Two recent cases of male sexual assault have laid bare the fact that homosexuality is becoming a serious issue in Pakistan. What’s equally worrying is the way how different people have reacted to the incidents, which shows a widening divide that exists in our country on almost any issue.
Both cases happened at educational institutions – one at Lahore’s Jamia Manzoorul Islamia, and the second at the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI).
The first case involved Mufti Azizur Rehman, a former leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, who can be seen sexually abusing a male student in a video that went viral earlier this month. The video was secretly filmed by the victim and shows the cleric sexually abusing him.
Mufti Azizur Rehman has now been arrested and has confessed during interrogation to sexually abusing one of his students. Earlier, the Lahore police registered a case against the cleric under Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 377 (unnatural offenses) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation).
The second incident happened at the hostel of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) where two students have been suspended for sexually abusing a student of another university.
The 24-year-old victim is reportedly studying at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) and met the other two while he visited the IIUI hostel.
The Islamabad police have failed to register an FIR of the incident because the victim reportedly doesn’t want to register a case against the assaulters.
A police official told BBC that the police could not become a plaintiff in the case. So, as it stands, the sexual abusers are still going off scot-free.
Divide in Society
While the incidents were widely condemned by all sections of society, different groups drew their own conclusions.
Let’s take the incident involving Mufti Aziz.
On the one hand are those who want to sweep the matter under the carpet. These people are mostly from the religious community and they want to defend – and even justify the actions of – the cleric because he happens to be one of their own.
There seems to be a deafening silence from those who claim to be the most pious segment of society. Many prominent maulanas and religious scholars, who are otherwise quite outspoken on every trivial issue, have kept mum about this heinous act.
People are rightly questioning this attitude that the same religious people that raises voice over every issue that goes against Islam are now silent because the culprit is one of their own.
Whatever their excuse may be, but the silence of these religious people is definitely taking its toll on those who want to follow Islam by heart and learn from these reputable people.
Videos are also surfacing in which some lesser-known clerics are defending Mufti Aziz by giving the lamest excuses as possible.
Mufti Aziz himself first tried to mislead the public and claimed that he was drugged before the video and it was all a conspiracy against him. He also claimed that the victim was voluntarily involved in the act.
Aziz had also been on the run after the assault video went viral. However, he has now been arrested and confessed to luring the victim with passing marks in the exam and then sexually assaulting him later on.
Wifaqul Madaris, with whom Mufti Aziz’s madrasas is affiliated, also badly failed to address the matter in time.
So, this was about the defenders and apologists.
On the other extreme are those who love generalizations.
These people are using this Mufti Aziz incident to tarnish the image of the entire religious community and even Islam itself.
But there’s something inherently wrong with this stance. If we start thinking along these lines, no person on Earth will be spared. Every person will end up being a murderer, molester, and abuser.
Blaming all religious people for the act of one cleric is like blaming the entire medical community for death due to a doctor’s negligence or calling all policemen murderers because one of them was convicted of extrajudicial killings.
Similarly, suggesting that sexual abuse is taking place in all madrasas across Pakistan is also an extremely generalized and irresponsible statement.
So, there’s a yawning gap between these two groups and none of them is ready to put itself in the other’s shoes and look at the situation from its perspective.
Ridicule, insults, anger and extremism seem to be the order of the day.
Where are the sane voices?
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