Don’t let mullahs take over Pakistan

[SecularNationalist]

I had goosebumps reading the recent news that several criminals gathered in Lahore under the banner of the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and aligned themselves with the Pakistan Army. Was it a conspiracy to malign the army, I wondered. Who could be behind this?

You see, I have no sympathy for characters like Hafiz Saeed who have eroded Pakistani society and have pushed it in a state of profound crisis. Our health, livelihood, the quality of our environment, our social relationships, our ideology, economy, and politics have all been affected. It is a crisis of intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions; a crisis of a scale and urgency unprecedented in the 65 years Pakistan has existed.

I called a progressive friend (a leading journalist) to share my concern and at least rhetorically, he had gone back several years – suggesting we need a rag-tag army of people like Hafiz Saeed to counter threats from India. My friend had a fit when I suggested that India is not a threat.

Undoubtedly, India has the potential to become a regional hegemony and Pakistan must protect it’s sovereignty, independence and dignity. But these wayward mullahs who have managed to drown the voices of reason and rationality are rapidly destroying our country. With petrodollars supporting tribal and Wahabi influence, Pakistan’s social structures and behaviour patterns have become so rigid that this country can no longer adapt to changing situations.

But I am lucky to have many other friends who are willing to give peace a fighting chance. While the mullahs in Lahore were waging jihad (at least through their hateful speeches) many progressive Pakistani and Indians were praying for peace. A prominent Pakistani activist Beena Sarwar wrote on her Facebook wall:

There were a dozen people over at our place for nihari this afternoon, watching football (!!). We turned off the TV at half-time and sat in silence together to Pray for Peace Between India & Pakistan.

Here is my response to the Facebook posting mentioned above:

Beena Sarwar my friends know that I am not a “praying type” so I didn’t pause between Jets and Eagles game today to pray Had I taken a moment of silence I would have said the same lines that many of my tribe have been saying for centuries: “Dear God, I have come to the conclusion you probably don’t exist, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that any one view I hold may turn out to be mistaken, however unlikely the odds seem. So if you are there, if I am wrong will you please slap some sense into my people in India and Pakistan. Would you please explain to them that what divides them is so tiny compared to what unites them. Please give my friends on both side of the borders, courage to find the similarities instead of accentuating differences. Please give them the strength to negate the narratives of division crafted by those with hegemonic intentions. Please give them the intellectual integrity so they can recognize the good in each other. Please God – if you really have all the power that everyone assigns to you, will you please let South Asia unite in my life time. I don’t ask for much God- let my people travel and trade freely. Learn and entertain openly. Work and innovate collaboratively. Please God, if you are there….

I am glad to have people like Beena – but unfortunately she is an exception and not a rule. I am concerned about Pakistan’s outlook because there is an eerie uniformity of opinion. Even those who are tolerant, progressive and democratic are willing to condone mullahs. Whereas growing civilisations display endless variety and versatility, those in the process of disintegration show uniformity and lack of inventiveness.

Unless Pakistan’s progressive and democratic forces are willing to take on the retrogressive elements, we will concede our right to opinion, education, and a way of life that is unacceptable to the mullahs.

Fundamentalists will prohibit freedom of expression and use all coercive apparatus to crush opposition. Education will be discouraged, and whatever little is allowed, will be subverted by distortion of curricula. You can argue what is new – it has always been the case. It is the intensity that will change. We are not talking about tribal areas. This monster is already in cosmopolitan cities like Karachi and Lahore.

I want to simply point out that religious conviction and religious doctrine have contradictory effects. Some people are motivated by their religious beliefs to challenge oppressive social systems and oppressive relations in the world. At the same time, organised religion and much of religious doctrine is used to reinforce the oppression of the masses of people, to preach submission before the established authorities and their oppressive rule. In Pakistan, rulers have used religion to oppress masses – and we must not empower these mullahs to oppress us any further. As Lenin said, every reactionary order is in need of two functions, the hangman and the priest, and they go hand in hand and complement each other.

