Advocates of Secularism

Most of the religious Pakistanis remain concerned over the growing approval of secularism among the masses. They want Pakistan to be an ‘Islamic Welfare State’, while those who support secularism want it to be a religion free state and make religion a private matter of individuals. As the polarity increases, so does the blame game. People blame the Western governments of promoting secularism in Pakistan through their propaganda campaigns, and consider it as a part of war on Islam. They openly express their anger against the so called ‘enlightened moderate’ Pakistanis who are supposed to be the flag bearers of secularism in this country. But they fail to recognize the most effective advocates of secularism; they themselves.

There are many factors that effect the increasing demand for secularism in this country, but religious extremism is among the most important and effective ones. The face of Islam depicted by religious zealots in this country scares away even many practicing Muslims. Why would a person want to live in an ‘Islamic Welfare State’ if he wouldn’t be able to enjoy any of his individual liberties assigned to him by the Creator Himself? Why would a non Muslim want to live in a state where he wouldn’t be able to practice his religion? Why would a Muslim want to live in a state where he’d be persecuted because he belongs to a different sect of Islam?

What people see is that those who claim to be the ‘caretakers of Islam’ have proved to be the most violent, intolerant and illiterate lot. They’ve killed people for even very minor disagreements from their point of view. They can declare anyone heretic without even listening to his argument. They don’t know how to discuss and resolve disputes. How would such people run a state? No doubt, they’ll make people experience hell right in this world. Though these people claim to be Islamists, but Islam has suffered the most because of them. Muslims were supposed to attract people towards Islam, but they’ve scared the world away from it. As long as these ‘caretakers of Islam’ exist, people will always oppose the establishment of an Islamic state.

The fact is that in Pakistan people become ‘religious scholar’ because they couldn’t become anything else. The dumbest child of the family is sent to religious school by the parents. So, garbage in, garbage out. Pakistani society has got plenty of garbage polluting its religious environment and distancing people from Islam. Of course it’s not always the case. There are many learned and considerate scholars as well. But their number is very small as compared to the illiterate Pakistani mullahs. And apart from their number, their influence among the masses is also quite negligible as compared to their intolerant and less competent counterparts.

If someone is really worried about the growing secular mindset among the Pakistani society, and he’s really sincere with his religion and his country, he should strive to lessen the influence and power of illiterate mullahs, and promote those who’re more competent, learned and considerate. People will have to develop religious institutions that would produce a new generation of religious scholars competent enough to establish an Islamic welfare state, and prompt parents to give their intelligent children to Islam, not the rejected ones.

The first step towards the establishment of an Islamic state in Pakistan is to defeat the advocates of secularism in the society. People will never go for an Islamic state until they are not shown the true Islam. The way extremists have depicted Islam has been instrumental in promoting secularism. Establishment of Islamic state will start after the end of so called Islamic extremism in this country.