In the Times of Futile Debates
Nov 15th, 2013 | By Maryam Sakeenah | Category: Latest, PakistanWe gloat over carrion; we gather to pick up the pieces. We discriminate between dead bodies under labels of ‘halak’ (merely killed) and ‘shaheed’ (martyred). As we do so, we don God’s hat, partaking of what is exclusively His right with a self-righteous audacity. Our opinions on the dead may not be worth a shred but they signify the sides we take in this melee over corpses. And it all reeks of the deep sickness that gnaws into our body politic, the gulley-wide split that gapes like an open-mouthed hydra threatening to swallow us piecemeal- the tectonic gash that runs across us splintering us into opposed camps, eye to eye.
Pakistan today is a dangerously divided society with intense polarization around ideological affiliation. Reconciliation grows impossible with the unchecked and unabashed media stoking the flames of hate by bringing the sides on head-on collision course with malevolent deliberation. The commercial news media feeds itself on sensationalism, as is clear from the manner in which the Jamaat e Islami leadership has been thrown the bait and drawn into the centre-stage of the melee. The result has been an angry storm of ‘with us or against’ us rhetoric. Either one endorses the official version of the narrative or he is with the Taliban- with this rabid logic, JI and PTI’s political opponents have grabbed the opportunity to accuse the two parties of being cohorts and allies of the Taliban. Strictly speaking, these claims are inaccurate, far-fetched and malicious, as both groups explicitly renounce the use of violence for religious and political purposes and while calling for dialogue, have consistently rejected the wayward ways of the TTP. The fecklessness with which Munawar Hasan faced the situation and the recklessness of his impertinent statements have discredited the JI’s decades-long largely non violent political struggle.
The fact that the drone strike killing Hakimullah Mehsud came at the time when the conversation on counter terrorism was being steered away from the blood and iron that had eluded peace exposes the U.S’s unilateralist pursuit of narrow national interest in the strategic region.
The ‘most allied ally’ only gets a few crumbs thrown its way from the bloody deal that has proven so costly for Pakistan. The enemy laughs at our wounds with sadistic glee; laughs our desperate overtures for peacemaking to scorn. The raw anger this generates drowns all sanity so that sentimental, reckless statements like ‘even a dog killed by the U.S is a martyr’ are made, making Islamic jurisprudence look puerile and inane.
Yet we choose to fight over juristic complexities about life in the unseen world from our entrenched positions. The media directs all attention towards this needlessly long drawn argument even though the conversation should be about strategies to effectively check the Global Bully on the loose. The conversation should be about the utter illegality and unacceptability of US drone strikes in Pakistan. To articulate such a response the nation needs to stand together in solidarity and speak out with a single emphatic, resounding voice. Yet at this critical juncture we seek to intensify divides in order to pep up the news bulletin on commercial television- all at a terrible cost.
The ideological polarization in our society reflected in the media has created an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion bringing social groups into confrontation and clash. The conversation about ‘halakat’ (killing) versus ‘shahadat’ (martyrdom) is not only in vain but calculated to provoke, divide and aggravate. It is not only unwise but ill-intentioned, seeking to disunite and pit some against others on vital national issues at a time when we need standing together. Sometimes our opinion is just not the point, at all. Sometimes it is more important to just understand. We need to understand that the dead we fight over and then forget as the next newsworthy story turns up, are not forgotten by their heirs. And the persistent victim becomes the blinded, insensate perpetrator. That ideas and ideologies are not fought with guns, but understood in order to be deconstructed, exposed and jettisoned. We need to understand that evil begets evil; that hurt transforms into hate and festers, and breaks down all boundaries of reason and logic. We need to understand that dividing ourselves into embattled camps around fixed ideological associations pertaining to faith or the lack thereof is disastrous. We need to understand that our weakness lends strength to the ones who will trample us underfoot in their relentless pursuit of global hegemony. It is in cultivating the ability to understand rather than shout out our worthless featherweight opinions at each other that we can begin a healing.
The desire of unity must no sway us to disregard the construct of our social structure. I am myself at loss of finding an answer to the question of pragmatic actions that can unite Muslims. Most important factor is education but when i see our educational system and class discrimination and different ideologies that propel those very differently oriented teaching methodologies; I fail to see light there. The essence of Islam that could unite is very different from what is being taught or what is being learned.
Another idea is of theory of evolution; that somehow things are and would continue to shift towards more subtle and clear understanding of our concept of Islamic Nationalism and eventually we would understand what we stand for on earth. In this theory a critical factor is inertness of our ‘evolution’, a segregation from the rest of the world. This is not possible as there always had been and there always would be external interference of discriminate cultures and different interests.
Another perseverance in our society is of adherence to Islamic teachings. The struggle to adhere to Islamic teachings in their originality and their true spirit. This struggle is again wasted, either because of much stronger resistance towards it or the inability of followers to follow the teachings in exactness in today’s modern world (adherence to interest free economy, the concept of Islamic state and its responsibilities, the role of modern women is Islam, the concept of human rights and Islamic teachings etc.)
One fear is of the end of times, annihilation of world and a thought that our efforts can never change anything as it is the will of Allah and that there is nothing we can do to undo the approaching end. This idea leads to procrastination and leaves people in a state of complete indolence. This fear of conspiracy theories backed by Hadith and Ayats, furthers the idea of inaction.
Then what action will deem this unity into that “بُنْيَانٌ مَّرْصُوصٌ”, unity that can see into eyes of enemy and say that “we need none other than Allah” ????