The New York Times - 19.09.2019

A6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan —
Prof. Khalid Hameed’s devotion to
teaching often led him to arrive
early for work, and the day he was
killed was no different.
Professor Hameed, a senior
English lecturer at Government
Sadiq Egerton College in the Paki-
stani city of Bahawalpur, parked
about 8 a.m. on March 20, signed
the staff room register, unlocked
his office and walked in. His killer
came up from behind, hitting him
in the head with a heavy padlock
and stabbing him several times.
Professor Hameed, 59, who was
six months from retirement, died
immediately.
One of his students, Khateeb
Hussain, was detained by the po-
lice. In a video of his interrogation,
Mr. Hussain said he had killed
Professor Hameed — a devout
Muslim, according to his family —
because he had insulted Islam. Six
months later, no charges have
been brought against Mr. Hus-
sain, or against a preacher from
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a
hard-line Islamic group, who the
police say incited him to kill.
The murder has devastated
Professor Hameed’s family and
chilled his colleagues at the col-
lege. They see it as a horrifying
new chapter in a campaign
against liberal education, which
small but influential extremist
groups in Pakistan consider unac-
ceptable. Many of the teachers are
now wary of speaking freely to
their students.
“Actually, this teacher was a
symbol of all liberal education,”
said Irshad Ahmad Tabasum, an
associate professor in Professor
Hameed’s department.
Professor Tabasum and some of
his colleagues stressed that Pro-
fessor Hameed was no provoca-
tive liberal firebrand, just a dedi-
cated, well-liked teacher. They
said the college had not previ-

ously had trouble with religious extremists, and they were at a loss to explain what could have moti- vated the killer. A day before Professor Hameed’s death, anonymous pamphlets were distributed that called for banning a campus gathering that he was coordinating. The pamphlets claimed, wrongly, that men and women there would be allowed to dance together. But investigators said Mr. Hussain was not behind the pamphlets, and teachers at the college doubt there is a connection. In the video of his interrogation, Mr. Hussain — who had been pur- suing a degree in English literature — said Professor Hameed “used to bark against Islam and utter derogatory remarks every day.” Like English literature classes around the world, Professor Hameed’s roamed across broad themes in philosophy, history, reli- gion and politics, his colleagues say. They resent speculation about what he might have said that enraged Mr. Hussain, seeing it as an attempt to find justifica- tion, or at least sense, in his murder. But they also say that the shock of the killing has made them wonder about their own teaching — and that they have started to skirt potentially contentious sub- jects. “For the last 25 years, I have never felt the pressure as I am feeling now,” Professor Tabasum said. He said he had long taught “Oedipus Rex” in his classes on Greek tragedy but was now worried about doing so. “Because every single word can create a problem for you,” he said. “This is what has been inculcated in me after this incident. Before that, whatever I felt, I expressed that.” Teachers have found them- selves reluctant to let classroom discussions get too philosophical,

said Mahmood Ahmed Shaheen, an assistant professor. “Obviously it is a fact, when such incidents happen, they affect our sensibil- ities, they affect our perception,” he said. “We feel a bit insecure when you are studying and dis- cussing something in class, and

particularly if it is related to reli- gion.” Such fears have spread well be- yond Bahawalpur, a conservative city 380 miles southeast of Islam- abad, the capital. “I think that it would be wrong and foolish to think that such terrible incidents could only happen elsewhere,” said Shaista Sonnu Sirajuddin, a former professor of English literature at the University of Punjab in

Lahore. “I dread and fear the time that we, too, can become victims.” Vigilantism by religious extremists has been a problem on Paki- stani campuses since the 1980s military dictatorship of Gen. Mo- hammad Zia ul-Haq, who embold- ened them with his Islamization of the country's laws, said Tahira Ab- dullah, a human-rights activist. “It’s just getting worse and worse, and it’s more visible now,” she said, adding that “if you invite a progressive speaker, that speaker will get shouted down, drowned out or run off campus, or not even allowed to speak.” Two years ago, a 25-year-old student at Abdul Wali Khan Uni- versity Mardan, in northwestern Pakistan, was dragged from his dormitory room and killed by a mob after rumors spread that he had posted blasphemous writing online. The student, Mashal Khan, had described himself as a hu- manist and covered his room at with posters of his political heroes and slogans celebrating free speech. Professor Sirajuddin said most

