Rape of Unbelievers in Islam
Mindset of Pakistanis
favouring 1971 Genocide
By Abul
Kasem
This re-count
starts when I was in Thailand in 1973 to do my post graduate
studies in Engineering. The Institution was AIT and being an
international institution for post graduate study there were
students from many parts of the world, though the majority were
from the Asian countries. There was sizable number of
Bangladeshi as well as Pakistani and Indian students.
Bangladesh was just liberated and most of us still had
the fresh memories of the holocaust and never expected the
Pakistanis to be friendly with us. But to our surprise, we found
that most Pakistanis were quite nice a bunch of friendly helpful
people. They were extremely curious about what had happened in
Bangladesh during that turbulent nine-month period.
Many a time we
used to have lengthy chat sessions with them. These Pakistanis
were extremely religious. And they used to preach on us on all
aspects of the last revelations of God, that is Islam. They used
to think that our knowledge of Islam was incomplete, erroneous
and filled with Hindu practices. They used to preach on us like
a priest gives sermons on the followers. Their devotion to Islam
was so strong that they forced the canteen manager to open
counter for Muslim students so that they (the Muslims) can eat
the food sanctioned by Islam. Naturally, many Bangalees who are
religious minded were greatly impressed by their words and
practices. But a sinner like me was very skeptical about their
words and actions right from the very beginning.
Then came the
topic of creation of Bangladesh.
Naturally, they sided with the Pak army although they
expressed sorrow for the lives lost. When they heard that 3
million people were massacred and that the action of Pak army
cannot be dismissed simply as an act of restoration of peace and
order they simply laughed. The reason was that they did not
believe what had happened to our people in occupied Bangladesh.
When we asked them how many Bangalees were killed, they quoted a
figure of 3,000 or to that order. They also insisted that those
killed were mostly Hindus so we should not bother too much about
the massacre. That was to say that the killing of Hindus was all
right. We pointed out that the figure of 3 million was not
invented by the Government of Bangladesh but the figure was from
reliable foreign sources such as AFP, Reuters, Time magazine,
etc. We also told them that a Pakistani journalist by the name
of Anthony Mascarenhas has written a book titled ‘The Rape of
Bangladesh’ where he had quoted a similar figure. The
Pakistanis simply dismissed those facts and said that the
foreign journalists were bribed by India to write these figures.
When we asked them how did they get the figure of 3,000,
they said that that figure was released by the military
authorities. And how about the 200, 000 rape cases? They were
adamant that not a single woman was raped. Such is the power of
Pak oligarchy and Pak military to condition peoples’ mind.
Now, the
interesting point was that whenever the atrocities of the Pak
army were mentioned to them, they were all adamant that we (the
Bangalees) are to blame for that. Why? Simply because we were
not good Muslims. How?
If we were good Muslims, we should not have voted for the Awami
League. They told us that the right parties to vote were
Pakistan Muslim League or Jamat-i-Islami. It was no secret to
guess that most Pakistanis considered us (Bangalees) as non
Muslims as almost all of us voted for Awami League. Therefore
they opined that the genocide was not really a genocide! It was
getting rid of the non-Muslims. After all, they (the
non-Muslims) were not really human beings.
Everyone knows
that Thailand and especially Bangkok has plenty of seedy joints
to have fun and frolic with young women. I shall admit that I
went to one of those joints along with a couple of friends of
mine. Being a sinner I did not have serious problem with those
things. However,
one day we got the shock of our lives when we found these
Pakistani Islamists sitting comfortably and blithely at the
massage parlour and ogling at the scantily dressed amorous Thai
sex kittens. Then they saw us. To our surprise, they expressed
no shame or they even did not try to hide their faces. They
openly welcomed us and shook hands with us as per Islamic style.
We were simply stunned and lost for any word.
The Pakistanis even told us which girls were good and
sexually attractive, etc. etc. They were not ashamed or afraid
to admit that they visited those joints quite frequently. Most
of them had their favourite girls with whom they had plenty of
erotic fun. Those things were unbelievable to me and I thought
that I must have been in Mars or another planet or that God has
changed his mind on sins and virtues.
After a few
weeks, an opportunity came for me to ask one of these Islamists
as to what would happen to them since they have committed the
sin of zina. They were very surprised at me for this
impertinence. He told me that they have committed no sin. What?
No sin! My brain must have failed to work! I simply could not
hold my breath any longer to listen to what they had to say.
He told me that Thais were not Muslims; so having fun
with their girls were all right. In fact, he told me that that
had been the practice in Islam for centuries. Whenever the
Muslims defeated the non-Muslims, they could do whatever they
(the Muslims) wanted with the non-Muslims. The Muslims can use
the non-Muslim women as sex slaves and please themselves as they
wished. A Muslim even had the right to kill the women if he
wished. In simple language the non-Muslims were not really human
beings. They (the non-Muslims) were inferior even to cattle and
animals. Moreover, the Pakistani told me that the Prophet had
allowed to have sex if a man is living overseas. I could not
believe of what I was hearing! He then quoted me from his memory
many verses from Koran and Hadith to support his views. Then I
reminded my Pakistani friend that there was quite a small
minority of Muslims in Thailand. So, if by accident he had sex
with one of the Thai Muslim prostitutes what will befall him. He
answered glibly, “No problem.” When I return to Pakistan I
shall have a Milad Mehfil and ask for forgiveness. Finally, the
Hajj is there for him to receive the forgiveness. But he said
that that might not be necessary because he was very sure that
none of the girls he had sex with were Muslims.
If a Pakistani
reads this re-count he/she may be greatly offended, no doubt
about it. Many Pakistanis will defend that the view by one
person does not mean any thing. No apology will be sought. Any
Pakistani can form whatever opinion he thinks is suitable. It is
up to him/her. Let us look at the wider implications of what my
Pakistani Islamists had said. Was it an individual’s wrong
interpretations of the holy books of Islam? Was it the mindset
of a mentally sick person? Do not be fooled by these thoughts.
For when we look back, we see that that was the mindset of
Pakistani army recruits who unleashed a reign of terror leading
into massacring millions of Bangalees. Pakistanis may differ on
many matters but when the question of Islamic superiority comes,
they are unanimous. This was the work of the Oligarchy, the army
and the clerics of Pakistan. These groups have rigidly
programmed the vast majority of Pakistanis with the thought that
they (the Pakistanis) have the absolute superiority in Islamic
matters. And this thinking got a further boost with the
detonation of Islamic bomb in 1998. We Bangalees have no problem
with their superior thinking. The only trouble is that these
dangerous thoughts have cost 3 million dear lives of Bangalees.
So, to put
everything in a simple language, the Pakistani army did not kill
any human being in Bangladesh. They only cleared the field from
pest; just like a farmer spreads insecticide to free his crops
from devastation. So,
is the case of the Pak army. They simply eliminated the
non-Muslims and the not so good Muslims to protect the good
Muslims those who would follow them. The question of remorse or
guilt feeling does not arise at all. You see, the Pak army did
not rape any women. They simply enjoyed the flesh of
non-Muslims. Even
if there were some excessive force being applied, there is no
need to feel guilty about that. The ubiquitous Milad is there;
the Hajj is there too to remove even the slightest trace of
culpability. A serial killer is a psychologically sick person.
He gets pleasure in seeing the suffering of a dying person in
his hands. But deep down, the serial killer knows that what he
is doing is wrong. He is surely aware of the eventual punishment
if he is caught. That is why, most serial killers readily admit
their crime and on many occasions regret of their actions when
he recovers from his sickness. How about the perpetrators of a
genocide? They are perfectly normal. Most of them are really
very nice, polite, and soft spoken (like the Islamic Circle of
North America’s leader Ashrafuzzaman Khan). But there is one
trait that separates them from the rest of us and that is, the
uncompromising faith in the supremacy of what they belief and
their inability to accept the existence of others if they do not
follow them. Any means is justified to advance their belief even
if that means the annihilation of an entire race. That is why no
Pakistani has ever condemned the genocide of the Bangalees. That
is why they will do that again if an opportunity lends itself.
Since no crime has been committed, the question of trial
of the perpetrators of genocide does not arise at all. Isn’t
it so?
This is the
mindset of the planners and executioners of Bangladesh genocide.
This is the mindset of Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan, Golam Azam,
Ayatollah, Ashrafuzzaman -------. This why we have Auswitcz,
Kosovo, Bosnia, Palestine, East Timor -----.
Is Islam the
only religion responsible for the genocide?
Surely not. Every organised religion on earth has
sanctioned murder, rape loot, plunder ---etc. as long as that is
directed towards the non-believers. Religion has a cousin to go
with it. That is racism. Religion and racism go hand in hand.
That is why we have Hitler, Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milosevic,
Ratko Mladic and so on.
Karl Marx said,
“Religion is the opium of the masses.” In today’s world
that is a very understatement. If people take opium they become
addicted and ruin their health.
There should not be any problem for humanity on that.
Today, religion has become a vermin (read pest) for
humanity. This cancerous virus has spread in every human being
on this planet. I am not sure if we will find an antidote for
this disease in our life time or not.
Why did I write
this essay after all these years? It can be summed up by a
quotation from Shakespeare. The famous bard wrote, “A little
fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being
suffered, rivers cannot quench. ( Shakespeare, ‘Henry VI, Part
Three,’ IV, viii,7. (A fire ‘suffered’ is one permitted to
burn.). The fire is still burning inside me although the events
of 1971 may be more like some specks of dust in the minds of
Bangalees who till this day would not admit that Pakistanis have
done excess all in the name of religion.
Abul
Kasem Is an academic and writes from Australia.