Dealing with the dual challenge
26 August 2009
I do not blame the young men and women of our age – they have been indoctrinated by the pernicious text-books, Zia’s ideology and the infiltration of Jamaat-i-Islami and jihadis into every nook and corner of Pakistan. This is why Pak Tea House (an e-zine I edit) as a voice of reason, faces the dual challenge of tackling the right wing and handling the global stereotyping of Pakistan as a jihadi haven. Not an easy challenge by any account — Raza Rumi
Hahhah! Raza I must say that your post at PTH was hell funny. What I found out that you wanted to say that ,If Kashif used bad language then YLH and D_a_n are allowed to do same.
Kashif is a right wing Jamati Mullah for you and many others. If YLH is also responding in similar manner then it strengthens my point that left wing extremists are not less tolerant thn right wing which you try to bash all the time. The issue is that you embrace extremism of your own kind thus guys like NFP,YLH are acceptable but not like Kashif and others. I see someone dragged me in.
Cursing Zia all the time just shows girly side of yours. Why the heck do you care if the article was taken from Wikipedia or somewhere else? where’s the tolerence which you guys preach all the time?
Charity begins from home. I again advise you, iFaqeer and many other reformists to clean the filth in your backyard first then step out and clean others’ home.
Unlike others m thankful of Yasser that he helped me to proved my point tht “Leftists” are no different than right wing zealots.
Adding to what Adnan has already said, I would like to narrate an event of my life which made a considerable impact on the way I deal with people.
I completed my FSc from Cadet College Kohat which was semi-military type high school. I was given the appointment of acting house commander for a short while and my senior advised me some thing which I have never been able to forget.
He said
“Junaid, when you try to punish some one, there can be two reasons.
1. You dislike the person and want to teach him a lesson. Your intent is not to punish him for the wrong he has done but because you want to humiliate and insult him.
2. You really want to reform him and the only intent you have in punishing the person is that he does not repeat what he has done.
In short your intentions would reflect in your actions and the punishments you give. If your intention is reform, you will be able to reform. If your intention is to humiliate and insult, the person you are punishing will repeat the offense again.”
Raza, I am not God and cannot tell the intentions behind your arguments against JI and the extremists. However, if your intention is to ridicule and insult the extremists, it will only strengthen their resolve and they will become ever more convinced that they are on the right path and God is on their side.
If your intention is reform, they will listen to you and ultimately realize their mistake.
From my experience, actions speak louder then words. While your intention might be reform, your actions, instead of reasoning and arguing with the extremists in a polite and civilized way, ridicule and insult them.
So I see no difference between you and the extremists. They accuse you of being a lackey of the west whose imagination has been polluted by western education and you accuse them of being infected with an extremist and fanatic ideology.
I am not sure which of the above two cases are true, however, if you want to succeed , you might want to consider the following verse of the Holy Quran
*{Invite (all) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for your Lord knows best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.}* (An-Nahl 16:125)
Kind Regards
Junaid
Adnan: You have a tendency of being quite two-faced. Please don’t visit my blog after all that you have said on various internet forum including Kashif’s forum. You just need to grow up.
JUnaid
There is no ‘ridicule’ in my post – please note that I don’t like mixing of religion with politics. You guys are too sensitive and touchy that no one should dare to criticise you –
JI and you lot are not a divine creation that cannot be questioned or challenged.
Raza
First, i want to clarify that im not a supporter of JI or any of the other parties with a similar agenda.
i just stumbled upon this post and found something that i have been pondering for a while – junaid may have a point.
aren’t ‘liberals’, and i would include myself in that category, as extreme in ourmullah bashing as mullahs are of us? ignoring the violence, of course, aren’t weequally at fault? equally aggressive in ourwords? the so-called ‘liberals’ should be the first to live and let live, but are we doing that or are we doing the exact same thing that we accuse the mullahs of doing – saying we are right and the other side are wrong, not being tolerant of the others’ opinion? are we truly liberal in the way we think, or is that something we just like to call ourselves because it sounds nice while we are really quite narrow-minded? arent we lighting quick in labelling and categorising people and then completely writing off what they are saying because of that labe we gave them?
if we really believe that we are the ‘educated’ ones, the onus is on us, the so-called liberals, to really reflect on what we are doing to help this stand-off situation that we find ourselves in. and i believe that if you do sincerely reflect on this, you will conclude that we are in fact not any better than those we accuse. if this education, that we are such proud owners of, not teaching us to build bridges and is instead teaching us to ignite this war of words further, which is slowly becoming a war of weapons, then what of value is it teaching us?
we need to take a step back and review ourselves and try to correct our own mistakes, which there are plenty of, because what we have do so far hasnt put us in a better place. we should be the ones moving forward, admitting our mistakes, correcting ourselves, and this will us in becoming examples for others to follow.
there was a really interesting article in the newsline (may 2009 issue i think) titled ‘A response to a progressive Pakistani’. worth a read. i have it in my email if you cant find it.
H
Thanks H for clarifying my point of view.
@Raza
The fact that you were unable to understand my message and quickly branded me a JI supporter shows that you cannot look beyond your black and white definition of extremists and liberals.
The only reason I am writing to you is because I see a hope in reasoning and arguing with you which I dont see in arguing with the JI and company.
You need to refine your methods and technique of arguing and criticizing. Thats all I am trying to say.
As H pointed out, if we are the educated and liberals ones, the onus is on us to remain civilised in our discussions and communications and not brand others as fanatics.
Branding the fanatics as fanatics will only further inflame their hatred. We need to change our strategy to counter the disease.
Your post might not have any ridicule for you but what matters is how others perceive what you have written specially the JI fundos.
If your blog is just a place where you put your thoughts together then continue with what you do.
However, if you really want the change you want to see in Pakistan then consider my advice.
Kind Regards
J
Raza Check this
http://kashifiat.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/for-the-mutants-of-ahmediyat-cum-liberalism/