A Letter to Ansar Abbasi

Jaffer Abbas Mirza

Hello to the torch bearer of Islam and Inspector General of moral police, Mr. Ansar Abbasi!

I am sure that you are doing well and, I hope you will like the titles I have accorded you with. After all, a dignified person like you deserves them. I have had the privilege of coming across your column in Jang about ‘Free Sex Society’. First of all, I would like to thank you for bringing up such a grave issue into the limelight. I am sure yahoodi agents would have tried their best to stop you but they are unaware of the invincible mard-e-mujahid in you. You should be happy to know that you also have mujahids like Zaid Hamid and Orya Maqbool Jan to help you in this daunting task. Coming to the topic, I am pleased that you have friends who inform you about wicked schemes of these NGOs and liberal fascists to secularize the land of pure aka bulwark of Islam. However your informer friend failed to update you about some other issues pertaining to the state of piety and morality in our society. But do not fret as being a patriotic Pakistani I will help you with this task by raising some questions to you and your friend in hopes of persuading you to pen some columns on these issues as well.

Didn’t your friend know or tell you that a few extremist outfits are playing with the religious sentiments of the masses? As you have mentioned in your column that kuffar are penetrating their values such as free sex, homosexuality and freedom of speech – note that you equate the last with blasphemy – but are you really naïve enough to ignore the role of your glorious Muslim gulf countries in funding extremism and terrorism in Pakistan? Additionally, they are also providing their ‘logistics and support’ services to the kuffar; oh sorry they are still representatives of Islam according to you. Are they not?

Fortunately, our religion and constitution allows all minorities to practice their religion freely. It’s another matter that only lip service is paid to this right, and the practical implementation is still in limbo. Being a senior journalist, you should have known or your friend should have told you about repulsive treatment of Ahmadis in Pakistan. They have been incalculably persecuted and forced to flee the country. Not only their lives are jeopardized by self-proclaimed defenders of Islam but even their graves are not secure.

What about thousands of Shias who have been killed by extremists? These lunatics – sorry pious mujahids as some may want to call them – freely operate in our cities. They are using Mosques where they promulgate their agenda of purifying the land of pure by killing heretic Shias and other minorities. I wonder how come they forget that in their pursuit of ‘jihad’, they are using Kuffar’s invention i.e. loudspeakers?

Do you not know how blasphemy laws are used against minorities? How many Christians and Hindus are jailed under fabricated accusations? Do I need to remind you that Joseph Colony was not burnt by NGOs, neither by the infidel Americans? I hope your friend someday tells you about the real culprits.

Probably your friend does not care about the democratic rights of some of the Pakistani citizens, that’s why he did not tell you that women in Nowshera and Lakki Marwat were barred from voting in recent general elections. But your concern for the empowerment of women cannot be doubted as Malala was also subjected to heart-warming compliments by you and Orya Maqbool Jan during a TV show about her book. Also, did your friend tell you about Taxila where some religious extremists threatened school administration that if teachers and students will not wear Burqa, they will bomb the school?

What is your stance on a boy getting raped by a cleric in madrassa? Have you ever raised your voice against pedophilia? Would you like to shed some light on your silence on these barbaric acts? May be it is only because your friend did not tell you about all this. Otherwise you surely care about all the ills of our society.

In the end, I would request you to please note that all of the aforementioned acts were not carried out by liberals. I wish that you criticize the culprits as zealously as you criticize liberals cum immoral lot of the country. Also I hope that one day you will learn to distinguish between those elements which are deteriorating our society and those which are trying to make it into a progressive one. Once my teacher gave me a fruitful advice which I would like to share with you; ‘be in the company of wise, you will be wise’.

Your well-wisher,

A Liberal Fascist

The author is a researcher at The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs and he tweets @mirzajaffer.