Are religious extremists 'holding Pakistan hostage'?
| 09:50 UK time, Wednesday, 5 January 2011
This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on Wednesday 5 January 2011. Click here to listen.
There are great tensions in Pakistan following the assassination of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, by his bodyguard yesterday.
Mr Taseer was shot by Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, who is now being held by police. His funeral will be held later on Wednesday. Qadri is reported to have been angered by Mr Taseer's opposition to Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
The are a source of great controversy in the country. They prohibit and punish blasphemy against Islam, with the punishments ranging from fines to death.
Mr Taseer knew that by taking them on, he was putting his own life at risk. On his , Mr Taseer had said:
I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy.Refused. Even if Im the last man standing
as recently as last Friday in protest at his efforts.
So are extremists holding Pakistan to ransom? And if so, are they cause of the country's deeper problems?
Pakistan's high commissioner to London, Wajid Shamshul Hassan, certainly thinks so. He told our colleagues at programme that the assassination exposed the divisions in his country:
"It has shown that you can be held hostage by a minority of [radical] religious people and they can do whatever they want. That is not the way we are going to allow in the country."
Pakistani blogger Ammar Faheem Writing agrees. On , he says that the assassination is the result of "growing intolerance in the Pakistani society and the alarming influence unqualified 'Mullahs' exercise on immature and naive minds."
And there are now Facebook groups , describing him as a "hero."
And the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan group has even warned that anyone mourning Mr Taseer's death will make themselves a target, saying in a statement that "no Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salman Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident."
:
"We are living in a hell hole we built for ourselves for 63 years... Religion has become the argument for insane irrational behaviour and perversion of the worst kind. Salman fell an easy prey to that insanity. No one is safe... This is the house we all built after all!''
But Ahmed Rashid highlights that Pakistan faces a vast number of problems, saying that, in addition to the assassination, there is a government struggling amidst a political crisis, hyper-inflation, and:
"A burgeoning economic crisis with massive price increases and severe gas, electricity and fuel shortages, 15% inflation and the stoppage of a vital International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan...
unprecedented pressure on Islamabad from the US and Nato to eliminate extremists... Also, the country's Islamic parties are attempting to mobilise the public to block proposed reforms to controversial blasphemy laws."
Mr Rashid adds, "when crises come to Pakistan they come not as single spies but in battalions."
So where do Pakistan's problems come from? Are extremists the source? How should the country respond to the assassination?
