Barrister Rubab Mehdi Rizvi's speech at our Trafalgar Square peace rally

At our 2nd Mrach Trafalgar Square pace rally, Rubab Mehdi Rizvi the former European Spokesperson for the Ministry of Human Rights, spoke of the need for good people to stand up for justice:

The attack against all religions constitutes our identity...We are anarchists, ecologists, communists, trotzkysts and socialists...we are all atheists.’ Thus in Le Monde Monsieur Charb, editor ofCharlie Hebdo, notorious for its anti-Prophet caricatures. You can’t say the guy does not nail his lurid colours to the mast...

This is the age of immaturity.Involution exists, as much as evolution. John Milton, the great Puritan poet, had no illusion about the future of the human race. Writing 400 years ago, he believed human beings were actually growing physically and mentally smaller, degenerating into gnomes and fairies. Whether he meant it or not, quite an apposite, prescient allegory of our stupid times. Sinking back into a foolish childishness. Basking into blasphemy, refractoriness and wilful disobedience.

Sounds implausible? With all the wonders of technology, getting more and more astounding by the day, available to all. Touch iPods, mobiles, ultra-fast Apples, the world wide web. A brave new world, surely. If that ain’t progress, what is?

A simple answer. A moron with an iPod is still a moron. Gadgets are tools, no more than that. People in the Tube fiddling with their gadgets are not getting brighter because of them. No, if anything, judging by the cacophonies emanating from their i-Pods, they are degenerating. Getting more childish. More infantile. QED.

French anticlericalism has had long innings. Dates back to thesanculottes and even before. Voltaire, the father of all modern mockers of Christianity, wrote a play, a scurrilous attack on Islam’s Prophet. Cunningly, he dedicated his work to the Pope, in fulsome language. They say Voltaire was actually gunning for Christ, under the guise of Muhammad. Perhaps. The old fox must have known of that other irreverent, anonymous tract, De Tribus Impostoribus. It circulated in the Middle Ages. A foul attack on the three founders of the supreme monotheistic religions. It charged them with cheap magical tricks, lies and deceptions. The author was never discovered. The point is that an attack on a prophet of God is an attack on all of them. 

Islam’s Prophet too has his detractors. Cyberspace is chock-a-bloc with them. But surely there is a difference between academic and historical criticism and childish obscenities? It is an objective fact that Muhammad was the legislator of a world religion and the founder of a new civilisation. The Washington US Supreme Court in a frieze even includes him amongst many universal lawgivers – though American Muslims, of all people, objected to the representation. To persist on filthily besmirching such a man, a figure surrounded with a halo of great reverence by a fourth of human beings on earth can only be a juvenile tantrum, a mark of immaturity.

What is to be done?

No bombs but education must be key. 

Education not only of the Occidental man but his brother in  the east.

In today's stupid times they too indulge into blasphemy both through words and deeds.

You cannot become a Muslim unless you read the Shahada : La ila ill Allah Muhammad ur Rasool Allah..

"I believe there is One God and Muhammad(saww) is the Messenger. Muhammad IS the messenger says the Shahada. What say of the people who believe Muhammad(saww) WAS the messenger? Can those who put Nabuwat in the past comment on blasphemy?

The first person to have written a naat was Bibi Amina, the Prophet's own mother. The words are: " Everything in this world is finite

everything new or old is destined to perish. One day I will be gone, but I will remain in the hearts of people forever because I am a mother of this son Muhammad".

I too am a mother, but i cannot say that i will live in the hearts of people forever because I am a mother of Sher. This only mother of Prophet Muhammad can say because she knew who he was. I am amazed at the people who say and believe that Jews knew he was coming, Christians knew he was coming but the person who carried him for nine months wasn't aware that the person she carried in her womb was a prophet.

There are numerous traditions that prophet visited her grave and wept.

Is it not blasphemy to demolish her grave calling it a grave of an infidel? And can these people and their followers preach to the West on how the prophet is to be respected?

If after demolishing most of Islamic heritage in Hejaz, the Saudi Kingdom remains a pioneer of Islam and a friendly Muslim neighbor, what have the less fortunate Christians in Pakistan done?

Does it befit the Muslims to take the blasphemy law into their own hands? More than 20 Christians have been killed after being acquitted of blasphemy charges and at times the judge who acquits them also fears persecution. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made non Muslims part of the Ummah and gave them equal political , social and religious rights in form of treaties drafted by His Holiness himself. The hands which benefit from straining relations between these two faiths need to be identified and exposed.

Prophet Muhammad was not Rehmatul il Muslimen(mercy upon Muslims) but Rahmat ul il Alamin (Mercy upon the universe). The God we follow is not Rab ul Muslimeen but Rab ul Alameen.

We are taught by Prophet that Allah has a name Rahman, the all inclusive God who provides to all regardless of belief. 

I  have been invited today to speak on Christian discrimination. Pakistan came into being when 4 Christian MPs voted in favor of it's existence. This fact and the names of Pakistan's first cabinet needs to be included in the syllabus.

The people who called its founder Kafir e Azam instead of Quaid e Azam are trying to impose a new barbaric version of Islam.

Zakat money is being used to fund the Salafi madrassas. Salafs are only 15 percent of Pakistan's population yet they control 70 percent of the Madrassas. Sufis are 55 percent, the largest group, yet they manage only 15 percent of the madrassas. Shias are 20 percent and only run 4 percent of these educational institutions.

This clearly is promoting one version of Islam over the rest due to money and influence. Sadly, this version has no room for diversity.

On various forums I have demanded a change in the national curriculum . Instead of being taught one version of Islam children should be taught about all major world religions, Abrahamic in particular to promote better understanding from an early age.

As the former European Co-ordinator I was inundated by complaints from the Christian community. There is discrimination both positive and negative. One is more harmful than the other if I may say so. We successively campaigned for a 5 percent minority quota which has its benefits.

But very often Christians are let down by their own leaders who lack the confidence to speak for their people because they have been selected rather than elected. Their loyalty remains to the party they identify with rather than legislators.

Equal opportunities, education and proper allocation of resources must allow minority communities to take part in the election like everybody else.

This is the Pakistan Jinnah dreamed of:

“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of 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...We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State...I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in due course Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”

Speech 2 - Shahbaz Bhatti

In Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan has lost an important leader. Despite threats he did not leave the country living up to the political legacy

of his party.

He spoke for the less fortunate people who he represented.

If Jesus(pbuh) and Muhammad(pbuh) were here with us they would be walking with the poor. Not with the powerful war mongers or the rich sponsors of terrorism. 

They would be with us, those who speak fearlessly for justice,equality and above all peace.

Long live the peace mongers!