during my recent trip to pakistan, i happened to meet some members of the so-called “militant islamic groups” of pakistan…
while i was impressed by their obvious Islamic manners and touched by the level of faith these people had, i was overly disgusted by their narrow-mindedness…
i always held the view that the sectarian violence in pakistan was initiated and blown up by the ‘enemies of pakistan’ states (as musharraf has urged so strongly in his recent addresses)…
but now i am deeply saddened to hear the words and learn the ideas of these seemingly perfect muslims…
while discussing with them the recent attacks on the shiaa mosque in quetta, they answered “whoever did it, they did a good thing”…
i was left shocked by this expression…
how can killing someone be a good thing???
and that too when the killed r people who proclaim that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger!!!
“it is a great sawab (reward) and i wish i was one of those who got the honor of slaying these slanderers” said one of them…
i had always heard the shiaas claiming “killing sunnis is an act of honor that shall be greatly rewarded”…
i myslef witnessed them putting this to action…
and now it was the time to hear the sunni version of the ‘declaration of sawab’…
“killing a shiaa is an act of sawab”, said they whose beard went down to their chests and who were dresses as they were the best muslims on the face of the earth…
i argued and debated with them but they did not wish to move from their point…
so i told them that even killing a disbeliever, an idol-worshipper, in his worship place is a great sin in Islam, so how cud they justify killing in a mosque…
it was a hopeless discussion…
the only result was that i was gifted with a cassettes titled “shiaa - the filthiest kafir in the universe”…
“be patient with the cassettes brother, and do not turn it off because it has some very harsh words”, they advised looking at me with the same look as i wud have when giving a copy of Quran to a non-muslim with whom i had hope he wud come to the truth…
and left me with no hopes of ever seeing an end to this sectarian violence spreading among the muslims…
and for the first time i knew how right musharraf was when he clamped down on such groups and how right he was when he ordered the shutting down of madrassahs that preached such thoughts into the minds of the young children…
have we never read the following verse…
Quran 5:32
…whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind…