This is not our kind of Islam... by FATIMA BHUTTO
Sharia law was introduced to Pakistan undemocratically and without debate – but people are too frightened to protest...
Last week, Pakistan earned another point on its scorecard as the world's most dangerous country. During what was supposed to be the start of a Lahore test match series, masked gunmen attacked the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, killing five policemen and injuring several players. Not even cricket is safe in Pakistan now. In response, typically, Pakistan's government claimed shock at the violence. There was no mention of the warnings that the government had received of a potential attack, no mention of the violence that has rampaged across Pakistan's cities, and no talk of the almost casual escape the gunmen made, caught by CCTV cameras in the area. Instead, the interior minister, a feckless man with no political experience, declared that Pakistan was "in a state of war". Well, yes. It is. It has been at war for some time now.
In February, the government capitulated to the demands of Islamic militants who have been fighting the state in the Swat Valley for over a year and promised the promulgation of Sharia law in the valley. There was no vote, no referendum, no democracy in the matter. The government, who cannot fight the militants in Swat – it is too busy assisting the flight of Predator drones from internal airbases and making sure they hit their targets in Waziristan – just declared that federal law would be replaced by Sharia. No room for dissent or choice was given. The decision, however, is a redundant one; Pakistan's 1973 constitution stipulates that no law contrary to Islam can be enacted in the land.
It would seem that Pakistan is losing, quite rapidly, the battle against jihadist ideology. We now have our own, home grown, Taliban – the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban party. And now our country, one that was founded as a safe haven for Muslims, has become synonymous with the frightening prospect of Islamic militancy.
But the Islam I know is absent from Pakistan today. It's an Islam that western pundits might call moderate, but it seems pretty radical to me. It's an Islam that is peaceful and tolerant, a faith that derives its strength from poetic ghazals by Rumi, Hafez, and Iqbal, one that was once questioning and has the limitless power to be so again. That Sufi Islam, which has its roots in the shrines in Sehwan Sharif in the heart of Sindh, has been booted out of Pakistan. Instead, it has been replaced with fundamentalist, Taliban style, Wahhabi-inspired Islam, the kind that thrives on beheadings and fatwas, in short the very scary (Saudi) kind. Nato must be thrilled.
In February, a 42-year-old Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak was beheaded by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. His murder was videotaped and released to the public. Poland reacted with understandably fury: "The Pakistani government doesn't control these terrorists, these murderers" said the nation's foreign minister. That was before Sharia law was forced upon the Swat Valley. The Taliban executioners called it revenge for Poland's troops in Afghanistan. On Thursday, suspected Taliban militants blew up the shrine of a 17th century Sufi poet in Peshawar. Rahman Baba, the Sufi saint, is celebrated as one of the great poets of the Pashto language. He had nothing to do with troops in Afghanistan. But women frequented the shrine, and this, says the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, is an abomination. If we are not careful, girls' schools – over 200 of which have been blown up or destroyed in the North-West Frontier Province since this government took over – music, kite flying, women in the workplace, short-sleeved shirts, chess, teddy bears and poetry are next to go.
However, while millions of Pakistanis have taken umbrage at the depiction of their country's new super-militant status, not enough Pakistanis have taken a stand against the Talibanisation of their country. It has become unpatriotic to speak against Islam in any form in today's Pakistan. In Karachi, responses to the government's declaration of Sharia law in Swat have been muted. No one dares to say the unthinkable – it's a dangerous step. It was taken undemocratically. This is not our kind of Islam. It doesn't represent us, not in Pakistan...
Posts
What’s Going Right in Pakistan
-
Adil Najam There is much – way too much – that is going terribly wrong in
Pakistan. But not all is lost. Not just yet. One must never deny that which
is ...
13 years ago
Nice article and does explain the current situation in pakistan quite eloquently.
ReplyDeleteHowever with due respect, I disagree that the Taliban follow Wahabi or Saudi style Islam. Taliban are completely ignorant of Islam and they follow a sick philosphy of killing and this is not Wahabi/Saudi Islam.
