by Bruce Bawer
Since I’ve been posting items here, the last couple of days, about Islam and Pakistan, I thought it might be instructive to present excerpts from essays by Rooshanie Ejaz, a young liberal Muslim in Pakistan who (like me) is a frequent contributor to the website of Norway’s Human Rights Service. Ejaz is proof that there are indeed liberal Muslims, even in Pakistan; she is also proof that they are extremely few in number, seriously besieged, and, when they dare to put their names to articles of the kind she has written, incredibly gutsy.
On Pakistani blasphemy law:
Since the addition of Article 295 to the law, some 4.000 cases [of blasphemy] have been registered. One of the recent cases was brought against a doctor in Karachi for throwing away a pharmaceutical company representative’s business card, because the man’s name was Mohammed Faizan. The doctor was arrested for this "act of blasphemy."
On the usefulness of false accusations of blasphemy:
A man named Munis Masih and his wife have been sentenced to 25 years in prison for touching the Quran with “dirty hands”. He claims that he had a dispute with his neighbor, who made a false accusation as a way of getting back at him. There are countless such stories here in Pakistan.
On sexual abuse in madrassas:
…a recent study by the Initiator Human Development Foundation in Karachi found that 21 percent of students at madrassas (Islamic religious schools) have been sexually abused by their teachers, that 52 percent have been sexually harassed, that 28 percent have complained of unpleasant touching, and that 20 percent have complained of forced sex.
On getting away with murder:
…the laws of Diyat (the payment of blood money) and Qiyas (deductive analogy) that were incorporated into the Pakistani constitution. during General Zia-ul-Haq’s military rule…state that in accordance with sharia law, murder is not to be treated as a public offence but rather as a civil offence. In Pakistan, one consequence of the treatment of murder as a civil offence is that as little as 12 % of murder cases are actually prosecuted. Once it has been established that a murder has taken place, the victim’s relatives need only produce an “agreement deed” affirming that they have been paid in accordance with “Islamic law” in order for the perpetrator to get off scot-free…. these laws mean that if you have money, you can murder. It also means that if the victim’s family forgives the murderer, he will be acquitted.
At age 17 [Samia Sarvar] was forced into an arranged marriage with a cousin. After years of abuse, she wanted to file for divorce while her parents were away on a pilgrimage to Mecca. She engaged a human-rights lawyer, Hina Jillani, to assist her with her ordeal. (In Pakistan, in accordance with sharia law, a woman cannot divorce her husband without his consent.) When her parents found out about Samia’s plans, they hired a hit man to murder her. She was shot in cold blood at Jillani’s office, with Samia’s mother (a doctor) serving as both witness and accomplice. When the killer was brought to trial, Samia’s parents signed an agreement with him and presented it in court, whereupon he was acquitted. The perfect crime!
And while we’re on the topic of Pakistan, here's a piece from Der Spiegel about the widespread admiration in that country for a certain German historical figure.
The Dish 