Rashid Rehman, Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti… Who are these people and what message do they leave for the people of this country? Do they ask them to keep raising their voice or to be silent?
Before the instinct of self-censorship leads the people to silence, it is time perhaps to rethink. These were no ordinary people; they certainly were braver than the rest. Should the sacrifices they made to make this place look better go waste?
Something must move to shake the state and society into some sort of action, so that we don’t have to see any more of these unnecessary deaths. And that something shall happen when the people decide not to stay silent; once they decide to speak, loud and clear. Silence is not an option.
A week after Rashid Rehman’s death, a couple of ridiculous incidents have occurred that too are said to be blasphemy-related. Hopefully better sense prevails; otherwise everybody will be up in arms against everybody else.
Where exactly do we trace the roots of this intolerance? If they lie in prepartition times, as some say they do, shouldn’t the state have acted differently after partition to correct the course? Unfortunately, here we are forced to say the state is a deliberate accomplice to the violence and mayhem we see around us.
As for the society, it too is held hostage by the agenda of a culpable state. The narrative of intolerance has seeped so deep into the society, there seems no way it can turned around to one of tolerance -- except of course if the people decide to speak up.
Those who are carrying arms and imposing their agenda through sheer force are certainly fewer in number than it is generally thought. They do gain support from their unarmed sympathisers in society. Moreoever, in recent days, the established forces have used them as well as sections of media for their own ends.
The situation looks bleak and the instinct of self-destruction seems complete. But in Rashid Rehman and others who have fought before him, there are role models for others. These models of courage urge others to speak and be heard. The monument to Mumtaz Qadri’s intolerance needs to be countered by bigger monuments -- of tolerance, dialogue, pluralism, peace, and justice.