” style=”font-size: 12px;”>blog I wrote on the possibility of others existing. It is also a stretch to say he is an activist leading a campaign. Being vocal on Twitter doesn't qualify). His 'Jewish' connection needs to be investigated as well. I find it hard to take his word for it.
It is obviously completely unacceptable that a man (no matter what his religion) should be beaten up for his beliefs, if this is true. But I do question his decision to meet a complete stranger given the situation on the ground in Karachi. Here is what one person said in the comments section about this:
@Jameelur Rasheed said: I am sorry for whatever happened to you. Having said that, you are the biggest fool on planet to have agreed to meet just a random guy you had a brief conversation with over twitter. I won’t do it despite the fact that I am a Muslim.
Other readers pointed to certain tweets by Benkhald which have been inflammatory. I have yet to trawl through his timeline but if this is the case, and I hope not, he would have unnecessarily put himself in a difficult position.
Previous contact
I was in contact with Fishel last year, if memory serves correctly. We met over Twitter and then a few emails were exchanged because I was interested in his take on the Jewish cemetery. On principle I do not write about it out of fear that it will come into the spotlight. This is part of the sensibility one is compelled to adopt to protect heritage sites. I have known experts who have worked on these issues, but highlighting them in the media or on social media serves no purpose whatsoever at this given point in time, I believe.
Suffice it to say that I did not believe Fishel merited an interview at the time. Something put me off about what he said he was trying to accomplish. I thnk he just likes the media attention. I wish he realised that he is putting himself and his family at extreme risk.
I do hope he recovers from the incident and that he stays safe. I shall now go back to getting some real work done. What a waste of everyone's time. And while it is really easy to always label all Pakistanis as aggressive and easy to provoke, I think there is a lot to also be said about people who deliberately create situations. It was extremely easy for Arutz Sheva to paint Fishel as a victim of a 'Muslim mob' and as a one-man activist. This is, in my mind the easy way out. I am extremely pro-Jewish and heck if there were any Jews in Pakistan who were willing to disclose their identity and get into public fights, I would be standing right by them. But this was an entirely different situation. I cannot say it was amusing. I hope it doesn't happen again.
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