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Amid crisis, Pakistan has promise

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Nov 04, 2007

Pakistan’s founder with India’s liberator
(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Developing news: President Pervez Musharraf has suspended Pakistan’s constitution and fired the chief justice of the Supreme Court. This, he insists, will show radical Islamists who’s boss.

This, I insist, is more than a betrayal of Musharraf’s self-described moderation as a Muslim. It’s a betrayal of Pakistan’s potential for pluralism. Let me explain.

Days ago, I shared tea with Akbar Ahmed, the world-renowned Pakistani anthropologist, author, filmmaker, diplomat and proponent of tolerant Islam.

Prof. Ahmed entertained me with stories of a time when Pakistan’s democratic politicians stuck it to the feudal fanatics by engaging them rather than declaring emergency law. Benazir Bhutto’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was once heckled by a religious fundamentalist. “You drink alcohol!” shouted the critic.

“Yes,” retorted Bhutto, “but I don’t drink the blood of the people!”

His defiant and witty response captured the spirit of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founder. In 1947, Jinnah exuded high hopes for his people:

“You are free. You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques, or to any other place of worship in the State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the state. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens of one state… You will find that in due course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense… but in the political sense as citizens of the state.”

Jinnah meant every word of his unconventional vision because he, himself, lived as a maverick. He adored his non-Muslim wife. And, as Akbar Ahmed emphasized to me, Jinnah’s sister often appeared with her bro on the campaign trail. Her visibility attested to Islam’s embrace of women as partners of men.

I must confess that as a pluralist, I’m no fan of the fact that many Muslims demanded a state separate from India. But when they got it, at least it came with the premise — and promise — of individual freedom.

Which brings me back to Musharraf. In a now-famous speech, he described contemporary Muslims as “the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most unenlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race.” Since 9/11, he’s trumpeted himself as the standard-bearer of an open-minded, broad-hearted Islam.

Today, Musharraf is just another strongman foisting a media blackout on the masses while feigning to communicate with them through a stilted TV address which — did I already mention? — is blacked out anyway.

Pakistan can do better. It has done better. At this historic moment, the nation’s challenge is to be informed by its founder’s philosophy while resolutely looking to the future.

The exact same can be said of Islam. And, for that matter, of America. Which is why the stakes are so high here. If Pakistanis can live up to their promise, there’s no excuse for the rest of us.