The Fundo Chic?

The joke’s on us!

In the last couple of years, a series of tale-evangelists have become popular mainstays across various Pakistani TV channels.

It all seemed to begin with Ferhat Hashmi (even though people like Dr. Israr Ahmed have been around since the days when there was only PTV to turn to … or off!)

Her sudden fame and clout in this respect has been quite a revelation. Because after her, came a string of evangelists, all desiring similar celebratory status and glamour, cashing in on what can now be called the ‘fundo chic’. A chic squarely opposite to what was once called the ‘radical chic’ in the ‘70s.

She’s quite a sight, really. Nothing inspirational, mind you, but rather amusing.

“Mumph, mumph, mumph, mumph ...”, she goes on and on and on, her words and breath echoing and rebounding against her own fully clad frontal, making her sound like Darth Vader on helium! May the force be with her. And the joke on us.

Actually, there is nothing so new or reveling about what her fame is reflecting: i.e. the growing interest among the urban bourgeois to (re)-discover the “power and meaning of divine wisdom” regarding ones place and behavior in society and the state.

Bad news for any chance for secularism to creep and evolve its way back into the social psyche and political mindset of the country? Perhaps, but this is certainly good news for general religious confusion and good ol’ obscurantism to survive (even thrive) as an unquestioned reality!

Today, these evangelists, from Hashmi to Junaid Jamshed, all the way across Najam Shiraz and Atiya Khan, are a vital part of the ‘fundo chic’. These former “liberals” have brought in a pleasant, style-conscious aesthetic to the whole concept of “dressing religiously.” In the process, ironically, it is such “mild” Islamists,” who are dealing a serious blow to the whole idea of “Islamic Modernism” (which has more to do with thought than dress).

They are achieving what the conventional mullah failed to. Because after all, the mullah too has nothing much to do with thought but a lot with looking and sounding Islamic! And all the ‘fundo chic’ has been able to do is make that scary, ferocious “mullah image” seem a lot more acceptable. Nay, chic.

Really, It is quite a view observing young begums and their younger daughters at the many drawing room lectures and in the TV studios, in smart designer hijabs, going ‘nod, nod, nod’ in euphoric, single-minded approval; Accompanying them are usually ‘80s yuppies (now young, modern dads), and stone-faced petty-bourgeois tableeghi look-alikes, also going ‘nod, nod, not’ in front of a separate screen beaming in highly animated evangelists with eyes popping out, beard in full tic-toc swing, and a crackling voice not different from a Christian evangelist.

The bottom line being that one needs the services of a wise, holy agent to reach the wise divine savior! Something your neighborhood mullah has been insisting for years and years, but perhaps only looking and sounding a lot cruder? And, of course, he hardly ever uses any worthwhile English.


Business as usual

Leftist radicalism (The “New Left”) suffered the same fate in the seventies.
Capitalism was the culprit. But the New Left’s (and the “counterculture” that it spawned), political defeat was first achieved through simple, post-modern economics. This side of economics was constructed to squarely co-opt the look and ritualism of leftist radicalism, and not only devoid it of any politically threatening outcomes, but actually turn it into a sellable commodity.

The ‘radical chic’ today (and ever since the late seventies), is nothing more than hip fashion empty of any politics whatsoever. Quite a reflection really of what the bulk of the current, post-nineties’ youth cultures are all about.

Because for example, major fashion brands and their logos on clothing, or the whole fad of “body piercing,” are as harmless as say, Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung T-Shirts in the seventies. Mere fashion, devoid of any particular understanding of the matters of political ideology, and thus safe enough to be turned into cash-friendly industries.

Look, mom, a beard!

It can safely be suggested that the ‘fundo chic’ too is largely an outcome of media-centric capitalism which always benefits from fashion statements usually born from distinct political ideologies, no-matter how radical they are in theory.

Because once these turn (or are turned) into fashion statements (from political expressions), they become just that: Mere fashion.

So, for those looking for a deeper, more spiritual understanding of the spreading interest in Islam among young, educated young men and women, do be disappointed to note that these youngsters are nothing more than target markets for a rather viciously cynical brand of capitalism.

They are part of what in “pop sociology” is called “concocted trends.” It is an exercise in which the media and vast capitalist interests actually create “popular fads and fashions,” projecting them as the latest “in things.” It is not always about the media and the multinationals catering to the likes and dislikes of the so-called masses or “niche markets.”

On most occasions, these “mass tastes” and “niche interests” are projected upon the people who usually lap it up as something they wanted and desired. Such “concocted marketing” is mostly used in the entertainment business and is the easiest to execute in rapidly developing consumerist societies.

After all what did a Che T-shirt and a Black Panther outfit amount to in the seventies? What does an “Islami beard” kept by your English speaking neighbor or cousin, or an Osama poster enthusiastically being bought by an otherwise sensible looking young man, really mean? Nothing more than what a pair of Nike runners, a Burberry hand bag or a trendy white golf shirt with that irritating little alligator on it means to the 21st Century liberal!

The ‘fundo chic’ is as trivial as ‘radical chic’. A concocted fad with little or no serious social relevance; an outcome of capitalism diluting and trivializing the more activist strains of the political ideologies they were juiced out from.

However, whereas the whole concoction of the ‘radical chic’ was successful in pining down what was starting to look something of a threatening revolution from the left, does this mean that the ‘fundo chic’ will be the stuff to ward off the militant Islamist hazard?

Hardly. Because as mentioned earlier, the ‘fundo chic’ and its many fashions, jargon and rituals are no-more than a stylized, media-friendly version of what the atypically meddlesome and irrational mullah is all about.

This chic is a market created to cash-in on the other side of 21st Century economics. A side that represents and caters those who are left confused and threatened by the rampant ways of “globalization” and modern corporate capitalism.

Walk into an Amir Adnan or a Junaid Jamshed outlet, or check out the “modest but tasteful” choice of the way former supermodel Atiya Khan appears on the telly, and you’ll get the picture.

So the bad news is, just like people who dressed like Che amounted to nothing more than being hopelessly narcissistic “cool dudes,” those dressing up like a tableeghi or a an hijab-clad neik Parveen, wont be finding any serious spiritual salvation. At least no more seriously than does a hip trendy with a nose-ring or a forty-something yuppie in an alligator golf shirt.