Most Pakistani Muslims are born extremists!

The way government directives are being flagrantly violated nowadays should not surprise us. Despite a ban on processions and gatherings, the annual procession of Youm-e-Ali was taken out. Now those on the opposite spectrum will insist on holding Taraveeh prayers in mosques for the last nine days of Ramazan. 

I have seen the irrational behavior of  Pakistani Muslims since I was a boy of ten. In 1954, a man was beaten up for drinking water in what was then called Lalukhet in Karachi. Even at the age of ten I thought, "How did they know he was a Muslim? How did they know he didn't suffer from a serious disease which prevented him from fasting?"

In school, I knew a boy who hailed from Sialkot. He said in his native village, they shot anyone who smoked in the daytime in the holy month. And you know what? Throughout Pakistan, if they find anyone who is not fasting in this month, they shoot him first and then ask if he is a Muslim or not. 

Those who observe the Egyptian calendar (like the Bohras) are at high risk, because for them Ramzan ends a day or two before the rest of us. Then there are the Aga Khanis, most of whom don't fast because they've been told it's not compulsory. But then, this doesn't bother those who don't think there's anything wrong in killing unbelievers. 

In the apartment complex where I live, the residents occupied a piece of land in the children's play area and built a mosque upon it. In the beginning they assured everyone that it would simply be a prayer area and no congregational prayers would be held there. But in a few weeks, they flouted the agreement, and today they hold Friday and Eid prayers regularly, as well as the five daily prayers, flouting the directives of the government to observe the rules meant to save people from being affected by the Corona virus. And they invite Tableeghis also to their prayers, which raises the risk considerably. When I tell them about this, they simply laugh and say that I shouldn't worry, nothing will happen to me unless it is pre-ordained. That's when I think Jinnah's biggest mistake was the creation of Pakistan.