Decipher a Column
By Dr Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfiled, IN
He starts his essay with a Qur’anic verse or an authentic Sahi Hadees. The subject matter is carefully chosen; it is non-controversial and targets a general audience. The column therefore, strikes the religious sentiments of the people and that helps to set up its ‘divine’ agenda.
After the quotation, the author generally pays tribute to a relatively well-known and diligently selected religious personality. He expounds on the achievements of the legend, unfolds his distinguishing characteristics and identifies his services for the propagation of Islam. Sometimes the writer describes an incident from Islamic history, provides the background of the story, emphasizes its religious significance and then draws the moral conclusion from it. This combination of the Qur’anic verse, the Sahi Hadees, the legendary figure and the historic incident is very powerful. It stirs up our emotions; revitalizes our dedication to Islam and rejuvenates our devotion to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Once our emotions have been aligned with the agenda and our unconscious mind is focused on Islam, the essay abruptly takes a U-turn; it leaves the topic of history and enters the present situation in Pakistan. The author then comments on the plight of ordinary Pakistanis and criticizes the current political leadership for their incompetence, dishonesty and corruption. In the end, he endorses one of the political parties, describes the spirituality of its leadership and discusses his past successful endeavors. He finishes the article with the same verse as he used in the beginning of the essay.
These politically motivated religious columns yield benefits to the author socially and reward the politician in the polls. On the one hand, it is the author’s subtle self-proclamation as a religious authority; it is a reflection of self-righteousness and an announcement of personal rectitude. On the other, these articles glamorize the politician, anoint him with divine approval, establish his connection with our glorious past and entail him with a possible role in the renaissance of Islam. Obviously, it is carried out in the name of God, considered conscientious by the author and regarded as angelic by the reader. But in reality, this practice is very dangerous because the author tactfully links our passion for Islam to one of the current political leaderships in the country.
In psychology, this process is called mental anchoring and is a form of cognitive bias. It is the method by which our mind associates particular sentiments to specific events, images and places. Through them, certain songs evoke specific memories in our minds and reproduce similar emotions in our hearts. Mental anchoring is imperfect and can be misleading. At times, it can omit pertinent and relevant details and at others, it emphasizes irrelevant or extraneous factors. Scientists have collected enough data to disregard its credibility and have realized that it leads us to draw incorrect conclusions. In behavioral finance, where its role has been relatively well studied, it leads us to make faulty personal finance decisions and can compel us to lose a fortune. In real estate, our mental anchors fixate us to sell our homes at the purchase price even when the market is plummeting and there is no real hope for its immediate recovery. Typically, it is an unconscious process, but under certain situations, we can learn to reproduce them consciously. According to neuro-linguistic programming experts, the only prerequisite for its learning is the repetition of the same stimulus in the presence of an emotionally charged situation. Once established, these links are permanent and will always generate the same response upon activation. In our example, the religious passion of Pakistanis is anchored to the integrity of a specific politician through repetition of historical events, legendary religious figures and Qur’anic verses.
In a recent column, the author recites a long story about Hazrat al Ahnaf bin Qais, the leader of one of the largest Arab tribes, Banu Tamim. He praises his bravery, commends his honesty and explores his associations with the Caliph Hazrat Omar (RAW). Then suddenly he steers the discussion towards the political situation of Pakistan and admires the leadership of some political party. He also praises the chief of the army staff at the same time and goes on to describe their faith in the political system, their sincerity to the nation and their ability to rise above personal gains.
This is how he sets up a mental anchor consciously in the people’s minds. In this case, it is created between our passion for Islam, our legends of history and the current political leadership. This link is immortal. Now any dissent from the politician can evoke religious emotions; the words of opposition can be considered ‘blasphemous’ and innocent disagreements can be interpreted as perfidy.
This attitude is detrimental for our delicate political environment and it should be avoided across the board. We are already witnessing both political and religious intolerance in our national discourse. It cannot be encouraged and needs to be handled tactfully. We require moderation in our society and ought to stabilize it through impartial analysis only. So let us denounce rhetoric, refrain from rhapsody and discourage anecdotes in order to follow the footsteps of our ancestors.
(The writer is a freelance columnist residing in the US and can be reached at skhashmi@yahoo.com)
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