Daily Times

Most people would be terrified by the idea of an impending apocalypse. It would mean the end of time, across the globe destruction, war, bloodshed, human suffering, loss of lives and near total annihilation of civilisation. Disturbed and petrified by the concept, I am confident that they will hesitate to discuss it with their friends, families and children as it can instil fear in the minds of their little ones, promote hatred towards other religions and may also indirectly condone violence.
Unfortunately, similar rules do not apply in Pakistan. Here, the same notion of widespread devastation, which horrifies others, can be enlisted as one of our favourite topics of discussion, the most spiritually elevating proposition and the most exhilarating subject of all. Somehow, it encourages every Pakistani to dream that their nation is going to be victorious after defeating all its enemies, very soon, with the help of God! That they will be crowned to rule the world and, regardless of their personal transgressions of bribery, theft, forgery and adulteration, they will be granted the highest pedestal in the league of nations, that violence is good if it is imparted to others in the name of religion and that human suffering is acceptable as part of a larger plan, a means to achieve everlasting peace and maybe the only way to achieve success. War, even nuclear war, is not that big a deal, and the loss of millions of lives is unavoidable under certain circumstances.
Either under the supervision of the state, or at least with its consent, many renowned Islamic scholars have fallen for this idea of grandeur too. Along with them, some religiously oriented ‘intellectuals’, who were either too immature in their learning or were too emotionally unstable, have failed to keep it in a proper perspective. Together, they have propagated the notion about the end of time with Pakistan playing an instrumental role in it on public forums for so long and have interpreted the scripture on television revolving around our era. They have restricted its meaning to our nation for so many years that the whole country, regardless of its sectarian biases, has transformed into an apocalyptic society.
On top of that, as the national economy has worsened over years with the staggering rate of unemployment and as lawlessness has intensified, the suffering of ordinary people has pushed them out of despondency to believe even more firmly in an imminent destruction of the world. Under severe stress, to some extent, they are even eager for that time to arrive, regardless of its cost, as it has become their only hope to change their circumstances. Everyone has to die, they believe, one day or another, rich or poor, young or old, but nothing is more sacred than dying for a divine cause, a proposition in which they know they are going to be victorious in either case: if they stay alive, they will rule the world and, if they meet their Lord, paradise will be waiting for them.
During this process of transformation of society under a divine verdict to lead the world, we also needed an enemy, a powerful and ruthless villain who can be blamed for almost all the ills in the world. This was not hard at all; among many choices we had to pick only one. With the art of interpretation of the scholars, the indisputable success of the US, its ‘controversial’ foreign policy and its dollar bill, with the single eye of the ‘Illuminati’ on its back, we easily found our ‘anti-Christ!’
Keeping that in mind, you will find that in Pakistan there are two countries, which are discussed the most in the news: one is obviously Pakistan and the second one, without any doubt, is the US. That is why there is a significant majority of Pakistanis who religiously celebrate every negative bit of news about the US. It does not matter to them whether the news is about the economy, the war on terror, the indiscriminate killing of school children, the devastation brought by a hurricane like Sandy or Katrina, the inconvenience caused by a snowstorm or the financial loss triggered by a flop Hollywood movie. They are just happy that a doomsday scenario is in the making and all their desires and prayers are now being heard.
So, if the Dow Jones industrial average (stock market) drops significantly in a day, you see a smile on their faces. If the US national debt increases and its credit rating is lowered by Standard and Poor’s credit rating agency, you hear them cheering. If there is news of recession and lack of growth in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), you watch them congratulating each other. If their soldiers die in Afghanistan, they celebrate it as their own victory. If there is news of the government shut down, there you go, they heave a sigh of relief as if shutdown means a total and irreversible collapse of the federal government.
Departure from Afghanistan is termed as a humiliating defeat and an unambiguous victory for the Taliban, the invasion of Iraq as a monumental blunder and, obviously, the Vietnam war as an embarrassing endeavour. Sitting in Pakistan and putting all the news about the US together may make you think that the richest nation in the history of mankind is going to crumble in just a few years — if not sooner — and its failure may initiate the chain of final events — war, death and bloodshed — culminating in the final victory for Muslims, especially Pakistan, the only country who played a pivotal role in the defeat of both the superpowers without fighting them!
In response to all these wishful calculations and imaginary assessments about the US, what can a reasonable person say to them except: wake up Pakistan, it is time for us to go to work.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com