In Response to Rabia Mughal, Express Tribune

Rabia, the only hardline stance now left in Pakistan is the total rejection of religion. Can you do this? This is the only hardline stance left now in Pakistan! How long will you appease religion in Pakistan and hope that it will leave you alone? How long will we play the osterich and pretend that danger does not exist? Religion is a problem in Pakistan and Pakistan has reached a stage of its existence, where every Pakistani has to ask: Islam or Pakistan? They have to make a choice. If you decide for Pakistan, you will have to remove Islam and religion from every aspect of the society and if you wish to keep Islam in Pakistan, then be prepared to see the end of Pakistan.

This is the only stance left and the frog died a long time ago. The frog died when all this was happening and no one said anything and this rot started in 1949, with the Objectives Resolution, which was the death certificate of Jinnah’s Pakistan. Pakistan’s death at the hands of religion was well documented in the Munir-Kiyani Report (please read that if you wish to understand the role of a political religion in destroying a state). Then came General Ayub Khan and his witch hunts of communists and leftists and liberals, which only opened up the political space for the religious right. Then came Z. A. Bhutto appeasing the clerics and declaring Pakistanis as non-Muslims and passing constitutional amendments to legalize religious discrimination. Bhutto set the stage of General Zia-ul-Haq and by this time, the clerical right in Pakistan was so emboldened and Zia so desperate for political legitimacy, that Pakistan was turned into a theocracy by an agreement of mutual understanding. After Zia, no one dared to stand up to the monster that was created and even Pervaiz Musharaf, retreated before the wrath of the religious right.

Can you dare to draw the line in the sand against Islam, as a self-confessed Muslim, and stand up against it? This is the only last hardline stance that will matter now and if you are not prepared for this, then be prepared to live in a Pakistan where you and your ideas will not be welcomed; where you will be judged as a Muslim according to the defination of someone who decides whether you are or you are not a Muslim worthy of living in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Is this acceptable to you?