Repent, thou sinning secularist. Or thou shalt be banished by the believers, listening in on thine dangerous thoughts. Banished to the ever-burning fires of Hades, with those rattling flames that leap forth and singe and burn down everything they touch. Silence, or thou shalt be forced to be silent.

Surrender, or thou shalt be treated as a traitor. Listen, or thou shalt be tagged and condemned and damned. Faith shalt prevail in the kingdom of faith.

Thou non-believer, thou supporter of the infidel, thou friend of the idolater, how can thou even demand a voice? The voice of religion shalt prevail in the community of the believers.

Blaspheme thou shalt not, nor shalt thou weigh the sacred writ against the writ of men — who sin, whose minds are polluted and whose souls are corrupted by ideas and ideals of the non-believers. Or else, thou shalt be judged for thy sins. Lest thou forget, all shalt perish in the city of God, except God. Why canst we, the believers, hasten the end? We shalt, and we do. We name and shame, we maim and murder — all to hasten the end where only God shalt survive.

The Day of Judgment shalt be upon those who don’t listen. Those who doubt, those who think, those who question and those who resist. What is there to doubt, think, question and resist when God has spoken? And His word shalt prevail here and hereafter.

Thou who shalt doubt, thou shalt be doubted upon. Thou who shalt think, thou shalt suffer for thine thoughts. Thou who shalt question, thou shalt be answered in brickbats. Thou who shalt resist, thou shalt be resisted with the might of the mob. God’s sovereignty shalt brook no doubters, no dissenters, no sinners. Idols shalt fall, philosophers shalt leave, prophets shalt surrender — peace and silence shalt prevail. Peace that cometh after death and silence that marketh the graveyard.

After every doubter, every dissenter, every sinner is taken care of, the wrath of God shalt not go to sleep. It shalt blow across the breadth and width of the realm, searching for those who may sin, who may resist, who many think, who may doubt. Out of the pure shalt emerge the purest and therefrom shalt be born the rightful ruler of the kingdom of Heaven – the most pious, the most daring and the most dashing, clad in white, riding a white steed and holding aloft a gleaming scimitar. God is great; His holy writ alone shalt prevail.

Tailpiece: A republic is a republic as long as it is a community of equals. Only when it treats its citizens equally does a republic emerge. Only when it gives all its citizens all freedoms, all rights, does a republic endure. Only when it protects difference of opinion but tolerates no discrimination, does a republic succeed. Only when it preserves diversity and tolerates no attempt to impose uniformity and conformity, does a republic become worth fighting for.

In Pakistan, people may fight for tribe, for language, for sect, for religion, even for land, but they will never raise their voices, let alone arms, for ensuring that the country stays a republic. Every Pakistani wants to prosper individually and indeed he may wish his family, his business, his assets to prosper, but never will he do anything that helps the republic succeed in mainlining its unity in diversity. He wants to monopolise all the freedom and all the rights for himself, including the freedom to violate the laws of the land and the freedom to trample on the constitution of the country. He may even like to have the same freedoms and same rights for his tribe, sect or faith. But no one will work for the republic to provide enduring freedom and everlasting rights to all and sundry. In a place where one person tends to be more equal than the next for reasons of region or religion, nobody cares a hoot if that place calls itself a republic. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is only Islamic and it is only meant for those who are pure of heart and soul.

In a perverse sense, the country is still a republic. After all, its treats Sawan Masih, a poor illiterate Christian, and Raza Rumi, an upper-middle class professional, equally shabbily. Masih received the death penalty because he blasphemed, and Rumi shall suffer for he preaches rationality in the land of blind, angry faith. The republic of fear has ensured that the two are equals, liable to equal measures of condemnation and damnation. Coupled with recent attacks on Hindu temples across Sindh, the punishment inflicted upon the two must remind everyone, if they don’t already know, that a religious society cannot but be a hierarchical one — with sinners, thinkers, heretics, atheists and infidels forming the bottom of the pile in the same order. Only the pure, indeed the purest, shall rule in the land of the pure. All the rest shall perish. God is great, republic is not. His holy writ shall prevail.