From: dogar@rtsg.mot.com (Haroon H. Dogar)
Subject: Re: Pakistan and Islam
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 21:36:22 GMT

memon@acsu.buffalo.edu (Naveed Siraj Memon) writes:

>Funny that you equate pak=Islam. Why can't Pakistan be Pak if the
>people of Pakistan decided that they would follow Islam and be
>inspired by its legal code but still subject it to the 21 century
>society. Haroon do you know of the legal code of Islam. You enjoy
>freedom of expression but do you know of the consequences if I 
>were to test the limits of my society. It is different to look to the
>land of ancestors and be inspired by the symbolic romanticism, it's
>quite a different story to survive in the land surrounded by the
>Mahfooz Jafrys and the Mustafa Ibrahims who get the electoral support
>or a pat on the back by the ameer ul momineen and outlay and label
>any group that they hate as Kafirs.  It is one thing to advocate the rule of
>Islam, it is quite a different ball game to see how the ruling elite
>uses it to their benefit. Pakistan is still the land of the pure if
>Islam remains the inspiration for the codes of social justice, it 
>should not be an istrument to be taken advantage of, to "take care
>of business" of those who are different.

Paiyan,

I agree. People have misused Islam. That is why I am not arguing for
any specific implementation. I am not saying that everyone should go
out and join the Jamaati Islami. I am just saying that the people
of Pakistan, whatever their religious affiliation or lack thereof,
are overwhelmingly in favor of Islamic rule. Yes, I also agree that
the problem that arises is that there is no agreement over which
interpretation should be implemented. However, this does not mean,
as others have implied, that people wish that there be no implementation
at all. 

Also true is that many in the "religious" camp are closed-minded or
allergic to criticism or disagreement. However, I think its unfair to
single out the religious groups and paint all of the more religious-minded
organizations with the same brush. There are numerous examples within
the "secular" or ethnic parties of similar individuals. Remember that
the editor of *Takbeer* was chased out of Karachi and educated individuals
in Chicago were bragging, "Yeah man we chased that guy out of Karachi man."
The car of the editor of an Urdu newspaper here was firebombed. Also,
there is the evidence that has come to light as a result of the recent
Army action in Karachi and Sind. Nevertheless, this is all tangential
to the fact that even if one were to ask the individuals within these
"secular" parties if they would prefer the rule of Allah or the rule
of Kufr, they would overwhelmingly choose Allah.

In my opinion, the struggle should be less over secularism vs. religion,
and more over how to implement the wishes of the people so that ALL
of the people are taken into account [not just us westernized elites]
and that the rights of minorities are not trampled. If we were all 
playing on the Islamic wicket, we might start scoring some runs.
Right now, we're not even playing the same sport.

-hd


Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan