Finally, Watch the video link below, not to be revengeful but to understand where humanity faltered. To remember the thousands of Bengali who become the victim of what we call now Mirpur The Last Frontier Please watch this two episode of Mirpur The Last Frontier. Click on the link below. Mirpur The Last Frontier Part-1 Mirpur The Last Frontier Part-2 Sincerely Shamim Chowdhury |
Finally, Watch the video link below, not to be revengeful but to understand where humanity faltered. To remember the thousands of Bengali who become the victim of what we call now Mirpur The Last Frontier Please watch this two episode of Mirpur The Last Frontier. Click on the link below. Mirpur The Last Frontier Part-1 Mirpur The Last Frontier Part-2 Sincerely Shamim Chowdhury |
http://www.politicoindia.com/newsreader.aspx?id=609
Blow By Blow
Krishan Bheel, an enraged Hindu MP, slaps Qari Rehman in the national assembly. Pakistan's woeful minority tale.
Itwas an occasion quite rare for the national assembly (NA): PrimeMinister Shaukat Aziz had finally taken time off from his foreignsojourns and sumptuous banquets to participate in the December 7proceedings of the Lower House. His presence spurred MuttahidaMajlis-e-Amal's Qari Gul Rehman to laud Aziz in a remarkably floridlanguage for providing gas connections in precisely those areas Qarihad recommended.
Aghast at the brazen display of themullah-military link, despite the MMA projecting itself as anOpposition party, the 'real' Opposition—members of the PakistanPeople's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)—began tohoot Rehman. "Stop it, you durbari maulvi. Enough of buttering,"someone shouted. Soon Opposition members began to chant in unison,"Durbari maulvi, durbari maulvi". Particularly vociferous were PPP'sNaheed Khan, a close confidant of Benazir Bhutto, Khawaja Asif, adie-hard supporter of Nawaz Sharif, and Krishan Bheel, a Hindu memberof the PML(N) who hasn't deserted his party even in the politicalclimate that is inimical to minorities.
As the NA hallreverberated with the chant of "durbari maulvi", Rehman, self-righteousand bigoted to boot, turned around, stared at Bheel and said, loud andclear, "You Hindu bania, how dare you."
And then history of sorts was created: Bheel languidly walked a fewsteps and slapped Qari on the face. Then another slap. He was about todeliver the third when others intervened to grab his hand inches awayfrom Qari's hirsute cheeks. The House was stunned; it had never beforewitnessed such an incident in its chequered history.
ForRehman, though, Bheel's slaps weren't just a violation of the rules ofconduct governing the house; the slaps were, more gravely, an insult toIslam. A Hindu hitting a Muslim in the land of the pure? Worse, alow-caste Sindhi slapping a hafiz (a person who has memorised the Quranverbatim) which is what Rehman is?
Rehman and his party refused to accept the PML(N) and Bheel's apology.
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Nothingdoing, they declared; Bheel's membership to the NA must be cancelled.To mount pressure on the speaker, the MMA stalled the house for thenext two days.
Finally, the two warring parties agreed to patchup, a compromise deal was hammered, and the NA began to functionnormally from December 12. But let's leave the contours of the deal forthe end. For now, ponder over the political significance of the episode.
Quiteunderstandably, the slaps grabbed the front pages of newspapers. Theyspeculated on the number of blows Bheel had delivered. Two or three?Most thought it was two and a half, counting as half the slap othershad prevented from landing on Rehman's face. But such jocularspeculations barely concealed the glee of many who thought Rehmandeserved the treatment meted out to him, though they, of course, agreedthat Bheel's behaviour had set a terrible precedent.
In a more serious vein, Nusrat Javeed wrote in The Post,"Bheel represents the low-caste Hindus of Sindh in this assembly. Hisremaining an ardent loyalist of Nawaz Sharif makes him more vulnerableto whimsical ire of our elite of all varieties. The politicalmaulanas...have also been pushed to higher classes. They are incurablyangry and self-righteous."
Others derided Rehman.
