This is ridiculous. You are blaming the media for conflating the two? Is it the media which gives religious names (i.e. “party of God”) to 99% of terrorist organizations and coaches their rhetoric in religious terms? Terms such as “Islamic fanatic” are a product of fanatics, not the media. Hindu, Christian, Jewish, etc. fanatics are called such as well.
Some people don’t like religion thrown in their face 24/7. There are people in the US who oppose Christmas displays as well.
This attitude is a big part of the problem. The primary reason Pakistan and similar countries are fading further and further behind the rest of the world. Every successful country in the world counts among its fundamental principles the idea of freedom of speech. No country can join the ranks of the developed world if it cannot allow and handle the free expression of ideas. I would love to see the day when courageous people who utter contrary opinions are allowed to do so on the streets without the threat of being beaten, maimed, or murdered for the mere audacity of expressing an opinion.
Since you brought up Ataturk, guess which Muslim country is the most successful in economic terms (minus oil), military strength, and political power? Yes, Turkey. Saudi Arabia has more wealth and influence but that is artificial due to oil. The day oil is superseded Saudi Arabia will become another irrelevant medieval backwater. Turkey has more fundamental, real strength than any other Muslim nation. This is because it, while not a perfect democracy, allows more freedom of thought and religion than any other Muslim country. Turks should be thanking Ataturk each day!
So what if something is “kufr”? Another ingredient of every successful country is that it does not impose its religious beliefs on its population. Some of them, such as England, have an official religion, but they do not force their religion upon others.
As to Turkey, how can you say Islamists are suppressed in Turkey when Islamists are in power in Turkey?
Regarding Quad-e-Azam, if he wanted sharia he could have simply fought for it at the creation of the country. He did not because he did not want it.