Islam: The Bane Of Pakistan

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 24 May 2025 This refers to the write up, "Suicide Bombing, Terrorism, Insurgency and So-Called 'God's Gift' Pakistan," written by a staff writer of NAI. The writer's name ought to have been mentioned. Pakistan is a perfect manifestation of how religion (read Islam) destroys a nation. It must be noted that in March 1953, anti-Ahmadi protests spread across Punjab, resulting in the deaths of as many as 2,000 Ahmadis by rioting mobs before order was restored. The anti-Ahmadiyya protests anticipated the more brutal treatment decades later of non-Muslims and heterodox sects within the fold of Islam who did not accept the beliefs and practices of the Sunni majority. A judicial inquiry commission, headed by Supreme Court Justice Mohammed Munir and Punjab High Court Justice Muhammad Rustam Kayani, produced a 387-page report after exhaustive hearings, concluding in early 1954. The Commission interviewed almost all leading clerics and found that they often considered each other’s beliefs incompatible with Islam. Although all Islamists wanted Pakistan to become an Islamic State, their visions of such a State differed significantly. They seemed to agree only on their contempt for and opposition to non-Muslims. Moreover, their definitions of “non-Muslim” often extended to members of other Islamic sects with whom they had doctrinal differences. The Munir Commission’s conclusion on the issue of the definition of Muslim was: “no two learned divines agree on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any one of the ulema, we remain Muslims according to the view of that Alim [scholar] but Kafirs according to the definition of everyone else." More than seven decades ago, judges categorically discussed the sectarian religiosity in an infant Pakistan. Today, the country is almost 80-yr-old and religiously much more obstinate and regressive. Pakistan's problem is its national reluctance to accept the fact that it has failed on all counts. That Islam has been a bane, rather than a boon, of Pakistan is a fact which is not acceptable to the religiously intoxicated Muslims of Pakistan who're always disposed to believe in the doctored versions of truth, offered by the madrasa-educated clerics and its utterly corrupt Fauj. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-politics/bane-pakistan/d/135652 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism