Adeela Naureen The man with a beard and head cover, the man on a prayer mat, and a family observing the basic tenants of Islam, are some of the new targets of some of the television channels, social media and cinema in Pakistan have chosen. Are men with the beard and head cover/turban and women with veil, the only things gone wrong in our society, while everyone in this jungle of wolves and vultures is an angel and role model? Or, is there something more than what meets the eye? Perhaps, an orchestrated campaign in the cultural war in being waged against the Pakistani people. I will not try to sound like a pessimistic or conspiracy theorist, but will only express my observations about the role of the media and cinema in the last decade or so, and the effects of a phenomenon called the Musharrafization of our culture. Of late, a number of drama serials on popular entertainment channels and a recent hit film with similar hidden message have been released and telecast (it is a coincidence that these drama serials and the film appeared in the same timeframe). So, I have a few reservations about the message and the way it has been conveyed. It is divisive and tends to play on the sensitivities of sects (Shia/Sunni); it labels the maulvis as the ultimate evil; and targets the youth bulge of Pakistan/Islam; ask the West the importance of more children, they have run these enlightened themes and committed collective suicide. Thus, I will recommend the worthy readers to read Patrick Buchanan's The Death of the West and it will open their eyes. Is this the only issue in Pakistan - who are the angels here in this jungle? Probably, the man with the beard is the only wall standing between absolute nakedness and our society. It may be the reflection of the Holy Prophet Muhammads (PBUH) prophecy: A time will come when the ulema will be ridiculed and prostitutes will be honoured. As far back as February 5, 2004, The Economist published an article on the integration of the growing Muslim population in France in the French secular society, spurred by the controversy over the proposed law banning religious symbols in public schools. It said: "Outside France the headscarf ban has caused bafflement and indignation, and not only in the Arab world. Yet, French support for the ban remains strong.......and unites unlikely bedfellows. Secularists join ranks with feminists, who are dismayed that daughters now choose to wear the veil their mothers battled to discard. Politically, the ban is seen as a way to take support from the far-right National Front.The government stresses that its new law refers to all religions, but nobody is fooled. How many schoolchildren turn up to class wearing crucifixes of a 'manifestly excessive dimension'? 'It is not the crucifix or the kippa that is targeted, insists Khalil Merroun, the rector of the Evry Mosque, 'but Islam.'" Another interesting reading is an article, Violent Secularisation: 'Minority Islam in Muslim Majority Bangladesh, by Dr M. Saidul Islam on Sonar Bangladesh.com. Dr Islam writes: More than 85 percent of Bangladeshs 150 million people are Muslims. Bangladesh earns its title as 'the third largest Muslim country of the world following Indonesia and Pakistan because of its enormous size of Muslim population. Their religion, Islam, is however becoming a 'minority day by day. While Muslims - in spite of being a minority - are enjoying their basic religious freedom in the West, this religious freedom is increasingly becoming 'a thing of the past in Bangladesh. He goes on to elaborate the place of Islam in the Bangladeshi society. He writes: However, religion, particularly Islam, is a deep-rooted social institution in Bangladesh. Social norms and other interactions in the country are largely originated and guided by Islamic principles. Therefore, abrupt replacement of Islam from the social fabrics and political arena will both disrupt social cohesion and generate massive opposition from the masses. To avert this imminent disruption and opposition, the current regime has adopted some approaches, which are both paradoxical and diametrically opposed to one another. You can draw parallels between what is happening in France and Bangladesh to what is being propagated in Pakistan by pseudo-intellectuals and champions of secular ideology. Some major trends like the Musharrafization of Pakistani society have been systematically nurtured and subtly propagated in the country in the last decade. These include: One, the message that the maulvi was the worst thing that happened to Pakistan; Two, women emancipation means targeting the basics laid out in the Quran and Sunnah about women rights and their place in Islamic society; Three, challenging the basic teachings of Islam related to social obligations by trying to make them controversial; Four, gnaw at the roots of family system (this being the only Sunnah that majority of Islamic societies follow by default); Five, mock the traditional symbols associated with Islam (beard, turban, veil/hijab, prayer mat/mosque); Six, raise subtly veiled questions challenging the established and basic pillars of Islam. So while highlighting the Musharrafization of society, I must acknowledge that the ulemas and maulvis in Pakistan have borne the brunt of this nonsense with a lot of patience and perseverance. Islam remains deep-rooted in our hearts and psyche, and this wave of imposition of foreign ideology will smash against the rock of Islamic culture and meet its Waterloo. For this, the society has to remain vigilant and steadfast in these times and contest this new narrative of Musharrafization with iman and vigour. Removing the prophets, saints and imams from the chain of guidance would lead us to a jungle mentality. The West has suffered from these experiments and is now calling to revert back to the basics of Christianity and family system. Human beings are rebellious and operate in defined systems called religions. Musharrafization is divisive on many accounts, Pakistan is already reeling under bad governance and sham democracy, and there are thousands of other issues requiring the attention of the genius of people in the television and film industry. But alas, the family system and maulvi is the only evil visible to the supporters of Musharrafization. However, it seems that the family system is, probably, the only surviving Sunnah of our beloved Prophet (PBUH) in the Islamic world - please let it survive The writer is a freelance columnist and working on the phenomenon of Musharrafisation of the Pakistani society.