The Seed of Extremism

History is a dangerous tool if it is used by political and religious factions wrongly. It can have drastic consequences on the nation if not dealt with care. Selected events are picked up to invoke the past to justify the circumstances of the present. It changes the way how a person perceive the world and think about others. Self-denial, making conspiracy theories and perceiving minorities as your enemy is a part of a mindset which we have developed as a nation. It requires a very broad mind to dig our brains to get inside the roots to know that when and how we developed this mindset. This is all about how we studied history in our education system. History is a subject that should be taught in a very balanced way without any persuasive biasness. But unfortunately in our academics we teach history in an objective way to focus more on the Islamic rule with influential text to project Muslim emperors as our heroes while suppressing other important figures of the subcontinent. For example, Marhata Empire had a significant importance in the history of subcontinent but it is hardly covered in our academics. The legendary empire of Ashoka was discovered to us only when Bollywood released its blockbuster movie. Bhagat Singh of Punjab was a true inspiration of the freedom movement but all these characters are deleted chronicles of our history. The custom of eradicating our own heroes based on religion and conspiracy is not limited to Dr. Abdus Salam or Malala Yousaf Zai, but it dates back to centuries when Muhammad Bin Qasim intruded the subcontinent to combat Raja Dahir of Sindh in order to expand the kingdom of Ummayd Khalifat. Interestingly the man who defended the land of Sindh from occupation is known to us as a villain and the foreigner who conquered the Sindh is praised in our history to the highest ranks of glory. The reason is obvious. We rejected Raja Dahir, the local warrior of Sindh from history because of his religion. He was Hindu and the alien was Muslim. To give further fame to the invader, we named our largest port to Port Qasim. Pakistan’s naval ship is named PNS Qasim. People proudly name Qasim to their newly born male child. Raja Dahir died bravely in the battlefield in order to protect his people and the land of Sindh. But he ended up with a disgrace in history. In a very similar account of past, Sultan Tipu died for his people in the battlefield while defending the land of Maysor from foreign invader General Harris of East India Company. But thanks to his religion which preserved his name in our history books. After Bin Qasim, the tale continues with the advent of Afghan conqueror Mehmood Ghaznavi followed by Turkish emperor Qutab-ud-din-Aybak then Afghan Khilji heroes then Tughlak heroes and the list of stars continues up to empire of Mughals. In all these tales, we fame only those who were Muslims and mostly they were invaders. The main reason behind our distorted history is more political in nature and to develop a wrong understanding of two-nation theory of Pakistan by glorifying the Muslim empires only and projecting their rivals as enemies of Islam. This creates a hatred feelings with non-muslims starting with Hindus followed by British or “Angrez” in general. Justifying the creation of Pakistan in this criminal way does not only just breed the first seed of extremism in a student’s mind but it also restrict his knowledge to know about local protagonist of history and related parts. Two-nation theory is a historical fact that Muslims were in a deprived state of isolation during the British Empire and their issues could not be resolved by the All India Congress. The consequences reached to a tickling point where Muslims had to form their separate land for the protection of their rights. It is understandable and that’s all about it. We did the same to Bengalis when we ignored their glitches and as an outcome they separated. Annexation of new countries due to dissimilarities between the groups exists globally and we were not an exception. Two-nation theory was a need of time which arose only during the British Empire and a large faction of Muslims decided an independent state to protect their rights. But to connect it dots to back in centuries and mix Islamic civilization history with sub-continent history is a way towards extremism which should be avoided. If Akbar brought Hindus & Muslims togather then Aurangzeb inflamed Hindus in his efforts to suppress them. We are unaware of these blunders, cruelty and mistakes in history. We only know the good side of the story which enables us to think ourselves as a perfect creation of the earth. Due to this obsession we do not admit our mistakes and relate the reason of our failure with different conspiracy theories. If this ball keeps on rolling then we should not be expecting a tolerant society in any near future. If we want to eliminate this attitude and to protect the mindset of our next generation then serious reforms are required in our school academics where history and Pakistan studies are taught. Otherwise this seed will continue to fertile trees with extremism as its fruit.

License to kill by Pakistan Constitution

The tragic incident of Lahore in which a massacre carried out by an extremist religious group shouting slogans of "Khatam-e-Naboot" left more than 100 casualties. The incident caused a great confusion among political and religious parties over how to react. When families were mourning over the bodies of their beloved ones including parents of Waleed who was the only son and just 17 years old, there was no one from Punjab government to come to doors of these families and show condolence. Instead several political and religious parties strongly condemned the statement of Nawaz Sharif, an opposition leader, when he used the word "brothers" for Ahmadiyya community in his condolence statement. Sympathy of public with this minority sect and attitude of media was positive but that does not change any thing when public and media will keep hiding the root cause of terrorism behind it i.e Constitution of Pakistan. This constitution failed to provide justice, food or shelter to the people but yes it covers all rules of the game by which you can persecute any minority sect in the name of Islam. This is may be the only constitution of the world that controls the behavior of Ahmadis and prohibit them to behave as Muslims behave, calling themselves Muslims etc. Living lifestyle and behavior of minorities can frame them into blasphemy law that leads to death penalty. This way constitution of Pakistan provides a passage to Islamic clerics to carry out activities against minorities. Constitution also prohibits minority sects to preach their views that further helps to flourish hatred in the society against them. This results into dangerous speeches by extremist to their followers that turns out into terrorist attacks like Lahore incident. Following is such an example in which Islamic clerics are preaching people to kill Ahmadis with reference of Pakistan's constitution.