So unless you are ready to lock up your sisters and daughters and throw away reason and rationality, you must fight back. Without an iota of doubt these monsters will destroy Pakistan to the point where you will not be able to recognise this country. It is not enough that Jamaat-e-Islami does not win votes – their ideology has hijacked our entire parliament, perhaps even our entire nation. Unless you clean up your offices, your neighbourhoods, and your educational institutions from tyrannical views, Pakistan will not survive.

Stay on high alert! Don’t let proponents of the past take over your beautiful cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

 

[Djinn]

You know, for a secular, you are too desperately defiant to give everything a religious dimension. Perhaps religion is to be blamed for this obsession of yours?

 

[SecularNationalist]

You know, for a secular, you are too desperately defiant to give everything a religious dimension. Perhaps religion is to be blamed for this obsession of yours?

Ok then genius tell me isn,t terrorism the biggest challenge we are facing today? And what exactly is pushing pakistan backward and causing obstacles in development?
Forget about my personal ideology and look around.

 

[waleed3601]

pichle 30 saal mar pit kar guzarey hain, to thodey aur ka kiya hai?
liberalism will always live on, mullahs will never be able to take over because once the larger part of Pakistani masses are educated (i repeat, educated, not only literate) they will have the ability to open their eyes and see the world through the lens of open mindedness, which will ultimately be the defeat of extremism.

 

[[Bregs]]

pichle 30 saal mar pit kar guzarey hain, to thodey aur ka kiya hai?
liberalism will always live on, mullahs will never be able to take over because once the larger part of Pakistani masses are educated (i repeat, educated, not only literate) they will have the ability to open their eyes and see the world through the lens of open mindedness, which will ultimately be the defeat of extremism.

well said

 

[Irfan Baloch]

pichle 30 saal mar pit kar guzarey hain, to thodey aur ka kiya hai?
liberalism will always live on, mullahs will never be able to take over because once the larger part of Pakistani masses are educated (i repeat, educated, not only literate) they will have the ability to open their eyes and see the world through the lens of open mindedness, which will ultimately be the defeat of extremism.

I quote NFP

a mysterious Muslim nuclear power that is not Arab, yet Islamic; militaristic, yet democratic; Indian-ish, but not Indian; and extreme in parts, liberal in others, but – if I may – largely ‘moderate.’

 

[Styx]

I quote NFP

a mysterious Muslim nuclear power that is not Arab, yet Islamic; militaristic, yet democratic; Indian-ish, but not Indian; and extreme in parts, liberal in others, but – if I may – largely ‘moderate.’

I read it the other day when you posted this in another thread.

well written, despite the little jab at the end.. bastard

and my limited interactions with Pakistanis irl tell me as much but I still worry about the religious craziness that exists within Pakistan, the same as I worry about religious craziness everywhere else.

 

[Jaanbaz]

The OP is a retard. Last week he was threatening minorities with death, this clown is a typical paindu that doesn't even know what Secular means.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

pichle 30 saal mar pit kar guzarey hain, to thodey aur ka kiya hai?
liberalism will always live on, mullahs will never be able to take over because once the larger part of Pakistani masses are educated (i repeat, educated, not only literate) they will have the ability to open their eyes and see the world through the lens of open mindedness, which will ultimately be the defeat of extremism.

Ameen.

 

[SecularNationalist]

The OP is a retard. Last week he was threatening minorities with death, this clown is a typical paindu that doesn't even know what Secular means.

Here comes the qadiani brigade
Last week we argued because like always you follower of a mirza ghulam impersonator were declaring more than 1 billion muslims as non muslims because they don,t follow your fake prophet mirza ghulam.And you are lying like your fake prophet i did not say i will kill qadianis.We are already having a sensitive emotional religious issues in our country and you people first insult the real muslims and later play your victim card of being a minority. You are simply not good for pakistan.Stay in UK please and never come back.
Finally i did not want some qadiani follower of a low life clerk from qadian as his prophet who died in his own shit to give me a lecture on secularism

 

[Shamain]

Here comes the qadiani brigade
Last week we argued because like always you follower of a mirza ghulam impersonator were declaring more than 1 billion muslims as non muslims because they don,t follow your fake prophet mirza ghulam.And you are lying like your fake prophet i did not say i will kill qadianis.We are already having a sensitive emotional religious issues in our country and you people first insult the real muslims and later play your victim card of being a minority. You are simply not good for pakistan.Stay in UK please and never come back.
Finally i did not want some qadiani follower of a low life clerk from qadian as his prophet who died in his own shit to give me a lecture on secularism

If these qadiyanis try to act morally uprighteous than just do one thing,

Show them pages from mirza ghulam ahmed qadiyanis books and show them how much hatred he has spewed in those books for ALL ALL the muslims who donot follow him. How he has cursed everyone. When confronted with this arguenent why ahmedis suddenly go silent? He even calls everyone who doesnt follow him a non muslim.

Dont ask ahmedis to confirm just google and download his books or buy them from stores and u will know.

And their same religious leader mirza ghulam qadiyani was against independence from british empire.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

I had goosebumps reading the recent news that several criminals gathered in Lahore under the banner of the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and aligned themselves with the Pakistan Army. Was it a conspiracy to malign the army, I wondered. Who could be behind this?

You see, I have no sympathy for characters like Hafiz Saeed who have eroded Pakistani society and have pushed it in a state of profound crisis. Our health, livelihood, the quality of our environment, our social relationships, our ideology, economy, and politics have all been affected. It is a crisis of intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions; a crisis of a scale and urgency unprecedented in the 65 years Pakistan has existed.

I called a progressive friend (a leading journalist) to share my concern and at least rhetorically, he had gone back several years – suggesting we need a rag-tag army of people like Hafiz Saeed to counter threats from India. My friend had a fit when I suggested that India is not a threat.

Undoubtedly, India has the potential to become a regional hegemony and Pakistan must protect it’s sovereignty, independence and dignity. But these wayward mullahs who have managed to drown the voices of reason and rationality are rapidly destroying our country. With petrodollars supporting tribal and Wahabi influence, Pakistan’s social structures and behaviour patterns have become so rigid that this country can no longer adapt to changing situations.

But I am lucky to have many other friends who are willing to give peace a fighting chance. While the mullahs in Lahore were waging jihad (at least through their hateful speeches) many progressive Pakistani and Indians were praying for peace. A prominent Pakistani activist Beena Sarwar wrote on her Facebook wall:

There were a dozen people over at our place for nihari this afternoon, watching football (!!). We turned off the TV at half-time and sat in silence together to Pray for Peace Between India & Pakistan.

Here is my response to the Facebook posting mentioned above:

Beena Sarwar my friends know that I am not a “praying type” so I didn’t pause between Jets and Eagles game today to pray Had I taken a moment of silence I would have said the same lines that many of my tribe have been saying for centuries: “Dear God, I have come to the conclusion you probably don’t exist, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that any one view I hold may turn out to be mistaken, however unlikely the odds seem. So if you are there, if I am wrong will you please slap some sense into my people in India and Pakistan. Would you please explain to them that what divides them is so tiny compared to what unites them. Please give my friends on both side of the borders, courage to find the similarities instead of accentuating differences. Please give them the strength to negate the narratives of division crafted by those with hegemonic intentions. Please give them the intellectual integrity so they can recognize the good in each other. Please God – if you really have all the power that everyone assigns to you, will you please let South Asia unite in my life time. I don’t ask for much God- let my people travel and trade freely. Learn and entertain openly. Work and innovate collaboratively. Please God, if you are there….

