The non assertion of saner voices in Pakistan is letting the Right wingers and fundamentalists call the shots.
By being a mute majority, the people of Pakistan are heading towards anarchy and disaster.
Doesn’t it look abdication of governmental responsibility to fail to condemn the killing?
Bizarre the fact that Benazir Butto’s husband is the president and he does not speak about the killers of his wife. let alone take action!
And where is the Press in Pakistan?
Unless Pakistan introspects, there will be no Pakistan to mull over.
Story:
Many of the nation’s top politicians, including Mr. Taseer’s chief rival in Punjab and the leader of the opposition,Nawaz Sharif, did not attend the services. Neither did President Asif Ali Zardari, a friend and ally of Mr. Taseer, but out concern for his own security…..
The emotional funeral of the assassinated governor of Punjab and the cheering of his killer in court Wednesday highlighted the intensifying struggle between secular and religious forces in Pakistan that has grown nastier than ever in the country’s history….
“We have a very, very severe polarization in the country,” said journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, an expert on the Taliban and radical Islamism. “We have a small minority of extremists and small number of liberals speaking out, but the very large silent majority are people who are not extremist in any way but are not speaking out.”……
“Among the 100,000 lawyers in Pakistan, less than half a percent would go out and throw petals on this criminal, but the rest are hostages because the government is not providing any security, and why should I risk my life and that of my family,” he said. He pointed out that the religious parties have never done well at the polls and that the voting public, when given the chance, do not choose extremism.
Related:
The Washington Post reports that Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, Pakistan’s largest province, was assassinated today by one of his own security guards who was angered by Taseer’s support for a pardon for Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman recently sentenced to death for blasphemy. (See prior posting.) Taseer, a close advisor to Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zadari, was killed by rifle fire at a shopping plaza near his home in Islamabad. Taseer had been a strong critic of religious extremists. The shooter surrendered to police after the killing.
http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2011/01/governor-of-pakistans-punjab.html
Yes, it’s a very worrying and unsettling time. I hope there’s a way of solving the problem of this terrible violence. We can never understand or get into the mind and motivations of another, but what is clear is that there is a lot of anger amongst these extremists, and usually pitting anger against anger creates even worse atrocities.