@ cb4 :
I didn't address the Arabs or the Iranians in that I was talking about the ethnicities that inhabit Pakistan and with baloch, sindhi, pushtoon nationalism on the rise we're done for...add to that Kashmiri nationalism and we've just added another poison to the stew. Unless we find commonality in a collective faith, a collective consciousness for the lack of a better word, this division of 'Us' and 'the Others' isn't going to stop before we've created divisions within those divisions. What is to stop the Pathans from KP asking for a different identity from the ones from Balochistan because they speak a different dialect or may have a slightly different culture. Or the Punjabis from North of Punjab asserting their uniqueness with their culture and dialect from those of us living Southern or Centrally. Thats what I'm alluding to; not a United States of Islam. But tis true that we Muslims - the lot of us - have more in common with each other than with any other group of people anywhere in the world and despite our governmental differences the people to people interaction, in most of the cases, are usually quite warm. So when the time comes, when we're ready to transcend these ethnic and linguistic differences and perhaps strengthen the OIC or enter into our version of the European Union..we'd already be beginning with an advantage because of this.
I target the JKLF precisely because I don't like them; they are based in Pakistan and elsewhere and are splitting the movement up instead of using their influence to bring the rest of Kashmir on Paksitan's side. Imagine how strong the Pro-Pakistan sentiment in Kashmir could have been had Yasin Malik joined forces with Geelani. A Kashmir that isn't a part of Pakistan is one that I personally as a Kashmir can't and won't have an affinity towards because my ethnicity isn't nearly as strong enough to override my pride in Jinnah's Pakistan.
These people are our Brother...one of us. Period. This borderline Fascism will undo us.
As for your analogy about antiques and what not - one could argue that the concept of Ummah is pretty darn old too and rooted in our collective consciousness; perhaps just as the world moved from a modern to post-modern age...the Muslim world may reassert their commonalities by transcending these trivial differences.
And yes...none of the languages that you mentioned have existed from time immemorial because the age of a language has no correlation with its prospective longevity...its the acceptance by the people that counts and Urdu literature far outstrips that in any of our other regional languages. Plus Latin an even older language is now extinct.
