In the history of some countries there comes a period when political and factional murder becomes almost routine \u201d\u201d Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, Germany and its neighbours in the early 1930s. It has invariably been the precursor of a breakdown of legal and political order and of long-term suffering for a whole population. And last week, with the killing of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Minister for Minorities, Pakistan has taken a further step down this catastrophic road.<\/p>\n
To those who actually support such atrocities, there is little to say. They inhabit a world of fantasy, shot through with paranoid anxiety. As the shocked responses from so many Muslims in this country and elsewhere make plain, their actions are as undermining of Koranic ethics as they are of rational politics.<\/p>\n
But to those who recognise something truly dreadful going on in their midst \u201d\u201d to the majority in Pakistan who have elected a government that, whatever its dramatic shortcomings, is pledged to resist extremism \u201d\u201d we have surely to say, \u201cDo not imagine that this can be \u201d\u02dcmanaged\u2019 or tolerated\u201d\u009d.<\/p>\n