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Pakistan: Islamic, not secular & Non-theocratic

Ali.009

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It is fashionable in some quarters of Lahore to be “secular humanists” these days. This reminds me of our trip to Sarajevo, the capital of Yugoslavia a few decades ago when Marashal Tito was alive and Yugoslavia was sternly ruled by the Socialist state. It was the end of Ramadhan so my father asked us to investigate, seek out and find a mosque for saying Eid Prayers.

We searched far and wide, and asked several people with Muslim sounding names for the nearest mosque. The usual response was “we are Europeans”, saying that being a Socialist in a post-religious world meant that these modern Yugoslavs had transcended religion and it was not important.

In the 80s when Yugoslavia was coming apart and Bosnia wanted to be indpendent, the Serbians came down hunted down the Bosnian Muslims. They Serbs were more successful in finding the Muslims then we were. The Serbs hunted them down, put them in concentration camps and rape centers. Their fault their ancestors were Muslims.

That was then and this is now. Today a visitor to Sarajevo would have no difficulty finding Muslims or a mosque to pray in. The mosques are full and the Bosnians don’t make the wine that they were so proud of.


Pakistan's new provinces. Ending majoritarianism. Balancing the federation. Empowering minorities. Resolving greviences


“Quantum Note” has seldom been written in response to anything that appears on the op-ed pages of The News. But two recent columns have raised fundamental issues regarding state and religion, and they demand response because they deal with issues of enduring importance for Pakistan. “In defence of a secular state” (Dec 18) and “Winter less of discontent than of gloom” (Dec 19) are both concerned with Islam and Pakistan, which, let us recall, is a country where 96 percent of the population proclaims that “There is no deity except Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger.” This testimony of faith makes them Muslim, that is, those who believe in the five pillars of Islam (the testimony of faith, obligatory prayers, fasting, zakah, and Haj), as well as the set of tenets associated with belief (Iman): the Unicity of the Creator, Allah, belief in angels, in Allah’s prophets, on the Day of Reckoning, and on qadr. These are non-negotiable and irreducible beliefs of every Muslim.

It is not my intention to probe the beliefs of the writers of the above mentioned columns. One of them has ridiculed the “self-proclaimed defenders of Pakistan’s ideology,” lamented the impossibility of “a creative dialogue on the meanings of secularism,” and listed five points in “defence of revisiting our dominant ideologies and establishing a secular state within Pakistan as one of several possible resolutions to its myriad problems. “The other is essentially asking for legalisation of drinking and prostitution, for “doctors of divinity should know enough about the human condition to realise that banning anything makes it more attractive.”


Marhattas in green India 1760 19051

While both are welcome to hold whatever views they hold, when they write for public consumption, they incur a responsibility–a moral and intellectual responsibility. While the prevalent intellectual anarchy allows publication of all kinds of views, we wish we could think that these ideas are unsound on historical grounds. It is hard to see how the writers of these two articles can publish such views, which ignore fundamental historical realities. The writer is a freelance columnist.quantumnotes@gmail.com. Islamic or secular Pakistan? Quantum note, Friday, January 02, 2009 by Dr Muzaffar Iqbal

Today many of the Lahorites brainwashed by the propoganda of the Neocons and the Akhand Bhartis are acting like the Bosnians of yesteryear. They have bought the Neocon Plan for a New American Century (PNAC) masquerading as the Global War on Terror (GWOT) claptrap. These Neo-Liberals are stuck in a time warp of the 60s, the new Pakistani Flower Children who think that if they sing “kambaya” in Lahore, the nasty Modi’s and the abominable Thackery’s will just go away.


Legal India Pakistan map. Map of India. Map of Pakistan. Map of Bangladesh

To begin with, let us note that the state of Pakistan came into existence through the partition of the Indian subcontinent on the basis of Islam. This can be attested to by visiting the primary sources available to all. There is not a single argument advanced by the representatives of Muslims of the Indian subcontinent during the period of struggle for gaining independence from the overbearing English colonisers that does not rest on the principle that Muslims and non-Muslims are two nations which cannot live within the same state.

The two-nation theory is simply a statement of this historical reality: even after hundreds of years of shared existence within a specific geographical region, Muslims and non-Muslims of the Indian subcontinent remained two distinct nations. This is why Islam was, is, and will remain, the only raison d’etre of Pakistan. This is why every document of the Independence movement–from the pamphlets of Chaudhry Rahmat Ali, to the 1930 presidential address of Allama Iqbal, to the legalistic arguments of Muhammad Ali Jinnah–rests on this fundamental argument that the Muslims of India constitute a separate nation from the non-Muslims and deserve to have a separate homeland.



All lower caste areas are in open revolt. Map of India showing the highest concentration of Brahmins and Hindu extremists known as Hinduvta

To be sure, the case for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan does not rest on the statements of a Jinnah or an Iqbal, for these individuals were but human and their reasoning cannot be taken to have enduring and lasting value; it rsests on the fact that the vast majority of this land is Muslim. It is this silent majority for whom the rallying cry during the years of popular uprising against the British was Pakistan ka Matlab kaya? La’ila ilLah (What is the meaning of Pakistan? There is no deity except Allah), that remains the bedrock of an unchanging reality. Hence, the argument advanced by Dr Saigol, that “ideologies do not remain static and over time they do transform,” is invalid, for the fundamental building block of Pakistan is not merely an ideology, but a commitment of our people to Islam. It is this fundamental reality that Dr Saigol wishes to ignore by calling it a “foundational mythology,” and “a denial of history.” Denial of history is certainly present in this argument. The writer is a freelance columnist.quantumnotes@gmail.com. Islamic or secular Pakistan? Quantum note, Friday, January 02, 2009 by Dr Muzaffar Iqbal

Raised on “Social Studies” they are totally unaware of the History of Pakistan or the Two Nation Theory. Alarmed by the Indian sponsored “TTP” they are scared of giving up their lifestyle.

