Balochistan Point Voice of Nation
Once ISIS members executed 13 teenage children who were watching a soccer match on TV. Perhaps, those Daish Elements thought that watching TV was an immoral act and this justified to them the barbaric killing of those juveniles.
And, such sort of brutalities have been committed time to time and again at different places by these terrorists against the very innocents, civilians and the adherents of different Faiths and sects. Such as, ISIS burned alive a captured Jordanian pilot by locking him in a cage, dousing him with an inflammable liquid and setting him afire – videotaping the evil deed for the world to see, just as they have many of their most horrific acts.
Yesterday, In Mardan, when the so-called students of Wali Khan University lynched to death a student of journalism (Mashal Khan-The Humanist) of the same University, is more or less the same, as I think, what ISIS has been doing in Syria and Iraq for years.
But, As for ISIS; we the Muslims have been in a state of denial, and have often denounced it in the light of the conspiracy theories. For instance; I have two friends, one who thinks two thoughts. In the morning he believes that it is the Western Powers who have created it just to tarnish the image of Muslims in the world while in the evening, he rethinks the other way that United States of America have created it to keep the ball of conflict rolling in the middle East, whereas, the second friend holds Russia responsible for its creation to upset its rivals in the North of Atlantic Ocean, though he favours the jihad in Afghanistan.
Let’s accept and say it for a moment that these beasts have no religion or perhaps are the creation of another power to attain its complicit goals. But what about the students of Wali Khan University who gathered in hundreds, dragged unfortunate Mashal Khan out of his room, pelted stones at him, lashed sticks over his head, chest and over each and every part of his body, striped him off of his clothes, triggered some bullets in his body, pulled him, pushed him and then dragged him from stairs to the balcony, from balcony to the stairs and then to the road that connects hostel to the academic campus, bunched him, kicked him as hard as they could and as many of them as they got to while chanting the slogan “Naar e Takbeer, Allah o Akbar.” They kept killing a killed body as if they thought that the died body on the same moment died and then reborn so as to get killed again. Going through it made in-depth thinkers remind of Non-Muslims of Makkah at the contemporary society of Prophet Muhammad PBUH.
What these wild fanatics did over a mere accusation of blasphemy is itself devastatingly deplorable and horrible. But, it is more saddening to see the Students of a prestigious University turning so violent to the extent where they themselves are the accusers, the witness, the judge and the executioner. Not to forget, the Universities are the places where a society’s tolerance, morality, humanity, rationality and respect to law is best gauged. Only around 1.2 million students get to study at Universities in Pakistan and they are the ones to fashion the society and draw directions for its progress, they are to be the creative minds and the defenders of human rights and tolerance. But, what they did in Mardan (KP-Pakistan) needs a giant head with equally enormous heart to describe or even think about.
So, my those two naive friends and millions likes of them (including some Ulamas-Religious Clerks) , who unequivocally and justifiably denounce ISIS, how would they own or disown these humans-turned animals who need a single heresy of blasphemy against anyone to take the law in their hands? We have no way to deny them. They belong to us, to our institutions and to our surroundings. They are unfortunately the reflection of the society that we have formed (both systematically and unintendedly) throughoutthe years which is deeply poisoned with hatred and intolerance. More pathetically, much of our society stands by these savages supports them and tries to justify this heinously humiliating way of persecution.
Having watched the video clips that the killers, while killing a killed body who already they have killed, one can undeniably draw a line that the society has now turned into a self-destructive mode. We have set a fire which would catch the houses of us all. This fire needs a firm and collective response from all the segments of society to be distinguished. Or else, it would ruin all and sundry each nook and corner sooner or later.
To cut it short with few questions; who is to be blamed for this brutal lynching of Mashal Khan, those who did it? The ones who openly ask for the Killing of an accused of blasphemy in public? The state who has failed to counter this growing extremism? The Ullamas both those who have spoken their minds in the favour of such public executions and those who have remained silent spectators over such unacceptably inhumane acts? Where this society is actually off to? How the state and University administrations would deal with such violent elements existing at the campuses and why are they reluctant enough to meet these goons with a firm hand? Perhaps, everyone knows the answers but no one would answer. And, perhaps this land of pure is like a chessboard where those asking for tolerance, peace and co-existence are the pawns who time and again would be humiliated, lynched and silenced. There comes a huge pause; a malevolently treacherous attack to calm out the remnant questioning folks!
Zafar Musyani Studying International Relations at University of Karachi and also an executive member of Karachi University Model Organization of Islamic cooperation.
Published in The Balochistan Point on April 15, 2017