pressure felt by professors did not include overt threats of violence. But in Pakistan, an accusation of blasphemy can lead to mob violence or even a death sentence, and that is intimidating enough. Professor Sirajuddin, who still teaches, said she had come to ac- cept that if one day a student accused her, she would be on her own. “There will be very few people, there will probably be no one, who will have the courage to stand up and say she did not blas- pheme,” she said. Professor Hameed’s wife and four children say that he was deeply religious, and that he made repeated pilgrimages to Mecca during a five-year stint working in Saudi Arabia. He often took a spe- cial interest in poor students, fig- uring that a degree could trans- form their lives and those of their families, according to colleagues and graduates of Sadiq Egerton. Mr. Hussain, who was reported to be either 20 or 21, is still in cus- tody, but formal charges have not been filed. The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan preacher who was detained on suspicion of inciting the killing, Zafar Gillani, has also not been charged and is now free on bail. Shafiq Qureshi, the public prosecutor in the case, said the investigation report was complete and that formal charges could be filed this month. He said he hoped a court hearing would soon follow. The case is being closely watched by students, teachers and other Pakistanis, said Diwan Asif Shahzad, an assistant English professor at Sadiq Egerton. He be- lieves that bringing murder charges would send a strong mes- sage in defense of liberal education, but as the weeks have passed, he and other teachers have grown increasingly worried. “We are all the way scared as to what will be the final decision,” Professor Shahzad said.

Professor’s Killing Sends a Chill Through a Campus in Pakistan

Khalid Hameed, center, was murdered in his office in March. A student confessed, saying the professor had insulted Islam.

ABDUL NASIR

By BEN FARMER

Religious extremists’

resistance to liberal

education is blamed.

Arabia’s de facto ruler, hates
Iran’s rising regional influence,
analysts said that he has reasons
to tread carefully: The attack laid
bare the kingdom’s vulnerabili-
ties; Prince Mohammed ques-
tions the support he would get
from the Trump administration in
a real war with Iran; and further
violence could dampen interest in
his proposed public sale of stock in
Aramco, the Saudi state oil mo-
nopoly.
The Aramco stock offering is
central to Prince Mohammed’s
plans for the country, which in-
clude diversifying the economy
away from oil and creating more
jobs for young Saudis.
Such caution toward Iran
marks a U-turn for the 34-year-old
crown prince, who has belittled
Iran’s military abilities, compared
its Supreme Leader to Hitler and
suggested that Saudi Arabia
would take the fight to Iran inside
its own borders.
“We will not wait until the battle
is in Saudi Arabia,” he told an in-
terviewer in 2017. “We will work
so that the battle is for them in
Iran, and not in Saudi Arabia.”
But the attack showed that Iran,
which has spent years building a
network of allied armed groups in
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen,
can hit Saudi Arabia in its most
sensitive spots, and in a way that
gives Iran a level of deniability.
“He knows he has a lot to lose,”
said Bernard Haykel, a professor
of Near Eastern Studies at Prince-
ton University, referring to Prince
Mohammed. “You live in a castle
with an arsonist next door, and the
arsonist doesn’t have a castle —
he has nothing to lose. And the ar-
sonist has shown he can hit you
again and again, with precision.”
The drones and cruise missiles
said to have been used flew hun-
dreds of miles undetected in a re-
gion dotted with American mili-
tary bases. That raised questions
about whether Saudi Arabia can
protect itself even with American
pledges of help, said Ali Shihabi, a
Saudi commentator who speaks
frequently with Saudi officials.
“The fact that this thing was
able to slip through the American
line of defense and then through
the Saudi line of defense and hit
with the precision that it did,
frankly, it was an eye-opener,” he
said. “So the question is can you
get into a war today when you are
not sure what the Americans will
do?”
Both Prince Mohammed and
Mr. Pompeo sought on Wednes-
day to frame the attack as the
world’s problem.
In a phone call with the presi-
dent of South Korea, Prince Mo-
hammed called the attack “a true
test of international will to con-
front sabotage that threatens in-
ternational security and stability.”
In comments to reporters after
a flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia,
where he met with Prince Mo-
hammed, Mr. Pompeo accused
Iran of having carried out the
strikes.
“We were blessed there were no

Americans killed in this attack,” he added, “but anytime you have an act of war of this nature, there’s always a risk that could happen.” Instead of threatening a military response, Mr. Pompeo spoke of assembling an international coalition to deter further strikes, without specifying who it would include and what it might do. “That’s my mission here, is to work with our partners in the re- gion,” he said. He spoke of working with European countries and planned to visit the United Arab Emirates, a close Saudi ally, before returning to Washington. The State Department said in a statement after their meeting that Mr. Pompeo and Prince Moham- med had “agreed that this was an unacceptable and unprecedented attack that not only threatened Saudi Arabian national security, but also endangered the lives of all

the American citizens living and working in Saudi Arabia, as well as the world’s energy supply in general.” It said they “discussed the need for the international community to come together to counter the continued threat of the Iranian re- gime.” Earlier, at a news conference in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the Saudi Defense Ministry provided new details about the weapons it said had been used and showed remnants of drone and cruise missiles it said were plainly of Iranian origin. A ministry spokesman, Col. Turki al-Maliki, said 18 drones struck one site and four cruise missiles hit another, while three missiles had fallen short of their target. Saudi Arabia had yet to deter- mine who exactly had launched

