Castewatch and Shahbaz Bhatti
Dear Brother Wilson & friends,
It makes me feel extremely sad to inform our members that a very influential friend from Pakistan, Mr Shabaz Bhatti, Minister for Minority Groups in Pakistan Government, has been murdered in cold blood by Taliban& Al-Qaeda terrorists.
We met Mr Bhatti on the invitation Indian Christian community in Coventry who had invited Mr Bhatti as a Guest of Honour in a public function held in his honour. I had an opportunity to speak onbehalf of CasteWatchUK and drew Mr Bhatti's attention to caste persecution against Pakistani Christians. Mr Bhatti told us that he is fully aware of the problem and he assured us that he'll do his best to help the victimsin Pakistan. He also spoke about dangers for public figures who try to highlight human right issues in Pakistan but someone has to do this work.
He invited CasteWatchUK to come and visit Pakistan and link up with the victim groups there and give them a sense of empowerment. He was so keen to fight for the rights of minority groups in Pakistan and seemed very dynamic figure on the political scene of Pakistani politics.It is so unfortunate that he had to pay the ultimate price for his courage of convictions. It is a great loss not only for Pakistani Christian community but also to victims of caste based discrimination all over the world.
The case of the christian lady who has been sentenced to death hasnot been reported accurately. Her problem with the muslim women in Pakistan did not start with religion. She was insulted because of her caste and not because she was a christian. Caste discrimination in Pakistan is worse than we have in India.
On behalf of CasteWatchUK, we share the grief facing Asian ChristianCommunity in UK and condemn this cowardly murder of a great man who hadpotential for doing so much good work for humanity and victims of castediscrimination in Pakistan.
Following link for your attention. I am also attaching photos of Dial Masih & Gian Chand ji who also met Mr Shabaz Bhatti in Coventry.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362087/Shahbaz-Bhatti-Pakistans-Christian-minister-shot-dead-Taliban-gunmen.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
It makes me feel extremely sad to inform our members that a very influential friend from Pakistan, Mr Shabaz Bhatti, Minister for Minority Groups in Pakistan Government, has been murdered in cold blood by Taliban& Al-Qaeda terrorists.
We met Mr Bhatti on the invitation Indian Christian community in Coventry who had invited Mr Bhatti as a Guest of Honour in a public function held in his honour. I had an opportunity to speak onbehalf of CasteWatchUK and drew Mr Bhatti's attention to caste persecution against Pakistani Christians. Mr Bhatti told us that he is fully aware of the problem and he assured us that he'll do his best to help the victimsin Pakistan. He also spoke about dangers for public figures who try to highlight human right issues in Pakistan but someone has to do this work.
He invited CasteWatchUK to come and visit Pakistan and link up with the victim groups there and give them a sense of empowerment. He was so keen to fight for the rights of minority groups in Pakistan and seemed very dynamic figure on the political scene of Pakistani politics.It is so unfortunate that he had to pay the ultimate price for his courage of convictions. It is a great loss not only for Pakistani Christian community but also to victims of caste based discrimination all over the world.
The case of the christian lady who has been sentenced to death hasnot been reported accurately. Her problem with the muslim women in Pakistan did not start with religion. She was insulted because of her caste and not because she was a christian. Caste discrimination in Pakistan is worse than we have in India.
On behalf of CasteWatchUK, we share the grief facing Asian ChristianCommunity in UK and condemn this cowardly murder of a great man who hadpotential for doing so much good work for humanity and victims of castediscrimination in Pakistan.
Following link for your attention. I am also attaching photos of Dial Masih & Gian Chand ji who also met Mr Shabaz Bhatti in Coventry.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362087/Shahbaz-Bhatti-Pakistans-Christian-minister-shot-dead-Taliban-gunmen.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Davinder Prasad
General Secretary
CasteWatchUK
Davinder,
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you on the caste issue. Asia Bibi undoubtedly suffered from poverty and resultant lowly position in society but caste was not the overriding factor. Religion was as this piece from the British Council of Ex-Muslims provides an example of:
http://www.councilofexmuslims.com/index.php?topic=13159.0
What evidence do you have that Asia Bibi was insulted for her caste? If she had been a Christian of "high-caste" background would she have escaped the blasphemy law?
