Daily Times

I often wonder why we are so enraged most of the times. Why are people so disappointed, depressed and often so negative about everything they face in their lives? I don’t know much about psychiatry, but I do believe all of us bring our fears with us. Our lives are mostly spent conditioning ourselves to overcome various forms of fear.

If you recall, the impetus behind demanding a separate homeland was the presumed persecution that Muslims were going to face at the hands of the Hindu majority of undivided India. Now what do you say to the people on the other side when we cannot even tolerate any non-Muslims on our own soil? Forget about the non-Muslims, the Godforsaken Muslims cannot even get along with one another. The circus of rage plays itself out so often that one just wonders where it actually began. It perhaps began at some of the pulpits where the enraged clergy decided to awaken the rather ‘not so faithful’ with their fiery sermons. Oh no, I am not squarely blaming the clergy for this anger and depression, but one often takes their word as the final one when it comes to the unknown and the unseen.

What struck me at a very early age was how fiery sermons focused on mostly the negative: the Almighty’s wrath and not so much on the Almighty’s blessing. I still recall what a late friend of mine used to say that when you hear all of that it makes you often wonder if even the clergy is perhaps unable to comprehend the full meaning of what they preach. The sheer love that the Almighty has for His creation is unimaginable. A moment of sunlight or a ray of light from the moon is a clear signal of that. We often take these blessings for granted.

I was pleasantly surprised when I moved to the US and did not see a clergyman on fire, screaming at the top of his lungs into a microphone on a Friday afternoon. Instead, I found a well-dressed man (mostly in a western suit), on a pulpit in an Islamic Centre, going over the essentials of our faith or highlighting a trait of the Holy Messenger (PBUH). There were no loud speakers around the building and no neighbours complaining about the ‘noise’ of a strange person. People who stood in front of us were professionals of their respective fields and conducted the Friday sermons out of sheer reverence and or love of their faith. These were not paid and salaried Imams, but people of faith driven by their faith on a purely voluntary basis.

People here listen to the sermons and try to apply the teachings in their real lives to the best of their abilities. The idea of a plural homogenous society, where all citizens regardless of their faith make a meaningful contribution, is in itself very uplifting. None of us infringe upon each other’s religious freedoms and nor do we compete for each other’s congregations. No bells ring endlessly from churches or temples nor are their loudspeakers mounted at every Islamic centre to transmit the calls for prayers. Yet people actively participate in their respective faiths. To say that it has taken a few years’ worth of efforts to get here would be more than just appropriate. Overall, people are comfortable and know that their progress and prosperity depends on their collective societal efforts. Their faith and their beliefs are a tool for their personal spiritual strength.

I am not making the argument that back home our malaise rests solely on the basis of our enraged pulpits. But I can reasonably argue that it begins there to some extent. People get a sense of direction from that particular area. Very often, those pulpits make sweeping comments about other faiths or geopolitical issues. The enraged masses that are charged up by such fiery sermons start to reflect in a negative sense, and may I add that from there on become the victims of a never ending spiral of hatred and anger.

Blaming others for our own shortcomings has been our favorite pastime. Again, no one is arguing that Pakistan is free of foreign influence, but to argue that governmental organisations do not function, or utilities and proper sanitation are not available because Blackwater and other clandestine organisations are conspiring is downright ludicrous.

It is time that we as a nation realise that those days of rage are over and if we continue on the path of rage and destruction we are digging our own graves, so to speak. Pakistan is a collective and cohesive nation formed by many people of many faiths, who are equal citizens protected by equal rights and freedoms. The enraged pulpits have to go through self-correction and lead this nation towards a positive path. No doubt that we have gone astray and no doubt that we still have time to fix ourselves.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar