Farhat Hashmi, the controversial Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist, says those who died in the October 8 Pakistan earthquake were punished by God for their âimmoral activitiesâ.
| "Oh, yasss! I saw them engaging in immoral activities with my own eyes! So God struck them dead!" |
 In a weekend interview with a correspondent of the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper, she said, âThe people in the area where the earthquake hit were involved in immoral activities and God has said that he will punish those who do not follow his path.â
| So she considers all those training camps for hard boyz immoral? |
Hashmi recently moved to Canada with her family and has since set up teaching classes. She told her class of around 150 mostly young Pakistani women, all in white headscarves and black abayas, âWe must understand why such calamities take place. The people in the are where the earthquake hit were involved in immoral activities, and God has said that he will punish those who do not follow his path.â
| So it was all a stern lesson to Hafiz Saeed, right? Actually, that thought crossed my mind, too... |
Hashmi was immediately criticised by Tarek Fatah, communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, who said, âWhat sort of a sick mind would suggest that the over 20,000 Pakistani and Kashmiri children who were buried alive in their schools were âinvolved in immoral activitiesâ?â
| She's in Canada, see? She thinks she's safe from the Finger of Godâ¢. When she's crushed by a runaway glacier, I'm becoming a Lutheran, you betcha... |
He said Hashmi has now brought her wahabbi teachings to Canada where she has opened a private school for girls. She encourages segregation and defends polygamy. One of her students, a teenager, told the Globe and Mail: âIt is better for a man to do things legally by taking a second wife, rather than having an affair.â
| Why's that? Why's it more defensible to have a second wife than it is to have a mistress? Or for that matter to have an occasional hour with a highly trained professional? And why shouldn't women be allowed to present the old man with a husband-in-law, doing everything nice and legal, rather than spending Tuesday afternoons with a tennis pro named Sven and Thursdays with Eduardo the pool boy? If we're required to accomodate other cultures in our societies, other cultures should therefore be required to accomodate still other cultures in theirs. There's just as much imperative for Fatimah to embrace polyandry as there is for Nancy to embrace polygamy. |
Fatah said, âMany Muslim Canadians are upset that this woman from Pakistan has been allowed to come into Canada to spread her message.â One such critic, Kausar Khan, a businesswoman, told the newspaper, â...why is this woman being allowed to bring her extremist views to our country? She poses a danger to us and our Canadian way of life.â
| Picked right up on that, did you? |
However, Hashmi is not without her admirers, one being Sheema Khan, president of the Canadian chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who told the same newspaper last year, âMs Hashmiâs soothing style articulates a message of personal reform. She reminds listeners of Godâs mercy and forgiveness - in stark contrast to the dire warnings of hellfire favoured by some mullahs.â
| I'm always suspicious of people who're ostentatiously religious, whether they come preaching hellfire or they lay it on in an oily manner. I categorize them with the same folks who parade their sexual preferences or who fart in public. |
Fatah asks how the self-styled evangelistâs view on the earthquake victims be considered as âsoothingâ or reflecting âGodâs mercy and forgiveness?â
| Pretty good point, there. I'm not really expecting an answer, of course... |
Hashmi offers a 20-month course she calls Taleem-ul-Quran, claiming that she has come from Pakistan to enlighten young Muslim women about their religion.
| Right. Peshawar. Quetta. Karachi. Lahore. Multan. That's where I always look for enlightenment. |
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