Islam is a religion of compassion and the followers of this peaceful religion are Muslims. The champions
of Islam reside in Pakistan, demanding “sharia” as the law that should govern them. But why do we see
majority of things about this nation as contradictory to Islam? What is wrong with us? I may have been living in the west for decades, but I have kept close contacts with my motherland. In the last couple of decades or so, I have tried to connect to my birth religion and my
on-going research and learning brings me to one question. Why are Muslims so uncompassionate and intolerant? Our prophet (peace and blessing upon him) had placed heavy emphasis upon these two qualities. Another quality that we as Muslims lack is honestly (the word in Urdu is dayanatdaar).
The dishonesty starts from the top. Let me tell you a story from my hometown Seattle. There was a book-reading in the famous Seattle Elliot Bay Book Shop by a Chicago based writer Kim Barker- who had just released her book titled: “The Taliban Shuffle”. I walked into the packed basement hall with just a couple of stranding space left about ten minutes into the lecture. Ms. Barker was talking about Afghanistan and then she shifted to Pakistan and her meeting with the then (now current) Prime Minister of Pakistan. What she said about him had me drop my head in shame. She summarized her interaction with Mr. Sharif in one statement. “All Mr. Sharif wanted was to get into my pants” is what she said. If this is the caliber of our leaders what can we say about others.
Why should we be surprised when the Chief Minister’s daughter gets a poor bakery boy beaten up for not opening the store for her even when the store is supposed to be closed for cleaning? We shouldn’t even be surprised regarding the “115 terrorist attacks” that have killed over a thousand innocent Hazara’s, and that’s not including the twenty eight hundred that have been injured. The perpetrators proudly claim responsibility of these horrendous attacks, yet no one has been arrested. Why are we surprised when the daughter of the former Prime Minister and a “pir” kills her ten year old servant for breaking a glass jug? Did we really think that the son of Chief Justice of Supreme Court would be jailed on the charges of extortion? It should be no surprise that his case is shunned and brushed under the carpet somewhere. Like Father like Son! Chief Justice had already shunned the reference brought against him by the former President (Pervez Musharraf).
What can we do when the rot starts from the top? When your president is Mr. 10 percent and your Prime Minter is a bank robber and defaulter. I guess nothing! We can only wait for the honest to rise and hopefully rise with vengeance. We need a revolution that will make the French and Romanian revolutions look tame. We need a revolution that will change the thinking of the people. We need a revolution that will educate and inform the masses. We need a revolution that will get us the message of our Lord, and our Prophet to be compassionate with other being. Why can’t we be compassionate when we expect our Lord to be so after every ill we do and after every sin we commit. The biggest sin of all is a sin against another being. Need I say more!