I am glad to have people like Beena – but unfortunately she is an exception and not a rule. I am concerned about Pakistan’s outlook because there is an eerie uniformity of opinion. Even those who are tolerant, progressive and democratic are willing to condone mullahs. Whereas growing civilisations display endless variety and versatility, those in the process of disintegration show uniformity and lack of inventiveness.

Unless Pakistan’s progressive and democratic forces are willing to take on the retrogressive elements, we will concede our right to opinion, education, and a way of life that is unacceptable to the mullahs.

Fundamentalists will prohibit freedom of expression and use all coercive apparatus to crush opposition. Education will be discouraged, and whatever little is allowed, will be subverted by distortion of curricula. You can argue what is new – it has always been the case. It is the intensity that will change. We are not talking about tribal areas. This monster is already in cosmopolitan cities like Karachi and Lahore.

I want to simply point out that religious conviction and religious doctrine have contradictory effects. Some people are motivated by their religious beliefs to challenge oppressive social systems and oppressive relations in the world. At the same time, organised religion and much of religious doctrine is used to reinforce the oppression of the masses of people, to preach submission before the established authorities and their oppressive rule. In Pakistan, rulers have used religion to oppress masses – and we must not empower these mullahs to oppress us any further. As Lenin said, every reactionary order is in need of two functions, the hangman and the priest, and they go hand in hand and complement each other.

So unless you are ready to lock up your sisters and daughters and throw away reason and rationality, you must fight back. Without an iota of doubt these monsters will destroy Pakistan to the point where you will not be able to recognise this country. It is not enough that Jamaat-e-Islami does not win votes – their ideology has hijacked our entire parliament, perhaps even our entire nation. Unless you clean up your offices, your neighbourhoods, and your educational institutions from tyrannical views, Pakistan will not survive.

Stay on high alert! Don’t let proponents of the past take over your beautiful cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

Hey; if you want a secular Pakistan. Bangladesh is a secular version of Pakistan; it is catching up on India on being the prostitution and rape capital of the world. Secularism is a parasite for many countries; there are plenty of non-secular countries that are doing perfect and some who have tried a step closer towards secularism have seen nothing but disaster; like Libya.

 

[Mohd. Kamran]

I had goosebumps reading the recent news that several criminals gathered in Lahore under the banner of the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and aligned themselves with the Pakistan Army. Was it a conspiracy to malign the army, I wondered. Who could be behind this?

You see, I have no sympathy for characters like Hafiz Saeed who have eroded Pakistani society and have pushed it in a state of profound crisis. Our health, livelihood, the quality of our environment, our social relationships, our ideology, economy, and politics have all been affected. It is a crisis of intellectual, moral, and spiritual dimensions; a crisis of a scale and urgency unprecedented in the 65 years Pakistan has existed.

I called a progressive friend (a leading journalist) to share my concern and at least rhetorically, he had gone back several years – suggesting we need a rag-tag army of people like Hafiz Saeed to counter threats from India. My friend had a fit when I suggested that India is not a threat.

Undoubtedly, India has the potential to become a regional hegemony and Pakistan must protect it’s sovereignty, independence and dignity. But these wayward mullahs who have managed to drown the voices of reason and rationality are rapidly destroying our country. With petrodollars supporting tribal and Wahabi influence, Pakistan’s social structures and behaviour patterns have become so rigid that this country can no longer adapt to changing situations.

But I am lucky to have many other friends who are willing to give peace a fighting chance. While the mullahs in Lahore were waging jihad (at least through their hateful speeches) many progressive Pakistani and Indians were praying for peace. A prominent Pakistani activist Beena Sarwar wrote on her Facebook wall:

There were a dozen people over at our place for nihari this afternoon, watching football (!!). We turned off the TV at half-time and sat in silence together to Pray for Peace Between India & Pakistan.

