Fostering intellectual stagnation
Pakistan, supposedly aiming to be the flag-bearer of Islam, has rather become a perfect exemplar of religious bigotry. With the rise in attacks on the religious minorities and new cases of blasphemy registered every month, it really seems as if the Muslims have declared an open season against the infidels. Security of life is a basic human right. If the Muslims cannot prevent the killing of non-Muslims in a Muslim state, then they have no right to protest against the killing of their Muslim brothers in a non-Muslim state either. Unless these double-standards embedded so deeply in a fundamentalist Muslim mindset are checked, the atrocities against Muslims will continue unabated.
The word ‘tolerance’ itself has the negative connotation of intolerance. You don’t just ‘tolerate’ the people you love, do you? And how can the world ever know peace if its people don’t love each other? Tolerance is only justified for those people whom one hates. Mankind can only progress when people of diverse faiths share their knowledge and experiences with each other. We are not supposed to spread religious tolerance, but religious love. And we cannot love if we do not know each other. Hence, the opposition against knowing about other religions is not only obnoxious but completely nonsensical for even the case of Muslim proselytizers.
A thorough study of all religions reveals greater similarities than differences. In fact many famous Islamic scholars today, like Yusuf Estes, Joshua Evans and Lawrence Brown, were once adamant Christian priests. They came to Islam because they saw more similarities between the Bible and the Qur’an than dissimilarities. It was their knowledge of the Bible that led them to Islam – a fact that is insatiable for the separatists.
The recent ban on teaching comparative religion by the Punjab government is nothing more than a manifestation of vulnerability. The fact is, and make no mistake about it, that the only way one can be scared of a supposed enemy is if one does not feel strong himself. It is not a hidden reality anymore that many young men and women are getting disillusioned not because they find something inherently wrong with their religion but because they are tired of the rigidity of the maulvis. Instead of opening the door by making ‘Islamic’ education more pragmatic and less dogmatic, they close all the other doors so that people have no choice but to knock on the only door that’s left. Resistance against other faiths is necessary to hide one’s own hypocrisy. As the supposed protectors of Islam, such bans only make them feel more ‘Islamic’. Never wonder why an ordinary Muslim finds it more satisfying to raise his voice against the Islamophobic West than to lower his voice before his mother, even though the later is a much more emphasized Islamic injunction. For many, adherence to Islam has become strictly ritualistic. Instead of trying to understand its true spiritual essence and making it a lifestyle, they seek to follow it in small episodes with long breaks. It has become a matter of convenience more than anything else.
Criticizing people of other beliefs is just a scapegoat to conceal one’s own faults. When the Western world tries to debase the Islamic world by pointing towards its human right violations such as honour killings and violence against women, the Muslims point the finger back by highlighting the countless incidents of rape and sexual violence in the West. No one is willing to step down the pedestal and lay its ego to rest. It is a battle of statistics for them. Little do they realize that every percentage includes thousands of innocent people that have now become merely numerical data for the researchers to analyze!
There is no solution to this conundrum except in self-criticism. The stubbornness of Muslims has fostered an intellectual stagnation which has in turn rendered them incapable of dealing with contemporary problems. Their belief in an unchanging Shariah has led them to close the doors of Ijtihad (independent reasoning), which in essence means that they cannot encounter any problem unless it’s by the enemy. But the Shariah was only meant to be a set of principles, through which dynamic fiqh (laws) could be deciphered keeping in mind the needs of the society. If only the Muslims could study their own history!
Sadly, such a rational thinking cannot be supported by the current curriculum of many Islamic Studies programmes which are not only misleading but also polarizing. If the Muslim students are only shown one side of the picture, where they were always the victims and non-Muslims were always the oppressors, it is only natural for these students to develop general animosity towards the latter. Even though the Muslims like to quote the great pardon exhibited by the Fatimid conqueror Saladin against the Christian crusaders who had once torched the homes and families of Muslims as a great example of Muslim broadmindedness, many gulp when they are made to remind of a much more important incident of mercy exhibited by the Christian King of Abyssinia in the early days of Islam when he granted the Muslims protection when their death was otherwise certain.
