Secularism has become a dangerous, deadly label in Pakistan as extremists slowly strengthen their stranglehold on the nuclear-armed, US ally and put its stability at risk. Punjab governor Salman Taseer was a liberal, secular Muslim who, last week, was shot dead by his own bodyguard for opposing a blasphemy law that many human rights activists say is often used to discriminate against ethnic and religious minorities. Taseer's death shocked many in Pakistan and abroad, but perhaps the widespread lionization of his assassin, Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, was more worrying for the future of a country that Washington sees as key in its fight against militancy. The governor's slaying, analysts say, will mean the further silencing of liberal and moderate voices, giving religious parties and their allied militants even more veto power over politics in Pakistan. “Pakistani society has drifted toward religious militancy over the last 20-25 years,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a political analyst. Rizvi predicts that Pakistan will have a rough decade ahead as the generation born in the 1980s– raised on extremist ideology taught in schools and repeated on television and in the mosques – comes to power. Qadri shot Taseer 27 times in the parking lot of an upscale market and then gave himself up. Almost immediately, militants who want a militant emirate in Pakistan – one that defines itself in opposition to the West and the United States – hailed him as a hero. More than 500 religious scholars from a sect traditionally considered moderate ruled the killing justified and warned against any show of grief for Taseer, lest the mourners meet the same fate. Many fear Taseer will be the first of many to be slain for speaking out against extremism: former information minister Sherry Rehman, who introduced the bill to change the blasphemy law, has gone into hiding and the country's interior minister has suggested she leave the country. Political stability in Pakistan is seen as key to the United States' war against Taliban militants in Afghanistan. Washington has been counting on Pakistan's “silent majority” for years in its fight against extremism and Taliban militancy emanating from Pakistan's tribal areas. But the celebration of the assassin Qadri has undermined the supposed influence of these moderates, and also shattered the vision liberals had of their country as a tolerant homeland for South Asia's Muslims, but where others can worship freely. Sajjid Anwar, deputy secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest and best organized religious party, said there was “no future” for secularism in Pakistan.