Wahabism has been defamed for too long now. If you look at Wahabisim and Islam in Saudi Arabia in Detail, its main foundations are firm belief in Tauheed or Oneness of Allah and not associating any partners with Allah and a categorical rejection of grave or shrine worship. This is absolutely what Islam says.
The interesting point to note is that in Saudi Arabia where Correct Islam is practiced, there are no instances of religious violence on the scale you see in Pakistan.
In Pakistan the biggest problem is that Islam was never practiced correctly, hence all this mess. On the one hand there is the so called sufi Islam which is influenced from Hinduism and has shrine & grave worship at its Core which leads to Shirk (a sin never forgiven by Allah) and Bidats. On the other hand there is Taliban Islam where innocent people are killed for their sick objectives which is in no way Islam.
If pakistanis actually practiced Islam correctly and similar to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan would have been in a much better shape.
Why Wahabism is associated with the Taliban is because that’s how they were introduced in Pakistan by Zia-ul-Haq. Though now most of the people are questioning the ratio of religious ideology versus the political tact’s that make the foundation of this Talibanisation. I guess all we need to do is look back a few years down our history & we'll be able to find our answers.
ReplyDeleteThe prosperity of Saudia Arabia has a lot of other reasons apart from the form of Islam that they practice. Their petro dollars, their associations etc.
I'll be sort of repeating my above statement; that Pakistan was pretty much connected to its religion & life was quite peaceful(just what Islam propagates) until Zia though of using it as a political instrument to attack his opponents & to cash on his policies under the banner of religion as Pakistanis our quite emotional about it.
We need to stop cherry picking while analyzing our situation & look at the things from a 360 degrees angle. The real world is not just black or white its grey.
Your associating sufism with shirk or connecting its roots to other religions is just like saying that Islam preaches terrorism because a faction of them endorses it. The spread of Islam in the sub-continent is because of sufism & to understand what it really stands for you need to have a deep study over it.
Your comments about Gen Zia are fair and its true that his government did fan religious extremeism. However that was all done for the US. The US wanted to dis assemble Russia and made Zia their ally. Zia thought it was best to use the Taliban as 'Cheap soldiers' both in Afganistan against Russia and in Kashmir against India. Now Pakistan has fallen in the hole which was dug for Russia and India.
ReplyDeleteHowever regarding your view that Taliban were created from the Wahabi Idealogy. Thats a big big misconception. As I said earlier, wahabi ideology only believes in Tauheed (Oneness of Allah and worshipping Him alone) and Risalat (belief that the Prophet (saw) is the final messenger of AlLah and following the example of the prophet(saw)). The taliban clearly do not follow the compassion taught by the Prophet (saw). Its wrong to associate them to Wahabism just as it would be wrong to associate a University with Crime if one of its Students committed a crime out of thousands of students.
Hence I give the example of Saudi Arabia where Pure Islam (critics say wahabism) is practiced and there is no religious violence. Also even in parts of Africa 'Wahabi' Islam ie true Islam is practiced and there is no violence in those countries either.
Coming to your point that Islam was spread in the asian subcontinent through sufisim is a big misconception. Actually pure Islam came to the sub continent through the pious Muslims. These people only talked about Allah and the prophet and never told any one to build their 'Mazaars' and committ wrong practices there. However because the vast majority of ordinary muslims with little knowledge of islam lived with the Hindus in the sub contient and in Hinduism you have temples and saints like Sai Baba, the muslims also got influenced and deviated and started practising sufism and made mazaars of the pious muslims and started all sorts of Bidats and even Shirk at the mazaars. Hence you will notice that sufism is only practiced in Indo Pak Subcontient or Turkey (where Islam was crushed by the turkish governments as history tells us). In all other parts of the world, like Middle east or Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia you have true Islam which critics call Wahabism and there is no religious violence in majority of these countries.