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The forum started with “All Secular Pakistanis
need to Unite” and it turned into a hot and excited discussion of “War
and Peace” between Dr. Khalid Sohail and Mr. Peter Joyce with a balanced intervention
of Mr. Anis Zuberi.
No doubt the first Two (and also the Third) are well known experts and
learned intellectuals in their respective fields; their opinions even in
their own fields do not become the “Truth”, but remain a “Doubtful Reality
(or unreality)”.
The war is simply an armed conflict between two social groups. What
is an arm? It may vary from a stick to a bomb. The social groups may have a
number of different definitions. All this will give a number of definitions
of War. The word “war” can also be used for peaceful struggles against
social injustice and for human rights. The same war can be condemned from
one side and condoned from the other side. So what is war?
Let us come back to the subject matter of the present forum
concerning the secularism in Pakistan. There is no lack of
secular minded persons in Pakistan.
Even the birth of Pakistan
is due to the leadership of a Secular jurist and politician, Mr. Muhammad
Ali Jinnah. In his speech of 11th August, 1947, he said: “You
may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with
the business of the State”. Here
he has clearly stated that the State has nothing to do with the religion.
It is only half step towards the secularism because the other half is
“Religion (or non-religion) has nothing to do with the State”. Here we are
using the word State in term of State Affair (System of Government). In
1947 the Indian leaders established a Secular Democracy in India,
while Pakistani leader continued the reign of the Governor General. There
is no doubt that he wanted to establish a Secular Pakistan where
constitutionally the Islamic nature of Pakistan was also mentioned.
This particular wish of the founder of Pakistan
was fulfilled by Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan on March
12, 1949, by “The Objectives Resolution” where it is “proclaimed
that the future constitution of Pakistan would not be modelled
entirely on a European pattern, but on the ideology and democratic faith of
Islam”. This resolution, even today, is the part of the 1973 constitution
which is the gift of another Secular leader Mr. Zufiquar
Ali Bhutto.
It is established that the basis of Pakistan in the Two Nation
Theory. Pakistan
belongs to the nation of Islam, constitutionally as well as according to
the belief of the majority of individual Pakistanis.
“Can Secular Muslims work together? is an
ambiguous question, because the aim of the work is not defined. If the aim
is to enhance the influence of Islam, then all Muslims (Secular included)
will join hands. On the other hand, if the aim is to establish a secular
state in a religious country and particularly in Pakistan, then the answer is:
“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).”
(post # 35)
Unfortunately, the same applies to Canadian Muslims. During the FOTH
discussions, I have noticed that a number of Canadian Muslims are Muslims
first. Even the progressive
Canadian Muslims who would like to modernize Islam look for the guidance in
the Holy Book.
Regards,
Ahsan, Strasbourg
(Jan. 25, 2009)
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