It is our duty to stop glorification of Taseer’s murderer
The Islamabad High Court recently dropped terrorism charges against Mumtaz Qadri — the cold blooded murderer of Governor Salman Taseer. Although they maintained his death sentence, he is no longer considered a terrorist. His council contends that he is now guilty of a ‘compoundable offence’ that could be settled out-of-court.
This sets a dangerous precedent and sends out a chilling message that the person who pumped 27 bullets into the body of Governor Salmaan Taseer, whom he was supposed to protect, is legally not a terrorist.
When this barbaric incident took place in early 2011, hundreds gathered around to support Mumtaz Qadri, considering him a brave holy worrier who killed a blasphemer. It was shocking to see why a criminal was glorified and idealised by so many. When he was taken to court, dozens of lawyers came forward to support him and to provide free legal service to him. Qadri was originally given the death sentence by an anti-terrorism court, which was condemned by his supporters, and the judge who convicted him eventually had to flee the country following death threats.
Today, Qadri’s support base has increased because of the consistent hate campaigns of certain extremist organisations and religious leaders against Governor Taseer. They managed to build a narrative that the governor was a blasphemer by distorting the factual position of his statements. It is widely considered across the country that he made blasphemous statements and that’s why killing him became a ‘holy duty’. It’s quite common to find graffiti, posters and slogans honouring him. A very famous slogan being:
Jurat o bahadri – Mumtaz Hussain Qadri (Mumtaz Qadri is the name of courage and bravery)
Such climate is not favourable in a country dealing with the grave challenges of radicalisation, extremism and terrorism. It is essential to analyse whether or not Governor Taseer actually blasphemed, so the support base for his killer can be reduced, and people know the realistic state of affairs before extending their support to his killer.
Governor Taseer was primarily accused of supporting Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman and a mother of five, who was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy charges in 2010. She got into a dispute with her Muslim colleagues who objected her to ‘drinking their water’ ‘in their glasses’ because her Christian faith meant she was ‘unclean’. Her accusers made contradictory statements in court and there was never sufficient evidence to prove accusations of blasphemy but enormous pressure from extremist groups arguably contributed towards her receiving the death sentence.
It seems to be another example of blasphemy law exploitation to settle a personal score. Governor Taseer took a firm stand and raised objections on the procedural flaws of this law and the manner it had been used to target minorities. In an interview, he made his position quite clear by making the following statements:
“The thing I find disturbing is that if you examine the cases of the hundreds tried under this law, you have to ask how many of them are well-to-do? Why is it that only the poor and defenceless are targeted? How come over 50 per cent of them are Christians when they form less than two per cent of the country’s population. This points clearly to the fact that the law is misused to target minorities.”
“What I find particularly distasteful is that when you speak of amendment, people assume you condone the crime. If I am against the death sentence, it does not mean I condone murder.”
Looking at majority of the blasphemy cases in Pakistan, one completely endorses the above statements. The blasphemy laws in Pakistan have long been exploited against the weak and vulnerable. An estimated 1,274 people charged under the blasphemy laws between 1986 and 2010 — with 51 were brutally targeted and murdered before their respective trials.
Do the above figures not suggest we have legal loopholes that need to be addressed in order to protect minorities? Shall we keep on listening to the distorted versions of deluded statements from ignorant fanatics who popularise the idea that an attempt to improvise blasphemy laws is equivalent to committing blasphemy? Are we not civilised enough to initiate a debate that looks at the elements of this law being exploited by powerful elites to maintain their fear and control over poor and marginalised communities?
This is our collective responsibility to challenge the baseless propaganda against Governor Taseer and a vicious campaign to demonise a man who only spoke about amending a law. It is our duty to stop glorification of his murderer.
One may agree or disagree with Governor Taseer’s politics, but he gave his life away while protecting a poor Christian-Pakistani woman. In my opinion, if someone deserves glory, it is Governor Taseer, not his violent murderer. The supporters and sympathisers of Mumtaz Qadri must not forget that legacy of Islam is to protect the minority communities instead of spreading hatred and violence against them as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said in this beautiful hadith:
“Whoever hurts a Non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys God.” (Bukhari)
My friend that is a nice effort to glorify Salman Taseer and in turn earn your good repute infront of your fellow Uk colleagues as this article is a reflection of how they think and you appear to be a very liberal muslim who in their eyes is not a conservative and narrow minded person.
You have quoted a very nice Hadith at the end of this article and I can also quote many which states the punishment of blasphemy none other than death. Salman Taseer tried to do the same thing which you have tried in this article, taking side of Christians in order to score points infront of them (west).
Now one question, have you ever heard what salman taseer said in his statement? The exact statement?? I doubt it and I think what you wrote is based on what you heard, from others. He did not talk about changing the law, he talked about disregarding this law from the root and much more which I dont wanna write. I eat and drink with my Christian friends, they are very nice and I am very nice with them. There is no problem so dont try to falsely picture muslims in a wrong way that they think christians are not clean. It could be same like few fanatic christians think muslims are terrorists and stay from them where they are in majority so could be the same thing for few insane muslims who think christians are not clean(which actually is a far lesser allegation than terrorism) where they are in majority.
But anyways nice try to defend salman taseer actually went in vain. I suggest you to do proper research next time you write an article. Just one last thing which people say and you might say as well that court should have decided whether salman taseer is a criminal or not and punished him accordingly. These are Pakistani courts not british courts so my question is that is there any one simple example in Pakistan where a person from ruling party, a governor, an elite person, a notable rich person who after court trial has been found guilty and sentenced??????
what you are pointing is a flaw in government but this does not give right to anyone to take matters into his own hand, a Christian can raise the same argument in his defence and kill anyone as he pleases, thus the act of mumtaz qadri is equally condemnable. Government has stripped Gillani as well, and it could have done the same or even if not, it does not give right to you or me to start killing someone just because we arehurt.
Rehman Anwer, the country cannot understand you.
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