Mainstream Pakistan religious organisations applaud killing of (Punjab Governor) Salman Taseer

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Mumtaz Qadri, who killed Punjab governor, showered with rose petals by lawyers as he arrives in court

Saeed Shah in Islamabad | Wednesday January 5 2011 18.57 GMT -

The increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society was today laid bare when mainstream religious organisations applauded the murder of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, earlier this week and his killer was showered with rose petals as he appeared in court.

Taseer was buried in his home town of Lahore. The 66-year-old was assassinated yesterday by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his police bodyguards, after he had campaigned for reform of the law on blasphemy.

Qadri appeared in court, unrepentant, where waiting lawyers threw handfuls of rose petals over him and others in the crowd slapped his back and kissed his cheek as he was led in and out amid heavy security.

=snip=

Qadri was in the Barelvi sect, which is followed by most Muslims in Pakistan. However, on the issue of the blasphemy law, the Barelvi clerics had joined hands with the pro-Taliban Deobandi. The issue was sparked by Taseer's championing of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy late last year.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/05/pakistan-religious-organisations-salman-taseer

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Suspected Assassin in Pakistan Was Seen as Risk

By WAQAR GILLANI and CARLOTTA GALL
Published: January 5, 2011

LAHORE, Pakistan — The killer of a prominent secular politician had been removed from a special police branch several years ago because of his extremist religious views, but was still assigned to an elite security force tasked with guarding the victim, a senior police official said Wednesday.

It was not yet clear whether the assignment as a body guard to the slain politician, the governor of Punjab Province, Salman Taseer, was an oversight or part of a larger plot by extremist groups. But the profile of the 26-year-old assassin, Malik Mumtaz Qadri, raised alarming questions about the vetting and screening of security personnel, former police officials and associates of the former governor said.

The two men — victim and killer — have quickly come to represent the competing forces struggling for the soul of this deeply restive country. Mr. Qadri appeared before a magistrate in Islamabad and was showered by hundreds of supporters with rose petals and garlands, even as he was charged with murder and terrorism.

Meanwhile, thousands of mourners and party workers pressed into the grounds of the Governor’s House in Lahore to attend the funeral of Mr. Taseer, a successful businessman and prominent voice for secularism in the country who had recently become the focus of religious fury for speaking out against the nation’s strict blasphemy laws.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/world/asia/06pakistan.html?_r=1&hp

[Cutatious]

1. But we keep hearing that mainstream Muslims don't condone the extremism

There is a conflict somewhere in the 7th century thinking.

[Turborama]

2. This is about mainstream Muslim organizations in Pakistan, not the world n/t

[snagglepuss]

4. Pakistan has the 2nd or 3rd largest Muslim population in the world so

it is disingenuous to suggest this response to barbarity is moot. It is repugnant that the largest mainstream Islamic groups applaud this action.

[Turborama]

6. No, it's not disengenuous

Saying 'this is about mainstream Muslim organizations in Pakistan, not the world' is a fact.

No matter how hard you try to spin it, those "mainstream" organizations in Pakistan do not speak for the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.

It is repugnant that some in the largest mainstream Islamic groups in Pakistan have applauded this action.

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. True - and that raises a question.

How do Muslims around the world feel about this assassination?

[blackspade]

3. Why are we over there again?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[varun]

7. Is this surprising?

Even the so called "moderate" pakistanis I know consider themselves superior to Hindus and non Muslims.

Too bad, the world is realizing this billions of dollars and 10 years (since 911) too late...

India already knew this...nobody cared, till the terrorists hit the west

[Lionel Mandrake]

9. This sort of thing has happened before.

Following is an excerpt from
http://middleeast.about.com/od/religionsectarianism/qt/me081002.htm

On Feb. 14, 1989, Iran's Tehran Radio broadcast a message from the country's "supreme leader," Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, sentencing to death Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses.

Khomeini had not read the book. According to the British press, he was reportedly watching the evening news on television, as he did every evening, when he saw rioters in Pakistan burning the book and protesting over it, violently. Some Muslims believed the novel was blasphemous to Prophet Muhammad. Khomeini, who is spoofed in the book, dictated a fatwa to be read immediately over Tehran Radio.

Khomeini's words were, according to various translations:

"I would like to inform all the intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book entitled 'Satanic Verses'. . . as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, are hereby sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Moslems to execute them quickly, wherever they find them, so that no one will dare to insult Islamic sanctity. Whoever is killed doing this will be regarded as a martyr and will go directly to heaven."

(end of excerpt)

I changed part of the excerpt to boldface to emphasize where the anti-Rushdie movement started.

[Bragi]

10. More: "'Moderate' clerics praise politician's killing"

This account from Reuters. The "statement" is quite chilling.

Five hundred moderate Pakistani religious scholars have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination of a senior ruling party official who opposed the country's blasphemy law could suffer the same fate...

The group of scholars also noted the "courage" and religious zeal of Taseer's killer, saying his action has made Muslims around the world proud...

"Also, there should be no no expression of grief or sympathy on the death of the governor, as those who support blasphemy of the Prophet are themselves indulging in blasphemy."

...It also said that the "so-called" intellectuals, ministers, politicians and television anchors who oppose the blasphemy law and support those committing blasphemy should learn a lesson from Taseer's death.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/moderate-clerics-praise-politician-s-killing-3992902

[clyrc]

11. When I talked to my Pakistani Punjabi friend before

he told me that everyone was happy over this guy's death because he was a corrupt politician. He didn't think religion was the real reason for the killing. So I read him parts of this thread, and he isn't convinced. He did grumble about Saudis, who have spent lots of time, effort, and money converting Pakistanis into Wahhabis.

My experience of Pakistanis is that they are defensive about being Pakistanis. I live in the United Arab Emirates, where Indians and Pakistanis interact peacefully every day. My friend's first love was an Indian Hindu, and his brother has dated several Indian girls. In my husband's office, he has several Indians and one Pakistani, and they get along fine.

I'm certainly not an expert in Pakistani politics, but I couldn't help but be struck by the fact that the story I got from a Pakistani is different from what the media is saying. My friend dislikes Zardari and his government not because it is too secular, but because it is too corrupt. For me as a secular American, it is alarming that using the religious excuse to kill someone is acceptable. But it is conceivable that lots of people didn't like this governor for non religious reasons. I know for a fact that not every Pakistani is a religious nut. That fact just doesn't get much airplay.