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The Nation'sAbsar Alam wrote about his hilarious encounter with Rehman. "When askedin the lobby by journalists why he isn't forgiving a person tenderingapology, which is a tradition of the holy Prophet, Rehman said, 'Thisis a constitutional matter now'". Given his great reverence for theConstitution, shouldn't he ask Gen Musharraf to address a joint sessionof Parliament, as not addressing it is a violation of the Constitution?To this question, Alam writes, "Rehman said, 'I can't say qabool hai,qabool hai, qabool hai,' rendering the meaning of the vows the groomutters at nikah. Then asked why he was giving such a non-serious pitchto this issue, Rehman laughed and started giving details of the numberof wedlocks he had solemnised so far. At the cafeteria, Sindhijournalists who know the Karachi-based Rehman started narratinganecdotes of his worldly affairs and how he makes the best of them."
But the two-and-a-half slaps had already quickly become a symbol of thedeplorable condition of Pakistan's minorities, of the humiliation theyhave to endure daily—and their seething rage. As Bheel waited for theMMA to retract from its stubborn position of no compromise, he told Outlook,"Whatever the decision, I leave it to the court of God. After hearingday in and day out abuses against my religion, that day I rose andcontrolled my tongue. But I could not control my hands. I had just nopower over them."
He also underscored the MMA's attitude to theHindus. "Not only me but there were Naheed Khan and Khawaja Asif whowere among those shouting the slogan of durbari maulvi. But because Iwas the most vulnerable, Rehman bad-mouthed my religion. I could nottake it anymore," Bheel said. In the past too, he claimed, Rehman hadsaid on the floor of the house that since non-Muslims were killingMuslims, it was time to reverse the equation. Bheel bemoaned, "All thetime we have to hear taunts from Muslims about our religion. This timeit was a learned maulvi, a member of the house, who taunted ourreligion. Our women are picked up in Sindh, converted forcibly and thenmarried off to Muslims. Jobs are a problem for us. Where is thisenlightened moderation? The West is blindly helping the government. Ourplight should also be highlighted. You must come to Sindh and see foryourself what Hindus and their women are undergoing. Our voices do notreach Islamabad."
Indeed, President Pervez Musharraf's'enlightened moderation' has yet to leave its imprint on the Pakistanisociety. Just the other day a church in Lahore, as much a heritagebuilding as a place of worship, was burnt; a mandir was ransacked andburnt in Nowshera (NWFP) recently; members of minority communities areroutinely brought to courts for violation of the Blasphemy Law. AgreesSamina Ahmed, director, International Crisis Group, "The intolerancereflected in the NA clearly reflects the level of intolerance towardsthe minority in Pakistan."
However, Sabah Khattack, who headsthe Sustainable Development Policy Institute, feels intolerance is anurban phenomenon; that the virus of hatred hasn't yet afflicted ruralPakistan. "While conducting research in the NWFP we came across a Hinducommunity which has lived in Kohistan for 400 years. When the BabriMasjid was demolished, villagers from the neighbouring areas came todestroy the religious site of the Hindus. But when they were told thatattacking it means attacking the community, the angry villagersreturned. Even during the Partition, non-Muslims in the NWFP were nottouched."
As the MMA stalled the house, the leaders of both thePPP and PML(N) got into the act. PML(N) leader Chowdhury Nisar Ali hadseveral meetings with MMA leaders in the speaker's chamber. Finally,the compromise deal saw Bheel tender a public apology from the floor ofthe house. Qari then got up and embraced Bheel.
But what Bheelstill remembers of the moment when his arm defied his will, is theprecise numbers of times he had slapped Rehman. "I didn't slap himtwo-and-a-half times. I slapped him thrice," he said to put the recordstraight.
Dear sirs,
Assalamu Alaikum. Please see the list of countries with state religion.State religion is neither against democracy or human rights or minority rights in principle. it is a different matter that this or for that matter any good thing or concept can be abused ( including democracy, freedom etc ).There is no reason to change state religion in Bangladesh.It has not been used for denying any civil or economic or religious right to Non-Muslims here .
You can see another list of US states( or provinces ) who have state religion in their state constitutions by google search ( I also sent them before to many of you.
A state religion (also called an official religion, established church or state church) is a religious body or creed officially endorsed by the state. Practically, a state without a state religion is called a secular state. The term state church is associated with Christianity, and is sometimes used to denote a specific national branch of Christianity. Closely related to state churches are what sociologists call ecclesiae, though the two are slightly different. State religions are examples of the official or government-sanctioned establishment of religion, as distinct from theocracy. It is also possible for a national church to become established without being under state control. The first national church was the Armenian Orthodox Church which was established in 301 A.D. [1]
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Currently, the following religions are recognized as state religions in some countries: some form of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.
