liberal – My Bit for Change

The Curse of Being Liberal

I came home late one night after a stressful day at work and switched on the TV to shed a bit of tension out of my system. I switched on to one of the Pakistani news channels only to have it switched off within five minutes with a bigger headache than what I had started with. The reason was the unbearable level of noise that the respected participants of the ‘top rated’ talk show were generating. The high profile host of the show was smiling all the while as if enjoying every bit of the ‘prime time fight’. My patience reserves exhausted when one of the participants in a western suit and tie called the other a ‘liberal’ in such a derogatory way as if he was abusing the other.

After switching off the TV, the inquisitive part of me immediately reached out for the online dictionary to check if the meanings of liberal had changed to something bad since I last looked at it in my school days a quarter of a century ago! After all, the world has changed quite a bit in that period. To my amazement, it still read the same:

adj. favourable to progress or reform, tolerant, open-minded

Finding apparently nothing wrong with these words either, left me even more perplexed because I thought that being open minded and progressive is also what the religion teaches and the society demands from us.

If we delve into the history of Islam, we see that Quran was revealed in a span of 23 years. During these 23 years, a lot changed and accordingly did the revelations from God, e.g., banning of alcohol was done in phases. Some of the earlier revelations from the same God on His previous messengers were superseded with new ones and rules were relaxed according to situations. So religion in itself is progressive and teaches us not to get stuck in time. The question arose that if there was room for progression in those 23 years 1400 years ago then why not now when advancements have been made at a pace never before seen in the history of mankind? Why is it that the liberals are frowned upon in our society?

So I decided to do some research on liberalism as it is understood in politics. Good old Dr Wikipedia says: Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty, equality and justice (both legal and social justice). Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally they support ideas such as free and fair elections, civil rights, freedom of press, freedom of religion, free trade and private property. As far as my meagre thinking goes, none of these is either against the religion, law or general norms of society. In fact, this is probably the reason why in the 20^th century it’s the liberal democracies that have seen the most growth and progress made.

“No school can supply an anti-liberal education, or a fascist education, as these terms are contradictory. Liberalism and education are one.”― George Seldes

Why then is the word liberal so demonised by one side of our ever growing left-right divide? Watching the vomit of words going on on our TV screens, it seems that the liberal is portrayed as a hard drinking, clubbing, womanising species who feeds on US dollars, follows the paymaster’s dictates only and hence devoid of any patriotism. A liberal is also considered to be having nothing to do with the religion and thus lacking any moral bearings. Nothing could be further from the truth than this wayward perception. Being liberal neither means that one is an atheist, nor does it imply that one is unpatriotic.

Just like conservatism, liberalism also has its core principles, the difference being that liberalism is not afraid to question the status quo. It looks for answers to the whys that keep propping up in every mind but is shunned to believe the ‘way it is’. The foundation of this philosophy is that all ideas will be constantly examined, scrutinised, studied and debated. If new information emerges to challenge the present state, it will be rightfully taken into account. Liberalism searches for the ultimate value on which to build a moral foundation: the Truth.

This does not imply in any way that it is only the liberals searching for the truth. The point to be made is that however healthy our left-right debates may be, it is wrong on either side to accuse the other of being a traitor or unpatriotic on being liberal or conservative. A liberal can be just as much loyal to the country and just as dedicated to the religion as a conservative and vice versa. At the end of the day it is the humans that err, not the ideology.

The Elusive Last Straw

I am such an idiot. I thought we should get that out of the way early.

Remember September?

When the whole blasphemy video issue happened? When the PPP “capitulated” to the religious right?

I remember certain people, who hold sway in the media, people who claim to be on the left, being deeply scarred by all of it. I remember their anger and outrage, and I remember them finally running out of patience with their beloved party.

I remember it being “the last straw”. And I remember believing them.

Silly me!

Corruption, poverty and just plain slaughter that goes on in Karachi every day is not of much concern for the intellectually gifted. It’s the pandering to the religious right, the targeting of minorities and the evil machinations of the military that fuel their fury.

Admirable! And perhaps, why September seemed like a turning point; a last straw. It was and it wasn’t.

September was a last straw that came after many last straws, and many last straws have come after it. Many will come. What will change? Nada.

There might be some noise made when the circumstances don’t allow otherwise, like in September, but most last straws don’t even register. The camel quite obviously is on steroids and the last straw is but a myth.

Proof, you ask me?

Well, what do you know about the Sunni Ittehad Council? Forget that religious parties are inherently against the “we want a secular state” brigade, the SIC also openly supported Mumtaz Qadri. Mumtaz Qadri, in case you have trouble recalling, is the man who killed Salman Taseer. Salman Taseer, in case you have more trouble recalling, is the man certain people remember every day as the hero who fought darkness, the knight in shining armour and other stuff in that category.

