Daily Times

Last Friday, while offering Jumma prayer at a mosque in Bagh-e-Jinnah, one of the prayers by the Imam (prayer leader) put me into deep introspection. “Oh Allah! This country (Pakistan) is becoming liberal; please save it and guide its leaders to promote Islamic system in this country.” The nagging question that haunted me, after offering the prayer, was what did it mean to be liberal in Pakistan in common citizen’s perspective. It also propelled me to think whether to be liberal, in essence, was really tantamount to going against Islam.

To find an answer to the latter question, I, just at the impulse of the moment, decided to have a once-over of all my understandings of the term “liberal” so far as a student of social sciences, as I had a major in Political Sciences from Government College University, Lahore, so that I might at the spur of the moment, based upon previous understanding, decipher whether to be liberal is, in essence, really not toeing the line of Islam. My previous understanding of the word “liberal” dawned upon me that I have always understood the term in a constructive way.

To me, to be liberal is to align whatever set of beliefs one has with respect to zeitgeist of the present age. To me, it is the other name of pluralist who entertains diversity of opinion. To me, the liberal does not gauge world with self-defined standards rather has conviction in the idea that we are all different and imperfect; that is why, we need to tolerate each other. I would cap my understanding of the term “liberal”, with the thought that a liberal individual/society believes in an inclusive outlook of the world rather than exclusive one.

With all those pre-occupied concepts of the term “liberal”, I could not satisfy my skepticism with respect to the term. I had still certain qualms about all my perceptions of the term “liberal” and thought that there might be something sinister in its scope which I might not have noticed and might have been noticed by the prayer leader which prompted him to pray. The echoes of prayer leader in a sneaking manner made me skeptical about all the positive connotations about to be liberal in our society and somehow made me think that liberal lifestyle, instead of a boom, might be a balm for Islamic way of life.

My restlessness in coping me with skepticism about the concept of the term “liberal” impelled me to google it and study more about its scope. When I entered a question in Google search box, “Define liberal”, I was inundated by a host of links on the screen, each one defining the term “liberal”. After clicking various links, I found the meaning of the term given at the top of all links in small box as the gist of all. The Google defined “liberal” as someone “willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas.” Where such type of meaning helped me believe that my early understanding of the term was correct, and reinforced my conviction that Islam needed to be liberal as currently its interpretation has been high jacked by conservative lot through myopic version for their vested interests, it also pitted me against coping with the first question what did it mean to be liberal in Pakistan in a common citizen’s perspective.

A little introspection dawned upon me that liberal lifestyle is likened to western life style by a common citizen in Pakistan. How such type of approach started toward liberals can be traced back to colonial era. Prior to colonial era, the part of the world that we inhibit was suffering from inertia with respect to modernity which was at full pace in Europe. When British colonised India and started ruling it in their own way, their style of governance was modern. Through their style of governance, they did away with all the parochial infrastructure of governance and refurbished it with their own style of governance. In this way, the west, then, the British, turned out to be trailblazers with respect to modernity in our part of the world.

From the beginning, people of the subcontinent, especially Muslims, were averse to modernity, so which ever type of change by whoever in the status quo, whether that was brought about by Muslims or colonisers, was pigeon-holed as western maneuver to disturb the balance of Muslim society by common lot among Muslims, and, thus, under the garb of western agenda, any reformatory measure in the Muslim society was halted from taking place. This is why when liberals among Muslims talk about something reformatory measures in our society; they are criticised by the conservative lot as western agents promoting western agenda.

Secondly, the whole constitutional infrastructure running our country has been a copy of colonial system as Pakistan, right after independence, customised the Indian Act of 1935 as its first constitution and later constitutions more or less copied colonial measures in constitution making; as a result, the conservative lot so far has not whole heartedly accepted Pakistan’s constitution and every time they flex their muscles whenever there is a constitutional debate and whenever Pakistan tries to keep pace with modernity which is reflective from the current tug of war between the liberals and the conservative lot with respect to passing of protection of violence against women bill by the Punjab provincial assembly. This is another challenge for liberals in Pakistan to prove their mettle and inculcate their values in common lot.

The conservative lot, however, cannot only be made solely responsible for distorting the essence of liberal existence, but liberals themselves have a share in it. Liberals in Pakistan, unfortunately, through just blindly following western lifestyle, have compromised upon striving for liberal values like enlightenment. They, because of being drenched in western lifestyle, are so aloof from common lot that a common citizen, even if he/she wants, cannot identify with their lifestyle.

According to human rights activist Asma Jehangir, “Most people don’t understand what liberalism is. These days in Pakistan, staying up all night, drinking alcohol and sleeping during the day, is considered to be liberalism. I am not sure how. Liberalism is a certain mode of existence. It is openness to the freedom of others and a consciousness of one’s agency. It cannot be equated with specific modes of behavior.” Such bastardisation of liberal values by so-called liberals in Pakistan has made them a bewitching devil in the eyes of conservative lot, and has made them pray that Allah may save Pakistan from its net.

The zeitgeist of the present age is to be liberal; in other words, because of the globalisation, the need of the hour at present is to accommodate diversity. Liberal values though at present are spearheaded by the West but they should not be stopped from promotion in our part of the world just because they are western values. We need promotion of liberal values like pluralism, enlightenment, space for new ideas, critical academic discourse, in our society just like the west needs. Liberal values are not a luxury that we can live without. They are just oxygen for any state’s survival in this globalized world. Importance of liberal values had even impressed upon our founder, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who always aspired Pakistan to keep pace with modernity. Quaid-eAzam, knowing that essence of Islam is liberal, believed that an Islam, if properly interpreted, can help us navigate through modern challenges, but unfortunately, neither conservative lot nor liberal lot understood his message properly.

Liberals, unfortunately, copying the west superficially, shortchanged with liberal values, and, thus, their lifestyle became an anathema to common masses to such an extent that today the term “liberal” invokes inverted snobbery in a common citizens. Liberal, today in Pakistan, is not understood by common citizen for all the positive values that liberal embodies rather it invokes western lifestyle which every common citizen views with skepticism.

The blogger is a graduate in Social Sciences from Government College University, Lahore. He can be reached at uinam39@gmail.com