Like the decadent Andulusians they are scared of the impneding doom of the Re-Conquista but also scared of the Almohadis (Taliban) Moorish Berbers who swarmed upon the Cordobans. These Secualr Humanists are unaware of what would happen once Isabella and Ferdinend take over Cordoba.

They are unaware of the Spanish Inquisition and the terrible Torquamada who eliminated all Muslims from Spain.

Apart from these considerations, there are other enduring reasons which dictate that a truly Islamic, and not a secular, state is the real answer to Pakistan’s myriad problems. But those considerations require a separate column, although it must be mentioned here that an Islamic state is, by definition, a state based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him. A secular state of whatever kind, on the other hand, is a state based on the wisdom of human beings who deny that Revelation can be the basis of a state. Dr Saigol’s version of secular state may be a legitimate model for an imaginary “multi-religious state,” as she claims. But her reasoning falls apart when applied to Pakistan, simply because it is based on a fundamental failure to acknowledge the fact that 96 percent of people living within the geographical entity called Pakistan are Muslim according to

the most recent census. (See demographic data according to religious beliefs at the official website http:// Federal Bureau of Statistics - Government of Pakistan /pco/statistics/other_tables/ pop_by_religion.pdf).


Map of the 570 states of the Subcontinent in pre-indpendence "india"

With regard to the second column, with its seeming advocacy of legalisation of drinking and prostitution, it is sufficient to say that if basic argument of that advocacy (”prevalence of drinking and of the oldest profession”) is accepted, then one should simultaneously advocate for legalisation of theft, murder, robbery, and all other crimes, for they are–and have always been–present in human society.

Even though these views may advance the ideological and moral commitments of a few Pakistanis, their articulation in public domain at a moment when every basic principle of authority seems undermined, accelerates the process of intellectual anarchy which cannot be delinked from the political and social anarchy of our times. There is much reason to fear that loose philosophy, stimulated by a faulty understanding of religion has done not a little to weaken the principles on which the state of Pakistan was established and which continue to remain valid because the populace has not changed its religious beliefs. The writer is a freelance columnist.quantumnotes@gmail.com. Islamic or secular Pakistan? Quantum note, Friday, January 02, 2009 by Dr Muzaffar Iqbal



Continent of Dinia and dependencies Large Ch. Rehmat Ali Big map
 
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:coffee: ...Whatever....

Like, I said, if u like reading it...do it a thousand times.

And who are you? Some indian whose opinion/remark dsnt matter in this internal matter of Pakistan, yet he still wants to post. Seriously, if you'r a wise human being, you dont have to fear the rise of islam. Its almost there.
 
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And who are you? Some indian whose opinion/remark dsnt matter in this internal matter of Pakistan, yet he still wants to post. Seriously, if you'r a wise human being, you dont have to fear the rise of islam. Its almost there.

Rise of Islam??...Islam is like a shining sun and u r talking about "rising Islam"!!..

But,What really matters is what kind of Islam??? Constructive or destructive.
A muslim who prays 5 times a day with a pure heart asking for the betterment of humanity is better than 10,000 who strap bombs around their bodies and killing innocents.
 
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Rise of Islam??...Islam is like a shining sun and u r talking about "rising Islam"!!..

But,What really matters is what kind of Islam??? Constrictive or destructive.
A muslim who prays 5 times a day with a pure heart asking for the betterment of humanity is better than 10,000 who strap bombs around their bodies and killing innocents.

Rise of political islam that is, which obviously you coudnt get. On the other hand, islam is always Constructive 'zaheer khan', you dont even know the spells, let alone islam.

Those bombers are hindu raw agent, not a muslims.
 
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Rise of political islam that is, which obviously you coudnt get. On the other hand, islam is always Constructive 'zaheer khan', you dont even know the spells, let alone islam.

Those bombers are hindu raw agent, not a muslims.

I think he is right if you see that politics is far from religion.

About 'spells':woot:, i need not talk.

And 'hindu raw agent'... cheap logic.

Btw all hindus are not RAW nor is it that all RAW is hindu.
 
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Maplistan??:rofl::rofl:
Well i guess Choudhury Rehmat Ali and his followers has not much knowledge about the region "Maplistan":D in the so called "Continent of Dinia and its Dependencies".:what:
Atleast know this, Dravidian's never use the word "Stan" in naming their place. And since majority of the people in Malabar don't know Arabic or Urdu other than their mother tongue Malayalam (a Dravidian language), "Stan" is an Alien word for us. :disagree:
 
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I think he is right if you see that politics is far from religion.

About 'spells':woot:, i need not talk.

And 'hindu raw agent'... cheap logic.

Btw all hindus are not RAW nor is it that all RAW is hindu.

Politics is not far from religion, must be for hindus/christians, not for muslims. My logic is same as you'r cheap logic about 'muslim ISI terrorists'. Oh yea, a part of RAW is jewish too. My bad.
 
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