The dream of Pakistan and the unIslamic other

Abstract

In this article, we consider the idea of the nation as a collective fantasy, an illusion of wholeness that seeks congruence between the nation as a people and the state. In Pakistan, the vision of the nation is based not on ethnic ties but on the idea of Islamic belonging, some visions of which exclude and abject Shi‘i, Dalit Christians, and Ahmadis. We examine the shrine of Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated a state official to protect the state’s blasphemy laws, as a site of national imagining where the margins of belonging have been contested.