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SLOGANS
(1) ALL SECULAR PAKISTANIS NEED TO UNITE
(2) FREEDOM OF RELIGION as well as FREEDOM FROM
RELIGION
( 3 ) DIFFERENT
COLOURS OF SECULAR RAINBOW
( 4 ) EVOLUTION...EDUCATION
AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The
discussion started with the first slogan with an aim to unite all Secular
Pakistanis without defining who they are and what is secular. This question
was raised in post # 13.
To
explain the term Secular, Dr. Khalid Sohail came with the second slogan where
two opposite freedoms are given to the religion. It is like:
sheykh bhy khush raheyN
shayt*An bhy nArAZ* nah hwN
In my
post # 23, I pointed to this anomaly and quoted a dictionary definition:
“Secularity
(adjective form secular) is the state of being separate from religion; and also, despite occasional confusion, secularity is
synonymous neither with atheism nor agnosticism.”
In
response Dr Sohail (post # 24) came back with beautiful “colours of a
secular rainbow.” Perhaps he finds the same beauty in the two! When one
mixes the different colours of a rainbow one gets a single WHITE. On the
other hand if one mixes different opinions, one obtains a CHAOS. The
Secularism will be only obtained when different opinions are kept outside
of SECULAR and limited only to each individual. The harmony of different shades
of the same white in the RAINBOW is entirely opposite to the mess created
by the different opinions in SECULAR.
In my
post # 25, I repeated the dictionary definition, but the Doctor smiled and
declared it to be as clear as mud: “I smiled when you quoted the dictionary
definition of Secularism which was as clear as mud”. (Post # 26)
About
these beautiful, poetic and metaphoric slogans I wrote:
“It reminds me the Quranic (3:7) allegorical verses, the true
meanings of which are only know to Allah. By writing beautiful allegorical
phrases are you trying to imitate Him? Personally, I doubt it but one never
knows; you may have some other motives. Your attitude of considering your
definition true and the definition of a dictionary as mud resembles very much
to a Higher Authority!” (Post # 27)
Dr.
Sohail came back with the fourth slogan “Evolution…Education and Human
Rights”.
The
secular system of government and the humanists are not the sole proprietors
of “Human Rights”. The Human Rights can be used or abused in any system of
government. The humanists do not have a pact with secular governments to
observe the Human Rights.
Since,
we are talking of Pakistan
and of Secular Pakistanis, let us see the effect of education. The most
highly educated Pakistani person that I have ever met was Prof. Abdus Salam. In spite of his higher education, his
scientific achievements and human qualities, he was a devout Muslim and
Islamic without any secularism in it. No education will change a Islamic into Secular. The Pakistani People are neither
Secular nor Democratic and certainly not fundamentalist. They are Faithful
Muslims or Islamic. First they belong to the Nation of Islam (Ummah) and long after to the Pakistani Nation. To
create a Secular Pakistani, the first step will be to take him out of Islam
(Ummah). One has to change the Islamic mentality
to the Secular one. The present education system in Pakistan is purely Islamic. Warning:
such a movement will be “anti-Islamic” in Islamic Republic of Pakistan!
What
education system should we devise to convert a Pakistani from Islamic to
Secular?
As for
Evolution, the Pakistani Society has evolved into more and more Islamic
during the last 60 years. This continuous trend of evolution will never
make Pakistanis secular unless one can change this evolution in opposite
direction (anti-Islamic!!).
But a Revolution will do
the trick.
Otherwise, good-bye Secularism!
Ahsan
ahsan@noos.fr
Dec. 7, 2008.
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