Sergio Restelli in writing for Inside Over said that Pakistan’s attempt to brand itself as “the Land of the Pure” has been tarnished since it is incapable of reforms or stepping back from Islamism.
In an article entitled “Blasphemy, barbarism & the burnt brand Pakistan”, he wrote:
“The savagery in Sialkot where a crazed Islamist mob accused a Sri Lankan factory manager Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana of blasphemy, beat him to a pulp (every single bone in his body was broken) and then burnt his dead body while clicking selfies with his burning body and screaming Islamist slogans has sent shock waves around the world.
“But it shouldn’t have because what happened in Sialkot is something that has been has happened many times in the past in the Land of the Pure.
“The only novelty of the Sialkot incident is that this is the first time a foreigner has been lynched and murdered by a fanatical Islamist mob and now that a precedent has been established, other foreigners who are working in Pakistan are open game.”
With this chilling warning, the Italian expert said that Europeans and the Chinese in Pakistan are the most at risk.
He said the Chinese are particularly vulnerable because of the “growing sentiment against the treatment meted out to Muslims in China” and in part because of how overbearing Chinese managers and engineers behave with Pakistanis working on CPEC projects.”
“There are already reports of tensions between the mistreated Pakistani employees and the arrogant, haughty and intemperate Chinese.
“The Chinese managers don’t even need to insult the Prophet or the Quran; all that is needed is for one disaffected Pakistani worker to decide that he can become a hero of Islam by accusing his Chinese boss of blasphemy.
“The same could happen with an American, or a Frenchman, British, German or any other Westerner, including people working in the IMF.”
The expert also explained that Pakistan’s military-political establishment has normalised and legitimised fanatics, which in turn “has contributed significantly to making the weaponisation of like blasphemy and finality of Prophethood a new normal.”
“Quite clearly, the heavy dose of Islamism injected into the society has now infected it,” he chillingly said.
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