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Illitrate Pakistani Muslims - Muslims aren’t this way elsewhere

Pervez Hoodbhoy

IF even the Chinese are not safe here in Pakistan, who is?

Because of CPEC and Pakistan’s national interest, the Chinese are the most privileged and protected of all foreigners. Multiple layers of police and specially created army units keep them from harm’s way. Also, they are advised to keep a low profile and minimise contacts with locals, whether in Islamabad or Karachi or anywhere in Balochistan.

But, as this week’s events showed, even these precautions could not protect the Chinese from maddened, religiously charged mobs.

Work at the Dasu hydropower project stopped after a supervisor objected to long prayer breaks taken by workers. For the locals, this was blasphemy. Whisked away by helicopter to a lockup in Abbottabad, this man was luckier than Priyantha Kumara, the Sri Lankan manager of a Sialkot factory. Also accused of blasphemy, he was tortured to death and his corpse burnt by his workers.Afghanistan excluded, such mediaeval age horrors are unknown in other Muslim-majority countries. Nor is blasphemy busting a national preoccupation elsewhere. Apart from dedicated mountaineers, who in his right mind would want to vacation in a country where the population is ready to burst into flames at the slightest provocation?Elsewhere, tourists of all nationalities and religions are eagerly solicited and welcomed. The souks of Morocco and Egypt bustle with Americans, Europeans, Russians and Israelis, while Indonesia and Malaysia are popular destinations for Australians. Although UAE is formally under Sharia law, its relaxed social mores encourage people from everywhere to enjoy Dubai’s wonders.

Raging lynch mobs are common in Pakistan but unusual in other Muslim countries. Pakistan is different. Scarcely any foreigner — white, Chinese or African — is visible on the streets or in the bazaars. Enrolment of foreign

students in our universities is near zero. Major airports in Pakistan, constructed at enormous cost, are economically unsustainable for want of traffic. They have barely a handful of international flights daily with most passengers being Pakistani workers or expats. Adding to the general perception of Pakistan as a dangerous place, earlier this week, Sweden announced indefinite closure of its embassy. Not far from it is Denmark’s embassy, car-bombed in 2008. Two other European embassies are said to have also quietly shut down or restricted their operations. Even in normal times, diplomats in Islamabad stay largely within the Red Zone, making only an occasional foray for vacations up north. We are exceptional in other ways too. Lest memories fade, let’s recall that not only did Osama bin Laden find shelter in Pakistan, he was also hugely popular. According to the 2006 Pew Global Survey, the percentage of Pakistanis who saw bin Laden as a world leader grew from 45 per cent in 2003 to 51pc in 2005. In contrast, an identical questionnaire in Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon showed his popularity dropping by 20 points.

What makes Pakistan so unique and different from other Muslim countries? To this end, I will make three observations. First, those who run Pakistan have long assumed that religion alone can stick together Pakistan’s various regions. Maximum amounts of this epoxy must therefore be injected everywhere possible, particularly in education. Although the breakup of 1971 proved plentifully that the glue wasn’t strong enough, they chose to draw exactly the opposite conclusion. To quote Gen Ziaul Haq (1981), “Take the Judaism out of Israel and it will fall like a house of cards. Take religion out of Pakistan and make it a secular state, it would collapse.”

Elsewhere, one does not see such nervousness. Turkey? Egypt? Iran? Indonesia? Morocco? Being historically formed nation states, they are comfortable with Islam and do not have existential worries. Their national narratives are free from apocalyptic scenarios of disintegration and destruction. Second, starting in the 1980s, Pakistan’s generals and clerics became symbiotically linked via the Kashmir jihad. Their so-called military-mullah alliance (MMA) created madressahs that became jihad factories. These eventually spun out of control. The 2007 Lal Masjid insurrection turned Islamabad into a war zone, leaving hundreds dead. It showed how impotent the state had become when confronted by the forces it had nurtured. That impotence is glaringly evident today as well. Even in heavily policed Islamabad, it is estimated that two out of three mosques and madressahs are built on encroached land. Civic authorities stand helpless before this anarchy, unable to demolish hastily constructed structures. Government attempts to have the same prayer time for all mosques in Islamabad also foundered. Madressah reform is dead in the water. Instead, now that the Single National Curriculum is being implemented, regular schools have been turned into madressahs.

