Islamist Extremists Make a Hero out of a Theocrat Assassin
This should demonstrate why we need to firmly oppose fundamentalist theocrats in our country when ever they appear or speak. The people worshipping this thug in Pakistan would be lionizing Scott Roeder for the murder of Doctor Tiller in this country. The two acts are linked by demagogue extremist interpretations of scriptures encouraging murder and political assassination.
It isn’t difficult to find the house of Pakistan’s most famous killer. At every corner in this maze of packed streets, shopkeepers and street vendors cheerfully gesture directions to the birthplace of Mumtaz Qadri, the police bodyguard who pumped 27 bullets into Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, for his opposition to the country’s blasphemy laws. A mere month ago, Qadri was little known even in this modest neighbourhood. Now, he is chillingly vaunted as a hero of Islam in much of Pakistan.
Nowhere is his newly discovered status plainer than outside the crowded, 32-room, multi-storey compound where Qadri lived before his arrest with his wife, three month old son, and 70 other relatives. Vast billboards are mounted on the side, depicting him as a holy warrior astride a white horse, between images of Islam’s two holiest sites, in Mecca and Medina. A string of banners are festooned over the narrow street, paying tributes to his “bravery” and “greatness”. One poster declares the 26-year-old “the Prophet’s policeman”.