Kaleem Washington Blog 10 Crime

Kaleem Washington, Crime

Blog #10

Source: Washington Post

Pakistani cleric escapes second suicide attack in 2 days

Assassinations are an increasingly common crime facing people of high ranked order in society, such as influential leaders, government official, and presidents.  In recent news one of Pakistan’s most influential religious leaders and politicians, Sen. Fazlur Rahman, luckily escaped a second assassination attempt within the last two days. The reasons for these criminal attacks are unknown, but his involvement with the Afghan Taliban may be of some relation.  A colleague of Sen. Rahman, Sen. Ismail Buledi, believes that Rahman was attacked because their party was becoming more popular and that he had been targeted by “those who are against sharia rule and want to stop the Islamic revolution in Pakistan.” Rahman recently quit the governing coalition, headed by the secular Pakistan People’s Party, citing corruption in which he was known for his independent principles, and officials said his recent call for correcting abuses of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy law could have angered extremist groups.  This could be a cause for the assassination attempts because Pakistan has very stringent views about their anti-blasphemy laws.  In addition, Sen. Rahman operates within the Pakistani democratic system, but is highly mistrusted by Pakistani Taliban extremists. There was no immediate indication of who is behind the two attacks on Sen. Fazlur Rahman, but it is clear that he is being targeted. 
I believe that assassinations are a crucial and direct form of action used to change the current state of society’s views, especially if the person had great influence.  However, it is still a crime that continues to occur globally with no sign of assassinations coming to an end. Measures to keep those who make a difference in society through leadership, governing, or other methods need to be kept safe because if people’s lives are continuously being threatened because of their opposing views that will stop people from speaking out and hopefully making a difference in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pakistani-cleric-escapes-second-suicide-attack/2011/03/31/AFc43nBC_story.html