Pakistanis Past, Present and Future
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
If you believe that 9/11 was an inside job which means that the American government connived to kill its own people, that the US raid in Abbotabad of May 2, 2011 in which the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden got killed, was a fraud, that Malala Yousafzai has contributed nothing except to promote Western values in this country; that she was never shot in the head or the whole story around her attack serves to misdirect the people; then my friend, Pakistan is the best place for you to find company-and a lot of it!
According to one study Pakistan among all other nations ranks at the top in subscribing to conspiracy theories as reality.
Like blood running through our veins, conspiracy theories, no matter how unfounded or ridiculous they are, pervade every faction of our society leaving no one behind. And, contrary to common perception, the more educated you are, the more likely you will be convinced by these plots. Why? Because you will have access to the internet and the social media to dig out the information that you already believe in disregarding the more reliable sources of news. So you will not trust the New York Times of course, but you would have full confidence in a fake news website.
Not all conspiracy theories align with each other like the beads of a rosary. They sometimes clash like an entangled mess of yarn, twisted in complex loops and tied with surgeon’s knot; but overall they tag a straight line: 1) that the West as a whole has unified against the Muslims and Islam, 2) that they want to take full control of all the energy resources within the Islamic countries, and 3) that they want to damage Islam’s reputation as a religion of peace and an alternative for the long-term success of humanity, the only ideology standing against capitalism and human greed.
For a moment, pit these explanations against the failure of the Muslim governments to provide the basic life necessities to their citizens; wouldn’t you feel relieved and lighter if you believed in these alternative explanations? Relieved because your failure is at last not your fault, it is your enemy’s misdeed; and lighter because you are on the right side of history standing on principles, while your rivals are burdened with wrong doings, malice and hypocrisy. Would they not make you feel better about yourself?
Having settled that, let us for a moment divide time into three different but equal phases: the past, present and future. Technically, the three are not equal. The past can be stretched over millennia whereas the future holds infinity in its grip. The present, when compared to both, is short and slippery. Anyway, the conspiracy theories deal with only one portion of this arbitrary division, which is the present or the current era. The remote past or the history covers another third and the future keeps the last third.
You very well know what we have been taught about Islamic History in elementary and middle schools or even the history of Pakistan movement, the truth about the Muslim Empires, the character of ‘our’ so-called caliphates, the Mughals, the Golden Age of Islam, and the pioneering of scientific studies. It is only after years have gone by that we realize that our text books are filled with fantasy stories, lies about our past, accusations and character assassinations of anyone who does not fall in line with our definition of virtue and piety.
Now let us talk about the last portion of time: the future. That too is not any different. The religious ‘research scholars’ come up with newer interpretation of semi-confirmed and sometimes totally unfounded Ahadees on monthly basis to share the picture of an impending apocalypse in which a war between Muslims and the rest of the world will be fought soon. Sitting on the pulpits, they tell us how a great future lies in front of us. To achieve that, all we have to do is to get ready for a great battle, a battle that has already been blessed by the Creator who just awaits the right moment. Once we strengthen our faith in Him and follow His command in all matters of life, a grand victory will be granted to us, a Renaissance. In short, this vision is based on war, destruction, devastation, death and loss of millions of human lives. How it can be reconciled with the religion of peace, prosperity and progress, I am not sure. What I am sure though is that our imagination about the future is also distorted like our understanding of the past and the present.
How much more do we have to stay out of touch with reality? Isn’t it delusion at its core? As if a witch has cast a spell on us by converting the virtue of intellectual curiosity into a vice, by taking away even the last fabric of sanity from us.
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