The Lahore Attack

While we were still recovering from the shock of the horrific attacks on Ahmedis in this past month, we have to contend with more bad news; the outrageous attack on the shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh. The great Sufi will be turning in his grave at the thought of what transpired just a few feet from him.

It is precisely such attacks that have led to the scrutiny of the veracity of peaceful Muslims’ claims of “Islam is a peaceful religion”. What hope do they have of convincing non-Muslims when Muslims themselves are hell-bent on attacking historic Muslim sites? More importantly, what logic do the defenders of such atrocious attacks have now? What reason can possibly be applied as a coup de grace for such heinous attacks? What was the fault of those worshippers? They loved Allah? They were trying to be good Muslims? They turned to Allah to help them? They loved the Prophet? They were doing what the Prophet ordained them to do? They were following the Holy Quran? Is that it? Is that their fault?

While families mourn the loss of their loved ones, while we mourn the loss of precious lives lost to such senseless, mind-numbing violence, our great leaders bicker over who to blame, and how to blame. While the world points at us and tells us we have a home-grown terrorist problem, which frankly we do, we point our finger back at them and say you gave it to us. While the world issues travel advisories against visiting the Land of the Pure, we’re busy demonstrating against how the US is trying to break our sovereignty via the Kerry-Lugar Bill. What kind of sovereignty are we talking about? What hope do we have of convincing people like Daniel Pipes that it is certain individuals and not Islam that is to blame? This is just another feather in the caps of all those anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam forces.

Coming back to our political leadership though, if Rana Sanaullah had even an ounce of shame he should resign. Such devilish nincompoops do not deserve the office of a government official. To say that Punjab is sacred and there is no terrorist problem in Lahore makes my blood boil rage. Next he’ll tell us that the attacks in Lahore are a figment of our imagination. But then again, I suppose it is expecting too much from a person who actually hangs out with terrorists to do something about terrorism in reality. So much so that he makes Salman Taseer look like a serious sensible man by comparison.

More than 150 people have died in the last 30 days in Lahore alone (figure inclusive of Ahmedi casualties on attacks on their mosques).

How much more will need to die before we awaken from our slumber?