TankMan
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2014
- Messages
- 3,213
- Reaction score
- 57
- Country
- Location
The writer fails to take into account the fact that liberal extremists (or, more accurately,pseudo-Liberals), actually support the other extreme's narrative as well, inadvertently perhaps.In the aftermath of these disappearances, one conservative ideologue stated that ‘liberal extremists’, such as the four in question, were actually worse than militants. The rationale underpinning this assertion was that the hurt caused by words lasts for far longer than the physical violence of actual terrorists. This is not an isolated viewpoint. It is one shared by many others populating our airwaves and writing in mainstream media outlets.
Look at Bhensa's famous tweet - "Islam is a khooni religion". That is exactly what the Taliban say - they say Islam is a violent religion.
The only difference is that the Taliban say we should 'embrace' 'religious' violence while the pseudo-Liberals say we should abandon Islam entirely (or, euphemistically, 'reform' the religion).
Both of their arguments are based the same basic idea - that Islam is inherently violent. That idea is fundamentally flawed and being a Muslim, I refuse to accept it.
That is, essentially, the truth. Is that not the main goal of Pakistani secularists? To emulate the West?The actual goal of such viewpoints is to show that somehow the average Pakistani is caught between two extremes. On the one hand, you have those who wish to turn Pakistan into a theocratic state, and are willing to deploy gruesome violence to achieve those ends. On the other, you have foreign-funded liberals, who want to turn Pakistan, its law books, and all who reside within its boundaries into a godless, amoral mass.
If you want to protect minorities, you can do that within Islam. In fact, Islam strongly encourages it. That's actually what the much-maligned 'Dhimmi' concept is about - it actually means that it is Muslims' responsibility to protect minorities living within their countries, but it is often portrayed as reducing them to 'second class citizens' or something equally misleading. (note: I am aware of IslamQA's stance regarding blasphemy laws and disagree with it, but in this case their arguments are correct and supported by the scripture)
So, why not argue from this perspective? Why not attempt to reclaim religion from the fundamentalists?
MQM. First thing on their website; "MQM is a liberal political party of Pakistan and believes in Realism and Practicalism".No political party in Pakistan is running on a platform of vocal secularism.
That depends... MQM says it's secular. Do their crimes count? And if we look at a larger context - does the Soviet Union count?To date, the number of people killed by these designated liberal extremists who run rationalist web pages and protest against religious discrimination and persecution is zero. The number of people abducted or threatened by what is pejoratively called the candlestick mafia is also zero
Surely if ISIS counts as an example of religious extremism, the Soviet Union must be an example of secular extremism.
I know the author is talking about contemporary Pakistani secularists, but he seems to reject the idea that secular extremism can exist, which is why I brought up the Soviets.
Textbook example of a strawman argument.The belief that voicing support for religious minorities and their equal treatment is worthy of punishment is scary.
Nobody is saying "voicing support for religious minorities deserves punishment". What people are saying is that Bhensa etc are focused on promoting separatism and insulting Islam with the express intent to incite a violent reaction- they are not 'activists' for religious minorities.