See also: List of state-established religions
The following states recognize some form of Christianity as their state or official religion (by denomination):
Jurisdictions which recognize Roman Catholicism as their state or official religion:
A number of countries, including Italy[9], Poland[10], and Spain[11] give a special recognition to Catholicism in their constitution despite of not making it the state religion.
Jurisdictions which recognize one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches as their state religion:
Jurisdictions which recognize a Lutheran church as their state religion:
Jurisdictions that recognise an Anglican church as their state religion:
Jurisdictions which recognize a Reformed church as their state religion:
Jurisdictions which recognize an Old Catholic church as their state religion:
Although the separation of church and state was first theorized by Averroes, most Muslim-majority countries recognize Islam as the state religion, but most of them do not place Sharia Law as the constitution itself[citation needed].
Governments which recognize Buddhism, either a specific form of, or the whole, as their official religion:
See also: History of religion
The concept of state religions was known as long ago as the empires of Egypt and Sumer, when every city state or people had its own god or gods. Many of the early Sumerian rulers were priests of their patron city god. Some of the earliest semi-mythological kings may have passed into the pantheon, like Dumuzid, and some later kings came to be viewed as divine soon after their reigns, like Sargon the Great of Akkad. One of the first rulers to be proclaimed a god during his actual reign was Gudea of Lagash, followed by some later kings of Ur, such as Shulgi. Often, the state religion was integral to the power base of the reigning government, such as in Egypt, where Pharaohs were often thought of as embodiments of the god Horus.
Zoroastrianism was the state religion of the Sassanid dynasty which lasted until 651, when Persia was conquered by the forces of Islam. However, it persisted as the state religion of the independent state of Hyrcania until the 15th century.
The tiny kingdom of Adiabene in northern Mesopotamia converted to Judaism around 34 AD.
Many of the Greek city-states also had a 'god' or 'goddess' associated with that city. This would not be the 'only god' of the city, but the one that received special honors. In ancient Greece the city of Athens had Athena, Sparta had Artemis, Delos had Apollo and Artemis, and Olympia had Zeus.
In Rome, the office of Pontifex Maximus came to be reserved for the emperor, who was often declared a 'god' posthumously, or sometimes during his reign. Failure to worship the emperor as a god was at times punishable by death, as the Roman government sought to link emperor worship with loyalty to the Empire. Many Christians and Jews were subject to persecution, torture and death in the Roman Empire, because it was against their beliefs to worship the emperor.
In 311, Emperor Galerius, on his deathbed, declared a religious indulgence to Christians throughout the Roman Empire, focusing on the ending of anti-Christian persecution. Constantine I and Licinius, the two Augusti, by the Edict of Milan of 313, enacted a law allowing religious freedom to everyone within the Roman Empire. Furthermore, the Edict of Milan cited that Christians may openly practice their religion unmolested and unrestricted, and provided that properties taken from Christians be returned to them unconditionally. Although the Edict of Milan allowed religious freedom throughout the empire, it did not abolish nor disestablish the Roman state cult (Roman polytheistic paganism). The Edict of Milan was written in such a way as to implore the blessings of the deity.
Constantine called up the First Council of Nicaea in 325, although he was not a baptised Christian until years later. Despite enjoying considerable popular support, Christianity was still not the official state religion in Rome, although it was in some neighboring states such as Armenia and Aksum.
Roman Religion (Neoplatonic Hellenism) was restored for a time by Julian the Apostate from 361 to 363. Julian does not appear to have reinstated the persecutions of the earlier Roman emperors.
Catholic Christianity, as opposed to Arianism and other heretical[neutrality disputed] and schismatic groups, was declared to be the state religion of the Roman Empire on February 27, 380[28] by the decree De Fide Catolica of Emperor Theodosius I.[29]
In China, the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) advocated Confucianism as the de facto state religion, establishing tests based on Confucian texts as an entrance requirement into government service. The Han emperors appreciated the societal order which is a central concept of Confucianism. Confucianism would continue on as the state religion until the Sui Dynasty (581-618), when it was replaced by Buddhism. Neo-confucianism returned as the de facto state religion sometime in the 10th century. Note however, there is a debate over whether Confucianism (including Neo-confucianism) is a religion or purely a philosophical system.
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