Nations within a Nation – The Search for a Pakistani Nation – 2
By Adnan Syed “Indeed, world is ruled by little else but ideas.” — John Maynard Keynes The Two Nation Theory and Inequality in the New State of Pakistan The two nation theory was primarily based on distinctive majority-two-nations within United India. The distinction was cultural as well as religious, where both of these characteristics freely overlapped each other. Given the dominance of religion within the edifice of the Muslim nation, it was inevitable that religion will form a large part in the new nation state that was carved due to the Muslim nation identity. And given a strong tradition of political Islam within the Muslim body, it was inevitable that the very political Islam will find its way through the vague contours of the shifting idea of an Indian Muslim nation … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, History, Identity, Islam, Islamism, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Religion, Rights, secular Pakistan, secularism
Nations within a Nation; The Search for a Pakistani Nation – 1
By Adnan Syed “Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous” (Voltaire) Nations within a Nation I write these lines in the year 2011. It is 63 years since my country gained independence. The idea of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims gained momentum during the momentous decade of 1940s. The idea of Pakistan proved so strong and infectious among the Muslim masses of then United India that within 7 years after a resolution was passed by Muslim League, Pakistan was born. From the very beginnings, this idea of Pakistan contained certain vagueness to it. Two Nation Theory stipulated that India primarily consisted of two major nations that were distinct from each other. The primary cause of this difference came from their religions. Nations were derived from their religious identity; even if cultural differences were distinct, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Egalitarian Pakistan, Identity, Islam, Jinnah, Pak Tea House, Religion, Rights, state
Zeal gives religious right in Pakistan the upper hand
By Salman Masood “Then right after prayers end, the Jamaat cadres start organising and leading people out. Even apolitical people then become part and parcel of this larger gathering.” However, liberals have refused to back down. They are trying to develop a more unified approach, forming the umbrella group, Citizens for Democracy, in December. After Bhatti’s murder, the group started the letter campaign “Silence Means More Blood” against violence and vigilante justice. More than 300 prominent individuals, including academics, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, endorsed an open letter to the president, Asif Ali Zardari, and the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, and other high-ranking politicians to protest Bhatti’s murder, said Mohsin Sayeed, a journalist in Karachi. He said a “Day of Resistance” is to be held in Karachi on April 3 at the massive AMC … Read entire article »
Yielding in Front of Extremism
By Adnan Syed I am attaching two links here that movingly touch upon the state of barbarity that is inflicted upon the nation of Pakistan. Please give thirteen minutes of your precious time to the moving words of Member National Aseembly Mrs. Asia Nasir. These words describe the anguish and pain of the very Pakistanis who are being discriminated by the society, as well as by the institutions of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Terror reigns supreme in Pakistan. The righteous ones are hunting and killing everyone who calls for absolute equality of every human inside the boundaries of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. And in this environment, this brave lady comes out and unequivocally condemns the barbarity that the religious minorities are facing. She has more guts than the spineless members of parliament … Read entire article »
Filed under: Democracy, Egalitarian Pakistan, Islam, Islamabad, Islamism, Justice, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, minorities, Pak Tea House, Religion, Rights, state, Taliban
Murder They Wrote: Banners by Religious Groups Incite Violence
Courtesy NEWSLINE A banner posted in Karachi by a religious group calls for the death of author Tehmina Durrani. Photo: Zaheer A. Kidvai (Yet Another) Hate-mongering Alert: … Read entire article »
Filed under: Religion
Discoursing Blasphemy (I): Deconstructing the Contemporary Authoritarian Context
by Aasem Bakhshi The materials could be used to construct either the authoritative or the authoritarian. If the authoritarian is constructed, the text is rendered subservient and submerged into its representer and reader. If authoritative is constructed, the text survives unencumbered and unlimited by its representer and reader. – Khaled Abou El Fadl in Conference of the Books Imagine your were born into a middle or lower-middle class Christian family in Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This ironic accident of nature would automatically grant you the deplorable status among approximately one percent ignorant, disbelieving and impure inhabitants of the otherwise land of the pure. Stretch your imagination a little further and assume being grown up to become an individual with religious conviction in line with any of the mainstream Christian denominations. Needless to … Read entire article »
Godless Bullets
Salman Taseer’s killing reflects the fight over Pakistan’s soul (OUTLOOK INDIA) AMIR MIR When Punjab governor Salman Taseer stepped out of the Table Talk restaurant after having lunch with hotelier Sheikh Waqas and walked to his car parked in Islamabad’s Kohsar Market on January 4, he must have been aware of the possibility of religious fanatics lurking around. Where in Pakistan haven’t the sinister, dark forces of militant Islam penetrated? But what Taseer couldn’t have foreseen perhaps is the precise visage of religious fanaticism—that it could come dressed in the uniform of the Elite Force of the Punjab police, one of those very men who were to protect him from the implacable Islamists forever sniffing around for enemies who don’t subscribe to their worldview. As Taseer reached his car, a cry of Allah-o-Akbar … Read entire article »
Filed under: culture, Islamism, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, liberal Pakistan, Pakistan, public policy, Religion
Meet Nadir Khan, the Cobbler from Bajaur
by Aasem Bakhshi Nadir Khan, the cobbler from Bajaur who sits at the corner of my street, carries the kind of iconic baggage usually associated with cobblers from Sufi folklore and mystic literature. His character inspires me, his sensibilities vex me and his paradoxes keep me engaged with mine. Being well aware of each second he lives, Nadir Khan spends a quarter of the year with his family in village, another quarter busy earning on a footpath in this metropolis, and another in the way of Allah, as he finds it to be. My self proclaimed wisdom and religious pragmatism is forced to zilch in front of his embodied response to time. … Read entire article »
A Soldier's Soliloquy: Can a Person Refuse to Fight?