Under an Islamic state non-Muslims have limited rights as third-class citizens. Classed as dhimmis they are subjected to the following as laid down by the Pact of Umar from the time of the Umayyad Khilafat (caliphate):
Jizya poll taz
Inability to provide evidence in court
Inferior housing
Banned from learning the Quran (because it would show similarities with the Bible and hence where Quran got its ideas from)
No right of self-defence
No new places of worship can be built
Dhimmitude was and remains a disgusting condition. That's why the Turks (and Kurds and Iranians) massacred the Armenians and Assyrians in 1895 and more explicitly in 1915. The aforementioned Christian millet (inferior community) had the audacity to want self-determination and equal rights with Muslims in the Uthmani Khilafat (Ottoman Empire). For the same reason Israel is always pillories because Jews had the nerve to establish their own state (and the only democratic state in the Middle East, as well as perhaps the most successful post-colonial society ever) in the midst of Islamic imperialism. Every Islamic state discriminates against non-Muslims. In "secular" Turkey where virulent nationalism was used by Ataturk to replace Islam, only Muslims can be Turks. In fact secular Turkey became more Islamic than the Uthamani Khilafat. Secular Ba'athism was not only inspired by Nazism but felt affinity with Islamic radicalism as Saddam Hussein used after 1991. Needless to say it was heavily anti-Semitic. Nasser may have jailed Muslim Brotherhood but made Egypt an unfriendly place for its minority Greeks, Armenians, Copts and expelled all Jews (while welcoming leading Nazis!). Between them Nasserism and Baathism squeezed out liberal values and civic ideals allowing radical Islam to fill the void.
In Pakistan only Muslim can be head of state. Under Hudood Ordinance a female rape victim is punished for zina (adultery). Are you going to blame caste (and hence Hinduism) for all that? Are you going to blame caste (and hence Hinduism) for the fact that until reforms under Reza Shah the Jews of Iran couldnt go out in the rain because Shia Muslims believed water from their bodies would pollute them? In fact while everyone goes on about the rights of Palestinians how many people know that Jews fled dhimmitude in places such as Yemen where they were only allowed to wear straw shoes? Are you going to blame caste for that?
The solution is separation of religion from state in order to accord equality to all, and tackling poverty with concrete development programmes not sycophantic clientage on a corrupt and obtrusive state. Just as FA Hayek always said.
Jai Shri Baba Srichand
Ranbir
Brother he is Kamran michal not Shahbaz bahti.
ReplyDeleteI would like to reply to Ranbir's comments. One of the refreshing things about the BPCA site is the wide range of contributors who unite around the one issue of the oppression of minorities and dissidents in Pakistan through the blasphemy laws. The Caste Watch contribution above was interesting - but seemed to have provoked a rant from Ranbir. What comes through most clearly is that a sore point has been touched! The spirit of the discussion, except for this contribution, has been a united stand against human rights abuses of all kinds; and on this occasion in particular the cruel assassination of a champion of human rights.
ReplyDeleteI would like to respond to Clara. You call what I say a rant. I call it exercising freedom of speech, using intelligence and above all having an opinion. As to touching a sore point, well how about recognising the prophetic words of Nobel Prize winning FA Hayek who in 1944 meticulously uncovered the Marxist and socialist roots of fascism and national socialism (Nazism)? Or to take it to the next level appreciating how Niall Ferguson has brazenly stated the obvious that in terms of liberty, human rights (especially that of women), democracy, and progress into a post-industrial age out of the disease ridden cess pit of naively romanticised peasant communities, western civilisation is by any objective yardstick superior. And that includes the failed attempts at utopia by Lenin and others which only led to slave labour and genocide. As a "champion" of human rights Clara I am sure you will have no problem in recognising that.
ReplyDeleteRanbir