Sunday, October 14, 2012

Pakistan Newspaper article blames Islamic ideology for Malala incident

Writing in the Pakistan daily paper, Pakistan Today, Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, the Business Editor, denounces the religious ideology that spawned the appalling extremists capable of shooting a young girl because she dared to voice her opinion that freedom of conscience was important. 

I will add nothing more other than to urge you to read and digest....

Don't blame the Taliban ...Let’s call a spade a spade instead

The Malala incident is déjà vu times million. You have religious ‘extremists’ manifesting brutality; the ‘educated’ class calls the act heinous, the ‘intellectuals’ label the offenders as beasts, the ‘liberals’ protest against the ‘cowardly act’ and while everyone is condemning the act, they remain shushed about the root cause of it all: the ideology. Throughout the past every single person who has denounced the Taliban has acted as an apologetic, justifying the religious ideology and claiming how those ‘uneducated morons’ have ‘unfortunately’ misinterpreted the teachings of peace and tranquility – no, they haven’t, ‘unfortunately’.
It is so painfully amusing to note how the ‘moderates’ and armchair revolutionaries, would sit there with a glass of vine in their hands, uninhibitedly hanging out with the opposite sex, not having offered a prayer or fasted for ages, claiming how the Taliban – who lead their lives strictly according to the Shariah – are infesting their religion of harmony. The poor chaps are only doing what their scriptures – the ones that the pseudo intellectuals extol, or don’t have the cojones to criticize – tell them to do. When you are being taught, through the scriptures that are universally recognized by the followers as ‘authentic’, that all the non-believers or threats to the grandeur of your ideology should be killed, you will kill them, where is the misinterpretation here?
Finding slaves or slave girls, repulsive; physically assaulting women, disgusting; cutting off hands for theft, inhuman; stoning people to death, beastly and then venerating the ideology that permits this at the same time is hypocrisy of the very highest order. You sit there, criticize and mock the Taliban that follow your religion in its true form while you live in oblivion with your extremely palatable, but simultaneously blatantly fallacious, brand of religion and then claim that the Taliban are misinterpreting and misapprehending your ideology? Oh, the irony.
Let’s stop carving out quasi religions, or defending ideologies that we’ve all grown up blindly following as the truth. Let’s call a spade a spade instead and realize that at the end of the day as much as you might have a cardiac arrest admitting it, the root cause of religious extremism is: religion – especially in its raw crude form, which again is the only ‘authentic’ form.
Every single religion has a violent streak. Every single one of them orders violence and killing in one form or the other for the ‘non-believers’. One can quote verses from every holy scripture depicting loathe and despise for anyone who doesn’t believe in the said scripture and its propagator. Sure, those scriptures would have the occasional fit of peace as well, but that only springs into the open when it is recognized as the only supreme authority. Every religion is a ‘religion of peace’ as long as it formulates the status quo; there is no concept of ideological symbiosis in any religion. When a tyrannical regime or dictator calls for peace with the condition that they would reign supreme we label them as oppressors, but when this is done in the name of religion we tout it as maneuvers of ‘harmony’.
The Taliban have defended the attack on Malala Yousafzai through scriptures and historic precedents. You can clamor all you want about how there is a lack of understanding on the part of the Taliban, but how on earth can you refute clear messages of violence and historical evidence – scribed by historians of your faith – depicting brutality on the part of some of the most illustrious people in the history of the religion? It is easy to launch vitriol against the Taliban for attacking a 14-year-old girl, but it is also equally hypocritical and pathetic when you eulogize people from your history who did the same in the past, who massacred masses, destroyed lands, pulverized places of worship, raped women, just because they ostensibly did it in the name of your religion. Don’t blame the Taliban for following their lead, don’t blame the Taliban for using violence as a means to cement religious superiority – something that has been done for centuries – don’t blame the Taliban for the fact that you don’t have the guts to call a spade a spade even though it has been spanking your backside for centuries now.
The fact that groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban-Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi exist is because Islam is still traversing its Dark Ages while other religions have gone through Reformation, resulting in a collective Renaissance – and that too half a millennium ago. None of the religion in its crude form can work in this day and age, and instead of taking the easy route and scorning at those that follow religious teachings in its original form, the more logical approach would be to accept the truth.
If you’re acknowledging Islam as the supreme authority, you have no grounds for hauling coals over Zia-ul-Haq for implementing laws from the Shariah, you have no grounds for attacking Mumtaz Qadri or feeling sorry for Salmaan Taseer who clearly spoke against the blasphemy law, you have no grounds for lauding Dr Abdul Salaam as a national asset who belonged to a sect that clearly defies Islamic teachings, and yes, you have no grounds for blaming the Taliban.
It’s time our ‘thinkers’ stopped taking the easy way out and finally picked a side. You either follow a religion in its true form or you’re irreligious. The Taliban know which side they are on. Do you?

5 comments:

  1. Let’s call a spade a spade instead and realize that at the end of the day as much as you might have a cardiac arrest admitting it, the root cause of religious extremism is: religion.

    ***

    Yes, of course the root cause of religious extremism is religion. What else would it be?

    The root cause of most ideological uprisings is the ideology no(?)


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  2. Hi Jasmine,
    I think most religious people would claim that the extremism is caused by a MISinterpretation of that religion's TRUE message.
    What Shahid is saying, I believe, is that the inherent, basic message of Islam (or at least a lot of the Qur'an and the hadith - which surely amounts to the same thing since Muslims believe in the inerrancy of both ) is one of intolerance and violence. Therefore to blame the Taliban for their actions, whilst at the same time espousing the religion whose teachings they are strictly following, is hypocritical.
    The same can be said of a all the Abrahmic religions of course - except that almost no followers of Christianity since the Enlightenment now believe the Bible is the actual perfect words of God.

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  3. The Taliban, though put forward scriptures from the Holy Book and define their actions as abiding to the laws of Shari'ah, must also learn something about the lifestyle of the Holy Prophet P.B.U.H.... Malala is just another name, another personality for them amidst the thousands they have massacred by now....If they are intent to portray Islam as a ruthless religion then they must study deeply the life an dpersonality of the Prophet as well, for the Prophet did not show any savageness or brutality in his words or in any of his actions! We know which side are we on, Islam is a rationality propagator and abhores irrationality....calling a spade a spade, Islam promotes the idea of learning and pondering over what has been learnt, so as to reach the root of every matter.....Islam is a religion for the faithfuls, for the peaceful men and not of the torch bearers of ignorance and brutality!

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  4. what sparked all the uprisings was Israel

    I'm not saying the blame falls on Israel - obviously there are numerous ways to address a political concern with terrorism being just one of many options...

    islam provided the car & the engine & the petrol, and Israel the "ignition" so to speak

    trace the dates of the emergence and activities, map the geography and - you will see a powerful correlation...

    actually, i'll do this for you & email across for your next roast (!)

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  5. islam provide the way to live a peaceful live. Islam is the best religion for promoting love and peace upon human being. Nobady can judge the islam through action of few taliban.
    online newspaper pakistan | gilgit baltistan news | newspaper of gilgit | mirpur news

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