An Angry Response & My Answer

On my previous post I had written about where we seem to be headed.

It was my personal opinion and mentioned all the minorities, mainly. It was not intended to be an anti-Shia post by a long shot. The murder of Shias has been something that all of us - at least those that are still sensible - have found to be among the greatest of tragedies.

However, it was necessary to look at what has been happening in the past to understand what has been going on.

I got this review - full of lies - on the LUBP website.

http://criticalppp.com/archives/252037

The link they have mentioned is my BlogPost Website
and not the Tehelka one

which is http://blog.tehelka.com/the-division-gets-worse/] 

(Also, I am Kidvai, not Kidwai. They, too, have corrected it later!)

QUOTE

Zaheer Kidwai’s insensitive comments on Shia Genocide in Tehelka http://kidvai.blogspot.com/ is a perfect example of why the World community is so misinformed about this issue.  His comments reek of subconscious sectarian bigotry.  They highlight that instead of informing the world about Shia Genocide in Pakistan, its civil society, intelligentsia and media would rather recycle the manufactured and false discourse of the military establishment.

Kidwai makes the flippant, false and unsubstantiated assumption that LUBP’s identification of the perpetrator’s being Deobandi has to do with its contributors belong to the Barelvi school of thought.

FACT:  This identification is by the perpetrators themselves and the ideological support that they have from umbrella organizations like Ulma-e-Deoband. This identification comes from LUBP always adoptiong a specific stance as opposed to the vague, wishy washy discourse of Pakistan’s English speaking elitest civil society types.  This identification is based on decades of research instead of the mathematically-challenged insensitive ramblings of subconscious bigots where ASWJ-LeJ (formerly known as Sipah Sahaba) and Jaish Mohammad have publically aligned and launched themselves from Deobandi mosques and madrasses.

FACT: LUBP’s diverse editorial and contributer panel includes both Barelvis and Deobandis.  It also includes Shias, Hindus, Christains, Ahmadis.  LUBP has also stood up against the oppression on women, Baloch, Pashtun, Seriaki, atheists and LGBT communities that make a truly diverse Pakistan – in start contrast to the narrow, myopic worldviews of the Punjabi-Muhajir elite that dominate Pakistan’s military-civil bureaucracy and their extensions and flatterers.

In standing up for those who are the victims of State sponsored oppression, LUBP has spared no one.  From political parties (PPP, PMLs, PTI, MQM) to religious parties  (JI, JUI, MWM) LUBP has been vocal in its condemnation.  Unlike the selective moral pandering of Pakistan’s civil society elites, LUBP has also been critical of the Islamofascist Media-Judiciary nexus and its military establishment sponsors.

FACT: Unlike the deeply compromised and vague discourse of civil society and intelligentsia, LUBP has been CLEAR  since the beginning about both the victims -Shias, Barelvis, Moderate/Non-Takfiri Deobandis, Hindus, Christains, Ahmadis, Sikhs  and the Perpetrators – the State Backed and Saudi funded Takfiri Deobandi militant networks. These networks which include the Taliban, ASWJ-LeJ and Jaish Mohammad are all interconnected and their terrorists move fluidly from one group to the next.  All of them have been allied with Al Qaeda since the 1990’s.

The FACT that Zaheer Kidvai does not even bother to once name the perpetrators (ASWJ-LeJ) and the ideology (Takfirism) that guides their acts of violence  speaks volumes about his motives of writing what is essentially a very insensitive and factually questionable article.

The insensitivity continues when Zaheer Kidvai uses a statistic that is nearly a hundred years old to downplay the Shia muslim population of Pakistan.  This tactic has previously been used by former ISI chief General Hamid Gul to downplay the Shia Hazara population of Afghanistan in the 1990s while they were being massacred by ISI’s Taliban proxies in Bamiyan, Mazar-e-Sharif and Yaekewlung province.

Similar tactics are also used by the ASWJ to highlight that Pakistan’s Shia muslim population is 4% of the total.

Now a lot can change in the nearly century old, pre-Partition  benchmark that Mr. Kidvai uses to downplay the Shia population of Pakistan.  It could be that census surveys were not that reliable a century ago.  However, it seems that Mr. Kidvai needs a basic lesson in maths. If the population of Shias in an “Undivided India” was 2%, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that in Post-Partition Pakistan,  where the muslim majority is 97%, that the Shia population is atleast 10% if not more.  Similarly, the bulk of South Asia’s Shia population resides in what constitutes Paksitan which likely drives the number even higher. If Mr. Kidvai were to compute the percentage of the muslim population of Pre Partition India, I am sure he would come to the same mathematical conclusion that we did.  Or he could still align his perceptions with General Hamid Gul and ASWJ-LeJ.

