by Babar Sattar
Dawn: THE chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Muhammad Khan Sheerani, has stated that prohibition of child marriage under the Muslim Family Law Ordinance is un-Islamic. He argued that the requirement to seek permission of the first wife before taking on a second (or third or fourth) is also un-Islamic.
A few months back he declared that evidence generated by forensic DNA testing can’t be treated as primary evidence in rape cases. Given his proclivity for regression in all forms, it would be unjust to conclude that the CII chairman is merely a proponent of gender inequality.
The crisis of religious thought in Pakistan is epitomised by the likes of Muhammad Sheerani. The divide here is not just between those who advocate absolute conservation of tradition and those who advocate progressive change, or between those who have a minimalistic approach to religion and those who wish the state to enforce a maximalist version, or between proponents of rigid construction of religious text as opposed to contextual construction.
The real problem is the ascent of coercionists who claim a monopoly over the understanding of religious texts, and leave no political and social space for reasonable people to debate and disagree over matters of faith.
The debate around religion in Pakistan has been hijacked by a bigoted mullah brigade for whom discovering, debating and promoting the truth is not the object.
The goal is to perpetuate invidious traditions and cultural practices no matter how cruel, and block any move towards striking the right balance between conservation and change.