Our poisoned education: Shia clothes and Sunni textbooks
When I was studying at university, during a discussion over an economic issue, my professor (a PhD) uttered these words: “Alhamdulillah, I am a Sunni, I am a Muslim.” These words took me and many other students by surprise. The bizarre logic of uttering those unnecessary words in the midst of a discussion, especially when the class comprised of students from diverse religious backgrounds, was unfathomable. Even if she considered it essential to make a reference to the Islamic economic system, she could have easily done that in a mild tone without boasting about her own religious and sectarian affiliations wrapped ...
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Banning concerts is not a solution
Tracing back the history of Pakistani pop music is tricky. Wikipedia describes Runa Laila as a veteran among pop sensations; Nazia Hassan and Zohaib Hassan are ranked after her. Today, Pakistani pop music is one of the most popular genres in South Asia and also with the South Asian diaspora around the world.This fact has been accepted with much grace and enthusiasm by the majority, but there are always hindrances posed by certain hard-liner groups, changing governments and Islamic fundamentalists, who frequently have issues with Pakistan’s vibrant and thriving mainstream and underground music factory. Following Ziaul Haq’s military coup, ...
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Explaining the garlands for Qadri
You may argue that a large number of people in Pakistan condemn the assassination of Salmaan Taseer. But the truth, though bitter, is that many instead of condemning the heinous act of a murderer, condemn the verdict of the court which proclaims capital punishment for Mumtaz Qadri. There are campaigns running throughout the country that pay tribute to a murderer. Huge posters of Qadri, decked with Quranic verses and beautiful roses, are plastered all over and yet there is no one to remove such aberrations. Some believe that the reason for this queer phenomenon is illiteracy, and talk about it in a ...
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Confessions of a ‘heretic’
It was like a nightmare. Dark shadows, mysterious phone calls, dreaming of death -there should have been a reason for all of this, but there was none. I had been declared an accursed heretic. I could feel them chasing me down, chopping me into pieces and celebrating wildly afterwards. I could sense the happiness they would gain from spilling my blood. The days were getting darker. I was alive but there was a deadly silence around me. Suddenly, my friends had stopped talking to me and so called ‘moderate’ art teachers started discriminating against me. My once ‘liberal’ social ...
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Confessions of a fundamentalist: We’re going to get you
I have a confession to make: I am what some of you might call a fundo : a fundo strategist to be precise. I was recruited in secret by a group of people calling themselves the “Tehreek-i-Nifaaz-i-Duniya-i-Jahaane-Musalmaniya-Pakistan.” It is a top secret group made of representatives from different religious parties, banned outfits, sympathisers and financiers. Our group composition Our group operates like a small company. We have an an established mission (evident from our name) and a chain of command: nigraan-e-nizameen (board of directors) markaz-e-tazobarkar (core strategy group) majmuah-e-teelibaaz (general workers) I am the naib chaalbaaz (deputy strategist) and report to the emir chaalbaaz (chief ...
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In the commune: In memory of Salmaan Taseer
Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer was assasinated by his own guard, a member of the Elite Force, on January 4, 2011 in Islamabad. The assassin, Malik Mumtaz Qadri surrendered himself after shooting the governor with 26 bullets. Qadri said that he killed Taseer because the PPP leader had termed the blasphemy law a kaala kanoon (black law) and supported Aasia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death under the law. The Express Tribune was inundated with a flood of outrage and grief from bloggers and readers. D Asghar Welcome to ‘Pakillistan,’ where we kill indiscriminately, anywhere, any place, any time, any way, when it comes to ...
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Laal: Fighting fundamentalism with Sufi thought
Clad in black, the darwaish twirls and twirls on his bare feet, so enthralled, so totally immersed as if he was about to whirl himself to a parallel dimension. A child in rags stands nearby, eyeing him gleefully. His eyes shine: he wants to join in. A group of women gather around, clapping, singing, laughing, almost in a trance themselves. The shrine of their patron Saint lurks in the background: the perfect catharsis for the wretched, the refuge of the forsaken! Filmed not long before the bomb-blast at the Pakpattan shrine, Laal’s latest video “Fareeda” pays homage to the Sufi ...
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Tolerant Islam under attack
Every Thursday, as the drums would roll, the colourful devotees would crowd, the rose petals would float, the excited children would hop, the cars would swerve, the buses would gather, the food would overflow, the lights would glow, and I would wonder anew at the hospitability and attraction of the Abdullah Shah Ghazi mazaar. Abdullah Shah Ghazi is said to have arrived from Iraq in the eighth century to preach the brand of tolerant Islam that is still followed by the majority of people here. Many people claim to have been granted their wishes here. Apart from the faithful, there ...
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Fundamentalism versus pluralism in religion
”The principle of movement in the structure of Islam” (Allama Iqbal, Reconstruction of Religious Thought In Islam) Religious fundamentalism has been described in various terms and jargon; however the most compelling description of fundamentalism when we consider the topics of knowledge production and social practice is’ the virtual absence of historical scholarship, liberty and rationality.’ Fundamentalists are by no means inclined towards force but they do deny the call for reform and change, arguing that religion is unchangeable hence any interference by human beings through manipulative means of interpretation is an adulteration of the purity of faith. In one clear ...
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