As for Kidvai’s criterion for separating Shia muslims on the basis of ethnicity, the less said the better. This is a favourite tactic by Pakistan’s compromised media.   The massacres of Pashtuns in Parachinar, Gilgitis in Kohistan ,  Hazaras, Punjabis, Pashtuns, Urdu speakers, Kandharis  in Quetta and Seriakis/Punjabis in Bhakkar, D G Khan, Khanpur and Sindhis/Urdu speakers in Karachi were done because they were Shia. Their shared belief is the reason and not their separate identity.

Dividing Shia casualties along ethnic lines serves to dilute the outrage and is a typical dishonest tactic by Pakistan’s media and intelligentsia.

The most unkindest cut was dragging the late Benazir’s faith into this discussion.  One can disagree with SMBB and President Zardari on many different counts but why should their outrage and condemnation be based on their faith?

Is Kidvai trying to say that Shias should watch out for themselves and only Shia influentials should speak out on the ongoing Shia Genocide wheras others like him should continue fudging the issue. For the record, President Zardari, inspite of his government’s helplessness and inability to speak out on this issue has been one of the few leaders in Pakistan to speak out against the general scrouge of extremism.  When PPP Minister Bhatti was killed, his Taliban murderers specifically threatened Zardari.   Similarly, Kidvai only needs to watch SMBB last speech to know her clear and unequivocal stance against the Taliban – unlike Kidvai’s civil society friends who were marching with ASWJ/Lal Masjid and Hamid Gul behind Islamofascist judges.

Aurganzeb Farooqi and ASWJ reserve their hatred for PPP and ANP.  As per reports, when SMBB was killed in 2007, the Taliban taunted the Turi Pashtun Shias who were resisting them with words to this effect:

“We have killed your Mother today”

For Kidvai to drag in SMBB into his ramblings was a low blow.

Jaffar Tayyar Bangash – My heart resides in Parachinar

UNQUOTE

My response was this (and has been posted below Mr. Bangash's article):

My comments, regardless of what you say, do not range from ‘subconscious sectarian bigotry’. I have not said I am whatever YOU think I am …

First of all, I have condemned on FB, Twitter, and in my previous blogpost the killing of Shias and Sunnis and Hindus and Christians and Ahmadis.

The remarks that I felt were strongly anti-Deobandi were also repeated by others that I discussed the matter with. The head;ine read “#ShiaGenocide: In 2012, total 1450 Shia Muslims killed by Deobandi militants in Pakistan” … If they sounded flippant, I am sorry. That was not my intention.

I am also not a Punjabi-Muhajir Elite. My article was about my growing up in a Pakistan that was very different from what it is now. My not mentioning LeJ and others was not that I am in favour of them – a fact that my articles, discussions, and posts will show you. No point, sirs, in starting to create idiotic ideas through peculiarly misinformed or maladjusted points in your amazing article in response to mine.

As for your piece about my rematks on the Shia population, I sent Feisal’s note to a friend – and said that in my post. Feisal Naqvi, I think, is a Shia … but I have no way of knowing that. I am only using a common Shia surname to say that. The friend, however, is a Sunni. He was sent the article for what was great about it. He sent back an answer that negated the Shia population Feisal had mentioned. I listed the article link and his answer. It does not, in any way, say that I believe the former or the latter opinion. I have no idea of the census or why it was held … and just quoted my friend, verbatim, on the subject. The Shia population was 2% of the Muslim population at that census. I have been told that after I contacted my friend!

Mr. Hamid Gul is neither someone I know nor someone whose views I subscribe to …

I did not separate the Shias at all. The majority of the Shias include the Hazaras!!! Please read my article again. On the other hand, the killers are possibly different people in the the murders. I think so … and so do some people who discussed this at a T2F meeting.

The matter of the President being a Shia has been brought up by many of my Shia friends. I mentioned that his wife was one, too, only because 2 weeks ago a debate had ranged on Twitter on whether she was a Sunni or a Shia. People who read my responses on Twitter (as well as friends who read my blogposts) were aware of this and I wanted to mark it in my post again.

It is not just incomprehensible that you say I am fudging the issue. It is downright stupid! A lot of my Sunni friends – including members of my family – went out and stood among the Shias who were protesting. Almost all my Shia friends, naturally, also went.

The funniest line in your post is this: “… unlike Kidvai’s civil society friends who were marching with ASWJ/Lal Masjid and Hamid Gul behind Islamofascist judges.”

Who were they, pray tell? None of my friends supported the ASWJ/Lal Masjid & Hamid Gul, Mr.Bangash. But if you want to spread lies, that’s up to you …

With best wishes,

Zaheer Kidvai