The Daily Times, Pakistan Friday, April 20, 2007
Civil society rallies against extremism
* Thousands march in blistering heat in Lahore * Protests also in Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar
Staff Report
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI/PESHAWAR: Thousands of Pakistanis staged rallies in major cities on Thursday to condemn extremism and exploitation in the name of Islam.
Rights activists organised simultaneous protests in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar to denounce extremist actions by students of the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia madrassas, affiliated to Lal Masjid, in the capital.
Several thousand Lahoris marched in blistering heat on The Mall - the first time a large crowd has rallied against religious extremism in the city – in a rally organised by the Women's Action Forum (WAF) in collaboration with other non-governmental organisations.
The protestors - including civil society and human rights activists, minority groups, political workers, lawyers, trade unions, journalists and students - gathered at the Lahore High Court building and began marching towards the Punjab Assembly building at 2:00pm.
"Mullahism murdabad. Lay kay rahen gay azadi," they shouted. One youth wrote "No to Taliban" with spray paint on the road.
Hall Road traders hailed the rally as it passed by, putting up banners reading: "Stop blackmailing and exploiting traders in the name of Islam," and "We condemn mullahs' operation against CD shops."
The City District Government of Lahore had relaxed Section 144 to allow the rally amidst a large police presence. One side of The Mall was temporarily closed for traffic.
Asma Jehangir, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said the military was using mullahs to exploit people in the name of Islam. "We, the people of Pakistan, are not oblivious to this mullah-military alliance," she said. "There can be no democracy in Pakistan unless GHQ-backed mullahs stop issuing decrees to exploit people in the name of Islam."
"This mullah is defaming the most beautiful and peaceful religion in the world and wants to hamper the prosperity and progress of Pakistan," said a WAF activist addressing the rally. "But the people of this city will continue to confront this mullahism and religious extremism."
PPP Punjab President Shah Mahmood Qureshi also suggested that the government had engineered the standoff in the capital to present Gen Pervez Musharraf as a bulwark against extremism and divert attention from the judicial crisis.
Hundreds staged a peaceful protest in Islamabad against extremists trying to force their version of Islam on others. Most of the protestors were women.
Shirin Mazari, a strategic analyst, led the protestors, who gathered a kilometre away from Constitution Avenue and walked up to the roundabout in front of Parliament House.
"Where's the writ of the state?" asked a big placard at the protest. "No to religious extremism; yes to life and music", and "Free the children's library", said other placards.
"Concerned citizens have been watching with anger and frustration the terrorism being inflicted on them by an extremist fringe within the society," said one speaker as the protestors gathered at Parade Square.
She was appalled at the state's "inability or reluctance" to deal with violations of the law committed by Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia students. "Their attempt to challenge the writ of the state by establishing what in effect is an alternate governing system in the area under their control poses a threat to all law-abiding citizens," she said.
Hundreds of Christian women from Qayyumabad, filmmakers, social workers and university students rallied against religious extremism outside Quaid-e-Azam's mazaar in Karachi. "It would be difficult to find a single woman who has not at some point in time faced religious extremism," said Karachi's Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, who also took part in the protest. Gang-rape survivor Kainat Soomro was also at the rally.
In Peshawar, hundreds of women's rights campaigners – including some 60 burqa-clad women from the tribal areas – staged a rally near the press club, denouncing threats of suicide bombings by Lal Masjid clerics and baton-wielding madrassa students.
"No religion in the world allows their faithful to use sticks in places of worship," Tribal Women Welfare Association Chairwoman Dr Begum Jan said.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges