In Pakistan, Extremists Are Treated Differently From Liberals

IF I were mad enough to occupy a federal government building in Islamabad with a group of like-minded men and women, you can easily imagine the consequences: we would be thrashed, dragged to jail and probably charged with sedition.

I doubt very much that I would be offered 20 kanals of land. But this is exactly what happened to Maulana Abdul Aziz when he recently occupied the contentious Lal Masjid in the heart of the capital, along with a group of female students. From press reports, I gather that he has demanded reinstatement as the mosque’s khateeb or prayer leader, 20 kanals of land, Rs250 million and the children’s library located next to the mosque.

Given the way successive governments have caved in to the demands of our clerics time and again, I have little doubt that the PTI, too, will give the maulana much of what he has demanded. We don’t have to go back very far to prove my point: when the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan staged a weeks-long sit-in at the Faizabad interchange, cutting off traffic between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, causing the deaths of patients being rushed to hospitals, and preventing students from taking their exams, one thought surely this time the government would crack down. Read More https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/irfan-husain/in-pakistan,-extremists-are-treated-differently-from-liberals/d/121138