Re: Arabification of Pakistan and Pakistani culture:
I did not include you because I genuinely thought you were talking about Arabification of British Pakistanis which I completely agree with, and for most part, I am not even that offended by it. There is so much Pakistaniyat you can teach to second/third generation British born Pakistanis.
Yes, I stand by the correction that I find broad brush generalisation over Arabification, Westernisation, Indianisation very depressing and demotivating. What is Pakistani culture? Pakistan culture is actually a rich mixture and delicate balance of so many regional and foreign influences, and the balance changes from place to place, social class to social class, and time to time. This may not apply to you, but if you want people to not oppose things ‘Hi’ ’ Bye’ ‘Good Morning’ ‘Good Evening’ then stop throwing moral outrage on words like InshAllah, MashAllah, Allah Hafiz. We need to show some tolerance, you cannot dictate how people dress, how they speak, etc. If you want to be a cohesive and united society, you have to show tolerance to these little things so people come together despite the differences, and feel some acceptance.
Today, you have made a thread on how Pakistanis are morphing into Arabs (by being more religiously conservative?) and seeing themselves as inferior, I can bet in a month’s time, there will be a thread or discussion in the exact same place where someone will be arguing how Pakistanis are no way as good as mighty Arabs are inferior because Arab women have more freedom and supposedly wear tank tops and shorts in front of their men, whereas our poor women are so bounded and so restricted by ‘desi’ cultural norms which basically means those poor women are always wearing shalwar kameez. I honestly think such debates confuse and divide the nation.
In regards to Arab influence in Pakistan, it took decades of politically motivated , state sponsored systematic proliferation of Arab wahabi influence to create sectarian, cultural and class divides. It is only now that Pakistanis have realised the extent of damage and working to reverse it without alienating any chunk of the society. Yet despite such dangerous and prolonged experiment: Pakistan in terms of its security and internal rest is at far better place than plenty of Arab countries. We may be religious but we are not inherently militantly sectarian. We have the second largest patriotic Shia community, the Sunni group is largely dominated by Barelvi/Sufi traditions - both groups have absolutely no reason to emulate the Saudi style wahabism and cultural imperialism. As with ‘some morons’ still supporting Yemen intervention, again you will have opposition and dissent groups in democracy.
Coming back to my original point: the once state sponsored Saudi influences won’t fade overnight, yet we have to be patient and tolerant. I really appreciate Imran when he says those madaraasahs kids are our kids. They are Pakistanis. I cannot demonise and alienate them by targeting the circumstances and situation they are in, and create an us vs them divide. But I can make them part of the mainstream society, by creating more schools and opportunities for them. Bashing them, blaming them, side lining them, doubting them for just being madarassah kids won’t achieve any good. They are Pakisanis and they victims of state policies, and gross social and economic injustice. This may be irrelevant to what you were saying, but I am just saying that despite acknowledging the differences, we still need to have a patient and all inclusive approach. We can all be proud Pakistanis and come together as a group despite being so different in our ideas, thoughts, opinions, background and appearances.
If you want Pakistanis to stop extensively appreciating Saudis and Gulf states, we should have an attempt industrialising country, creating job opportunities to stop the Arab countries from being the largest employer of Pakistani blue labour. Or just stop electing leaders who have business in Arab countries and are simply puppet of Saudi Kingdoms. Kudos to Raheel Sharif for changing the tide. Some kind of start has been made, but it will be a long, hard and tedious process to reverse the effects and legacies of past policies, again some kind of start has been made, and we need to be patient.
For the next elections, Pakistanis should aim to elect a leader who is not a favourite poster boy or a human Trojan horse of any foreign power, and I already know such individual. 