Following the decision, some years ago, that New Zealanders were a racial group, an employment agency refused to put a man from New Zealand on a short list for a job on the grounds that the Kiwis were "nomads" and unlikely to stay long in a post. The New Zealander got very angry and took the agency to an industrial tribunal which decided that the complainant had been subject to a racial insult. The tribunal gave him ten pounds damages, plus twenty five pounds for "hurt feelings". Who says one can’t be funny about race?

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A plethora of pulpit thumping of tremendous vehemence -- conducted by the self-righteous leaders of our political life -- has been unleashed upon us. It has so overwhelmed us that we think twice -- nay three times -- before we raise our voice and say that it is all humbug.

The most recent incident of a young Christian couple, being tortured and then burnt alive, has not made much difference to our conscience. Oh yes, it has shocked many people; it has led to the customary protest march by the brave members of our middle-class ‘civil society’; it has even resulted in the formation of a commission to probe the matter, but we all know that nothing will come out of it. One can cite at least seven such commissions having been formed when similar horrific and dastardly incidents took place in the last two or three years.

Incredibly enough, we still have not bothered to look into our draconian law which encourages the fanatics to form a posse and perpetrate odious and atrocious crimes on people they regard to be infidels.

It saddens me to note that the leader of the "Movement for Justice" party in all the rhetoric he has spouted over the last three and a half months has not yet outlined the measures he plans to adopt to stop the ruthless genocide of the minorities His fellow ‘sit-in’ strategist, the leader of the "People’s Movement" party is a forceful orator and he has spoken about the religious freedom the minorities must be allowed, but he has not said anything about the steps that ought to be taken to put an end to the on-going persecution.

The events that have taken place recently could not have escaped the skipper’s notice. In the corruption-free and equitable society that he wants to create such crimes cannot be allowed. Why, then, has he not dwelt upon this issue? It confounds me. Surely, a man who believes in playing with a straight bat cannot think, like the men in power, that tinkling with the blasphemy law would invoke a heavenly wrath upon him.

I have an uneasy feeling that the reaction to this latest horrific incident will fizzle out and the rhetoric about rooting out extremism will fade into oblivion. I remember well the anger that erupted in our country a few years ago over the video of a young woman being flogged in Swat. The army went into Swat. And what was the result? As one correspondent in a newspaper noted: "The attack on Malala has, once and for all, put to rest the myth that the Swat valley has exorcised its Taliban ghost."

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One other issue, which we dare not tackle, is that our society is rooted in gender discrimination. Even in the posh areas of big cities, a woman still cannot walk down a street unchaperoned. The place of a woman in our society is way below the place of a man. Her function is to cater to the needs of her husband, and his parents and her sons. If she has daughters they will be assigned a secondary position. In the cities, a very large majority of middle and lower middle-class parents have begun to harbour the notion that too much education is unnecessary for their daughters because it will not be of any use to them when they move from their fathers’ household to that of their husband’s household.

As a result, men naturally assume that the freedoms they enjoy are their God-given right. It cannot enter their consciousness that women too, could enjoy the same freedoms. In their mind-set a woman who stands up for her rights has not been properly bought up, or she has been led astray by Western notions that she has picked up in schools and colleges.

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Crimes are perpetrated in the name of the Almighty everywhere. From Sweden to Swaziland there are religious groups determined to kill those whom they believe to be non-believers. Not just that: there are religious sects who have been brain-washed to think that theirs alone is the true chosen path to eternal salvation. You would have thought that the USA, the most technically advanced country in the world, has rid itself of religious bigotry. You would be wrong.

Take the case of a man called Horsley who, a few years ago, cold-bloodedly murdered a doctor because he performed abortions. Now Horsley was a dedicated Christian. In his mind, and in the minds of many such Christians, murder is justified if it is done in the name of combating secularism, or combating homosexuality, and many other ‘worthy’ causes like eliminating abortions. You would be right in thinking that dangerous sects like the one that Horsely belonged to, are no longer in operation, but they are. It isn’t so long since we heard of the priest in California who burnt our sacred book outside his church.

I wonder if there is any difference between the Taliban and the Horselys of this world. Both believe, passionately that we should not use the greatest gift that human beings possess -- the ability to reason. Dogma, hatred and a blind obedience to the lunatic ravings of demagogues govern their lives. Horsely was a member of a ‘Righteous Christian’ group. There are many other organisations in America who all act in the name of Christianity. Ku Klux Klan is the most widely known, but the rest of them are not far behind in their sworn aims of eliminating blacks and other infidels, academics who speak of tolerance, as well as non-segregated schools. They all go to church and praise Jesus Christ for giving them strength to keep killing until America becomes a truly Christian state. They are convinced that the world (which, of course, is America) will not be able to sleep peacefully at night as long as the blacks -- and the heathens -- are lurking around.

It is only because the vast majority of Americans think of such organisations as the ‘lunatic fringe’ that there aren’t many more sectarian killings in the USA.