Daily Times

Sir: What is the real reason behind the Muslim mind and its mentality? Why can we not behave as normal human beings do? Where are we going wrong or where did we go wrong, as one wrong turn at a crucial moment in history has led us to our present position, which obviously is as if we were peeping into a volcano. Whenever I talk about ‘Muslims’, I mean the Muslims of Pakistan as they are Muslims of a different kind, nowhere to be found in the rest of world. I think, in the beginning, what may have been a philosophical error or even an error of judgment has now become a psychological disorder. If I can do a little psychoanalysis of this almost lost nation, this disease started with narcissism, became megalomania and now, in its advanced and acute stage, it has become schizophrenia. My knowledge of psychology accompanies me no further so I cannot suggest any therapy but, somehow, I can trace those elements that aggravated the situation to make it into a mountain.

It all has greatly to do with philosophy, which has been repeatedly hammered into our bones and accompanies us like our shadows. This is the philosophy of a hawk: that we are created to rule the world and that we are denizens of the upper skies. Picking spiritual progress is a trait of the hawk and picking material progress is that of a vulture. We are the chosen ones and we believe we are to lead the whole world. To this extent, the rhetoric does good but when it states how to achieve this status of a hawk, it is not only confusing but totally impracticable. We believe this can only be achieved with the help of spiritual powers. If one has not made any progress despite sticking to this philosophy, there is nothing wrong with them but the stinking world needs correction. Now when we see the rest of the world making progress and definitely enjoying the fruits of their labour, we are at a loss to understand why the world has treated us like this. Why can we not make both ends meet? Why are we given kicks and pricks? The problem is that we have questions but no answers. This leads us to a paranoid conspiracy theory, i.e. that the whole world is conspiring against us and that the world wants to persecute us at any rate. Whatever the achievements of the rest of the world, they boil down to nothing when compared to our spiritual ‘progress’. There is nothing as false as this. We cannot determine our position in the world on our own. One’s status is determined by one’s achievements and performance, not by any lofty claims and self-proclaimed status.

MOEED UR REHMAN

Karachi