In 1906, the bowler-hatted, racehorse-loving Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, Aga Khan III, leader of the Ismaili Shia, threw his weight behind the movement that would lead to the founding of a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims. “The Muslims of India”, he said, “should not be regarded as a mere minority community but a separate nation”. Forty-three people of his faith were slaughtered on a Karachi street on Wednesday, by jihadists convinced that the Ismailis have no place in the homeland that Shah invented. The jihadist group, Jundallah, which last year proclaimed allegiance to the Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for the massacre, saying that it does not consider Ismailis to be Muslims.
[related-post]
Each time around, the idea of citizenship has narrowed. Pakistan’s society must now decide if it wishes to inhabit a nation state dedicated to the rights of its citizens, or a millenarian vehicle intended to hasten the rule of god. The choice is irreducible. Even in 1953, the right decision was evident: “as long as we rely upon the hammer when a file is needed and press Islam into service to solve situations it was never intended to solve,” wrote Justices Munir and Kayani, “frustration and disappointment must dog our steps.” There isn’t a great deal of time to take that advice to heart, though, if Pakistan’s determined march into the abyss is to be halted.
