

Images from the aftermath of the attack reminds one of the Hazaras in Quetta and their continuous struggle against extremists who have taken to slaughtering them one by one, till they’re all obliterated from the region. But bigger than the problems the Taliban were facing killing innocent people was the problem the media was presented with: What narrative were they to follow? Who were the Hazaras? How were they to be given to the Pakistani people? As they sat in the cold with the coffins of their lost ones, the media found a voice for them, which, confusingly, screamed against sectarian violence. Sectarian violence, for those of you who are lost to the subject, revolves around two different sects fighting one another. The Hazaras have never held their own against the Taliban, nor have they voiced concerns against sunnis. In the case of the Hazaras the narrative is wrong, the narrative is weak, but the narrative is consumed by the public like a vulture.

The Christian minority similarly is also the victim of a botched up narrative. Kill them in violence, blow up their homes, burn them at the stake for blasphemy, but never call them a martyrs, never called them a Christian victim, and make sure there’s no religious violence involved – even when it’s painfully obvious that religious violence is at its strongest thrust. A popular TV channel, while reporting on the Peshawar incident, announced “Jo loog safai karte hein, dehshat gardon ne unhi ka safaya kar diya” (People who sweep other people’s homes have been swept out by terrorists). That headline outraged many, and it took the social media platform by storm. But it was an innocent mistake and anyone could have made it. When a gross majority of the country refuses to acknowledge Christians as equals, what is it that they’re complaining about? Further evidence of this is the fact that Christian protestors in Lahore were attacked and beaten up by unknown men, outside their own church. People who were protesting violence were handled with violence. One can only wonder what would’ve been done to them had they been somewhere else, somewhere that isn’t a church. This isn’t the first time this has happened, it won’t be the last. It seems that the popular narrative only wants Christians and other minorities to have an equal piece of the misery pie. They aren’t even given an equal right to protest, in a country where we protest just about anything from the price of onions to drone strikes.

Terrorism against the Christians is terrorism against Pakistanis – but the jobs a Christian should do, and must do, cannot be performed by those of a “better” faith. In KP the municipal corporation advertised jobs for sweepers, specifying that they only wanted applicants who weren’t Muslims. It’s quite obvious that they aren’t aware of the thousands of Muslims who go abroad and do precisely this job. One has to wonder why Muslims can’t do the same jobs here, jobs that they perform in an outstanding manner abroad.

That having been said, Christians have it somewhat easy since we’re at least willing to include them as Pakistanis into the current narrative. Indeed, they are Pakistanis who died at the hands of terrorists. The Ahmadis do not share this luck. The Ahmadis do not register as people who feel pain at all.

Any provisions to address the bias or prejudice are met with hate and disgust. The Lahore Grammar School is a prime example. Comparative religion was offered by the educational institute to promote peaceful coexistence. It’s quite evident that the majority don’t want comparative religion to be taught to their kids. Comparative religion studies could of course land a harsh blow to our narrative. If our people are allowed to study and understand other religions in a neutral manner then they might start viewing the followers of the said religions as human, too. While our majority cries bloody murder against the course, very little is being said or done about the increasing Islamisation of education in institutions like NUST – and there’s no word on how soon we’ll be exterminating terrorist bugs from university hostels.

The twisted narrative cannot be changed because the people that are consuming the narrative remain the same. And it’s not just the dish that’s being served by the media, our politicians are no better. Imran Khan’s response to the Peshawar blasts was to question how and why suicidal attacks happen each time peace talks are being considered. While many are embracing his conspiracy theory, several other are wondering whether the reason is perhaps that the Taliban do not want peace – they only seem to want pieces, of this country and its people. Nawaz Sharif rejected the idea of peace talks subsequent to the attacks and called terrorists people who had no religion. While that’s a noble thought, someone should probably point out that atheists, agnostics and irreligious folks have mostly never been caught blowing up people.

The narrative fails to change. The narrative is not being questioned. We see things through a distorted lens and we will continue to do so in times to come, not because we don’t know any better, but because we simply don’t care – not that we ever did. So let’s continue calling them Pakistanis instead of Christians, at least we show some sympathy that way.

The writer is a journalist based in Lahore. She can be emailed at [email protected]. She tweets @luavut