The tragedy that is, "Blasphemy"

By: Haniya Jamshed

Children are considered as a gift from the Heavens above. To those who God bestows this greatest blessing, are thought to be the luckiest people alive because with the arrival of children; happiness, warmth and joy follows. Ask those that do not possess this blessing—they present a sad and depressing picture. Even adopted children may not give them the joy; their own child may give them but adaption is their only choice. 


These little innocent creations of Allah, develop their thinking and intellect by following their parents/guardians. "They do what they see" aptly put it. This natural or "behavioral instinct to learn and replay" is different for every child. Some have theirs well developed thus learn faster; some are slow to act, therefore learn with an apathetic pace. Every child is unique in this ability but what if this ability is not granted to begin with? What if that child is deficient of this God gifted resource? Would that child survive a day in this cruel world? Would it fit in? Your answer would be an overly animated and sudden no, with a sudden urge to feel sorry for those children; you'd probably present to me a list of ways and means to help these poor souls in distress and in the end, not implementing them yourself.


I am sorry but the bitter truth is in front of your eyes to see; a child suffering from Downs syndrome rotting in jail for a crime she doesn't even understand in the first place. As I sit here and contemplate about our position as "a civil society" and the actual existence of the future we talk so arrogantly of, "Do we really deserve that brightness? That little glimmer of hope and success in our future?". My conscience stirring with distraught shouts loudly at me, "Are you serious? Do you even know what you're thinking? You seriously think that Allah will bless your people after this sorry-drama?" Yes, conscience; I am aware that He will not ever shower the flowers of his happiness at us, if we continue to treat our future prospects like this. Even hate is an understatement right now because the amount of sins we have committed; Allah must be fuming up there.

Reports claim that the girl has Down’s Syndrome although there are divergent views on this. But let’s suppose that even if the girl is not suffering from this disease, how can one justify keeping her in prison, especially when the charge against her could well be concocted?"

Need I say more? A child of 11--yes, 11! who is suffering from Down's syndrome is accused of a crime that "may well be concocted". Why? Just because she is a Christian? Well! Well! This deserves an all round applause, because in a country which was built on the beautiful ideology of "Equality and Minority rights"; which was founded with the notion of "Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Sikh etc. are all brothers and to live in peace"; which believed to be free from racism, religious extremism and free to choose, follow and practice--this was the least expected drama to be surfacing now of-all-times. When we need "unity, faith and discipline" the most in our country, we choose to throw this beautiful excerpt of Quaid-e-Azam, full on--to a wall and watch it break into a million pieces.

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State.”

I don't want to live in a country that detests minorities. I don't want Pakistan to be labelled as an, "Immature, narrow-minded and retrogressive nation filled with egotistical, chauvinist mullahs and repressive, burqa claded females". No, I want Pakistan to be a mixture of all. I want Pakistan to be a casserole that contains--within itself, a mixture of all the spices and flavours, known to exist. Not monotonous, but a multicultural, multicolored, tolerant and peaceful democracy that believes in equality and freedom as much as any other country there is, or more. I want Pakistan to set an example in the world for it's tolerance, liberty, justice system, political framework and unity.

That day may not come easy, we may have to sacrifice our lives, our time, and luxuries for this, because; this kind of change of magnanimous proportions, doesn't come in one day. It needs our attention, our hard-work, our passion and perseverance and I believe that we are fully capable to do so, if we set our minds to it. We are the nation that has produced so much talent. The likes of Arfa Karim, Dr. Abdus Salam, Abdul Qadeer Khan, have all walked and are walking among us. They were not super--they did not possess super-powers, but they tried; they persevered. They were driven by the passion of representing their nation and give back for once, rather than take and move on.. They were determined to bring some change in Pakistan's bleak future and shed some much-needed light. It's high time that we do too, as Martin Luther King Jr. aptly said:

 Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Pakistan Zindabad!