Now, there’s been an alliance involving the SIC and a “liberal” party Salman Taseer called his own. Et tu, anyone? Well, no one, at least no one in the “independent” media and hence; no last straw.

Moving on we observe that the independent media doesn’t only exercise its independence by giving the PPP a free pass. Enter Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, hail Nawaz Sharif, the lord and owner of Punjab. There’s a strange kind of love for his highness Nawaz Sharif in our “leftist” press, despite his very Zia-ish roots.

It so happens that the saviours of our Shia community never question PMLNs shady links with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, past or present. And whilst PMLN might have entered into a declared alliance with ASWJ again, during the by-polls, chances are that the anchors will talk about the weather when Mr. Sharif graces her show.

Here too the last straw, needless to say, remains unattainable.

What about the military then?

“Military = Evil”. So, Military+PMLN+PPP = Outrage. This is just simple math, right?

Not quite.

All of you will be pleased to know that in light of Supreme Court’s Asghar Khan case judgement, which stated that military was indeed involved in rigging elections, PPP have done the honourable thing.

The party proudly announced that they will not be probing Punjab owner Nawaz Sharif for taking ISI money and the Asghar Khan case was, their words not mine; buried.

The military interference and the ISI money and the stealing of the people’s mandate; all forgiven. Surely this is the bloody last straw?

In your dreams!

So to recap, in the space of a half a week, the PPP and PMLN have combined to

1) Protect election rigging, the famed will of the people.
2) Give cover to military interference and protect culprits in this regard.
3) Form alliances with sectarian outfits blamed for much of the violence against Shias in the country.
4) Form alliances with religious outfits supporting the murder of a sitting governor over the blasphemy law.

And yet no last straw! Actually, no straw at all!

Since 3rd December, when SIC-PPP alliance came to light, till today, here’s how the honest and upright, the “dissenters”, have reacted:

The English media, famous for their knack of spotting ASWJ flags, did not have an editorial on ASWJ-PMLN, nor did these teary-eyed Taseer fans give space to PPP-SIC. The newspapers also abstained from commenting on PPPs general amnesty for military interference.

Not a single one of “always excellent” op-ed writers was bothered by these trivial happenings. In fact the folks in these “newspapers”, God bless their unbiased heart, did not even report the SIC-PPP alliance.

Beyond pathetic isn’t it. Depressing even!

All is not lost though, for these people will find their voices again once the PPP and PMLN are not in the picture.

Now when that happens, and it will happen, I would be thankful if everyone, respectfully, tells them to take their appreciation for Taseer, their concern for the Shias, their disdain for the deep state, alongside that elusive last straw and bury it all for good.

The divine way

It has been years since Pakistan has emerged on the map of the world. Muslims of India became Muslims of Pakistan after a great struggle and a big loss of human lives. The question arises that what made them struggle for the separate homeland and putting life at stake. Today, after accomplishing approximately 64 years of independence, we have got distributed into two different schools of thought. One of the schools of thought says that Pakistan is a Muslim state (as the Muslims are in the majority) but according to them, it doesn’t imply that the Islamic law should be followed as a mandatory requirement. The other group seems completely disagreeing with this perception and focuses on the approach of the people who struggled for the independence as the only thing in their mind was a land where they can practice their religion Islam without any restrictions.

Our homeland was named Islamic Republic of Pakistan by the founders. But unfortunately, the Islamic laws were not implemented for running this Islamic society. It can easily be interpreted that the people with power at that time, got distracted from the way they should have walked upon. The biggest flaw in our country’s system is that rather than implementing the Islamic laws, we have started thinking Islam is only a religion, and not a code of life.

After analysing the thoughts of the specific group whose thinking is to separate Islam as a religion from the governing of the state, when I open the Book of Allah, the Qur’an when I read Hadith, I feel completely confused that what has made that specific group of people think that way. May be it is due to the reason that we never implemented Islamic laws and now we are trying to satisfy ourselves by saying that Islam has nothing to do with the state governance. Islam is not as the way we have represented it as so-called Muslim. The remaining work of defaming this religion was done by the media, both (electronic and print) as it has played a key role is placing a misconception in the people minds.

If we had implemented the Islamic laws, the present situation would have completely changed. It is not any NGO but Islam which talks about rights of minorities, rights of women, education, equal distribution of wealth, a society free from inflation and governing the overall state. This was the same Islam which was implemented by the Caliphs in their times after the the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) by following the Quran & Sunnah as the constitution.

We still have time in our hands to implement the real Islamic laws in our homeland Pakistan which was made an independent state in the name of Islam. It is high time we made practical implementation of the real good governance and a welfare state, and overcome the worst state of time we are in. Why not try the divine way with full faith and conviction for once?

