Daily Times

There is much confusion about the term ‘secularism’ in Pakistan. It is assumed that state secularism means atheism and irreligious conduct. This confusion of secularism with atheism ignores the history of secularism. Atheism has nothing to do with secularism per se, as it deals with the idea that there is no divine, no supreme being guiding our move. Secularism, on the other hand, merely says that as there are many different religions and interpretation of those religions, the best way is keep religion out of politics and the state. In fact, secularism is most useful in societies that are torn by religious conflict — such as ours. Historically, secularism developed in response to the challenges posed by societies much like ours.

Mohammad Ali Jinnah was well aware of this fact. His famous reference to the Protestant-Catholic conflict in England was poignant. Unfortunately, when one points out that Jinnah was secular, i.e. he believed in the neutrality of the state towards religious and sectarian groupings, the naysayers parade his Eid message in 1945 and his speech to the Bar Council on the occasion of Eid-i-Milad-ul-Nabi. Tragically, they miss the basic point: as a liberal lawyer trained in the British tradition, Jinnah’s secularism was never anti-religion. That he wanted a state without any kinds of religious qualification for high office is a fact of history. That he wanted the state to be impartial towards the religious beliefs of individuals is a fact. It cannot be undone by his references to religion few and far between, where too he emphasised that Islam did not believe in an ecclesiastical state and the only way forward was democracy.

Historically, the English idea of secularism is instructive because it has never sought to challenge directly religious authority and its form but has made religious authority irrelevant. This is precisely why despite having a union at the top between Church and State, the officially ‘Anglican kingdom’ is in practice a great secular democratic republic, which is a bastion of religious freedom and home to all people with all points of view. The United Kingdom’s secular politics are rooted in a history of religious conflict, starting with King Henry VIII’s desire to divorce his Queen Catherine of Aragon and the Papal refusal to allow it. Henry, therefore, dissolved the link between the Churches in England and Rome and declared himself the head of the Church of England instead of the Pope. In that, King Henry was supported by reformists who had been inspired by Martin Luther and John Calvin who had long spoken against Papal ways and called for a reform of the Church. This was followed by a continuous religious war between the reformists and the Papists. Much of this conflict finds an echo in our own sectarian conflict that continues to spiral out of control.

The rejection of Papal authority in England was endorsed by people who were extremely religious and believed to be doing God’s work. The next generation saw John Locke theorise on what the true ends of a government ought to be. Locke was inspired by the Christian tradition and is to date hailed as the father of modern secular society. Locke’s works inspired Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison. Jinnah’s August 11 speech too is a faithful reflection of Locke’s ideas.

The US’s own history of secularism is rooted in religious conflict. The US was settled primarily by puritans who founded theocracies. One religious thinker, Roger Williams, was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for having radical religious views (including a curious belief that Jesus is to send a new apostle to renew the Church). He had advocated a separation from the Church of England in addition to religious freedom. For that, he was charged with heresy and sedition in 1635, and subsequently exiled. He went on to found the colony of Rhode Island. There he organised the colony on three principles: 1. Separatism (from the Church of England); 2. Religious freedom, and 3. Separation of church and state. This essentially was the beginning of American secularism. The first Amendment to the US Constitution in 1789 recognised that early wisdom of one of the pioneers of the US.

The point is that this idea of either/or vis-à-vis religion and secularism is ignorant of the history of secularism, which is rooted in religious conflict. Unfortunately, a number of our young people, blissfully ignorant of history, having caught onto certain buzz words but never having investigated the ideas in the first place, only serve to discredit the idea. The fact of the matter is that a fractured religious society like ours needs secularism to survive and thrive. This is what Jinnah wanted and this why some of us continue to quote the grand old man to bolster our case for a secular democratic Pakistan.

The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore and the author of the book Jinnah: Myth and Reality. He can be contacted via twitter @therealylh and through his email address yasser.hamdani@gmail.com