Politics, Islam and Pakistan
By Dr Nazir Khaja*
Los Angeles, CA
According to a BBC News report, the Punjab Medical College recently expelled 23 students belonging to the Ahmedi faith. Few days before expulsions it was alleged that they were preaching their faith. BBC reported that Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba students surrounded the Principal’s offices and raised slogans against the Ahmedi students. The students were rusticated from the college, and then released by the college administration. The same day, a mob of about 300 college students also barged into the Ahmedi students’ rooms, beat them, and threw their luggage out of their rooms.
When religion shows indifference to the concrete needs and rights of people it neglects its highest purpose. More so, when members of a religious community trample on the rights of others` religion, they betray its highest purpose.
Politicization of faith or political theology embedded in Muslim rules of governance and discourse is causing severe unrest not only within the Muslim world but is also a source of great anxiety for others. The commonly used term by the media “Talibanisation” is an offspring of this phenomenon.
Pakistan ’s` masses are in the grip of poverty and ignorance. They are desperate and also vulnerable; vulnerable to coercion by the government and the politicians and also to manipulation by those who have claims to religious leadership. It is sadly due only to repeated failure on the part of political parties and governments to provide the basic needs of the people that this situation has come about.. The Lal Masjid episode recently in Islamabad speaks to this issue.
This is how religion gets mixed with violence.
The treatment of minorities in Pakistan is yet another proof of its failure as a functioning democracy and as an” Islamic State" ---its` self-identity. Ahmedis, like other minorities, have been persecuted in Pakistan using discriminatory laws. They have faced constant persecution, which in the face of governmental inaction seems sadly state-sanctioned. Not infrequently in adjudicating personal disputes between individual Muslim Pakistanis and non-Muslim citizens unfair advantage to the Muslims is given under the umbrella of religious laws even to justify Muslim provocations and violations of the rights of minorities.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, so often called the "Father of Pakistan," had not envisioned a Pakistan based on a controlling Islamic ideology. "Now what shall we do?" he had asked as Pakistan was created in August 1947. His answer: "Solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, especially of the masses and the poor…You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the State…You will find that in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State." His vision of an Islamic state created for the Muslims of the subcontinent and yet not excluding others as its` citizens with equal rights remains unrealized.
For the Muslims it is religion or Islam that binds them and sets their total orientation. Since Islam is supposedly the basis of the formation of Pakistan and is enshrined in its constitution. Yet, the ideal of "ummah" or faith-based community though pervasive in the common understanding, has not proven viable sociologically anywhere in the Muslim countries including Pakistan. Even more importantly the common understanding of the idea itself has remained "exclusionary" and "exclusive"; "exclusionary", to keep others marginalized and "exclusive", for those in pursuit of power. This neither works in the "Islamic" nor the “democratic" framework. Sadly after decades of colonialism and misrule and then traumatic dictatorships in already tribaliized/feudal societies, national identity remains fragile.
Islam's ideals enshrined in the constitution of various Muslim countries, including Pakistan, are being constantly insulted and assaulted. Impotent and authoritative Governments encourage and protect individuals and institutions that seek communal authority and leadership through archaic rules and exclusionary laws to act out in the name of Islam and cause others harm. This has become a recurrent nightmare in Pakistan’s history and also elsewhere in Muslim countries. Not counting sectarian violence even intra-Muslim feuds and violence have become endemic in Muslim societies. Under the guise of Islam, dictators, autocrats and kings that currently rule most Muslim countries pay only lip service to Islam and do little to uphold its ideals of equality and justice which are the basis of realizing the concept of the Umma.
Recently Indonesia and Malaysia have come to the "defense" of Islam against the Ahmedis. These countries, along with Pakistan and others who persecute minorities in their societies, must be disabused of the idea that Islam needs to be defended by them. Left alone by the politicians, governments which have little consideration for human and minority rights and the misguided literalists who see Islam through a narrow prism, Islam can do very well on its own .The powerful ideas of justice, equality and brotherhood that Islam emphasizes were the ones that carried Islam to distant shores where no armies landed to fight for Islam or defend themselves. These will once again establish Islam's rightful place in a free market of ideas that are for the benefit of all, and consistent with Islam’s ethos and purpose.
Muslims who are faithful to their traditions and are committed to upholding human dignity, must speak both to their own communities, and from their communities to the world at large, raising a common voice for compassion., Together they must declare, that the mission of Islam and monotheism is to assist in bringing God's peace and justice more fully into our world, and that can only be done if they proclaim and protect the rights of all people.
It is time to speak out. This will be in the best interest of Pakistan, Islam and everyone else.
(*Founding Member, Council of Pakistani-American Affairs)
nazir.khaja@gmail.com
