"Enlightened Confusion"
submitted 10 months 21 days 10 hours ago by: mahrukhahsan : 13 commentsThe more i mingle with Pakistanis the more i regret being one. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a nation as confused as ours; we're absolutely incapable of thinking straight. I remember when mush first introduced the idea of enlightened moderation, so many of us heaved a sigh of relief and whole-heartedly looked forward to the new development. But alas, Pakistanis have never been able to grasp the right meaning out of anything (and i also doubt mush's interpretation of the phrase).
Enlightened moderation can be simply defined as being liberal; however, not only in “action”, but in “thought” as well. But the kind of people that we are, we (mush included) only associate actions with it. To this day, the people of pakistan do not understand the significance of thought. We've missed out on a crucial element of development and this is why everything’s going the wrong way.
Being moderate does not mean that you do away with your abaya and start wearing bikinis in public. Moderation means to accept the fact that everyone has the right to their own life and they are free to do whatever they feel like. Be enlightened in ‘thought’ and you’ll eventually be enlightened in ‘action’.
So now let me come to the incident I’ve been dying to share with you: My friends and i were sitting in our college cafeteria when a junior came up to us, addressed one of my friends and asked a rather peculiar question. She said, “Are you linked with Al Qaeda?” My abaya-clad friend sat stunned by the question just like the rest of us.
Never before had I witnessed such an act of ignorance. The apparently ‘moderate’ girl that asked the question was oblivious of the fact that my friend has all the right to wear what she wants to. How would it have been if my friend had gone up to that girl and asked her if she was a prostitute, just because she wore something extremely revealing (stupid example but I’m sorry can’t think of anything else right now)? But of course my friend would never do such a thing because she respects others opinions and actions.
And this reminds me of the famous proverb that everyone of us learnt at school but never gave thought to: Do not judge a book by its cover. If only we would use our brains as often as we use our tongues!
Comments
I can not agree more with you!
I fail to understand this hypocrisy of words and actions. We should stop posing for once and just try and be 'ourselves'. I feel, inferiority complexes amongst our nation are a major cause of such untoward actions. It determines why we're all in the middle of nowhere.
Sad, indeed!
our stupid QUAID-E-QILLAT(musharaf) and his regime has created a false line, declaring every firm follower an exterimist and every non-practicing muslim a libral..
if a boy has a beered he will be taken as ALQAIDAH and other with half trimmed(french) will be thought as Libral & stylo.
every person saying prayers will be assumed as MOLVI and every beered man as SUFI.
ENLIGHTEN MODERATION is a misnoma......
I wont agree that we are confused nation and can't think straight - perhaps you need to go to some other country, live there for couple of years, and then come back. You will know what I mean.
This is fall-out: NOT political, economical, environmental, social,..... Things that happen un-naturally are always resisted and has pit-falls. If things happen too quick, and one is not prepared for it, and instead of people accepting it
they will always come up some accepting it and some rejecting and some have no idea what to do with it.
Unless we are socially prepared, no enlightened moderation or islamic nation ideaology will get hold.
It all comes down as how much prepared I am to acept any theory.
@ pirzada
I think you're missing the point here. It's not merely about accepting or rejecting ideas. It's about forming 'stereotypes' and then sticking to them. It's also majorly about, freedom of expression and how we should respect everyones right to do whatever they want to. One should know that how 'they' think can not be the same as how 'others' think. So we should not generalize!
@mariumasim
"The more i mingle with Pakistanis the more i regret being one. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a nation as confused as ours; we're absolutely incapable of thinking straight....... "
This was not my generalization. The first sentence of mahrukhahsan says all.
Again, translating my last sentence ... "It all comes down as how much prepared I am to acept any theory.." in simple english: if I have not been exposed to something which might be new, but how much I am mentally/socially/physically capable of accepting that change. It could be economical, for example. If I win a lottery of $1 million, but if I am never exposed to this much money before, or if I have no plans or ambitions, how I spend that money will be waste or I will do what I will feel doing.
It all comes down to being prepared. No one is talking here of forcing one's view.
@ pirzada
I think you missed my point again. Keeping that 'abaya' example (from mahrukhahsan's write up) in veiw. What I meant was, that people should not construct stereotypes like a girl clad in an abaya is sure to be a suspected terrorist or that a person who tries to practice his/her religion is sure to be narrow-minded, similarly a girl wearing revealing clothes must not have a good character etc. People should learn to be liberal in thought as they pose to be liberal in practice. That was my whole point about not generalizing. I hope you get the idea.
@mariumasim
Nope, I did not missed the point. I was talking braodly, but since you want me to be specific with the burqa point, I will try to take you 100-150 years back. Its was pretty common then that women of that time used abaya or any other form of cover. A girl of today "should not" expect that she could walk with her revealing clothes moving freely, without being questioned. Simply because they were not exposed to coming changes, hence would not accept today's girl in her current form at that time.
Change did came, but over time. It was economical, social, cultural, political, and other. And people got adjust themselves as the change came.
That was my point. Musharraf wanted to "install" enlightened moderation. People if are not prepared for this sudden and wave-length change, will surely either mis-use it or abuse it (in the name of their theory they believe in).
Change that does not come with time, does not get the approval.
TAIMUR ASGHAR QURESHI.
That enlightened moderate girl was stupid but i think girls can make her understand this without calling her prostitute.
TAIMUR ASGHAR QURESHI.
Enlightened moderation theory has failed . This thoery is outof understanding of a comman man living in this country so Musharraf should roll back on that enlightened moderation and let the people who want to follow there religion follow it.
hey
enlightened moderation is an excuse for NON-RELIGIOUS people (who still want to be known as muslims) to do all the things that are specifically HARAM in islam.
alcohol, drugs, premarital sex, sexy clothes, clubbing, etc
i do all these things but i can bcos i am non-religious and i dont call myself a lame ass wishy washy enlightened fucking moderate. just stop this bullshit. deep down you know that you dont believe in religion and think its all bullshit.
haha!
very innovative ID
PIG BENUS welll defined defination of enlightend moderation.