In order to fight any enemy one has to be able to clearly mark him or identify him fast and then pursue an appropriate strategy to fight it. One such enemy that has been voiced by many countries and including President Pervaiz Musharraf has been extremism. Do you really think that the actual problem is extremism? Although due to the constant media churning of this word we are likely to say yes to this question but I will call it a case of mistaken identity of the target.
Let me explain. When we talk about extremism we are referring to the fact that the individual is going to extreme measures to pursue his perception of the religion. Is there anything wrong with this? Or to say it in better words ‘should’ we have a problem with this? The answer is no, if that individual believes that he should live his life in a particular way than be it. Isn’t that the basic mantra of the western nations concept of freedom, i.e. ‘I should be bale to live my life they way I want it to be’. So why are we having a problem in this case when the deciding factor is religion while we are Ok if it involves wearing tight jeans, or decisions about marriage to the person of choice or anything else that is anything but religious rituals itself. Now the question is then what is the real problem? The real problem is ‘intolerance’. Intolerance where one believes that not only that one has to live his life in a particular strict religious code and anything and everything else that is not in the book should be banned and also that he has the right to ‘enforce’ it on other people. This applies to both on individual, societal and national level. Let me give an example, if there are two neighbors and one of them happens to be a very religious person, who does prayers the whole day, reads Quran for 3 hours a day and wears a cap on the head and wears short sleeve pajamas and has a long beard and never listens to music, and then there is the other neighbor who has never offered prayers in his whole life and wakes up at the sound of the radio and goes to sleep while listening to the music, there is no problem with this arrangement. The problem only arises when the religious person goes to the liberal persons home with the belief that he has a ‘right’ to enforce his way of life on to him.
Folks, Islam is a great religion and in my belief the best religion that guarantees the rights of everyone whether you are a follower or not or if you follow a particular sect. Remember the famous incident of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) where a neighbor throws trash on him every morning and the incident of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) being stoned by the gangs and a angel appears asking the prophet if he wished the mountains to be crushed on them, what is the underlying theme of all this? Do you think the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) did not have enough power to force them into religion with the threat of force, of course he did, but he was also setting an example for all of us. Islam is a very simple and straight forward religion and some people will go extreme lengths by drawing complex conclusions to justify their ‘right’ to enforce a particular code or interpretation on the others. Let’s just keep the things straight as they are and not try to twist them around.
So, what we have to fight is intolerance and not extremism itself. Until and unless we identify the problem correctly we are just shooting in the air with no results.
