Friends in Lahore, do join. Its not about ISI vs Geo anymore, its about saving our culture, our religion and our country, being destroyed by mainstream organizations for the sake of partisan politics. Friends in Lahore, join this vigil on Friday May 23, 5 .30 pm at Liberty Roundabout Lahore. This is what the organisers say: The original tussle between the ISI and Geo TV now threatens to limit even the little space left for public cultural expression in Pakistan. What started out as a struggle between two unaccountable institutions (The Pakistan Army/ISI and the Corporate Media) has morphed into a mass scale promotion of vigilantism and extremism. Our position is no longer about taking sides between the ISI and Geo but about raising our voice for SANITY in a country where allegations of blasphemy are being used for politics and for personal vendettas. The abuse of blasphemy law is well documented. Rather than taking a notice of these injustices perpetrated in the name of religion, various organs are reinforcing this culture of vendettas through blasphemy allegations. In normal circumstances, if the TV personality had inadvertently done something considered hurtful to a section of the audience but later apologized, it would have been enough to quell the controversy. But in the current politically motivated scenario, even media outlets, a mainstream political party (PTI) and a lawyers body (Punjab Bar Council) have furthered the agenda of far right sectarian and militant organizations who have always used the issue of blasphemy to their political advantage. The mainstream organizations should be very clear that their actions can and will lead to - Destruction of the art of Qawwali, a musical tradition of our Sufi culture and can lead to increased threats to the shrine culture - Destruction of a rich tradition of Poetry of the Muslims of Indo-Pak Sub-continent - Further promotion of Takfiri (calling someone Kafir) thought in society - Increasing vigilantism by threats to lay siege of media house - Putting people’s lives in danger by publicly accusing them of committing blasphemy. via Institute for Peace and Secular Studies [IPSS]
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 16:54:27 +0000
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