Dear Maulana, Salam.
I always knew and understood that religion is your business and mode of politics. It is by virtue of your holy business/confessional politics that you afford an enviably lavish life-style. Without paying any taxes, of course.
It is a sign of your unmatched political success that the corridors of power – from the Army House to the PM House – warmly embrace you with open arms.
This is also success of your politics that whoever is your nominee is appointed as the Chief Selector by the PCB. Unlike politicians, you never attract the wrath of NAB/media on the charges of nepotism either. Politicians as well as Malik Riaz should envy you.
It is indeed regrettable, however, that you lack business ethics whatsoever. Apocryphally, there is even a law of jungle. The drug-pushers too, it is said, abide by certain rules. The under-world dons also show some respect for their neighbourhoods and avoid committing crimes against their own. But your statement on coronavirus betrays your absolute disregard for the people you heartlessly exploit in the name of religion.
Incidentally, if you had issued such a statement either in Saudi Arabia or China, two countries Pakistan loves, you would have been landed in jail by now.
I understand coronavirus has dealt a mortal blow to superstitions you and many of your ilk have peddled. Had Karl Marx been around, he would have amusingly modified his famous observation as follows: all that is sacred melts into air.
Maulana! When the Saudis locked down Holy Kaaba and had it sanitized in a scientific manner instead of washing it with Aab-e-Zumzum, your panic and nervousness must have been a sight to watch. You and your confessional cousins in the Land of Pure advocating Ajwa Khajoors and Aab-e-Zumzum as antidote to every deadly disease on the face of earth, were exposed pants down.
Sala aik virus …and your sacred business melts into air!
Not a coincidence: in your neighbouring India, Hindu Mahasaba is also holding public parties to drink cow-urine as an antidote to coronavirus. In the USA, televangelist Kenneth Copeland told viewers that they were healed of the coronavirus as he prayed while asking them to touch their television screens to receive the spiritual healing.
Before receiving your video message on my Facebook wall I received a WhatsApp message by a military officer advising his audiences to recite Sura’ Akhlas to stay safe.
Dear Maulana! Your holiness, the sacred Mahasaba naita, our brave soldier, Pastor Copeland …you all are filthy privileged in your respective societies and afford the best available health services. God forbid! If you are ever infected by coronavirus, you have the means – like billionaire Nawaz Sharif, one of your followers – to instantly dash to London for the medical treatment, exorbitant costs notwithstanding. Our God-fearing soldier affords quarantine at any CMH nearby. Pastor Copeland definitely carries health insurance card in his pocket otherwise unavailable to most working class Americans. Likewise, your saffron counterpart will be admitted to AIIMS the moment first symptom of coronavirus is visible.
Problem, however, is not merely your class-based hypocrisy. Another problem in these times of deadly pandemic is your hypocritical politics. It is not a coincidence that the rabidly rightwing politicians are at the helm of the USA, India and Pakistan. The sole aim of all these governments is to protect the profits of bourgeoise in their respective countries. Hence, instead of locking-down their countries, all these governments are risking the lives of millions of workers. In all these countries, religion holds rather similar sway over politics and social norms. Again, it is not a chance occurrence that in all these countries clerics are siding with the rightwing rulers instead of prioritizing workers’ lives by advising them to go in isolation and to practice social-distancing etc. After all, if one can attend Tableeghi Ijtama or go to Friday prayers, one can also go to work.
Your irritatingly unscientific, unreasonable and hypocritical claim that physical touchability is not infectious was exposed when you met Prime Minister Imran Khan last week. You both avoided hand shake. May I dare ask why?
Also, what about Godless China in the light of your choot cha’at fatwa? Could China control coronavirus without an effective lockdown of biblical magnitude?
Maulana! You are a qualified physician. You know it perfectly well that the process of a virus infecting others can be easily observed. Therefore, I justifiably assume, that your choot cha’at fatwa is not out of ignorance. It was a deliberate holy lie. A lie aimed at protecting your not-so-sacred business of selling superstitions.
Maulana! It was rumoured not long ago that you went to Canada for your treatment. It was perhaps merely a rumour. However, the Pakistani press reported when you were rushed to a private clinic for an angioplasty where a stent was inserted in your mighty heart. May I dare ask: why a private clinic? In fact, you know the answer better than me.
You are well aware that in such infidel countries as Japan and Sweden, average age is approaching 90 years. In highly Islamised Afghanistan, average age is hardly 45. Being a qualified physician, you know the answer. Don’t you?
If you really believe in your choot cha’at fatwa, why you did not advise your Saudi friends who have locked-down Holy Kaaba and banned Umra pilgrimage. Why not issue a sweet-sounding video message directed at Prince Muhammad ben Salman (MBS) ? Will you?
I also wonder if your faith in God is as staunch as you pretend, why do you waste so much time in front of sinful video cameras. Islam travelled to three continents even before loud speaker was invented. I suggest you better restrict yourself to your village hujra and if Allah wills, your message will resonate across the globe. Moreover, advise your Tableeghi colleagues to avoid riding cars, busses and trains. Besides testing your unshakeable faith, this will also help reduce air pollution.
But I am sure you will never do it because religion is your politics and business. Patronised by the ruling classes, your business and politics have been prospering enviably. You need ruling classes’ patronage. The rulers need your services . Deploying technology, you both keep the people ignorant. Mass ignorance is conducive for maintaining an exploitative system.
It is exactly therefore I have never heard you advising the capitalists to pay their workers at least the minimum wage. To be fair, I should not single you out in this regard. I have never heard any mullah or religious party announcing that they would not accept donations from rich people accumulating wealth through corruption, workers’ exploitation, black-market, smuggling, etc.
I have never heard you proscribing child labour and suggesting anybody employing child labour either as domestic labour or factory labour will not be accepted in your Tableeghi Jamaat.
Maulana! Since you kept mum on the Taliban terror that wreaked havoc with Pakistan, I do not expect you condemning Saudi invasion of Yemen that has literally reduced poor Yemen to rubble. Any condemnation of Saudi barbarism in Yemen will imply an end to your Hujj trips. However, let me ask: should you hold MBS responsible for the deaths, disease and destruction in Yemen or is it the will of Allah, the merciful. Also ReadO Shameless Rulers! People don’t Need Collective Prayers, But Medicare.
Sincerely,
Farooq Sulehria