the attack or from where, but he said it had come from the north, in the direction of Iran and Iraq, not the south, in the direction of Yem- en. The attack, Colonel al-Maliki said, “was unquestionably sponsored by Iran.” American and Saudi officials have said previously that the attack used Iranian weapons. The Americans also have said that evi- dence, not yet made public, points to a strike launched from Iran. The Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have been bombed by a Saudi-led coalition for more than four years, claimed credit for the attack while Iran, which backs the Houthis, has denied any responsi- bility. Iranian officials have said the attacks were in response to the deaths and destruction wrought by the Saudis in Yemen. American and Saudi officials

have said the Houthis possessed neither the sophistication nor the weapons to have carried out the aerial assault on the oil facilities, a point Mr. Pompeo reiterated on Wednesday. “As for how we know, the equip- ment used is unknown to be in the Houthis’ arsenal,” he said. The attack came amid tensions that have been rising between the Trump administration and Iran since President Trump renounced the 2015 agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program in return for economic relief. Since then, the United States has been applying a strategy of “maximum pressure” of economic sanctions to punish Iran for what the Trump administration considers its malign activi- ties in the Middle East. On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that he had told the Treasury secretary,

Steven Mnuchin, “to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran.” It was not immediately clear how extensive the latest round of penalties would be, but Mr. Trump said details would be released within 48 hours. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran responded on Twitter that Mr. Trump was “esca- lating U.S. economic war on Irani- ans.” Mr. Trump and Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, have been expected to cross paths at the annual United Nations General Assembly session in New York next week, and there was speculation this summer about a possible face-to- face encounter. But on Wednesday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that an Iranian advance team had been unable to travel to New York because the United States had not granted visas. As a result, it said, Mr. Rouhani and his delegation might not attend the gathering, which runs from Tues- day through the following Mon- day. Mr. Pompeo declined to com- ment on the visa situation. Asked about it at the United Nations, Secretary General António Guter- res told reporters he had been “in contact with the host state in or- der to solve all outstanding visa

problems in relation to delega- tions,” and he hoped that would “solve the problem.” A senior Trump administration official said that Iran had sought visas for 124 people to assist its delegation, and that the State De- partment had denied around 40 to those found linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the administration desig- nated as a terrorist organization. The State Department did not deny a visa to Mr. Zarif, the official said, although his movements are limited to the area close to the United Nations. “If it was up to me, I’d let them come,” Mr. Trump said Wednes- day. “I would certainly not want to keep people out if they want to come.” Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that he is open to a meeting with Mr. Rouhani, which would be the first between leaders of the two countries after four decades of an- tagonism, but Mr. Rouhani has said the United States must first lift economic sanctions. Mr. Rouhani sent a formal note on Monday to the United States denying an Iranian role in the Saudi attack and warning that any American action against Iran would bring retaliation, Iranian state news media reported on Wednesday. The note went through Swiss envoys who act as intermediaries because the United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations.

Pompeo Calls Strike on Saudi Oil Centers an ‘Act of War’ by Tehran

HAMAD I MOHAMMED/REUTERS

From Page A

Peter Baker, Rick Gladstone and
Lara Jakes contributed reporting.

BANDAR AL-JALOUD/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES Col. Turki al-Maliki of Saudi Arabia, top, said the attack was “unquestionably sponsored by Iran,” whose president, above right, may skip the U.N. General Assembly next week. Left, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

OFFICE OF THE IRANIAN PRESIDENCY, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Saudi officials are still

trying to pinpoint the

source of an attack.

PAYNESVILLE, Liberia (AP) — A fire at an Islamic school outside the Liberian capital has killed at least 27 people, the police there said on Wednesday, adding that it was likely that many of the victims were children. The fire, which started around midnight, gutted a dormitory and school building where students slept about seven miles east of Monrovia, said a police spokesman, Moses Carter. Only the imam and two students escaped, he said. The cause of the fire was under investigation. Hundreds of grief- stricken people stood in shock as ambulances took away the bodies. Others wailed and wept as the police pushed back a curious, surg- ing crowd. The Liberian president, George Weah, visited the scene and was expected to attend the victims’ funeral at a Monrovia mosque before burial later in the day, said his spokesman, Isaac Solo Kelgbeh. Emmanuel Herbert, the pastor of a nearby church, Fire World Pentecostal As- sembly, said in an interview that he and his congregation had woken up to sounds of the fire and called for help. “When I turned around to look, the entire place was red,” he said. “When I looked through the window, I saw the whole place blazing with fire.” The fire was so strong that there was no way to enter the buildings, he added.

Fire Kills 27

In a School

In Liberia

The New York Times - 19.09.2019

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