Kurt Cobain, a famous musician and a writer, quotes A friend is nothing but a known enemy. Indeed the quotation has explicitly defined the jungle rule of the world in a polite way. Going through the history of Pakistan makes it even simpler to understand what Cobain wanted to convey.
Strategic encirclement of Pakistan, with continued blows to the centre of gravity has threatened it economically, politically and most dangerously ideologically. Religious fragmentation of Pakistan is not at all a complex issue comparing to so many other emerging or existing powers, for instance India, then why Pakistan is declared by so called friends as hot spot for religious killings. We need to revisit our roots for developing an appropriate response and in our case it is our ideology.
The Islamic ideology which has been the source of strength for Pakistan is swiftly distorted into one of its limitations. Terms like Islamists, fundamentalists and extremists used by the westerners were not only misunderstood in their latent perspective by our intellectuals, but have been countering them by using terms like enlightened moderation and progressive Islam, and this has been one of the biggest causes of our ideological disorder.
This pseudo discernment of Islamic ideology of some anti state elements has heavily pounded the young minds of Pakistan, who are in a state of genuine perplexity, and are in search of the very reason of creation of their homeland. Message of Iqbal with regard to Millat-e-Islamia and Mard-e-Momin laid the very foundation of existing Pakistan; which is now seen as literate extremism, (thanks to modern intellectuals of Pakistan). This conceptual drift can easily be termed as national mystification of our young generation. This is a serious blow to our sacred ideology and existence.
JAWAD RAZA KHAN
Karachi