Forced Assertion or Transparent Conversion?

No scholar, no sect, no Islamic organization has ever advocated ‘forced conversions’ nor does any page in Islamic history allows such tactic that could have easily wiped out every non-Muslim in Subcontinent, Most of Europe, Africa, Middle East and Jerusalem during the time when reins of power were in Muslim hands; Since nothing of that sort happened is a clear evidence that this practice has never existed in Islam in fact Qur’an clearly states,

“La Ikaraha fi’deen” – There is no Compulsion in Deen.

In fact history does tell us about the benevolent conduct of Muslims with other faiths contrary to wrong assertions of forcing people into Islam.

It was shocking for me to learn that a ‘Hindu Girl’ had been forcefully converted to Islam after being kidnapped by Influential people in Mirpur Mathelo District of Sindh. There was a vortex of information on national and international media, flowing around unverified. Some were addressing their concerns over, “rising sense of insecurity” and some demanded “Suo Moto Action” from Supreme Court, resolution was moved in Sindh Assembly against forced conversions, tirade of this significant incident and more of such alleged ‘conversions’ ensued and gripped social networks, international media, human right activists and government quarters as well. PPP’s MPA Pitanber Sawami, went to the extent of saying that Hindus in Pakistan should not be forced to wage a war against the state in a similar way to what Baluch Nationalists are doing.

There were protests registered by the Hindu-community against these alleged post-marriage ‘forced-conversions’ and even Human Rights Commission (HRCP) jumped in condemning the incident seeking a judicial probe. Our ‘Free-thinking’ and ‘Liberal Society’ including some journalists’ were busy ‘tweeting their fingers out’ on this gruesome incident further demonizing Pakistani society as if ‘Gujrat’ kind of riots had broken out (reviewing their timelines will reveal that they might have never condemned genocidal atrocities against Muslims anywhere in the world) forsaking the basic ethics of journalism and information sharing only to prove their bias towards unverified news that easily taints a horrendous picture of Islam in Pakistan. Good for their liking.

Believing in to the news that has been reported since the incident, the micro-blogging networks and weeping around left no doubt that this case is exactly as being presented and indeed minorities are being forced on gun-point for conversions throughout Pakistan’s nook and corner.

But again, few questions that were constantly striking my mind, or would have popped up in any impartial and sane human being’s mind that came across this ‘disturbing’ news were; Where is the girl? And what’s her say?

There was a ray of hope, maybe this hatred is unjustified, and maybe this incident is similar to usual disgust that we see against Islam in our own “Islamic Republic”. And Yes, Finally the news broke out, Rinkal Kumari was proud of being ‘Faryal Shah’ now.

The alleged kidnapped girl appeared before the media on Thursday and clearly stated that she was NOT KIDNAPPED! And had NOT been forced to convert to Islam and marry Naveed Shah. She claimed to have taken both decisions of accepting Islam and marrying Naveed Shah in accordance of her FREE-WILL and that NOBODY has pressurized her into this. She read out the Kalima Tayyaba, in front of the media and reiterated that she is now a MUSLIM GIRL and had nothing to do with her parents.

The couple was produced before the Sindh High Court in front of Sukkur bench in strict security; scorted on their way to court by SSP Ghotki Pir Muhammad Shah. The PPP-MPA Mian Muhammad Haq and his son Mian Muhammad Aslam who were alleged for being complicit and involved in the kidnapping were also present at the court.

Advocate Murad luund representing Faryal’s Grandfather Manohar Lal kept asserting that the girl is under pressure and things will become “Crystal Clear” in Karachi in a tension free atmosphere. Whereas Mian Mohammad Aslam of Bharchoondi Sharif responded by saying that everyone (including the media) has seen that Faryal was not under any pressure, not even saying anything against Pirs.

On the allegation by Luund, Aslam said,

“Rather she gave a statement against her own maternal uncle who is threatening to kill her.” he further said his father PPP-MNA Mian Abdul Haq had come to the court only because the parents of the girl requested they wanted to meet their daughter, unfortunately they did not come.

Aslam told the court that Faryal had spoken to her family on his instructions on 24^th February the day she came to Dargah Bharchoondi Sharif telling them about her pressure-free conversion and decision to marry Naveed Shah.

“I personally requested them to come over and meet their daughter to see for themselves that she was not under pressure, but they didn’t’ come,” Said Mian Aslam.

He also said that neither Islam nor the law of the land allowed forced conversions how could it be possible for us to force someone on accepting Islam?

Well! What moral ground does the “Liberal Machine” hold now; after the enthralling revelation by the ‘kidnapped’ and ‘forcefully converted’ lady?

