?I was under huge pressure sure 2 cow down b4 rightest pressure on blasphemy. Refused. Even if I?m the last man standing?
The governor of Pakistan?s Punjab province has gone down with tens of bullets from his own bodyguard. And it was all on account of alleged blasphemy. Fanatics would say it was all on account of a woman, Asia Noreen. She happens to be Christian. When she offered water to thirsty fellow women, that offer somehow got transfigured into blasphemy because its origins were ?unclean?. She was given a death sentence and Salman Taseer said this was unfair. He tweeted recently, ?We live in a country where (the) mullah brigade can get away with murder but minorities are persecuted on frivolous charges.? Now, Pakistan?s blasphemy laws date back to colonial times and were drawn up by the British. But there is no question that they acquired teeth only over recent decades of intolerance. For easy reference, there is no more obvious place to begin than the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. The trajectory of that intolerance, however, now spreads across TJ Joseph?s hand getting chopped off over an exam paper in Kerala to Hollywood sanitising The Golden Compass of its theological heresies. A Facebook page set up in support of Taseer?s assassin got thousands of fans within hours.
How should secular society respond? What should religious people who embrace a peaceful vision of the world do? Exactly what Taseer did. Put out soothing markers into their community so as to underline that extremists are not in the majority. ?A very narrow minority, but… they are always prepared to do and die,? Taseer warned. Let?s gird up to do and not let the good die.