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| India-Pakistan |
| Cost of faith |
| 2007-06-29 |
| I have realised that this generation is very different from ours. This realisation came to me while conversing with 21 year-old budding musician Wasif Qureshi, in Karachi, and college students Aman Akmal in Islamabad and Javed Ramey in Lahore. Qureshi has his own band and has recently acquired a day job at an advertising agency. He dreams of travelling abroad to earn a masters degree. When questioned on what subject he would like to read, I expect the usual subjects including advertising, marketing, economics, music etc. His answer is surprising: “Islamic studies.” Taken aback, I couldn’t help but ask why he would go to a European institute to study such a subject. “Why are you so shocked? Did you know Farhat Hashmi did her PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Glasgow in Scotland?” he asked. I did not know that. And that was when a realisation dawned on me. I come from another generation, one that danced in the streets of Karachi and Lahore at the demise of the Zia dictatorship and looked euphorically towards a more liberal, secular and democratic Pakistan. Akmal and Ramey are both about to be enrolled at a high profile university in Lahore. They want to get their MBA degrees from there and then go on to join foreign banks. They like designer brands, are in on the latest Western trends and watch Hollywood and Bollywood movies with great interest. But they will suddenly swing to the far sides of conservatism whenever talk of Islam, the Quran, Bush or Osama crops up. While talking to these young men, I figured that the whole concept of contradiction, let alone hypocrisy, seems quite alien to this generation. Despite the fact that neither of them has ever been to the US, they all sport very convincing American accents. Each holds the view that “capitalism is the only way a country’s economy can prosper.” When I asked about the true spirit of Islam and its concept of the welfare state the answer I get from Qureshi is, “That’s socialism!” And when asked what’s wrong with socialism I am told, very matter-of-factly, “It’s not Islamic.” A key fact about all these young men is that almost all of them have at least one close relative associated with an evangelical Islamic organisation. The most prominent among these are Farhat Hashmi’s Al-Huda, Baber Chaudary’s Al-Rheman - Al-Rahim and the famous Tableeghi Jamaat in Raiwind. Such organisations, even in the early 90s, were usually believed to only be associated with the conservative petty-bourgeois, or the more religious among the alienated labour class. But according to well-known Urdu poet and learned Barelvi school follower, Azm Behzad, with the rise of the Taliban in 1995, various intelligence agencies got involved in a ‘strategic’ and ‘cultural’ program designed to safe-guard Zia’s so-called ‘Islamisation process’ in the wake of liberal democracy in Pakistan. The fall of Communism in the USSR in 1991 and the sudden arrival of the social and cultural confusion generated by capitalism-driven ‘globalisation,’ brought into question the place of a practicing Muslim Pakistani in such a scenario. Not having a strong secular tradition (like Turkey), the paranoia that emerged from a feeling of contradiction surfaced. The question now was how one was to justify enjoying the material and amoral benefits of neo-capitalism and globalisation and yet still remain a ‘good Muslim.’ According to Tariq Qadir, a former member of the Al-Rheman-Al-Rahim organisation, the sole aim of brand new organisations such as the one he became a part of (and Farhat Hashmi’s Al-Huda) was “to take care of the anxiety pangs of people of the educated and modern classes who’d been attracted towards the more puritanical sides of Islam and were feeling uncomfortable about their lifestyles clashing with their new-found beliefs.” He said these classes were searching for ‘scholars’ who would tell them what they wanted to hear. That “it is okay to enjoy the fruits of modernisation and still be a true Muslim.” Organisations like Al-Rheman-Al-Rahim, Al-Huda and the Tableeghi Jamaat not only got a boost (both financial and social), due to a sudden surge in their ranks, from people belonging to the moneyed classes but in the late 90s, when a string of celebrities in the shape of pop musicians, actors and cricketers started to join, it almost became a trend among affluent young men and women to frequent lectures organised by these organisations. Tariq began his ‘reborn’ life by accompanying celebrities like Najam Shiraz, Salman Ahmed, Junaid Jamshed, Adnan Ali Agha and others to Al-Rheman Al-Rahim’s old headquarters on Tariq Road in Karachi. I asked Tariq, who also visited Raiwind (with Junaid Jamshed) for a Tableeghi Jamaat gathering in 2001, whether the Jamaat’s message, too, was about a convoluted reconciliation between modern living and Islamic thought. “Well, at least its more moneyed, and privileged members see it this way,” said Tariq. “It seems the Tableeghi Jamaat now feels it is important for them to get high profile celebrities. The Jamaat does not stop them from enjoying the goods of their professions, as long as they are good recruiters,” says Tariq. But there is a clear contradiction in what these celebrities do and what they preach. “Well that’s what these organisations are here for,” he said. “Becoming a part of them means getting an Islamic label while continuing to do things that have nothing to do with saadigi (austerity) or modesty!” Ifat Nasreen, a passionate activist of the Women’s Action Forum (WAF) in the 80s and now a mother of two teenage sons, summed up the situation with an air of resignation: “What is happening to today’s young generation regarding religion is an outcome of what happened during the Zia regime. The process of institutionalising religious hypocrisy that he started has now been strengthened by everyone from brutal jihadi organisations, to mullahs to even the organisations who are catering to the more well-to-do segments of society. But what can you expect from a society whose state and governments are all guilty of such hypocrisies?” Nadeem F Paracha is a Karachi-based journalist and co-host of Aaj TV’s News, Views and Confused |
| Posted by:John Frum |
| #5 Now I'm convinced more than ever, Islam has to go. Phalk the moderate muzzies. This whole caveman belief system has to be buried and never again mentioned. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-06-29 11:23 |
| #4 I am sure they can find a sura or have one of their whacko religious leaders come up w/a fatwa that will excuse or rationalize any absurd thing they choose to do or believe. Seems their entire religion has been doing that for a thousand yrs. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2007-06-29 08:58 |
| #3 Merely unthinking acceptance after spending so many school years merely memorizing without being permitted to question. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-29 08:57 |
| #2 "While talking to these young men, I figured that the whole concept of contradiction, let alone hypocrisy, seems quite alien to this generation." Islam infected by postmodernism? |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2007-06-29 05:35 |
| #1 Who knew the Muslims had their own Jerry Falwells and Jim Bakkers? |
| Posted by: gromky 2007-06-29 05:33 |