By: Dr. Maqsood Jafri
The Revival Media has posted today on its Facebook page an invitation post about a seminar being held on August 3, 2023 in Islamabad. I would have loved to participate in this seminar but due to some other engagement can not take this august opportunity. I would indirectly join this meeting by very briefly expressing my views on this subject and share with my friends on my Facebook and WhatsApp. The topic of the seminar is:” The True Identity of Pakistan: Debunking the propaganda against Two Nation Theory”.
The Question posed is:” Did Jinnah and other founding fathers of Pakistan want a Secular or an Islamic Pakistan?”
The speaker who are mentioned in the post belong to International Islamic University, Islamabad and from Islamic Ideological Council. I hope they will do justice with the topic as they are from Islamic academic background.
The Identity Crisis of Pakistan is a very serious issue. The people who have Western, liberal, modern and secular mindset quote the speech of Quaid- I- Azam delivered on 11 August, 1947 in the Legislative Assembly in which Mr. Jinnah announced that all people will have religious freedom and there will be no religious discrimination and the basic rights of all Pakistanis will be protected and all citizens will have equal rights. This was the spirit and message of his speech.
The Secularists and the Leftists do not accept the idea of Islamic state as propounded by Muslim hardliners. They even reject the Two Nation Theory and say that Pakistan was born to provide freedom and social justice to the Muslims of India. The word Islam was only used to motivate and mobilize Muslims for the creation of Pakistan.
On the other hand, the Islamists and fundamentalist say that Pakistan was created to implement Islamic way of life. The founding fathers of Pakistan Dr. Allama Iqbal and Quaid- I- Azam in clear words had said that : Pakistan means: an Islamic state. There is no shred of doubt in it that the speeches and statements of both, Dr. Allama Iqbal and Mr. Jinnah clearly prove the fact that they wanted the establishment of Islamic state in Pakistan. But it must be noted that their concept of Islamic state is quite different from the concept of state of traditional, retrogressive, ritualistic, and sectarian Islamic fundamentalists.
The founding fathers of Pakistan took Islam as an inclusive, humanistic, rational and secular religion. The term secularism doesn’t mean atheism or non- religious identity or ideology. In the modern political terminology it means accommodative and absorbent system or tolerant beliefs. India claims to be a Secular State.
By it India means that the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians, the Sikhs and all religious minorities have equal rights in India and there will be no religious discrimination. But it is said with heavy heart that India is not a Secular state. It is an extremist Hindu state. The Identity crisis of Pakistan is that on one hand, the Islamic fundamentalists totally negate its liberal and secular aspect and on the other, the Secularists totally negate the concept of Islamic fundamentalism .
If we want to end our Identity Crisis and guide our younger generation towards the right destination, we will have to accept the term “ Islamic Secularism” which means an Islamic code of life based on democracy, social justice, equality, fraternity, tolerance and human rights. Islam respects all religions and gives surety of life, protection, religion and honor to all humans irrespective of their differences of color, class and creed. The Quran says:” For you your religion and for me my religion.” Is it not secularism in the modern political terminology?
To bridge the gap between the Islamic fundamentalists and irreligious Secularists, we have to accept the modern political terminology” Islamic Secularism.”
Accepting to Western political thinkers, there are threes Islam in the Muslim world: Sunni Islam; Shia Islam and Wahhabi Islam. The sectarian crisis can only be uprooted if we abandon religious extremism and promote secular, universal and humanistic side of Islam. Our Identity Crisis will evaporate and we will fetch and then find our Identity. We can not find our Identity without finding our Ideology.
