The cost of fanaticism

The guy mentioned to me that he immediately thought of his wife and daughters. “They wear Arabic calligraphy designs as part of their dress,” he stated. He went on to say, “I was thinking of expanding my business to Pakistan, but do I want to walk through Lahore or Karachi with my wife or daughters, risking such attacks?”

Pakistan already has the world’s strictest blasphemy laws, with blasphemy punishable by death following a trial. However, some groups are unwilling to wait for the law to take its course and prefer to act as judges, juries, and executioners. Several people have been lynched before their cases go to trial, and those convicted due to lack of evidence are likewise attacked, as if the accusation of blasphemy requires no proof other than the allegation itself.Judges, too, must be concerned about the blowback from individuals who seem to know everything while hearing such cases. Instead of making Pakistani culture more religious or pious, the habit of inciting a crowd into a religious frenzy has resulted in instances in which mobs have lost all fear of God. Even in the recent case of the woman wearing the Arabic calligraphy dress, the mob had to be calmed down by the woman’s apology, despite the fact that she had done nothing wrong. As Maulana Tahir Ashrafi pointed out, the males in the crowd, not the women, should have apologised.