Sometimes it gets very intimidating for me to carry on with the way the life suddenly changes. At some moments, things are too daunting to carry on, or at times you just don’t have what it takes. Personally, several of such moments I faced, they have been quite the reagents about how strong I am now today. Keeping personal affairs aside, when it comes to the relative world, I think all of us from Pakistan have faced too many moments that are just too much for our nerves. Let it be the political turmoil, the mercurial rise in the cost of living of a fickle economy, the utterly depressing security situation, all of them are just the nuances of a frustrated society descending, I fear, into a failing state.
Presently, I’m more concerned for the tiny traces of tolerance and tranquillity that are left in our society. First, the assassination of Salman Taseer and today the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti are just the hints to how much intolerable degrees of sentimentality our land has reached with issues as prickle as minority rights. I cannot begin to underscore that such murky motives of intolerances shouldn’t prevail in any society! Resilience was a word often used to describe the people belonging to this wonderful land; I fear we are testing this attribute beyond its limits with this continuous cycle of loss and destruction. There is a world enveloped in intolerance. Sadly, Pakistan ends up raising the bar from time to time.
Today for a breather, I was just reading through the poetry of Edgar Guest, which is out of fashion in our sophisticated age; it’s unambiguous, unsubtle, too moralizing, not enough vivid images and fine-drawn metaphors and understated suggestions. While reading this, I’m compelled to think as if we as a nation will stand up against this un-permissiveness and bigotry, or scum to the comminating extremism,. In Guest’s words:
“You must decide in the face of the test,
Whether you’ll shirk it or give it your best.”
You
You are the fellow that has to decide
Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside.
You are the fellow who makes up your mind
Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind
Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar
Or just be contented to stay where you are.
Take it or leave it. Here’s something to do!
Just think it over — It’s all up to you!
What do you wish? To be known as a shirk,
Known as a good man who’s willing to work,
Scorned for a loafer or praised by your chief,
Rich man or poor man or beggar or thief?
Eager or earnest or dull through the day,
Honest or crooked? It’s you who must say!
You must decide in the face of the test
Whether you’ll shirk it or give it your best.
Nobody here will compel you to rise;
No one will force you to open your eyes;
No one will answer for you yes or no,
Whether to stay there or whether to go.
Life is a game, but it’s you who must say,
Whether as cheat or as sportsman you’ll play.
Fate may betray you, but you settle first
Whether to live to your best or your worst.
So, whatever it is you are wanting to be,
Remember, to fashion the choice you are free.
Kindly or selfish, or gentle or strong,
Keeping the right way or taking the wrong,
Careless of honor or guarding your pride,
All these are questions which you must decide.
Yours the selection, whichever you do;
The thing men call character’s all up to you!
– Edgar Guest
Firebird's Blog 
What do you expect from a nation which is covered in a thick cloak of ignorance. Muslims in general, and Pakistanis especially, don’t even know what Islam stands for.
A while ago (right before the murder of Taseer) I put up some posts claiming the law was man made and had no roots in Islam (http://dinopak.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/why-blasphemy-law-is-not-islamic/). After the death of Taseer, Fareed Paracha on live television, mislead the crowd by his distorted interpretation of Qura’an (http://dinopak.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/the-art-of-deception/), even a youTuber caught him do that
To this day, Fareed Paracha roams free, he is not asked about his actions, no one can dare to question him because they know he can turn tables on the accusers.
What can you expect from this nation.
I appreciate your discontent Hasan regarding the nescient attitude, but not the whole nation can be cloaked in that cloud of ignorance, let alone the whole Muslim ummah. It’s a roguery, a dilemma how a bunch of virulent, bigot people have managed to hijack the whole ideology of this sacred religion, and on top of that managed to represent it as well to masses like the one you posted above.
What we need to remember here that it’s just not “Muslims in general, and Pakistanis especially” in whole that are ignorant, it’s the very few among us, who we need to absolutely obviate from us and ostentatiously present what truly we are made of: Resilience, Tolerance and above all, Humanity!
I appreciate your optimistic view, but the facts say otherwise. No one is prepared to stand up to these so called Ulemas. No one can take them on, because lets be honest, people aren’t really confident about their knowledge of Islam. When they see these people with medieval getups they just walk away.
Let’s be honest, I think right now Pakistan is ripen for a cultural revolution, or let’s call it an ideology-shift. What is required now is nothing less than a leap to a massive empathic consciousness and in less than a generation, I’m confident we will be able to resurrect the true Islam, and revitalize the spirit of Pakistan. The WMD for this annihilation of extremism: The Gen X/Y of Pakistan: they are far more levelheaded than those cohort of Jihadist who have raped the ideology of Islam.
Now, the question becomes this: what is the mechanism that allows empathic sensitivity to mature and consciousness to expand through religion, history and enlightenment of thoughts? And for this, we need a lot of dedicated, organized and tenacious effort
Education, common education, ‘one kind’ of education for EVERY Pakistani, no madrassa, no english school, no urdu school no chitai school no A/C school, One type of eduction for every Pakistani. That is the enlightenment part.
The mechanism can only be achieved when we separate religious affairs from state affairs, no parallel systems such as shariat courts and secular courts. Everyone is a citizen and religion should be their personal issue.
hands down agreed!!