We cannot solely blame Taliban and similar groups for preaching extremism as this would be wrong, they are just one of the few who are plaguing our society. There’s another group, who preaches extremism in a subtle way and they are never exposed. They have disguised themselves though we see them every day, we listen to what they say, and in fact some of us trust them blindly. They are none other than the ‘Mullahs’ of Pakistan. These mullahs have been misguiding us all since before independence. They claim to be the custodian of our religion, but without any hesitation they say it was because of them that Pakistan was created. Looking at history we realize that it was created by educated professional and secular Muslims, who had nothing to do with the mullahs or the religion. The irony is that these mullahs were against the creation of Pakistan.
The ‘Mullah’ was a British strategy, like most of their strategies, such as ‘divide and rule’ we are facing the nuisance of the mullah. Their plan to hand over religion into the hands of some barely educated people has held our country and many others in the grip of extremism. Their version of Islam has plunged Pakistan into an epidemic of honor killing, hate murders and mob executions of fellow Muslims and minorities alike. They freely issue ‘kufar’ fatwas on other sects and threaten those with a different belief. On the basis of their ‘fatwas’, they accuse minorities of blasphemy and as a result, they are killed. The recent incident of a Christian couple burnt to death makes this very clear. Other Muslim countries have controlled this class by expecting them to be educated and they have to get approval from the Islamic council for any ‘fatwa’. We need strict laws governing who speaks from a loud speaker in the country and can given any kind of ‘fatwa’.
MERYM SAUDAGAR,
Karachi, November 9.