Here is my response to the Facebook posting mentioned above:

Beena Sarwar my friends know that I am not a “praying type” so I didn’t pause between Jets and Eagles game today to pray Had I taken a moment of silence I would have said the same lines that many of my tribe have been saying for centuries: “Dear God, I have come to the conclusion you probably don’t exist, but I’ve also come to the conclusion that any one view I hold may turn out to be mistaken, however unlikely the odds seem. So if you are there, if I am wrong will you please slap some sense into my people in India and Pakistan. Would you please explain to them that what divides them is so tiny compared to what unites them. Please give my friends on both side of the borders, courage to find the similarities instead of accentuating differences. Please give them the strength to negate the narratives of division crafted by those with hegemonic intentions. Please give them the intellectual integrity so they can recognize the good in each other. Please God – if you really have all the power that everyone assigns to you, will you please let South Asia unite in my life time. I don’t ask for much God- let my people travel and trade freely. Learn and entertain openly. Work and innovate collaboratively. Please God, if you are there….

I am glad to have people like Beena – but unfortunately she is an exception and not a rule. I am concerned about Pakistan’s outlook because there is an eerie uniformity of opinion. Even those who are tolerant, progressive and democratic are willing to condone mullahs. Whereas growing civilisations display endless variety and versatility, those in the process of disintegration show uniformity and lack of inventiveness.

Unless Pakistan’s progressive and democratic forces are willing to take on the retrogressive elements, we will concede our right to opinion, education, and a way of life that is unacceptable to the mullahs.

Fundamentalists will prohibit freedom of expression and use all coercive apparatus to crush opposition. Education will be discouraged, and whatever little is allowed, will be subverted by distortion of curricula. You can argue what is new – it has always been the case. It is the intensity that will change. We are not talking about tribal areas. This monster is already in cosmopolitan cities like Karachi and Lahore.

I want to simply point out that religious conviction and religious doctrine have contradictory effects. Some people are motivated by their religious beliefs to challenge oppressive social systems and oppressive relations in the world. At the same time, organised religion and much of religious doctrine is used to reinforce the oppression of the masses of people, to preach submission before the established authorities and their oppressive rule. In Pakistan, rulers have used religion to oppress masses – and we must not empower these mullahs to oppress us any further. As Lenin said, every reactionary order is in need of two functions, the hangman and the priest, and they go hand in hand and complement each other.

So unless you are ready to lock up your sisters and daughters and throw away reason and rationality, you must fight back. Without an iota of doubt these monsters will destroy Pakistan to the point where you will not be able to recognise this country. It is not enough that Jamaat-e-Islami does not win votes – their ideology has hijacked our entire parliament, perhaps even our entire nation. Unless you clean up your offices, your neighbourhoods, and your educational institutions from tyrannical views, Pakistan will not survive.

Stay on high alert! Don’t let proponents of the past take over your beautiful cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

People like you are the pearl of any nation.Aap ko kuddha khush rakhe .

 

[SecularNationalist]

Hey; if you want a secular Pakistan. Bangladesh is a secular version of Pakistan; it is catching up on India on being the prostitution and rape capital of the world. Secularism is a parasite for many countries; there are plenty of non-secular countries that are doing perfect and some who have tried a step closer towards secularism have seen nothing but disaster; like Libya.

Secularism in subcontinent is a joke because we are still carrying our staunch religious beliefs.Libya on the other hand is yet to transform since recently they toppled gadaffi regime and america and NATO is still meddling in their internal affairs.There are plenty of good other examples to follow don,t just point out few unfortunate countries to attack secularism.

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

Secularism in subcontinent is a joke because we are still carrying our staunch religious beliefs.Libya on the other hand is yet to transform since recently they toppled gadaffi regime and america and NATO is still meddling in their internal affairs.There are plenty of good other examples to follow don,t just point out few unfortunate countries to attack secularism.

Libya is yet to Transform? Haha; the secular government doesn't even control the Capital and there arent just "some" examples, there are plenty. Please dont bring your poisonous ideas to PAK istan; like i quoted, if you like secularism so much please go to Bangladesh. Pakistan is in between Secular and Islamic; if its becomes a full islamic state almost all of our problems will be solved.