The fundamental reason I find the notion of ‘forced-conversions’ to Islam nearly impossible is simply because Islam in its core beliefs does not adhere to lip-service, yes, reciting the kalimah does gets a person in the folds of Islam but the acceptance of heart is necessary and the main fundamental which cannot be manoeuvred or forced.

On the contrary, there remains no doubt that intimidation, threats, tortures and social-boycotts massively prevail for innocent converts who choose to become Muslims after they get close to the religion’s teachings by any inspiration; Let it be love of a person, magnetic character of a follower or perhaps studying the comparison and insight by research. Unfortunately, No ‘Liberal’ or ‘Pseudo-Journalist’ bothers to fight their case by exposing the ‘hate-mongers’ and ‘vengeance-seekers’ present in minorities destined only to bring a bad name to peaceful minorities that do believe in co-existence and are largely accepted by all Pakistanis.

Hence, the case of once Rinkal Kumari has proved to be yet another case of ‘Forced-Assertion’ of a fair, true, transparent and rightful conversion of ‘Faryal Shah’ the proud bride of Mirpur Mathelo. May ALLAH protect her and many others threatened against their ‘free-will’ to decide the most important elements of one’s life – his/her faith and belief.

I’m A Liberal Fun-damentalist!

Extremism in any shape or form is wrong, be it religious or secular. Unfortunately, most of the critics tend to focus only on the extreme part of Islam and the people exploiting it for their own interest. They either do not know or deliberately hide the fact that Islam as a liberating religion; something that it actually is! Islam doesn’t stop us from living or enjoying ourselves. It only stresses on acknowledging the fact that I’ve been created by the one and only God-Allah and I am only His slave and answerable to Him only and should try my best to avoid His disobedience. People have rights over me and serving humanity should always be my first priority. Is that too much to ask for?

Our beloved Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is a great example who made smiling a Sunnah! It’s a virtue in itself. He has asked us to gather as much knowledge as possible. What could be more beautiful than that? I’m thankful to Allah that I was born a Muslim and follow a religion that gave women their rights 1400 years ago and made me a princess where a man is responsible to earn for me. Yes, I am free to work too and wow, my man has no right over my money. Doesn’t that sound great?

Yes, I’m free to be educated, free to choose my own groom and no, I cannot be forced to marry someone I dislike. No, my religion does not oppress me. I like hanging out with my friends, dining outside, attending family events/weddings and love sports and gym. I like following latest trends and like every other girl I love cosmetics! And someday I would love to go scuba diving too! Did I mention swimming? I love adventures, hiking and travelling! My all time dream is to travel the entire world before dying!

I’m liberal but thankfully not like the ones you see these days who believe in mocking others religion and beliefs. No, I don’t believe in bigotry and I don’t abuse people or call them “fundo” when they don’t agree with me. No, I don’t make cartoons of other’s religion’s holy personalities and call it “freedom of expression”. There’s something so wicked about freedom of expression, it’s barely used where it should be and actually used and abused, where it’s not really required. If you ask me, it’s a way of creating rifts between people. And no, I don’t blast out whatever comes into my mind without thinking about its repercussions and cover it up with my “right to speak up”. I believe if I’ve got the power to express myself I would rather do it in a more educated manner and when someone tries to defend their opinion, I don’t call them intolerant or fanatic.

I’m liberal but it doesn’t mean I look at everything as a rebel. What is wrong remains wrong and I have no authority to change the rules of the Creator. I’ve seen Pakistan’s English press lately trying to promote things forbidden in Islam by somehow turning it all into legal and permitted. Oh no, don’t mistake me as a liberal who prays five times a day but believes that homosexuality should be legalized. Nor do I stop praying when a brainless person does something dumb in the name of religion. Yes you’ll find 200 blogs for gay and lesbian rights but when it comes to burning the Quran they would rather call it “freedom of expression”. They are willing to write a thousand blogs on Veena Malik’s “boldness” and praise her guts for standing up to a mullah but will not speak a word when it comes to Aafia Siddqui. They are for women rights but Aafia siddiqui deserves no rights. Let her be raped every day, let her be sexually harassed and it is none of our concerns. Sadly, you would be considered a hate monger or a bigot if your opinions are different from theirs and more towards religion. Funnily, you’re likely to be called a modern version of Taliban if you say you’re liberal but want Islam at the same time.

Why isn’t it possible? Why is the world bent upon portraying that we can’t afford to take religion and this world together? Religion is not how some people have defined it to be, it’s actually a way of living. I am not a scholar, but what I have learnt till today is that Islam is the most beautiful change you can bring into your lives if you decide to follow it properly. I’ll try my best to stick to my religion and call a spade a spade and ready to be called a fun-damentalist!