An Open Letter to Hamza Ali Abbasi

I am writ­ing this because peo­ple keep shar­ing that video with me of Hamza Ali Abbasi. Actu­al­ly, I don’t see a prob­lem with PEMRA ban­ning the show that the great Abbasi was going to con­duct on Ahmadis.

It is reflec­tive of pru­dence, and has lit­tle to do with a con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­cy. We should­n’t expect the slaugh­ter of a bunch of Ahmadis on the day of EID, because a nation­al ego­ma­ni­ac, who is also extreme­ly con­vo­lut­ed on many oth­er social/political mat­ters, took a very seri­ous issue in his hands, and angered some loose vig­i­lante. As for free­dom of speech goes (which con­cerns ALL Pak­ista­nis and not just one oppressed group by the way), it is a process that strength­ens plu­ral­i­ty, and such one night affairs always end in STDs (Short Term Dis­com­forts) with no real direc­tion. Blas­phe­my laws also impact­ed and con­tin­ue to impact peo­ple who are Mus­lims under the law, and should­n’t be dis­cussed “on the last day of Ramzan” only in rela­tion to the “Ahmadiyya Prob­lem”, as if the two are con­tex­tu­al­ly syn­ony­mous. Such dis­cus­sion should take place every­day with­out fear of being pun­ished, and THAT would be free­dom of speech. Blas­phe­my laws ought to be repealed not because Ahmadis are suf­fer­ing, but because the laws are inher­ent­ly unjust. [The for­mer posi­tion, which Abbasi is tak­ing, is of pathol­o­giz­ing and her­mi­tiz­ing a group of peo­ple; the lat­ter is a proac­tive posi­tion that strength­ens dis­sent of which Abbasi knows lit­tle.]

At the end of the day, we have to ask: what loss have we suf­fered if a cer­tain Abbasi did­n’t “start” the con­ver­sa­tion on the sta­tus of Ahmadis? No loss. He needs his head (cough), and the Ahmadis need nobody but them­selves to show up to ral­ly for self-deter­mi­na­tion (as per the pre­scrip­tion that Stoke­ly Carmichael left behind that clear­ly out­lines that eman­ci­pa­tion is in lift­ing one­self with one’s own might). Until then, Abbasi can keep admir­ing the image he was born with, and stay away from dog­ma­tiz­ing every­thing that moves under the sun.