Wednesday 6 June 2012

One people by Harris Khalique

Memon Goth was once a village on the outskirts of Karachi which has now become a semi-urban neighbourhood of sorts. Traditionally, it has been a PPP enclave and people I know from there have always boasted their pro-poor and secular credentials. Most residents belong to Sindhi- or Jadgali-speaking tribes of Memon or Baloch origins. There is a vibrant civil society and a number of community organisations that promote liberal ideals and human rights besides providing basic services to the population.
A friend called me from Memon Goth the other day to lament the failure of all those who stand for humanity in this country. He was heavy-hearted. “Violence and intolerance have grown like creepers on every wall of this country and even Shah Latif’s beloved land of Sindh is not saved from these ills. We discriminate against every one who is not from our tribe or sect or does not speak the tongue we speak. It seems we actively look for reasons and alibis to attack others. We are out there to hit anybody who is different.”
A Hindu boy named Dinesh who looked after chickens in a farm, was beaten up by the people who had seen him quenching his thirst from a water cooler installed outside a local mosque in the Memon Goth area. Thrashing the boy was not enough to calm them. They decided to gather about a hundred and fifty people from influential families of the area to attack and terrorise the Hindu community. They forced many of them to run away and take shelter in a filthy cattle pen. Seven people were injured who were later taken to a government hospital. One of the injured said that all Hindu families were being threatened to leave their households and settle elsewhere. Where else though? One may ask. This country is 96 per cent Muslim.
I recall from history, for my believing Muslim readers, an incident from the life of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) about a rich man in Madina who owned a sweet-water well. He would sell a bucket of water at a very high price and refuse anybody who he wouldn’t like. The Prophet (PBUH) told his companions that any one of them who would buy this well from that wretched trader would be blessed. After Hazrat Usman bought over the well, the Prophet (PBUH) gifted it for free to all the residents of Madina without any distinction.
In Punjab, the situation is even worse when it comes to treating different religions and sects, be it Christians, Ahmadis, Shia Muslims or even devotees at Sufi shrines. When we are fast approaching the first anniversary of the heinous crimes committed against Christian Pakistanis in Korian on July 31 and Gojra on August 1, two young brothers were brutally killed in the precincts of a court in Faisalabad. It had become obvious even before they were presented in front of the judge that both Rashid and Sajid Emmanuel would be acquitted from the false charges levelled against them.
I again recall from history for my patriotic Pakistani readers an interview of the founder that he gave in the month of July exactly sixty-three years ago. “[Minorities] will have their protection with regard to their religion, faith, their life, their culture. They will be, in all respects, the citizens of Pakistan without any distinction of caste or creed.”
In Jinnah’s Pakistan of today, it is not the love in Lahore and Karachi that makes us one people, but the hate in Memon Goth and Gojra.

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