Compare this helplessness with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, or elsewhere. These states tightly regulate where mosques can be built. Even the design and architecture — pleasing aesthetics being mandatory — is specified. More importantly, they spell out what can be said or not said during Friday sermons. This limits hate speech. Hence, there are no lynch mobs and no Mashal Khans or Priyantha Kumaras.

Third, the purist fantasy of a theological state (specifically those of Ziaul Haq’s Nizam-i-Mustafa or Imran Khan’s Riyasat-i-Madina) is very much alive in Pakistan. Why demagogues can profitably use such slogans is easy to see. In a country that is deeply unequal, corrupt and plagued by huge class asymmetry, people yearn for an unblemished past when everything was perfect. But note! The leaders of autocratic and authoritarian countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, or Turkey are not peddling hype of some imagined past. Instead, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has vowed to transform the hardline kingdom of Saudi Arabia into an open society that empowers citizens and lures investors. While Recep Erdogan may privately ache for restoration of the caliphate abolished by Ataturk in 1924, only 8pc of his supporters want this.

For stability and prosperity, Pakistan will have to shed its illusions and become a normal country. This means that its diverse peoples must be held together consensually through shared needs and interdependence, not through some ideological diktat. The hyper religiosity promoted through state institutions and the toxic education in our schools is not getting us admiration anywhere. Instead, it is producing a wild, uncontrollable population. Even our friends now fear us.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1748962/muslims-arent-this-way-elsewhere

Bilawal, Iranian counterpart exchange Eid greetings

 Minister for Foreign Affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Saturday telephoned his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and exchanged Eid greetings with him.

The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed his best wishes for the people of Pakistan. Similarly, Bilawal Bhutto extended his felicitations to the people of Iran.

While talking to his Iranian counterpart, Bilawal said the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia was a positive development.

The re-establishing of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia would help in enhancing the progress and stability of the region, the minister said adding Pakistan welcomed the improving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/718114-Bilawal,-Iranian-counterpart-exchange-Eid-greetings

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to make most senior-level trip to India in 7 years

By Sophia Saifi and Azaz Syed

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister will travel to India next month, the most senior-level visit in seven years in what is an opportunity for two nuclear-armed neighbors with a long history of fractious relations to break the ice.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) foreign ministers meeting on May 4-5 in the western Indian coastal state of Goa, Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed Thursday.

“Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it had extended invitations to all the member states of the SCO and “we look forward to a successful meeting. It would not be really appropriate to focus on participation by any one particular country.”

This is the first time that the most senior Pakistani foreign office representative has visited India since 2016.

Diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan have been beset by decades of distrust and occasional bouts of open conflict.

But they have been especially contentious since 2016 when militants attacked an Indian army base in Kashmir. India blamed the attack on Pakistan, which Islamabad denied. In February 2019, tensions between the two countries had escalated after Pakistan claimed to have shot down two Indian fighter jets a day after India said it launched airstrikes in Pakistani territory in the first such incursion by Indian air force planes since the India-Pakistan war of 1971. The immediate trigger for the 2019 confrontation was a suicide car bomb attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers. India blames the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) for the attack, the deadliest on security forces since the beginning of the insurgency in the late 1980s.

The SCO and China’s growing hand in diplomacy

The SCO is an eight-member regional security and economic grouping led by China, and its members include India, Pakistan and Russia.China has close economic, diplomatic and military ties with Pakistan, making it one of the nation’s most important allies in the region.The latest breakthrough came after China brokered a deal between two other longstanding foes, Iran and Saudi Arabia, last month.Saudi Arabia and Iran announced on March 10 that they had agreed to reestablish diplomatic ties after seven years of hostility, in a deal that could have wide-ranging implications for the Middle East and was seen as a major soft power win for Beijing.

Riyadh and Tehran plan to reopen their embassies within two months and reimplement a security pact first signed 22 years ago, in the agreement mediated by China.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Saudi Arabia moved closer to joining the SCO bloc, having been granted the status of a dialogue partner as it expands its global outreach. The kingdom could eventually be granted full membership.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/asia/pakistan-foreign-minister-india-meeting-intl-hnk/index.html