Let me elaborate since some here overlook the type of stuff they are used to hearing on Fox News. Unfortunately this is Dawn News.
Issue 1
[quote]
mad-faith-crank. .
[/QUOTE]
What does that mean? Are people who have faith the only cranked up people? There are thousands and millions of faith loving people in Pakistan who are doing their bit to promote peace and lead a good balanced life.
Keeping in view Mr Paracha's earlier articles one can safely conclude what this writer's writing style is all about and the message he conveys to his audience. It may also be argued that he was referring to violent extremists but than again is that the only issue we have? Was Zia the only "evil" Pakistan had? What about corruption and throwing the country in the whirlpool by the secular English speaking elite?! Extra judicial killings, sacking of judiciary, you name it, what did the "enlightened moderate" ruling class not do to this country??!! All this idiot has to discuss is what Zia and Islamism did to this country, which in fact has done more good than bad!
Issue 2
[quote]
madness of Islamic fanaticism
[/quote]
This sounds like a quote from Fox news! Is it ISLAMIC fanaticism or just fanaticism in the name of religion? Islam has already been defamed enough and is still being defamed. The problem is with the people who become extremist, not Islam, so why put these words together? It just shows the type of feelings the author has (or maybe the type of money he gets).
Issue 3
[quote]
religiosity has become both an industry and a meaningless public display of identity
[/quote]
Adding to what this person wrote about advertisements in Ramadan, which he did not like, why do these nut cases have a problem with public display of religion? Why this allergy from anything religious? What does he really mean by what he said? That we should not wear shalwar kamiz? that women should not wear Hijab, that people should not be seen going to mosques? that mosques that are symbols of Islam should be razed so that there is no public display of religosity????? Display of one's identity is never meaningless. He himself is meaningless when he says this garbage. Yazdi and your likes may agree with all this but I am dead sure, the majority of Pakistanis who are peace loving and faithful, do not agree with this. I would love to see the day when such cowards go out in the streets and say this in Urdu..... aap mazhab ka parchar na karain.... and see what he gets!
There are always black sheeps and yes even religious leaders who use beard and tehir status negatively, but labeling everyone wrong is not justice and reflective of balanced thinking.
Just as public display of religion (the examples i mentioned is ok) because that is why Pakistan was created - so that Muslims can practice their faith freely. Never did people of those times think that this was ever even going to be discussed. Surely Ataturk's evil children are not born in Pakistan , if they are its about time, they are countered in every media outlet. Under the garb of anti-Ziaism, people in our media are demonizing Islam. Today it is quite subtle, tomorrow the tempo is likely to increase.
What Paracha and his likes are doing is conditioning the simple mids to secular ideals. In my opinion, secularism is kufr and is equal to anti-Islamism. How Islamists ahve been supressed in Turkey is evidence of that, where sisters do not even have the freedom to wear hijaab.
Some things he is right about, but it was the fault of intelligence agencies under Mush era as much as Zia era. Why does he not talk about the other dictator? Because he was corrupt in a different way and religion was not involved there. If this is not biasedness what is?