Reforming Religious Fundamentalists

teshah #104 The good thing is - musharraf is out. The mullahs are out of the National Assembly. Civil society, with the Chief Justice providing an example of integrity and courage that will go down in history, has shown it is a power to be reckoned with in Pakistan. And the civilian government is going all out after the terrorists.

Re: # 103

tahmed32

103

tahmad32

Thank you dear for the kind response. I agree with you hundred percent. Musharraf and the Mullah are two sides of the same coin, i.e., the ‘munafiqat’ (hypocrisy), the difference being only in their style of progression.

I find general lack of awareness about the role of technological advancements in the field of socio-political configuration. Whereas the nuclear bomb made America the super power, the Third World’s invention of the ‘Suicide Bomber’ rendered it useless as a means of security. Similarly, the Mullah’s use of mosques fitted with a hoard of loudspeakers made him a ‘Super’ power in the field of propaganda. In fact the very use of the Holy LS (We may call it ‘Bhonpu’) is the start of sonic terrorism of the moderate type - the veritable root cause of the suicide bomber. Both Deoband’s edict and Mush’s writ failed against it. Just try to oppose it and see the result. Dr. Malik Ghulam Murtaza, an Islimic scholar of repute, who had publicly held the use of loud speaker in the mosque as ‘Harram’, was murdered soon after by an assailant who, as far as I know, remains unknown to this day.

Just imagine that, according to the media reports, the authorities in Pakistan plan to secure the Red Zone of Islamabad by building a wall all around. We had read in the English history that with the invention of the gun the English king could re-establish his writ against the rebellious war-lords by razing their forts. And now the reverse is happening. The suicide bomber has made the rulers to take refuge behind the walls. They have made Asfand Yar, leader of the NAP, so terrorized by a blast at his house that he has run away to England to save his skin.

teshah #101 excellent post. I think it will become more and more clear to people over time that terrorism in Pakistan grew because of Musharraf, not despite him.

As for the mullah - now the mullah has found the super-loudspeaker in the form of Geo TV and other TV channel where he promotes his perversion that he claims is Islam.

Re: # 101
dear teshah...i fully agree with you that we have no right to impose our values and traditions on others.
wa-e- nakaami mata -e-- karavaN jata raha
karavan ke dil se ehsas - e- ziaN jata raha
all the best
sohail

Re: # 100

Sohail

Well said dear but in my view every tradition or even a truth becomes terrorism if you try to thrust it upon others. The most common way of doing this today , as I already said, is the Holy Loudspeaker. Musharraf, who could remove and incarcerate the Chief Justice of Pakistan so easily, had rightly tried to silence it but failed miserably.

Re: # 99
dear hexilite...in my humble opinion there are as many truths as human beings and as many realities as pairs of eyes in the world. some human beings follow a religious tradition, some a spiritual tradition and some a secular tradition. i think there are many right paths not just one right path.
i am curious which path do you follow? sincerely sohail

Salam.........
I suggest we all should act like a Human and use our brain...
and not to confuse ourselves..
study and research our History and Religion..
To get on the right path

#97 Posted by ijaz_gul on October 6, 2008 7:01:41 am

Let me run that through a paki-to-english translator

Step One: Stop the war of hate.


surrender already..


Step Two: Engagement through political economy.


give us money...preferential treatment for our exports..


Step Three: Broad Based Representation in Afghanistan.


Let our toadies take control of pakistan..when we say broad based, we would like you to forget that our taliban toadies, when they took over afghanistan, weren't elected by the afghans..


you're welcome..

Re: # 94
Your answer is academic and applies to a distant future. All Private Schools and missionary schools are doing it.

How do you brainwash a finished product especially when they run in thousands and increase by scores daily due to hate war of USA?

Step One: Stop the war of hate.
Step Two: Engagement through political economy.
Step Three: Broad Based Representation in Afghanistan.
Parallel Steps: Religious leaders have to become more pro active in de-indoctrination of such cadres, while the state provides protection to citizens.

In my view the 'root cause' for fundamentalism and extremism is the 'Holy Loudspeaker' with its sonic terrorism. I am sure if we invent a remote control to mute all HLS' the fundamentalism, leading to extremism and terrorism will automatically wither away.

#94 Posted by drsohail on


In short if kids or society is taught to respect "truths" they will chose a right path according to their intellect. Intellect itself gets refined by education, by age, by so many different means, so once you ensure they respect "truth" they will refine their idea of truth and follow a good path over their life.


The simplest reason why a truth known to your mind should not be ignored is because "ignoring truth" is "ignoring reality" and living in illusion. So if you ignore truths you lose the essence of life.

Re: # 93
dear ijaz gul...you and i are on the same page. in my opinion fundamentalist thinking and violent consciusness is part of religious and cultural conditioning. to successfully deal with it we need a wide range of actions with serious planning. it has to start from schools where children are encouraged to develop
...critical thinking rather than blind faith
...secular attitude and respect other philosophies and ideologies
and
...a compassionate heart so that they have empathy for the whole humanity and can see that our enemies are our distant cousins
alongside education obviously socio-economic and political factors play a major role.
if you are interested in detailed answer you can write to me privately ...my email address
welcome@drsohail.com
and i will send you an article titled
from fundamentalism to humanism
that i presented at humanist association of canada conference this year
you might find it interesting
i am more in favour of peaceful education and evolution than bloody and violent revolution
sincerely
sohail

Re: # 54
Thanks Sohail for taking time out to think about my question and coming out with the answer I was looking for.
Taliban like the Christian Knights of crusades and Jannisars of Ayubi are indoctrinated and motivated to ignore death, and rather embrace it for a next higher(rather Highest) form. Even if 10% of all militants in Afghanistan /Pakistan are these romantic revolutionaries, then the world is in for a very difficult time. Most of them are nomadic, transcend international boundaries and see only in Black and White. European Modernity Model(not modernization)to them is satanic as is everything that diverges even a stifle from what they believe in. Some of them believe that the collateral damage of innocents is in fact a blessing of Allah, as they go straight to paradise. Their training and application levels are so robust that despite being riddled with bullets, they still have the resilience to pull the cord for self detonation.
All said and done, how do you deal with this?

#84 Posted by ana

[Why do Indians go to "Indian" restaurants that are run by "Pakis???"]

I avoid anything that has anything to do with the ummah, unless I absolutely have to. I mean, why enrich the enemy. In this instance, I was fooled by the Indian restaurant sign. And it was too late (and too late in the evening) to back out and go to some other Indian restaurant.

laddu,

You are spot on about this "trying to feed beef to hindus" business. As I have mentioned on Chowk before, a colleague's wife once tried to feed my parents beef after inviting us to dinner, without telling us. She was from India and knew we are Brahmins, and knew exactly what she was doing. Later on, I found out that she was the more religious of the two and highly communal. Also, early in my career, once I was chatting with a Muslim acquaintance who was from UP - he was gleefully recounting how Indian Hindus will eat beef, "but we Muslims will never touch pork - hee hee hee..". This was long before I ever used to even think about these Hindu-Muslim issues. Like most Hindus, we never talked about Muslim-related issues in our family, at work, or with our friends. But looking back, I remember that almost ALL the Muslims I have come across in my life were walking around with big chips on their shoulders.

Of course there are lots of liberal Muslims - but they are the exception, and don't count anyway - it's the masses that affect politics and everything else.

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