Sinister propaganda against Islam, Muslims worthless character as a whole and the ongoing wave of terrorism attributed to 'disgruntled Muslim movements have virtually defaced the truth about Islam, which has, regrettably, become an icon of violence and extremism on the globe because of militant notion of a small section of believers and exploits of the Western media. The quirk of fate is that, in most of the cases, the slayer and the victims are both Muslims. Together with this, the Muslim Ummah remains to be socially underdeveloped, economically marginalized, industrially much behind the non-Muslim communities, and educationally at the rear of almost all other nations. The irony is that all this comes to a community that has been blessed by Allah Almighty with enormous natural assets and resource potential, occupies the most valuable regions on the globe, makes up over one-fifth of the world population and had once been the world leader. The Muslims are facing an unprecedented challenge and an incomparable predicament. Emancipation of Muslim Ummah is every believers business. Of course, much of it has to be shared by those holding the ladder of governance in Muslim countries. Next in the chain of responsibility are the people from all walks of life. In first place, we need to remain well-bred in our dealings with those from other faiths. If we stay convinced of the greatness of our religion, we must remember that this greatness can be maintained only if we are tolerant of their faiths too, and we follow the path of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) rather than embracing the course of conflict and confrontation. Nonetheless, the goals of moderation and modernisation must be achieved without letting westernization go across our socio-religious frontiers and without compromising on our fundamental religious commandments. It is considered that treating immoderation and backwardness with westernization is no different than trading headache for fever. Thus, we need to keep from a dogmatic fusion between Western and Islamic culture. This, however, does not preclude the requirement for modernisation, which is deemed to be an antidote for emancipation of the Ummah from the existing ailments. If we want to find some place in the fast pacing history, and wish to sink the monographs of Western arrogance in the sea of oblivion, we will have to rise above our personnel interests and do everything possible for emancipation of the Ummah. We have to pay heed to the Divine words that Allah has never changed the condition of a nation that does not change itself. In Pakistans context, the county is passing through a difficult stage of history. Whereas there has been a lot of advancement in various fields during the past life of the country, reverse side of the coin is quite dull and drab. 58.3% of our compatriots are totally illiterate even by 'our standards. Corruption by white collar elite and joblessness by blue collar folks is on rise. Poverty-forced suicides are on rise. Due to weak institutions, tug of war between power-ambitious politicians often drags military hierarchy into the realm of national politics. Our newspapers remain overflowing with the stories of militancy, terrorism and lawlessness. The isms and schism are swelling more and more, have claimed thousands of innocent lives heretofore, and have put at stake the international repute of the country. Pakistan needs immediately to take a number of steps in order to steer the country out of crises. It should launch effective media campaign involving intellectuals and Ulema from all sectarian sections so as to bring in sectarian harmony; introduce, promulgate and implement strict anti-sectarian laws so as to discipline the sectarian militants; abolish the weapon culture especially from the tribal areas and troubled urban areas like Karachi; resolve regional, tribal and provincial problems politically; declare illiteracy as the biggest of the internal menaces and bringing education to the masses. We must improve industrial infrastructure with focus on modern manufacturing fields like communication and IT etcetera. We must grant provincial autonomy to the extent supportive for the federation of Pakistan and evolve political consensus on important national issues. Only then can we progress and come out triumphant among the comity of nations, as well as can improve our image world over. SHUMAILA RAJA, Islamabad, September 23.