Reflection of the believers

Amrozi the mali bomber in explicit gratitute has earnned himself several nicknames such as that of the laughing bomber.

Having been brought up in Pakistan, the ultimate will of embracing death for a dear cause as Amrozi exhibits comes to me as no surprise. I say this not in anyway to remind us of the poverty stricken masses all over Pakistan that would set themselves to fire in times of dire straits. The emphasis is indeed on the cultural acceptability of the excercise of free will within the boundaries of the religion. Islam, atleast in Pakistan exihibits sincere acceptability for people to do "their Thing" as long as it can be associated with God. To be more appropriate, lets not get into whether it is islam that grants that freedom or the culture within Pakistan. Whats most important is that the phenomenon exists. Political scientists and patriots insist that the biggest problem with Pakistan is a lack of an identity of character pertaining particularly to national identity. But more importantly, when we have islam as a religion that expects religion to supercede nationalism because the only form of nationalism that has ever been in Islam has been Arabism. Some may feel my facts aren't right. But I write in context of the version of Islam that I had been exposed to (which by the way is variably the version of over 150 million people). We must not forget that most customs and traditions of the Arabs had been inculcated in Islam. Apparently god thought that some of the traditions of the pagans of Mecca who were sent the last prophet (pbuh) were fit for the rest of the humanity to follow as Islam. Nationalism is a post Napolean idea, so noone is to be blamed.


It is unclear whether the gallantry that the likes of Amrozi exhibit is the remnants of arab imperialism, Tipu Sultanic pride or mongul mutations , and is certainly challenged by the thoughts of current day theories of orientalism or western propaganda. The uniqueness of the mechanism of pakistani society is yet to be explored, a task that should be left for the great minds of the future. But it may be interesting to have an insight into it.


Islam is based on the concept of the submission to the will of god, an acceptably modest idea, but there is such hesitance to explore what really "god" is, that anyone, anything, anybeing, any abstract claiming to be holy is deemed to be the will of god. Whether it is the ignorant holy Imam at the mosque, who resorted to the mosque for bread and butter simply because he lacked in having any expertise, or a bearded politician making tall claims---- in pakistan, submission to ANY will is easy, just associate it with God. Even the greatest of intellectuals, or the so-called elites of Pakistan, or an aspirant and hopeful of heaven can dare not object to even the most abjectable lessons of life as presented by the respected bearded man called imam meaning leader. The Shia version of Islam is a little more soothing atleast in this regard. In the shia world there is no concept of a bearded man running while passionately fixing his shalwar to perfect above-ankle height of piety at a prayer time to lead the prayer primarily because he got there first, is reverence bound for being old and is afterall bearded. They seem to take the concept of Imam(leader) and give the idea a little more meaningful approach. But the sunni version atleast manages to have a bigger population say their prayers at a time that shias would dispute.




The source of fear lies not in the unwritten law of Islam to objection to religion but the unimaginable reaction of all others with you in the mosque attendees/momins/ namazi whatever one may want to call them, with their ability to reason suspended simply because of being in a mosque. Not that I would expect religious institutions in pakistan to be any liberal than church's or temples' elsewhere. But there is a intolerable level of intolerance. I had grown to be shunned in my search of wisdom simply because god has suggested that I shouldnt think too deep in matters of faith. And have often been blamed of being of the damned ones who god has chosen to have their hearts sealed to faith and cannot be convinced. I have ever and always been suggested to turn to righteous ways but my questioning has never resulted in answers, instead have always been keenly reminded of my doomed fate.

Some friends and other believers often argue with me that this is not true islam, i would not disagree. But just like I would expect to judge the tastiness of the baked salmon id make at a dinner night on how people have liked its taste with its flavors manifested by a positive or negative response from the dinees, I would expect the to judge a religion the same way as it is manifested by its followers in a certain society.