ET: Hassan Askar Rizvi: The patterns of human behaviour have undergone major changes in Pakistan with a growing emphasis on the public display of religiosity, religious intolerance and extremism, and a tacit or open admiration of religious militancy. Those who have experienced Pakistan of the early 1970s know how much the state system and society have changed in terms of how the people articulate their identities, their idiom of discourse and historical and cultural references.
There is a strong tendency to reinterpret history in purely religious terms in order to justify the current efforts to describe the management of state and societal affairs as a function of religion. This attempt is understandable because those who want to dominate the present, often attempt to selectively control the past and use this as a justification for what they are doing today.
These trends have created doubts about the role of the state of Pakistan and how it should function at the global level. The key question is, should Pakistan function as a nation state recognised under international law and the UN charter, or should it function as a transnational Islamic movement? Should its global role be supportive of the Islamic movements initiated by hard-line radical religious individuals and groups? As radical groups view every individual and societal activity as a function of religion, they want Pakistan’s foreign policy and international conduct to be shaped by religious considerations and worldview.
Categories: Anti Islam act by Muslims, Asia