Descent into darkness

As multiple churches in Jaranwala were vandalized and scores of houses belonging to the Christian community were set on fire over alleged blasphemy allegations on Wednesday, the only question we were left with was: how did we become a country where the weakest and least powerful among us are the most likely to be targeted? In fact, if any of us professes shock that such an attack could take place here, their surprise will ring hollow. We have become a country where identity – be it religion, ethnicity or gender – can be the difference between being allowed to live and having a permanent death sentence hanging over you. Christians are massacred while they pray, Shias are hauled out of buses and killed over their beliefs, and minority faith women are targeted with forced conversions. The Christian community – as patriotic and as Pakistani as any other Pakistani – has generally chosen to keep a relatively low profile, usually speaking out peacefully about the ceaseless social, economic and religious discrimination they face. On Wednesday, this largely peaceful community was once again put through terror.

The reports coming out of Jaranwala, Faisalabad were terrifying -- more so in the way the police, those that are supposed to protect this country’s citizens from mob violence, themselves looked helpless in the face of a hatred and a bigotry that has been weaponized over years to an extent where it is now almost impossible to even speak without fear about such violence and the reasons leading up to it. Official condemnation has been swift, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar posting on social media that he was “gutted” to see the visuals coming out of Jaranwala and promising “stern action”. Former PM Shehbaz Sharif, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, former interior minister Rana Sanaullah and many other political leaders have also been quick to condemn the Jaranwala incident. That is all very well but what value do their words have when we have heard them so many times before that they have lost all meaning?

Jaranwala is not the first such incident. And it may be cynical but true that it will not be the last if we continue as is, if the state forgets that Jaranwala ever happened -- just like it forgot Gojra or Joseph Colony or the Peshawar church attack or the Easter bombing in Lahore. The list is endless. Repeating it may make no difference to a state apathetic to the trauma its minority communities have carried over years. One wonders whether the sanctity of worship places of any religion is any less than that of any other state building. If swift action can be taken against perpetrators that are seen as 'anti-state', should such mob violence not be taken as -- if not more -- seriously and with the same level of urgency? It is both ironic and tragic that this violence comes a few days after a film banned in Pakistan was forced to be placed on YouTube just because our authorities decided that its subject was taboo. The subject: religion being weaponized. Perhaps we need to rethink the term 'terror'. What other word can possibly be used for what Jaranwala’s Christian community has gone through yesterday? When the state demonstrates with its laws and actions that not every group is afforded the same rights, it creates space for the hateful rhetoric of militant groups. Our counterterrorism strategy, enshrined under the National Action Plan, was meant to be comprehensive in dealing with both the sanctuaries of militants and the ideology of their sympathizers. The latter plank of the NAP has been notable only for its absence.

When citizens of Pakistan feel insecure in their daily lives just because of their identities, we know that we have failed them as a nation. There will be the usual Never Again promises, vows to make sure this is the last time we allow such a crime to be committed in our name, condemnations from all over the country -- and then there will be silence. Pakistan needs more than these perfunctory words of condemnation. The fact is that the impunity accorded to extremist groups, the appeasement of violence by the state and the cynical weaponization of religion have brought us to this point. For too long has the state coddled and appeased this kind of violence. For too long have we remained silent. Some would argue we crossed the Rubicon long ago; they may not be wrong.