Fragment of Hamid Mir's Capital Talk, Geo News – Tuesday 4 January 2011

Malik: [Mohammad Malik, The News editor, Geo News anchor] […] The first thing is that the guy
[Mumtaz Qadri] was a police constable. How much education had he had? He would have been
about 22 years old; a child from a lower middle class family, can be very easily influenced. When it
comes to Salman Taseer, he had a very open lifestyle, to put it very politely. […] And, in the
meantime, we have a state of religious frenzy throughout the country, all kinds of fatwas against
the offence of The Prophethood are being issued. Unfortunately, in this country we are unable to
distinguish between blasphemy [tauheen-e risalat] and blasphemy laws. […] Those laws are man-
made. […] The tragedy of this country is that our educated classes, the so-called liberal people,
there is extremism among them; on the other hand you have the religious extremism. There is
extremism on both sides. They are two different forms of ignorance [jahalat]. One is English-
speaking ignorance, the other is Arabic-speaking ignorance. One group misrepresents liberalism
and modernity, the other wants to do everything in the name of religion. We are ready to sacrifice
our lives for The Prophet and our offspring is ready to do that. But we are not ready to sacrifice for
people who kill in the name of The Prophet. [...]
Hamid Mir: […] Salman Taseer has departed from this world. Now, I would like to draw your attention to
some extremely important historical facts pertaining to his family background. Those facts are
represented in very credible historical books. Justice Javed Iqbal's book on his father Allama
Iqbal mentions them as well. Salman Taseer's father was Doctor MD Taseer. He was a teacher, a
poet and a writer. He was very close to Allama Iqbal. MD Taseer's wife was Faiz Ahmad Faiz's
wife's sister. […] MD Taseer was among the organisers of the funeral of Ghazi Ilmuddin
Shaheed, which took place in Lahore after his hanging. Ghazi Ilmuddin had killed a Hindu
publisher Rajpal under the accusation of offending the Prophet. Allama Iqbal had run a
campaign for the acquittal of Ghazi Ilmuddin and Quaid-e Azam [Mohammad Ali Jinnah] was his
lawyer. When Ghazi Ilmuddin's body was brought to Lahore, it was Doctor MD Taseer, who
organised the charpoy for the funeral procession. So, if we look at it this way, then not only did
Salman Taseer come from a scholarly and literary family, but his father was also a devotee of The
Prophet. There are a lot of things being said about Salman Taseer in the current circumstances. I
would like to ask Shaikh Waqas Akram about these perceptions. […] Do you think the ulema who
had issued fatwas against Salman Taseer are also responsible for his killing.
Waqas Akram: [Member of National Assembly, PML-Q] I would like to make one thing very clear. […] The
movement in the defence of the Honour of the Prophethood encompassed all of Pakistan's religious
groups. Deobandi, Ahl-e Sunnat, Shia – all of them participated in it. The people were motivated to
participate in this anti-government campaign following prayers every Friday, after religious
processions. Not only religious leaders and scholars, but also politicians took part in the movement.
[…] I myself participated in two of these rallies and delivered speeches. In the society we are living
in one thing is very clear: those guilty of offending The Prophet will be killed. I am sorry, but I have
to say it. In our society, if you think that you can offend The Prophet and get away with it alive –
then you might be in trouble.

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