Undoubtedly, all religions in contemporary times and even throughout history have been hijacked by extremists for political gain. The endless sectarian conflicts have decapitated the Muslim community irrevocably. But to some rising against external threats is more important than solving internal politics. It is time that the Pakistani Muslims stop promoting their country as the only ‘Islamic’ power with a nuclear bomb that can annihilate the infidels with one blow, and start being faithful to their own religion by promoting its true message of love, not hate. It is time that they stop treating themselves as victims of tyranny who cannot rise because they are suppressed by outside forces, and start critically evaluating the forces of evil within themselves.
It is time they stopped bringing such conspiracy theories into play that try to postulate that anything wrong happening in the Muslim world is a ploy of the West, and start solving their own problems first before looking down upon someone else.
The writer is a status quo critic by habit and a marketing scientist by profession. She tweets @mehreen_omer
To certain extent exploitation is there but there is no sincerity from neither religious fundamentalist, nor fanatics or politician or Army, hence unless there is an iota of sincerity these issues will remain
agreed.
and i think something new should come in topics rather than old topics of molvis and youth……
the religion remains the same for even the last person to come on earth and is still practiced in the way Prophet Mohammad SAW taught….cant add anything new to islam but to a new religion as per your suggestion
Most of the muslims who complain most about oppression are the ones most likely to support oppression.
A nicely written and thought-provoking piece by a good-looking teenager with lovely face. She has been able to present her mature thoughts forcefully and with courage. Keep it up, Mehreen!
Qamar
Please refrain from personal comments. The author is not a teenager.
Are you appreciating the post or the looks? it shows your frustration..
Why is it that after extolling the virtues of religion they wish to escape to the lands of the irreligious?
Fundamentalists are the reality of this time it took us 30 years to get us where we are today and it will take a sincere effort and education of 50 years to change the mindset of these people. A lot has been said and written about these people. But why every body is mum about liberal fascism to me these both are extreme and should be moderated one extreme can not be eliminated in presence of other extreme.
my luck is verry bad
totally discriminating muslim history ..read islam .its a benchmark
why dont these western paid ngo people emphasize on quran in schools ,????
bias approach to the problem need to study Islamic history and literature that way she can have the both view.
I support the writers views,and please take islamic history lesson not written by paid and bias historians.
It was good. Lost some of the points here and there. But disagree with many of your views.
Teaching children mutual religious respect is not the same as teaching comparative religion with glorified versions of some religions and snubbed versions of others. I myself have many friends who come from different religious backgrounds(not in Pak)…. but was shocked when I found out the differences allotted to each in Pak…. and I was taught only Islamic studies in school!!
All studies will fail if the general mindsets don’t change…. if a child is taught at his home to hate a Christian, Hindu he will…. the only problem comparative religion will create is severe confusion for a kid…. where might slip out of his own religious bonding…. it might be any… not necessarily Muslim. .
Our Sufis and Pandits used to have religious dialog…. but then they were really experienced…. what will the study give a child???? Confusion, misdirection, questions, doubt….and who will answer them????
About people converting coz of Bible and Quran being similar…. it might have been EASIER but definitely not the reason… if that is so I am sure that many Muslims convert to Christianity for the very same reason. … and the numbers might be greater. … coz missionaries know how to convert their subjects…. Muslims never do that sort of conversion!
'It was their knowledge of the Bible that led them to Islam – a fact that is insatiable for the separatists."
You are totally wrong.It was their knowledge of Quran that led them to Islam
Not necessarily. It's only once they found the corruptions in their own scriptures were they tempted to look for answers in other potential religions. Hence, the author has got it absolutely right.
(Y)
sick mind
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