Daily Times

Laying the foundation of the first ever Hindu Temple in Islamabad, the political capital of Pakistan has yet again sparked a debate which soon became the subject to the violent polemic dividing a society on traditional faultiness following traditionalistsvociferously antagonizing the construction of the first Hindu place of worship in Islamabad and the progressive leaning on the other side, stood by their Hindu compatriots in the their lawful demand.

After an unfortunate episode of a temporal halting of the construction of first Hindu Temple due to the growing pressure of powerful religious establishment, always having enjoyed the state patronageeither state succumbing to their unlawful demands or to staying accomplice in their vicious historyof crimesdamaging the national cohesion, deepened the identity crisis and destroying the social fabric since the country gained independence, the first title of this article came to the mind was “Forces of Fitna” to describe such a perilous elements particularly with the dangerously narrow versions of faithhowever moderated the title with verb “Fear”. Albeit,in the classical Arabic lexical, the word “Fitna” carries the connotation such as chaos, conflict, disorder andunrest can aptly be epitomized especially the case of describing the religious forces of fearin Pakistan given the historical messthey have had deliberated to keep the country as backward as the primitive averse to change and innovations andto keep pace with the mechanics of the modern world.

The enormous amount of fitna or source of trouble, theological right has had caused over the period of Islamic history especially strangulating the progress of intellectual, political and cultural life such asposing the surmountable opposition to the scientific discoveries of all kind including printing press, intolerance to the dissection of a human body in the medical schools brought Muslim world to its knees propelling them to become medieval societies than the Modern one. The concepts of criticality, rationality and intellectual virtues wereheld either in contempt or equated with the acts of inviting God’s displeasure, waging the all-out war against the sciences of cognition, astronomy, astrology and mathematics mocking them as the inventions of infidels, issuing the unceasingedicts against the scientists, philosophers and thinkers, the principle of independent reasoning was discouraged and the culture of imitation was encouraged to be followed even the modern education of any kind other than memorizing the sacred texts was once considered to be following the footprints of infidels.

The progressive agendas including the advancement of social reforms, economic development, industrialization, women education and emancipation and religious freedom initiated by any Muslimreformer to rediscover the Islamic thought to be more tolerant embracing the modern ideasbarely had the approval by the traditional Mullahs or Sheikhs to be carried forward.

Like various other Muslim states, Faith remained a powerful state instrument in Pakistan to advance their selfish and vested interests however theocratic forces which remained hostile opposition to the idea of Pakistan spearheaded by the secular Jinnah even loathed his character calling him the greatest infidel, enjoyed the state patronage and grew even ever stronger under the state impunity.

In order to keep relevant in Pakistani politics,the Islamists however had manufactured the sense of threat to the religion and promoted the incendiary rhetoric self-proclaiming themselves as the bulwark against such threats to Islamthat has culminated into Lahore riots just six years after the creation of Pakistan which led to the imposition of first ever Martial law in an effort to quell the riots.

The first ever religiously motivated riots soon after the partition fueled by the then Chief Minister MumtazDaultana, an aspiring candidate to become Prime Minister riding the shoulder of Islamists, against Ahmadiya community including the burning of their places of worship, mercilessly beating worshippers and later killing them basically has set the future discourse to suppress and violate the religious beliefs and practices of minorities living in Pakistan.

The spread of “fasad” referred in the Quran as “corruption in the land” or “disturbance of the public peace” in 1953 by Islamists has had not just violated the law of the land however breached the commandment of the God of not spreading the fasad in the land of God and also stood in the contrast against the very spirit of Islam which says killing of a soul is as if killing of a whole mankind.

Their trial and conviction for manslaughter reflected throughMunir-Kiyani report is atantamount testament to guilt and can be a playbook to draw a lesson that the permanent state of conflict and chaos, be it sectarian or suppressing minorities under the disguise of exciting language of defending Islam fit their malicious agendas to polarize the fragile polity of Pakistan.

One of the greatest contradictions ignites through their own argument in which they seem to defy or reject the law of the land which in Pakistan’s case is its constitution and give preference to the religious texts quoting and citing the scores of precedence from the seventh century even thereafter during the first Muslim empire to justify the inferior status of other religions over that of Islam and thus any other faith has less or no rights than that of Islam to maintain and manage its religious institutions is flawed and fabricated as the Islam asserts the Muslims to obey the Law of lands no matter what even Allahin Surah Al-Maidah commands, “O you who have believed, fulfill your contracts”. While during the careful and fair-minded reading of Islamic history gave us no clue to treat other religion and their places of worship unfairly.

Despite its deficiencies and roam to improve, the constitution of Pakistan in which theocracy is signatory to it,is regarded a contract between a state and citizen is an inviolableobligation to comply for every citizens legally, morally and religiously and gives no monopoly, be it religious or otherwise to one individual or group of individuals on the other.

The constitution of Pakistan is as clear as crystal on the subject to the religious freedom whose article 20 categorically ensured that the “every citizen shall have the right to profess, practice and propagates his religion and every religious denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions” left nothing to the further interpretations.

Whereas the article 25 of the constitution of the Pakistan states that “all citizens are equal before law and entitled to the equal protection of law” which simply qualifies that no preferential treatment will be extended to the citizens regardless based on their social, political and religious status.

It is however significant to note that the rejecting the constitution of Pakistan which is regarded the contract between a state and a citizen not just rejecting the very existence of Pakistan but also transgressing the limits set by none other than God himself whose punishment mandated in holy book of Quran for causing thefitna or disturbance to the Public peace is severe in nature and should be exercised by the state of Pakistan as a legitimate entity to deal with the forces of fitnachallenging the writ of the state. The paramount was the sagacity of Jinnah that he presciently sensed long time back, the perils to the polity of Pakistan and rejected outrightly, any idea of Pakistan becoming a theocratic state.

Halting of the construction of a Temple in the political heart of Pakistan is yet another attack on the polity of Pakistan by the same Islamist revivalist forces of fear responsible for Lahore riots who wistfully tends to hoist the Islamic Caliphate’s flag from Red fort in New Delhi to the White House in Washington must be dealt with iron hand. The State of Pakistan must learn from the past experiences that the no amount of appeasement can fill their political greed therefore should immediately cease the policy of appeasement for petty political gains and resume the construction work of the Temple.

This simple act would not just provide the sense of security to the committed patriotic minorities of Pakistan but also would act as a bulwark against the future theocratic bullying to the state of Pakistan. If country has to move on to compete in the arena of science and technology and to become a modern nation with diversity as its strength then the greatest and powerful opponent of this change, Mullahs and Ulema, needed to be humbled and state does not shy away to do whatever it may take. There is no better time than now to do the needed.

The writer teaches politics at NUML, Islamabad