Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Hypocrisy of the Pakistani Muslims

Ever wonder why the suide bombers are always so young?  Do the "virgins" in heaven have a prejudice against middle age and older men?  Shouldn't a terrorist in his fifties or sixties be more inclined to rush to "heaven"?

The reason is that the ideology that is taught in Pakistan's "Islamic Studies" demands a degree of hypocricy from the students that younger age is unable to provide.  Following concepts are openly taught in public schools by such teachers.  The message is even more direct and extreme in the Madrasas and during the Friday sermons:

  1. Apostacy (giving up Islam as one's religion) is a crime that is punnishable by death
  2. Blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him) is a crime that is punnishable by death.  Note that this is supported by the laws in Pakistan as well and laws do not define blasphemy thus leaving the laws open for abuse. 
  3. Ahmadies are not Muslims.  This is also supported by the laws of Pakistan.  2nd ammendment to the Pakistan constitution declares Ahmadi Muslims to be non-Muslim.  Since Ahmadies call themselves Muslim, this automatically turns them into apostates in the eyes of common folk.
  4. Pakistan is an "Islamic" country and it is bound by her constitution to implement Islamic laws.
Capital punnishment in any society is reserved for the worst crimes.  What is a sixteen year old supposed to make out of these instructions that are taught in public schools?  Isn't that sixteen year old justified in thinking that it is his duty to stop these crimes?  How can Pakistan as a whole claim innocence when such crimes are committed?  Some "mullahs" say "but we don't teach them to kill, we just teach them the rules but tell them that it is the duty of the state not of the individuals".  That is the worst type of hypocricy and they have the nerve to say this in public on public televisions as an excuse that absolves them.  The media anchor on the other end just agrees with them.  What a sad story!

Rebellions have happened in many societies throughout the history and in that Taliban are not a new phenomenon.  What is interesting is that Taliban hit at the heart of those they want to revolutionize and those who are getting hit still sympathize with them.  The society as a whole has created an "assembly line" where if drones kill 10 taliban, Madrisas graduate 100.  The so called "moderates" in Pakistan then make it their duty to find excuses for the Taliban or blame someone else; India and US are common scapegoats.

Pakistan is suffering from a cancer but sadly the people think it is just a common cold which will go away if only if US stops drone attacks.  First Pakistanis need to realize that it is a cancer and that they themselves are feeding the cancer - not someone from outside.  They need to confront their hypocricy and turn their "religious principles" to:

  1. Pakistan guarentees absolute religions freedom where everyone can follow whatever religion they follow.
  2. Freedom of thought and speech is absolute and no one is going to be punnished for "blasphemy"
  3. State has no business in defining people's religions.  If someone wants to consider Ahmadies as non-Muslims, they are free to do so but "for the purpose of constitution", Muslim is anyone who claims to be so.
Unless Pakistanis change their thought process on these lines, they need to realize that there is still a lot of room for Pakistan to drop.  Looks like "Asfala Safileen" applies to Pakistan quite aptly.

1 comment:

Vinnie said...

Very true.

There is no freedom without freedom of thought which includes religious freedom and free speech. India and Pakistan were free from Brits 63 years back but it did not mean we got freedom; we just started paying taxes to a different government. US is no different, we never got separation of church and state, it's an illusion for those who think we did. But yes Pakistan's situation is much worse than US and India and the main reason is they declared themselves Islamic republic instead of secular. US was never free from religion and in fact it increased influence in the the last 30-40 years so did India. The number of secular are certainly increasing but at the cost of religion becoming more fanatic. Only young people can change this because old are mostly indoctrinated. And only right education/teaching/media can pass the right message across. Pakistan's recent ban on read/write internet (sites with user content) not just stops a social communication channel but a blow to freedom of thought.