by Aasem Bakhshi …if called upon by the government to do so. Thomas Hobbes would concede this right with some limitations and John Locke would probably deny. And even though Lockean tradition is superior in terms of social contract theory, I tend to take refuge behind Hobbes, considering the Leviathan I am subjected to in my part of the world. But I am still not sure how to tackle this question, which albeit still at some distance, is moving towards me while staring ceaselessly on my face. While the angst is becoming unbearable and the masochist within me is yet again alive after so many years, I ramble inveterately in search of judgment. … Read entire article »
Filed under: musings, Philosophy, Religion, war
Is it easy to fill the God shaped hole at the center of our souls?
By Aasem Bakhshi Contrary to common Muslim perception, Islamic tradition does not hold a unanimous conception of God; furthermore, being able to believe in an omnipotent, perpetually creative and law giving Deity demands clarity of conception, which is intellectually laborious and demands extraordinary dedication. The foremost act in religion is the acknowledgment of Him. The perfection of acknowledging Him is believing in Him; the perfection of believing in Him is acknowledging His oneness; the perfection of acknowledging … Read entire article »
Filed under: Islam, Philosophy, Religion
A Tale of Two Classes
This article was originally published in Dawn. It makes a very interesting read and makes some extremely incisive points. By Muhammad Waseem In Pakistan, two dominant classes compete with each other for influence and privilege. One is the middle class, which provides the catchment area for the civil bureaucracy, technocrats, the military’s officer cadre and the business community. The other can be called, for lack of a better term, the political class that includes political entrepreneurs of various kinds at various levels, led by the landed and tribal elite. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Civil Service, Democracy, Identity, Religion, Society
Eid: the annual circus of the Royyat
Usman Ahmad As another Eid draws near so too does the annual circus of the Royyat-e-Halal Committee roll into town. Tonight, all over the country eager eyes will turn towards their television sets awaiting the verdict of whether the moon has been sighted or not. Every year it seems this bit of plain observation requires more erudition and scholarly discussion than the finer aspects of particle physics. Debate will rage, storms in teacups will brew, fatwas and counter fatwas will be made and eventually some genius will seek to quell the firestorm by blaming it all on the Ahmadis. As always FATA will declare Eid a day early, the afore-mentioned committee will ooh and ahh late into the night before eventually deciding either that the moon has been sighted after all … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan, Regulatory Affairs, Religion
Religious Right in Their Own Words; Apostasy Punishment, Jihad and the Role of Non Muslims in the Land of Infidels
Part 3 By Adnan Syed This series revisits one of the pivotal events of the early Pakistani history; the riots by the religious right wing parties to get Ahmadis declared as non-Muslims, and the subsequent Munir-Kiyani inquiry commission report into the causes behind the riots. The report went on to interview the religious leaders of the newly formed state of Pakistan regarding their motives and their ideas of Pakistan as a pure Islamic state. As the interviews revealed the incongruous replies of various leaders, they also showed vague but chilling ideas that the right wing parties harboured to turn the newly formed Muslim nation into a politically Islam dominated theocratic nation. The interviews reveal the role of democracy, non Muslims, Jihad and punishments like apostasy that would be practiced in an ideal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Constitution, Democracy, History, Identity, India, Islam, Jinnah, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, minorities, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Religion
Religious Right in Their Own Words; the Concept of an Islamic State
Part 1 By Adnan Syed This two part series revisits one of the pivotal events of the early Pakistani history; the riots by the religious right wing parties to get Ahmadis declared as non-Muslims, and the subsequent Munir-Kiyani inquiry commission report into the causes behind the riots. The report went on to interview the religious leaders of the newly formed state of Pakistan regarding their motives and their ideas of Pakistan as a pure Islamic state. As the interviews revealed the incongruous replies of various leaders, they also showed vague but chilling ideas that the right wing parties harboured to turn the newly formed Muslim nation into a political- Islam-dominated theocratic nation. The interviews reveal the role of democracy, non Muslims, Jihad and punishments like apostasy that would be practiced in an ideal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Constitution, Democracy, Islam, Islamism, Jinnah, Judiciary, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, Pak Tea House, Pakistan, Religion
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