No Man-Istan

Last night I watched a video on a music channel, I don’t know if it was MTV Pakistan or another one, for the song Ye Hum Naheen (This is not us) with the message “say no to terrorism.” What looked like a coalition of popstars sang together in Urdu (unfortunately my Urdu is very limited) apparently about the violence between Sunnis and Shiites, and suicide bombings by extremists in general. The video featured clips of victims crying and newspaper headlines burning. One read “They Are Criminals, Not Muslim Activists.” 

Ameen.

The MMA, a hard-line Islamist coalition, recently had a conference and presented themselves as honorable fighters for the independence, indeed, the very soul of Pakistan, against evil invaders and hegemons. They even managed to include women speakers, giving it a patina of legitimacy as part of the global justice movement.  And what a farce it was! They revealed themselves for what they are – theocrats with an agenda for domination, essentially no different from those they claim victimize them. If they continue to get sympathy, it will start to confirm my worst fears, namely, that the ingredients necessary for proto-fascism, and given the right conditions, sufficient for its ripening into a Taliban-like regime, are aligning in Pakistan like a Faustian nightmare. Misogyny (which is not just hatred of women, as some defenders themselves are women, but also hatred of the feminine) bigotry, militarism, authoritarianism – the MMA represents it all in a neat package conveniently protected by unexamined and unquestionable religious doctrine. What is even more galling is how they co-opt terms and concepts used by liberal critics of the West, who, contrary to jihadi thugs, have genuinely democratic and liberal ideals. While some of the charges have merit, these radicals fail to apply these standards to their own civilization (as Western liberals have done to theirs) thereby attracting the gullible and intellectually lazy.