There are many signs of a lazy mind, but perhaps the best of these signs is the consistent belief in the Golden Mean Fallacy. If, on all matters, you believe both sides are wrong and the truth is somewhere in the middle, then, chances are, you don’t do much thinking to begin with.
No, this isn’t, God forbid, an argument against nuance. The real world that we live in isn’t black-and-white. There are subtleties and complexities even in the simplest of issues. All sides need to be listened to and taken into account. But even in this very real world, there are still people who are, clearly wrong and others quite clearly right. Even in issues where both sides are wrong, one could be far more wrong than the other.
It has been a trend, of late, specially amongst the self-styled reform Muslims, to say that there are extremists on both sides of the liberal-conservative divide. That, if there are rabid orthodox Mullahs on one side, then there are “ultra-liberals” on the other side.
What one needs to ask these liberal-Islamists is where they find these ultra-liberals? In our country, even the outrageously unhinged (socially) are closet Islamists. Where are the liberal counterparts of the violent Maulanas that are constantly being referred to in an attempt to build this false symmetry?
TV star intellectual Hamza Ali Abbasi used to constantly bring up this spectrum. Of extremists on both ends.
One hopes that he realises that in the fall out of his admittedly brave attempt at starting a dialogue on the issue of Ahmedis in the country, there is much for him to learn.
Back when he used to take liberals to task on his Facebook posts, the liberals used to poke fun at him. That was it. Now that he has said something to the conservatives – in an apologetic, one-step-forward-two-steps-
On what skewed scale does poking fun equate to honest-to-God threats to kill someone?
Online readers can watch below, this video of Maulana Kokab Noorani’s thinly-veiled direct incitement to violence on Hamza Ali Abbassi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Yet, in the Stockholm Syndrome that he has, in a follow up program, Abbasi explained to the audience that, in this misunderstanding with the Ulema, if some “teesri quuwat” decides to harm him, no one should blame the Ulema!
In his mind, it is still the liberals who are out to gun him.
Qissa mukhtasir hai, tamheed tulani ! Hamza Ali Abbasi – a TV actor – that long narration ?
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